Concurrence Chapter 7-1

2552 words. Technically this will be chap 7 so dont pay attention to the jump in the two numbers in the title. I'm in a rush today so I'll be tweaking this bit a little later, since we're in yet another big old convo moment I want to perfectinise. It's a word. Have a nice day.

Seela

Streets of New Mombasa

11 Hours After Drop

She opened her eyes, sucking in a lungful of air as she emerged from a strange dream, one she immediately forgot the details of. Where was she, what had happened? She reached for her carbine, but the magnetic holster on her back was empty, and a splitting pain rose up from her side, Seela gingerly lowering her arm to her waist.

There was a strip of white, slightly fuzzy cloth wrapped over her midriff, and there was a huge gash on her right hip, the sight refreshing her memory. She had brought down the Chieftain, the last thing she remembered doing was succumbing to her wounds, yet this did not look like the afterlife she had envisioned, disappointment stirring in her chest.

She rubbed at her eyes, her blurry vision slowly sharpening as her senses returned. She was no longer in the garden, but somewhere else entirely. She could hear rain slapping against the ground nearby, but there was a curved ceiling shielding her, light strips following the roof to the left and out of sight. She was in a tunnel, but how did she get here?

Planting a palm against the wall she’d been leaning on, she rose onto her hooves, her legs shaking a little as her faculties returned, a wave of dizziness forcing her to clutch her head before she got moving.

The wall terminated at a corner, and she followed it along, pausing as the waning moonlight shined in her face. The burning city was framed by the clouds of ash stretching over the horizon, the road that this tunnel led out from merging into the countless other streets slightly above her.

The rain drew a wet line across the shelter of the tunnel mouth, and crouched just behind it was an Imp, a carbine resting in his hands as he overwatched the area. She flexed her mandibles in alarm, but then she remembered that it was the Major, her newest companion. Had he brought her to this place, dressed her wound, stolen her gun?

He had done all that and more, she realised with a twitch of her eye. She had been gutted, a wound that would be fatal, had there been anyone else except for this Human in her company.

She must have made more noise than she intended, or maybe his hearing was better than average, because he turned his head around, her body reflected in his visor as he glanced up at her. “Finally up,” he said.

He returned to his watch. The little bastard actually turned his back on her, as though there was nothing abnormal about this whole situation, as if he didn’t even perceive her as a threat.

“You… You ruined, everything!” she snapped, clenching her hands into fists. “I had it all, my hour had finally arrived, and you took my chance away from me!”

He looked back at her again, lowering her carbine as he raised a questioning hand. “I nearly got my head smashed in saving you, and this is the first thing you say to me? What’s wrong with you?”

“Me? What’s wrong with me! Have you not figured it out yet?” she asked, taking a step towards him. “I took on a Chieftain in hand-to-hand combat, I avenged my fallen brothers, made the traitors share in their graveyard, all under the guise of responding to a call for help. My ancestors would have welcomed me with open arms, my legacy would have been of equal worth to the holiest of Sangheili, but you took it from me. You and your… misplaced sense of longevity for others!”

“You… you wanted to die? So you do have a deathwish…”

“Yes!” she growled. “That’s why I was alone when you found me, ruined my chance back then, too, didn’t you? Every time I think death is about to find me, you stand in its way. You do not understand how your actions have made me so… furious with you!”

“Then make me understand, Seela,” he pleaded. “Why’re you so eager to die?”

“I have already told you why,” she said, shooting him a hateful look. “through all my deployments and battles, all I’ve ever had is ridicule from my brothers, what modicum of respect I’ve earned has been shadowed by mockery. If I cannot prove my ability in life, then I will prove it in death. Surviving the betrayal has already put me above many of my kin, and to die a warrior’s death… all in the Covenant would remember my end for years to come. Jiralhanae, Sangheili, Human… every one of them would revere my name and deeds.”

“What about your family? You’d break their hearts if they found out you died willingly.”

“How naïve your way of thinking is! They would be full of pride for me if they learned that I survived the betrayal, where many others had not. It is the will of the Gods that warriors die on the battlefield, not to live through all… all of this.”

“Sounds like you wanna die for spite to me, rather than the will of any Gods,” the Major noted.

“It is not so simple!” she shot back, but it was on some level. She cursed herself for ever opening up to this Human. “What do I have to show for myself if I were to survive this day? My accomplishments have never amounted to anything before, why would that change if I lived? At least in a good death that may change, and I would find some modicum of peace in the welcoming arms of my ancestors.”

She crossed her long legs, depositing herself on the ground. She didn’t want to sulk, but her body wasn’t listening to her thoughts, her helmet clicking against the side of a vehicle as she leaned back, staring at the ceiling of the tunnel.

“Do you get it now?” she asked. “I do not want to be forgotten, I want to prove that all those who doubted me were wrong, that their disbelief was misplaced. This is the only option left for me.”

“Seela,” the Major began, shaking his head. He turned his back on the city, leaning his hands on his knees as he sat down opposite her. “Let me tell you something. In Humanity’s history, people who lived hundreds of years ago are still remembered to this day, and most of them didn’t even raise a weapon. You don’t have to die to make yourself a legacy.”

“What else can I do?” she lamented. “Sangheili are different to you, our historical figures are exclusively warriors, members of ancient armies. Without a distinguished death, who would remember me?”

“… I would,” he said, Seela glancing at him. “You helped save that mother and her kid, right? That’s something they won’t forget anytime either, and don’t say they’re dead,” he added, pre-empting her comeback. “Just assume they got out, think of all the people she’d tell about what you did.”

“To be remembered by Heretics does little to reassure me,” she mumbled.

“We’re all Heretics, Seela. What difference does it make if a Human remembers you? You’d still live on.”

She stared at the ground, a thoughtful expression creeping onto her face, soon replaced with a glare. “That is but one deed, and it happened by chance. A lone achievement cannot substitute a legacy.”

“What about you surviving the Brutes backstabbing you?” he replied. “You might be the only one who made it through all that, how’s that not an accomplishment? Then you cut your way through Covenant lines without being detected, for a while at least,” he added with a shrug. “And then you took out a Chieftain with his own hammer, and you did all that in one night. If you lived your life day to day, think of all the opportunities you’d get to do even more.”

“When you put it that way…” she pondered, rubbing her arm as she looked at him. “You were instrumental in most of those things, Major. I could not have done any of that had you not been there.”

“Doesn’t make it any less impressive,” he countered.

“Why do you try and reassure me?” she asked, her pauldron creaking as she raised an arm at him. “We are aliens, adversaries in this war.”

“Would adversaries watch each other’s backs?” he asked. “We might be different species, but like it or not, we’re a team now.”

“Is that why you mended my wounds?” she asked, pointing at her bandage. “We are… a team?”

“I told you before how I’ve lost a lot of people under my command,” he said, and now it was his turn to lament, the Human rubbing his hands together. “I felt as though if I lost just one more person, I’d… I don’t know what I’d do.” After a pause, he continued: “It wouldn’t sit well with me if you died, Seela, especially since you… know me, more than most other people do. I wanted to keep you at arm’s length like everyone else, but it seems like a part of me is just telling you all this cause I’m done with all the lone wolf shit. So no, I didn’t save you cause we’re a team, but because you’re… worth knowing better.”

“You wish… to know me?” she asked, her eyes going wide when he nodded. “You want to be… what, friends?”

He nodded again. She didn’t know what to say. This Human, who’d she’d thought was an Imp not that long ago, was asking for her friendship? She could not remember a time someone had been so compassionate towards her. It made her feel so… strange, as though all her muscles were clamming up.

“Yes,” she said, clearing her throat when the word came out as a whisper. “Yes,” she said again. “We have argued and quarrelled long enough, haven’t we? Ask what you will of me, and I shall strive to repay you for healing me.”

“You don’t need to repay me,” he insisted. “All I’ll ask is that you keep doing what you’ve been doing, cause I know I can’t do this alone, in more ways than one, I suppose...”

“Very well, Major… friend, I mean,” she corrected, the Human chuckling at her.

“’Major friend’, huh? I like that. Need a few more minutes rest?”

“No, I can walk,” she replied, rising from her place against the vehicle. The movement drew a little flare of pain from her waist, but otherwise she felt fine. “Where did you get this bandage from anyway?”

“Some people keep a few meds in their cars, got lucky after a bit of searching,” he answered, jerking a thumb down the length of the tunnel, where dozens of cars clogged the lanes. “Oh right. Here.”

He held his arms out to her, her carbine in his hands. She checked its ammo, replacing the cartridge and snapping the breach-loader back in place with a determined nod.

“Do you know where we are?” she asked as he began to move out into the rain.

“Sorta, we’re on the right track, according to those signs up there.”

“Tell me what happened while I was incapacitated,” she said, following behind as they moved up the incline. “How did we end up here?”

He told her, her mandibles splaying wide as he recounted his tale. “Another Chieftain?” she marvelled. “And you dragged me all this way? There must be more strength in that little body than I first thought.”

The Major shrugged in reply, the pair moving deeper into the streets.

-xXx-

They had turned and past so many blocks and streets by this point it was all starting to blur together, although this wasn’t a massive development for Seela, this New Mombasa as the Major called it, being nothing at all like the cities on Sangheilios. She had plenty to keep her mind occupied as they navigated the city, her thoughts turning to the Major and his earlier words.

It was her duty to die for the cause, but what causedid she follow now that she had been ousted from the Covenant? The Major’s, Humanity, her own? To say she would gladly die for herself sounded quite silly, even in her own head, yet she had been ready to go through with it when the Chieftain had attacked her. Had this Heretic, this Imp who was technically Human, tried to twist the very foundations of logic? And had she been convinced, at least to a degree?

She had failed to kill the infant Heretic earlier this day, for better or worse, and death was the only way to restore her pride… wasn’t it? Perhaps he was deceiving her, his kindness merely a front, so that he could use her for the task ahead and then feed her to his interrogators.

Yet she could detect no malice in him, and he had not tried to mislead her as of yet. He had even healed her and saved her from a death while she slumbered, that was a lot of effort to keep an asset around, perhaps there was some genuine kindness in his actions. He saved her life, that meant he needed her, didn’t it?

The most she’d ever been needed for was gruntwork by her former Covenant brothers, or worse, a subject of personal pursual by the more hormonalwarriors. This Human needed her for more than that, and it was a strange sensation, one she had no ability to describe, as it had never happened before. She had been so ready to fall for the sake of returning her honour, now she didn’t know what to think.

“Hold up,” the Major whispered, his voice pulling her out of her thoughts. He took a knee behind the bulk of a vehicle, pointing down the road. “See that?”

She hunkered, following his arm, her eyes picking out the details in the gloom. The road was split into two lanes here, the cars numbering in the few compared to other parts of the city. Chunks of concrete sprayed out in a cone from a gash in the wall on the left, damage from some kind of mortar fire she guessed. Part of the scene was illuminated by a solitary light post, the light occasionally flickering as its power wavered.

Maybe twenty paces up ahead was a strange glint, some kind of metal was sitting upon the road, the light catching it in just the right way to make it shine.

“I do,” she replied. They had not seen any sign of Phantoms or Covenant, but she didn’t want to go rushing in like she had last time. “Check the left, I will go right,” she said to her companion.

He gave her an odd look, but nodded, quietly moving off to clear the area while she did the same. Most of these buildings would be too small for a Brute to fit in, but she was wary of Unggoy and Kig-Yar laying in the shadows.

The checking of the area brought her closer to the strange glint, and she stepped round another abandoned car to get a better look at it. She trained her carbine on it, but eventually lowered it when she saw what it was.