Concurrence Chapter 3-1

Sorry for the delay was taking my sweet time with this opening. 2364 words incoming.

Seela

Kikowani Station

5 Hours After Rupture

The light from the setting star had become a strange, dusty orange, and Seela didn’t like it. Clouds of ash began to broil the heavens, darkness enveloping the world as the strength of the sun began to wane, the guttural roars of those who would see her dead flowing on the screaming wind. It felt like the end of days was approaching, though perhaps that was just Seela’s own bias’s speaking.

She had been searching for hours for her kinsman, and she would have preferred not finding them at all after she came upon the first sight of fellow Sangheili since leaving the base.

The smell of blood had drawn her into one of the countless alleyways, Seela resting her carbine against her shoulder as she peered into the passage. There, at the far end she could make out the red armour of a Sangheili Minor.

“Wait here,” she told her followers, the Kig-Yar and Unggoy taking up positions at the mouth of the alley as she proceeded in. There could be no possibility her kin was still alive, but Seela still held hope anyway as she walked, her stomach churning as she came upon a scene she would never forget.

The Minor was joined by another, her kin slumped against the wall, their purple blood smeared along the limestone in two wide splotches, the dribbling lines trailing down the cracks in the stone. They carried no weapons, and by the way they were arranged, they had been facing the wall before their deaths. It wasn’t hard to recreate the scene: the Jiralhanae had relieved her kin of their rifles, led them down the alley, and butchered them.

Her breathing hitched as she looked down at them, one of the Minor’s staring back up at her with clouded eyes. Traitors or no, only cowards killed those without looking them in the eye. To have fallen in such a pitiful way was more horrible than anything Seela could imagine.

“Find something?” a Kig-Yar called out to her.

“No,” she answered, resting her carbine against her stomach. Little to none of her kinsman ever saw her as more than a prospective mate at the best of times, and a weakling who should go home at the worst, but no warrior deserved to end like this, one should face death full of courage, lest their ancestors see their end as cowardly.

“What did you find?” the Kig-Yar asked again when she returned. He glanced around her waist, clearly not satisfied with her earlier answer.

“A true display of Jiralhanae cruelty,” she answered. Her gaze turned up when another of those deep, booming grunts travelled across the sky. Seela had served long enough to know a Jiralhanae hunting party when she heard one, the primitive aliens were calling out, their cries carrying across the city to alert other packs of her location.

“Let us move, before the Jiralhanae scent us,” she said, her squad falling in behind her as they moved. Since her fight with the Jiralhanae Minor, the aliens were following in their footsteps, perhaps seeking revenge for their fallen packmate, or maybe they were simply so bloodthirsty they needed to kill every Sangheili they could find, she didn’t care which it was.

The crack of the sound barrier being broken turned her gaze up to the heavens, and she allowed herself to feel a bit of pride as first one cruiser, then another dropped through the cloud layer, beginning to deploy Banshees and Phantoms from their docking bays. She recognised one of the ships as one belonging to her kinsman. Reinforcements had finally arrived, maybe the shipmasters could lift her out of this damned place, and she could explain what had happened.

Yet as she made to hail one of the passing ships, a message over all frequencies garbled through the speakers in her helmet, Seela raising a finger to the receiver as she listened in.

“This is Shipmaster Vivercis of the Sanctity, calling all Covenant forces. The Prophet of Truth has blessed me with seizing this ship from the traitorous Sangheili. They have forsaken the Great Journey, and our hour has finally come to take our rightful place by the San’shyuum’s side. Fellow Jiralhanae, slaughter the Sangheili just as we have, show them a reckoning even the Heretics will be envious of.”

She watched as the Sanctity began to list to the side, its sight now filling her with an entirely new feeling. This treachery was happening not just here, but in orbit as well, perhaps even the entire Covenant. She could just imagine this Vivercis stabbing the shipmaster in the back, seizing his place through the most cowardly of moves.

An expression of dread etched her features. The Prophets themselves had ex-communicated her race, and she would be hunted down like an animal in this Human city. She couldn’t risk signalling any fellow kin without bringing the whole Jiralhanae armada down on her location, even if there wereany fellow survivors after this traitorous move from the Prophets. What could she do? She might be able to hide, wait for her kin to contact her, surely she wasn’t the only one left, was she?

Plenty of these buildings were big enough to house her and her faithful followers, the Jiralhane couldn’t search them all. And yet, just picturing herself cowering like an Unggoy in some decrepit building only morphed her fear into frustration.

No, she would not hide and wait like some spineless child. Regret had been a coward and left his troops down here to die, and Truth had taken over the Covenant forces and decided her race after years of service, was no longer required. Bravery, loyalty, they did not know the meaning of these words, but she did, and she was going to show them in the most glorious way possible.

At the next intersection, the ground sloped down towards a sheltered façade that roofed some kind of underground complex, the archways flanking the descending staircase slightly more ornamental than the rest of the city. There appeared to be grooves in the thresholds of the arches, perhaps slots for lowering gates to protect the interiors from outside attacks, though Seela doubted much of the architecture here had defence anywhere in mind. A fine place to enact her plan.

“You should leave,” she said, pausing at the top of the steps. Her squad glanced quizzically up at her. “All of you. The Jiralhanae are your new leaders, not I.”

They did not have access to Covenant channels like she did, relaying to them the new shipmasters message. “A strange decision from the Prophets,” one of the Kig-Yar said. “one that reeks of political intrigue. So the High Prophets have removed all Sangheili from the Covenant?”

“They hunt me down, not you,” she continued, waving her hand. “I plan on letting them find me. Do not linger, they will kill you all if they see you anywhere near me, but play the part of ignorance, say you got separated from your leader, and the Covenant will surely take you back, none the wiser.”

“Noble of you,” the Kig-Yar commented. “I’m almost tempted to stay with you, but I can’t exactly spend my pay if I’m dead. Have a good death, Ultra,” he added, not hesitating to take her up on her offer as he turned away.

The other two avians hesitated before they followed, the Unggoy’s showing off their herd instincts as they too departed, Seela watching the squad disband just like that. She sighed, but not because she was annoyed, but relieved. This was her choice, better to not drag others into it.

“I-I stay with you, Sangheili lady!” one of the crustaceans yipped, Seela blinking as she looked down at the remaining straggler. He puffed his chest out proudly, Seela allowing herself a soft chuckle as she got down to one knee, as close to eye-level with him as she could manage.

“No, you won’t,” she replied, shaking her head. “Though I’m thankful for the offer. You’re braver than most of your kin, you’d make a fine Ultra yourself one day, and I’d hate to ruin that for you.”

“You really think so?” he asked, Seela nodding.

“Really. Now off with you.”

She turned him by his methane tank, giving him a gentle push to get him going. The Unggoy waddled off, Seela sparing him one last glance before she turned, vanishing into the underground structure, alone, but no less determined.

Inside was a giant, open space, her hooves echoing across the stones as she walked through to the interior, though that was not an accurate description of the structure. The roof was open to the sky, dying beams of light shining down on a cavernous space.

Seela didn’t really know what to expect, but the sight still took her by surprise. As she passed the threshold the path split into three directions, two sets of stairs leading up, while the one in front of her went down to the ground level, the dozens of steps flanked on each side by limestone columns and planters full of green fauna. Exactly half of the ground down there was covered in sloshing water, made black by the shadows, and there were bridges suspended over the inky water, gapping the far wall and the platform at the base of the steps.

Seela shuffled down the steps, her hooves too large to use them properly, the descent levelling out to the aforementioned platform. A dozen planters were set up here in a grid pattern, tall trees adding a touch of colour to the industrial environment. Their leaves did not move in such a sheltered place, Seela wondering how they grew with such little sunlight.

A long, thin vehicle sat idle adjacent to the platform, where the bridge stretched from right to left. On closer inspection it seemed to be made of three individual carriages joined by steel cables, its wheels glued to a pair of rails built into the bridge. This must be some kind of transportation hub.

The hunters’ call echoed out again, Seela’s skin crawling. The top of her helmet grazed the ceiling of the carriage as she stepped inside it, examining the rows of seats, the cushions ripped in places where cotton spilled out, support bars and bits of metal littering the aisle between.

She leaned round the entrance of the carriage, looking back the way she’d come. There was hardly any cover on the stairs, save for the trees at the bottom, and this long vehicle would make a good spot for an emplacement to enact her plan.

She looked along the railway line, seeing that it extended to a hole on the far wall, the tunnel too dark to see into. Unless the Jiralhanae found a way through there, which she doubted, the stairs would be the only approach she had to worry about. Air support wouldn’t be an issue either, not unless they wanted to drop their troops straight into the water.

Keeping as much of her body behind the wall of the carriage, she brought her carbine to rest on the window, her sights training on the steps up above. A throaty cry echoed throughout the complex, chased by the unmistakable laughter of a Jiralhanae. They were close, but this did not dissuade her from her focus.

She would not end up like her executed kin in that alley, she wouldn’t be stabbed in the back, she wouldn’t cry out over the communicator like her brothers had. Seela would go down fighting, prove to her dismissive kin that she was a warrior and would fall with more grace than they ever could, fighting until the bitter end in the name of her father and her ancestors.

They didn’t keep her waiting, the first few pairs of Unggoy waddling into her view, followed by a Kig-Yar. The latter hopped up onto the planters, surveying the flowing river like a giant vulture as the former lumbered down the steps, two at a time. Another pair of crustaceans rounded the corner, and at their back, a Jiralhanae followed behind.

She could make out his gruff voice as he ordered his squad to look around, Seela resting the crosshairs of her scope on his helmet. She blinked when another of his kind appeared beside him, both of them armed with plasma rifles. They were both Minors judging by the colour of their armour, did that mean there was a third, higher ranked one out there?

They were trudging down the steps, the closest Unggoy about halfway down them, she’d have to spring her trap while they were in the open. Exhaling a long breath, she adjusted the range on her scope with a finger before she began the fight.

Three to the chest dropped the Minor’s shields, and the fourth knocked his helmet clean off, his neck snapping back as he fell to the ground. She was already firing on the other as Jiralhanae watched his companion fall, the alien trying to scramble out of the line of fire, Seela dropping him with another four rounds.

The Unggoy did what they always did when their leaders fell before they did, Seela’s sights struggling to hold on an Unggoy as he started running circles, firing his pistol wildly into the air. Her carbine rocked once as she killed him, then once more as she dropped another, the little aliens toppling down the stairs as she picked them off efficiently.

As she reloaded, the Kig-Yar leapt off the planter he was perched on, exaggerating his steps as he descended the steps, trying to make his movements as erretic as possible to throw off her aim. The first shot grazed his arm, but the miss caused him to stagger, and the second shot found its mark, the avian toppling over the balcony, a distant splash ending his fall.

She had dropped seven of them in a matter of moments, but that wasn’t all of them. She heard a Jiralhanae up there bellow a challenge at her, one she met with her own roar as she drew her pistol.