Kayap: Rise of the Unggoy of Legend

Hello guys! Since, obviously, Bungie.net has presumably destroyed my story of Kayap, I am posting the first book and will start posting my second once I finish this.

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Chapter One: Chaotic Beginnings

Arrival at Delta Halo
High Charity

Duties upon the planetoid High Charity were simple affairs amongst the Covenant, However, even the easiest of these duties would be utterly taxing to an Unggoy, or otherwise known as grunt. Sadly these grunts only a short five feet compared to other Covenant warriors; with their short stubby legs supporting a rather large, toned, upper body. They had unusually long forearms and also displayed surprising upper body strength. Sadly they were often slow and often quiet cowardly. Even with everything that was going against they had yet one upper hand; as one grunt would be nothing to fear, they were tenacious and powerful and very well deadly in large groups. With this simple fact, the grunts often traveled in groups of at least four or five. For this the grunt would have a heightened sense of bravery as long as numbers were on their side, but a lone grunt would know his limitations; making a running grunt typical amongst the Covenant.

Deep within the lower levels of High Charity, a pack of five grunts tended to their usual deeds that were presented to them. There duties were to repair a failed engine upon a phantom. The phantoms were being loaded with food and supplies that were being sent to cruisers and capital-class ships. This was a typical venture for the younger non-combatant grunts, these duties would help them follow orders and understand discipline.

After hours of back-breaking work of repairing the broken engine they were all looking forward to getting their share of food-nipple and especially at the training rooms. In comparison to manual labor, training was only a simple fare to them.

The pack of grunts waddled through the dimly-lit hallways toward the lower levels of High Charity. They passed by several elites who were displeased for some unknown reason, but the grunts had not bothered to find out for they had learned at a very young age to not to interfere with the elite's affairs.

As they passed by a pair of elites they heard them say, "The brutes have been assigned to copious amounts of ships to command. Now half the fleet is under their control" However, the grunts had one again had paid no mind to them. The grunts had gotten a strange feeling in their stomachs, as if a pit had grown there.

The head of the pack was Kayap. He was unlike any Unggoy. He was far too smart for a grunt. He was also curious and rather questions. He would even dare to stretch over his bounds to speak to high-ranking elites. Usually such acts would have resulted in his death, but he managed to survive by stroking the gargantuan ego of the elite.

Kayap strolled down the dimly-lit hall upon his knuckles at the front of the pack. He tiredly lead his pack to the door of the Unggoy Combat Training Room. The edges of the door blinked and it let out a long hum. The door peeled open to reveal the blue energy barrier that held the methane gas in the room. Kayap marched through the barrier as well as the rest of his pack.

Kayap stepped to his locker and pulled out his key. He slid it in and pulled it open. He then tugged the mask and with a hiss it came off his round head. He took in a deep breath as he smelled the sweet smell of the natural methane air. He began to disassemble the rest of his red-colored armor and stuffed it all into the locker in sections and then shut it.

Kayap turned and looked toward the shooting range. He clearly saw that the other grunts were terrible at firing their handguns. Sometimes, they even completely missed the target before them.

Popad had come up to range were a plasma pistol and a needler was presented. He grabbed the little handgun and aimed and fired rapid bursts. Popad was like any typical grunt, although he was a far better shooter than even an ultra ranked grunt, he was not as intelligent. He looked at the score after his firing. It had read fifteen hits. "Better than the last time." Popad thought to himself.

Kayap furrowed his hairless brows as dark colored elite entered the room. Elites rarely enter the area. Because of this he became alert for any signs of anger in the tall creature. There were numerous reports of dead grunts because the elite had unleashed their rage upon them. The tall figure's armor reflected the lights of the training room and caste a violet hue from its blue shine. "Unggoy, where is the rest of your pack?" the elite held his head high and looked down on the small grunt. Kayap obediently pointed toward the firing range. "Call them in." the elite said deeply yet quietly.

Kayap barked and soon the grunts scurried to him without hesitation. "Who is the eldest?" the elite questioned. "Me." Kayap said lowly. "I suspected." the elite had said.

"You and your pack had shown exceptional performance among the human planet Reach," the elites voice had shown hatred once he had said 'human', "and the first Sacred Ring, for this you will be assigned to the Quarantine Zone."

"Eldest, do you have any concerns? If so I will push on to seek others."

"Me have no concerns, Excellency." Kayap swiftly stated.

"Kayap, we don't know what might happen" Popad spoke out of turn.

"Your pack brother seems to have doubts." the elite stated. "As the elder, you must speak for him, but if he has any form of concerns then it may be best for me to move on and leave you all behind. You must be sure of this decision to join us on this quest."

"We will join mission." Kayap said nonchalantly.

"Very well grunt. Beyond this training room, you will see several of my brothers, who are as I, are Special Operations. You will then follow one of them to the docks and you will board a phantom. You are dismissed!"

The grunts waddled around the sangheili and to the lockers. They then retrieved their armor and pieced them together to their body.

They soon found themselves walking through the blue energy barrier and marching toward the squad of black-armored Special Operations elites whose armor glistened in the dim light. One of the elites motioned to the grunts to follow.

"Kayap, may I ask him what's happening?" Popad asked quietly. Kayap seemed to hesitate before nodding. "Excellency, what happening?"

"The commander has given order to assign Unggoy squads to the Sacred Ring. You will be assigned to the Quarantine Zone which then you will keep the parasite at bay. Once we arrive more information will be given." the towering elite responded. Satisfied with the given answer, Kayap pushed the younger grunt behind him.

They marched more several minutes, passing snarling and growling brutes and the screeching bird like jackals and insect like drones who hissed, but the elite seemed serene as he passed by them. For at least an hour, had they traveled through High Charity's interconnecting tunnels before reaching a massive hanger bay called the Docks.

As they walked through peeling doors, the vast room that was before them was the docks. Splotches of colors that were elites, grunts, jackals, and hunters were spread all around the room. Countless amounts of phantoms and the outdated spirits dropships hovered in the air as far as the eye could see. Lowering and retrieving the food and supplies along with soldiers and exiting through the massive flickering shield doors that separated the cold immense space from the air filled room where they stood.

It was only a few hours ago were the room was almost empty and now it was filled with what could be considered a massive army.

Soon the group raced from the door to a nearby phantom. Soon the elite parted and made way to a gold-armored elite. "Excellency, what is happening? Are we mobilizing?"

The zealot nodded respectably, though he seemed to be in shock. "Yes. I have been notified that the demon has been found on board this holy city. For this I was ordered to gather forces." He seemed extraordinarily tense, gripping his beam rifle as if he was going to fire at the next door that was to open as if the 'demon' was going to enter through it. "The Demon? He's here? Where is he?" the spec. ops elite questioned.

"It was last reported to have interrupted a sermon from the Prophet of Truth." the zealot informed. "Is there anything else I should be aware of?"

"The Prophet of Regret was recently murdered by the Demon as we exited slipspace." the zealot flinched as the sound of a door opened.

"Damnable demon, its blood shall be spilled for these atrocities he has committed." the black-armored elite growled.

"Yes. Also we have been ordered to gather our forces at surrounding hallways..." the zealot suddenly stopped speaking. He was suddenly focused deeply on a squad of elites. "Excellency?" the younger elite snapped the older zealot out of focus.

"I apologize for my sudden stop. But there have been numerous reports of brutal murders. Mostly these murders have been upon us, the sangheili. I suspect the brutes have been behind this. They say they want a first shot at killing the Demon, but I am afraid there is something more to this."

The zealot suddenly roared, "The Demon had managed to live the destruction of the temple and now we must fight against the brutes because of their pride! How can we continue at a time like this?"

The zealot stopped his rant and with a heavy sigh, he focused his thoughts.

"Very well brother, continue with your orders. I shall transport any Unggoy packs that arrive." the zealot turned away.

"There still a number of Unggoy squads arriving along with several elites." Just when the zealot was about to respond to the elite, a frightened major elite raced toward them.

"Excellency! We've have gotten word that the savage brute Tartarus has ordered dozens of brutes to take control of the docks!"

"What! That barbarous animal has no such authority!" the zealot roared. "Dare they are come to take further resources from our proud hands." the younger red-armored elite added as he stood by watching the doors for the brutes' arrival whilst growling.

"Excellency, R'tas Vadumee requires these troops. For sure the brutes will not allow us to disembark." the spec. ops elite spoke up. "Agreed." the zealot nodded.

"Notify all force in this room to take up arms and defend the entrances to this room." the younger elite nodded and ran off toward the command station and then the zealot turned toward the spec. ops elite. "Gather your grunts and get them aboard the phantoms. The other should arrive shortly."

The lesser Sangheili shook his head, "I will stay and help defend this hanger bay 'till they arrive. But, I would sure like to hunt down the Demon"

"No, the commander had given you specific orders. As he had given them to me. We need to send as many forces as we could muster and send them to the Sacred Ring. Although I wish to know what the commander was planning." Just then seven brutes stormed into the docks.

Kayap watched as a squad of Sangheili majors greeted them with plasma rifles at hands but in a position where it was non-threatening.

Wars were said to be started with words, but they were never eager to fire the first shots. Numerous Jiralhanae and Sangheili have murdered one another after verbal conflicts, but such is the life as a Covenant warrior; for their bonds were fragile.

Kayap glared at brutes, even he had hated them for their brutality. But he was agitated for the fact he could not hear what was being said. Popad took note that all the elites, hunters, and grunts had also wondered what was being said. The zealot ran and pushed through the elites to see what he could do to stall the brutes.

There was a deathly silence no shouts, no roars, no growling, not any noise. Throughout the wide expanse the brutes and elites were fighting each other, but for the reason of killing the Demon. The struggle on the docks would prove the real deciding moment that would spark the Covenant Civil War.

Just then, as Kayap was guiding his pack toward the phantom and its eerie purple glow of the anti-gravity lift, one of the brutes let a terrifying roar and charged at a young warrior. The zealot whipped out his energy sword and squeezed the handle and a double prong sword made up of plasma was formed.

Purple blood spurted as the brute was decapitated. The brutes watched as its head rolled across the metallic floor and then they roared in pure rage and drew out their deadly grenade launching Brute Shots and opened fire. More brutes began to enter the room from all the entrances.

Kayap soon found himself in the middle of a firefight. The jackals in the room changed sides and began firing upon the army in the room. He watched as an elite's body fly into the air. It was the spec. ops elite that had lead them there. "Kayap! Where you going?" Popad grabbed is elder brother's arm with worry. "Elite need help!" Kayap shouted as a grenade exploded near by, propelling a crate into a mass of jackals.

Kayap slid between the hunters heavy metal legs and scurried up to the unconscious elite. Kayap began to worry as he saw dark purple blood seep from the bottom of the elite's chest piece.

Popad ducked as red plasma hissed by his head. He opened his dark orange eyes and saw his older brother waving his arm. Popad barked and growled and soon the rest of the pack went racing across the battlefield.

Kayap saw his pack brother running to him sighed with relief. He turned only for his face to contort into something of fright and hate. He swiftly grabbed the elite's plasma rifle and fired the jackal. Before the plasma bolt could do damage the jackal raised its shield. Then the jackal's shield gave out and it rolled behind a crate.

The jackal looked around the corner only to have a hard, exoskeletal fist connect to its face. With an instant, it was dead. Kayap turned to the elite and barked to his pack.

The pack began to drag the elite's body to the phantom. However, a brute roared about several meters in front of them. The eyes widen as it threw its weapon and dropped down on four and charged at them.

Plasma, grenades, and needles zipped around the battlefield, randomly hitting targets. But when a brute decides to go berserk, then by all means is to run from it as it became many times more dangerous than it already was. But for hunters, one berserk brute was only a nuisance; the charging brute found itself soaring through the air as a hunter swatted him.

Kayap sighed with relief. The eerie purple glow of the gravity-lift neared as they continued to pull the elite. All he wanted was to escape. He watched the zealot get pummeled by dozens of enraged brutes as he fiercely slashed at them with his energy sword. Soon his strength had diminished and the brutes took the advantage and beat him to death.

The gravity-lift pulled the pack into the phantom and they eagerly dropped the elite. The cockpit was empty. "Kayap, no pilot!" Popad nervously spoke. He was trembling as well as the rest the of the pack.

To their relief an elite floated into the phantom. His blue-armor had black pockmarks spread all across his chest and was bleeding out of his leg. The elite dragged himself into the cockpit without noticing the unconscious elite and the grunts.

Kayap watched the battle through a screen on the wall. It was disappearing from sight as the phantom escaped into the emptiness of space toward the ring world called Halo Installation 05

Chapter Two: The Ancient Wall

Delta Halo
Sentinel Wall

Kayap sat uncomfortably as the phantom hovered nearby by the massive sentinel wall that towered above them. He looked over at the elite they had rescued. The Special Operations elite's eyes snapped open and he roared with unknown rage. The grunts quickly scurried to other side of the phantom, terrified. The elite himself stood up and scanned the room. He was clearly confused.

The elite turned to the grunts. It unmistakable that the grunts had saved him, as they had purple blood stains that was splattered on their armor and hands. He turned to the cockpit to see the elite pilot resting. "Pilot!" the spec. ops elite roared. The other elite jumped in his seat and turned to the larger elite. "Excellency!" The pilot was alarmed. "Continue our objective."

The pilot sat and tapped the controls and the phantom ascended to one of the few holes that were in the wall. "Excellency, why we no go to bottom?" Kayap bravely asked.

The elite growled inwardly and turned to the little grunt that shook under his glare. "There was no entrance into this great wall, so we made our way. This mission is far too dangerous for you and your squad, Unggoy. I will be accompanying you and so the pilot." The grunt felt belittled. "Why it too dangerous?"

"The parasite is roaming all corners of this wall. We've been losing communication with the defensive units now. No more questions Unggoy!" Kayap backed away.

The Parasite, or Flood, was a spiteful parasitic 'race' that had been around for tens of thousands of years. They were the defilers of all life. Their infectiousness was disturbing. They mutilated and mutated sentient life, turning them into ugly, menacing, bulbous monsters. They even made powerful cringe in fear and disgust at their appearance. They were the nightmares of creations that had come to live.

The grunts grew fear of the task. They had made contact with the Flood before on Alpha Halo. Which were the reasons why they took advantage of the retirement reward for excelling in battle and that they were to go back to manual labor and now they would have to see the demonic beasts again.

The landing wasn't smooth at all. The pilot pains had gone into its extremes and he had slammed himself onto several control panels. This sent the fairly large Phantom crashing through the hole, ripping up metal plates off the floor as it skidded along. Two ancient metal pillars held still as it tore the Phantom's sides completely off, rendering the troop-ship unable to be used.

The elites and the grunts piled out coughing and groaning. The pilot seemed to have completely lost his pain. His leg had stopped bleeding and was only a visible scab through the ripped suit. The grunts stumbled as they crawled to a covenant methane replenishing machine.

The black-clad Special Operations elite stared at the heap of metal that was resting against the columns and turned to the pilot who was reaching for a carbine. He looked at the tired faces of the grunts that were filling their methane backpacks. "Elite, that was the worst piloting me had ever seen!" Kayap exclaimed. "Yea! You made that one time was beautiful ship look like giant pile of crap!" Kadab yelped.

The elite's muscled tense as he was just about to go and snap the little creatures' neck when a dark colored arm stopped him. The older elite shook his head to the pilot and turned to Kayap and Kadab. "Do not disrespect your superiors Unggoy. If you two speak to him in that manner again, I will allow him to punish you two."

"Me apologize, Excellency." Kayap and Kadab grumbled in unison.

The black-armored elite turned to a piston in the room. It was square-like and grey like the rest of the metal in the room. Only it had long ovular blue-colored energy pads on each side. "Me have a bad feeling about this." Kadap said worriedly as he stared at the eerily cloudy sky that obscured the sight of the once holy city High Charity. For there were tiny blue explosions popping around the city.

"You always have a bad feeling, you had bad feeling about this morning!" Kadab snapped.

"And I was right! Right?" Kadap retorted. Kadab nodded shamefully, feeling foolish.

"Stop arguing over foolishness Unggoy! We have no time for such." The black-clad elite roared.

"Excellency?" Popad squeaked. "What?" the elite clicked his mandibles agitatedly. "What your name?" Popad asked whilst trembling. The elite looked at him and walked away, ignoring his question.

N'jero Vadamee had hated the Unggoy for their foolishness and their childishness. They had no sense of bravery and command. He had even killed multiple grunts for breaching his level of anger. But he never enjoyed killing them, unlike his brothers.

Kayap had walked to the piston as soon as the speaking had begun. He stared with wonder. The holographic control was a beautiful turquoise that had kept his mind blank. "Unggoy." N'jero walked behind Kayap, startling him. "Fire at the piston."

The grunt raised his plasma pistol and fired at the hologram. It absorbed the plasma fire and it began to turn into a red color. The piston let out steam from the corners and pulled up into the ceiling. Kayap barked to catch his pack's attention. The grunts scurried to the square-like hole the piston had blocked.

The pilot looked down, "We jump in?" N'jero nodded.

"Unggoy! Jump down and clear out any form of machine or parasite when you reach the bottom."

The grunts leapt down, sliding down the curving tunnel. They were stopped as they hit a short ledge. They jumped off and then it began curving down backwards. They then landed on a surface and saw another piston nearby. They saw little machines zipping around randomly, harmless. There were no dangers, yet. "Clear!" Kayap called up the tunnel-like complex.

Kayap and his pack stepped away from the hole in the ceiling. Two elites fell through the hole and caught themselves. Popad ran up to the next piston and fired his plasma pistol at the hologram. It began to turn red and steam hissed through the corners and slid up revealing yet another hole.

The pack jumped through the hole knowing their orders. The tunnel was seemingly shorter than the last and they popped down to yet another room. They look out again. The room was much and had a yellow glowing hue that came from the lights. "Clear!" Popad called up. The elites again fell down through.

"Me have real bad feeling about this." Dawjaw squeaked. Kayap slowly walked into the mysterious room. It was eerie and something was not right. There were dead grunts, brutes, jackals, and even a few elites that all sprawled around the room. Blood was splattered all over the walls, columns, and in crevices at the sides. Black lines were traced upward.

"Enemy! You see? You see?" Kadab exclaimed as he sighted a large floating machine.

The machine pointed a orange glowing appendage toward them and fired a orange plasma-based beam. The pilot dove as his energy-shields began to drop quickly. The grunts ran behind a metal column. Kayap overcharged his plasma pistol and aimed at the machine. Its blue eye spotted the glowing green of overcharged plasma flying to its direction and unfortunately hadn't moved away.

The machine exploded in a ball of flames. "That was easy. Too easy." Popad said.

"More enemy!" Kadap screamed and began firing at the air. Another sentinel had popped out from a bright white hole that was implanted into the wall. The elites fired their plasma rifles at the sentinel as it exited the hole. The group charged through the room, not wanting to spend the time fighting endless amounts of the machines. There another piston was at the other side.

N'jero fired at hologram and the piston hissed open. They jumped down into yet another room, though larger. They looked into it. There were dozens of pillars, ancient metal crates, and a blue energy beam that ran across the area. They saw dead brethren and remains of sentinels along with places they would emerge from.

Kayap sniffed the air. There was something else to it. A stench, though it smelt distant. They followed the energy beam across a metal-glass bridge that ran to what was a yet another piston. The piston was open already, albeit broken as it was in a crooked position. They hopped down and slid down another series of tunnels before hitting the metal and glass floor.

The entire group could smell the stench. There was a light green hue that hung in the air. They heard what sounded like a tiny screech behind the door across the room they entered. It was distanced.

They spotted unoccupied plasma turrets resting on the ground. Several covenant crates were sprawled about. Blood stains marked were the last group had once been.

"Provide support with those plasma turrets Dawjaw and Kadap." Kayap spoke in his native tongue.

The little grunts boarded the plasma turrets while the surprised elites had loaded or replaced their weapons. Kayap, Popad, and Kadab sat between them, weapons up.

The doors started to rattle. Then it began to crack and dent. Then it split apart. "Enemy!"

"Fire!"

Chapter Three: Outbreak and Containment

Delta Halo
Sentinel Wall Complex

The door had been busted open by a swarm of suicidal bulbous creatures. Their tentacles' on their belly squirming that caused them sway in an unusual way. "Enemy!" Dadab screamed. "Fire!" Kayap exclaimed.

Blue bolts of plasma spurted from the glowing nose of the plasma turrets. The white-hot projectiles impacted explosively on the creatures and other materials as they rained down upon the enemy. Kadab threw a trusty grenade at the oncoming swarm of yellow-green creatures. With an explosion, a majority of the creatures had popped and died.

Popad fired his plasma pistol, catching disoriented stragglers. With joy the grunts cried out with victory. Kayap, however, didn't. He heard the heavy footsteps of larger creatures. He barked and growled causing his pack brothers to look toward the door. There were snarls and frightening screams of creatures that were charging to their position.

With an instant the grunts aimed either turrets or hand-based weapons toward the smoky doorway. Then, mangled, ugly bodies of rotten flesh of what used to be living creatures jumped through the cloud and began to charge angrily toward them. The bulbous infection forms spilled out the door like a swarm of angry bees.

As soon as the Flood had appeared through the door, the Unggoy squad began firing their weapons at the unholy beasts. The combat forms were being mowed down by the plasma fire, eaten 'alive' by the hot plasma. Even then they were slowly coming closer to the group. "There's too many of them!" Kadap screamed over the sound of him firing the turret.

N'jero activated his energy sword and waited for the Flood to come too close. A large elite combat form leapt out his ranks and landed in front of the startled elite. The Sangheili swung his plasma-based blade, slicing the form in half without problem.

Kayap was frantically firing his plasma pistol at the little infection forms. But no matter how many he killed, two more would take its place. It then came to mind that he knew if this would keep up then the little monsters that could crawl on the walls would eventually get to them. He looked over at Kadab and demanded grenades. Kadab swiftly passed over his grenades to Kayap.

Kayap grabbed the two grenades in both hands and activated them. He tossed them both into the Flood's ranks. The grenades did what Kayap wanted them to do.

N'jero's eyes widened in surprise, the Unggoy had performed a spectacular job with the explosives. The parasites were divided in half. Confused combat stomped in circles, stunned. The little infection forms rolled over one another in confusion.

The grunts picked off confused infection forms as the elites slashed and sliced at the stunned combat forms.

'How did the grunts manage to pull off such a feat? Had the grunt known of the feat he performed?' N'jero questioned in his mind.

The elite looked at the flood wastes and remains as they cut down the final combat form. The elite looked through the door as it was clear. No signs of more parasites. "Unggoy, lead your pack through the door and dismember any bodies," N'jero looked over at the pilot "go with the Unggoy. Make sure they don't do anything to foil this mission."

The pilot nodded and followed the grunts as they exited through the door.

Kayap was amazed. He was before a massive room. It was cylindrical and had a hologram of the stars at the ceiling. The hologram was roughly three kilometers above them. On the far side of the room was a row of doors. Several were broken apart and others remained.

The massive room had housed dozens of dead bodies. As if a massive battle had taken place long ago. Flood and Covenant blood and gore was smeared on the walls and splattered all around the room. The smell was very well above atrocious.

"Excellency expects us to clean entire room? If he do he is not very smart." Kayap growled in annoyance. "What is elite doing now?"

"My brother is calling a nearby Separatist-controlled base nearby the wall. It was the original defensive area. But then the brutes betrayed us and with it as our stronghold, they sent out squads of warriors to keep the Flood at bay. This had not gone as well as expected. He is merely trying to have you occupied as he communicates with the Field Marshall." The pilot responded to the little grunt with a rare sense of respect.

Kayap looked at the Sangheili. He couldn't believe his ears or eyes or such. The elite had spoken to him without giving a severe threat.

He stopped his thoughts as he watched three doors begin to rattle. Creaking sounds and the noise of metal being stressed ensued.

The elite and grunts raised their plasma weapons quickly and began to slowly back toward the exit. The doors began to dent out and crack.

The doors were penetrated simultaneously by large spikes and were pulled inward. One large creature walked out of each door. One raised its one massive arm and roared. Little infection forms piled out with combat forms behind them. Even the grunts knew that the odds of surviving this wave were extremely slim. Kayap began to panic as the Flood gradually grew in their sight. Kadab threw a grenade to slow the beasts down.

A plan sparked in Kayap's mind. "Kadab! Grenades! Grenades!"

Kadab tossed his whole stash of grenades to Kayap.

"Where elite?" Popad asked. His answer was clear as he looked a mass of parasites.

The pilot had decided that he was going to fight off the Flood by himself. He swung his bright energy sword across the stomach of one of the large monsters, slicing it in half. Then he went and uppercut another. He stomped on the little bulbous creatures and stabbed another combat form. It was a deadly solo that no Flood form seemed to survive as he hacked and slashed through their lines. Then, one of the combat forms managed to jump behind the elite and swung its long deadly tentacles into his back.

The energy shields gave in instantly. The pilot dropped down onto his knees in pain, which was a grave mistake. The elite roared in pain as the infection forms connected themselves into his body and formed a large blob of biomass.

The grunts could only watch the growing blob of the elite in horror. Kayap snapped his attention from the scene and reared up the grenades. He pressed the glowing button on each of the grenades and they began to emit a glow and whined. He threw them with all his might.

The grenades flew in separate directions and were followed by more grenades. The first few found themselves in cracks while others were scattered about randomly.

With a sound of multiple explosions the floor beneath them
rumbled and shook. The sound of groaning metal followed.

It was revealed that the ground they stood on was old and weak through age as the center point of where the grenades landed began to cave in into an abyss. The entire place was shaking itself apart as rocks and large, long pieces of metal were ripped out of the weakened walls.

Kayap pushed his pack brothers through the door as the dropping floor began to cave in even closer toward them. It stopped right at the door and then another sound of groaning ensued. The holograms at the ceiling flickered and then flashed.

The ceiling collapsed and fell with the disappearing floor. Kayap looked down the black hole and looked up. All he saw was flickering lights at the circumference area and the darkened sky. Where they could see a few stars.

N'jero's eyes widened as he saw the events that occurred. 'How did the unggoy manage to perform yet another feat?' N'jero knew that this was no ordinary grunt. But even special grunts like this one couldn't do such things.

On the other side of the massive coliseum-like room were dozens of confused Flood trying to find a way to them. They merely fell into the darkness below.

The elite looked down at the grunt. "Flood benign to us now." Kayap panted. The grunt even had some forms of advanced vocabulary. "Yes Unggoy. They pose no threat for now." Just when the elite was about to ask the grunt a question, the grunt fell asleep.

The elite growled and turned to the confused Flood who would try to jump to them every now and then. Though they should know they would never make it.

The door behind them opened up and revealed a zealot. The helmet he wore was sleek and ornamental. Blue lights glowed on it and the spike like pauldrons along with some on the body and thighs. He ran through the door with several other elites and a hunter pair. "What has happened?"

"The brutes have betrayed us as well as the prophets." N'jero spoke to the zealot respectfully.

"I do know of this information. I want to know what has happened here."

"The Unggoy had managed to open up some sort of sink hole." N'jero walked to the edge and looked up at the hole where he could even see the sky. "Though it appears that this wall can drop underground."

"Unggoy?" zealot chuckled. "How interesting."
"Apparently this sector is impassable. Even for the Flood. Return to Headquarters, brother, there is a phantom awaiting you and your squad." N'jero turned to see that the Unggoy had been awakened and they were ready for orders that would to be given to them.

"Unggoy come with me, as this sector is now impassable. You've," N'jero stopped, "excelled in performance."

Kayap and his squad felt overpowered by pride and anxiousness. Their race was normally never given any form of compliments or rewards or such.

Kayap walked through the ancient metallic doors and found that he was outside, under the great shadow of the massive wall that he looked up at. A great pillar of smoke was coming out from the top of the wall where he and his squad had done the damage from.

He turned and looked to see that there were two Phantoms hovering above the dead grey ground that they walked on, awaiting them. They marched under and were lifted into the belly by the gravity lift.

Kayap sat down at one end of the Phantom and fell to the overwhelming tiredness and slept against the wall with his comrades as the Phantom flew off to another area of the ring world.

Chapter Four: Base on the Hill Top

Delta Halo
Miles close to the Halo's Control Room

Crack!
Kayap's eyes snapped open.
Crack!
Kayap relaxed after realizing he was in a storm and quietly listened to the continuous tiny tapping sounds of rain hitting the outer shell of the armor of the Phantom.

'Must be a big storm.' Kayap thought to himself as he could even hear the rain tapping against the hull Phantom.

"Popad." Kayap pushed his sleeping brother by the shoulder. "No. Food-nipple avalanche. Run." his sleeping brother mumbled. Another loud crack of thunder awoke Popad. "Popad?"

"Food-nipple avalanche?" Kayap began to giggle. Popad grinned. He soon joined the giggling which turned to laughter. "Shut up Unggoy!" N'jero roared.

Silence filled the phantom once more. "Where are we Kayap?" Popad spoke in his native tongue as he looked around. "Somewhere in a storm." Kayap said blandly. Popad turned to his pack-brother with a smirk on his face. "No really?" Popad retorted. Popad and Kayap broke out laughing again.

"Unggoy! Do I have to tear your masks off to shut you up?" N'jero roared with agitation. "I need to focus; this inclement weather is interfering with my steering."

"But really, where are we?"

Kayap rose from his spot and walked to the cockpit. N'jero was piloting. "What Unggoy?" the elite seemed to have sensed his presence.

"Where are we?" Kayap said in a tiny voice.

"What? Speak up." N'jero said calmly. Kayap was bewildered. Usually elites would have ignored a grunt's request, or killed them. He shook the thought away.

"Where are we?" Kayap repeated loudly.

"We are heading to a base we managed to steal from the edge of Bastion of the Brutes. I was recently informed that the prophets and the brutes have killed off the control room's forces. Also, most of the lowly drones and jackals joined them. Even a few hunters and some grunts. Few though." The elite said to the grunt.

"What is the Bastion of the Brutes?" Kayap asked.

"The Bastion of the Brutes is a Jiralhanae encampment. The area is consisted in six sections; an entrance tunnel, a two leveled room, a massive door, an outdoor bridge, a prison facility, and a landing pad. No more questions Unggoy." N'jero said.

"Okay. Excellency." Kayap turned and walked from the elite and back to his brother. "We're heading to some base." Kayap told his tired brother.

"Blasted storm! This weather is interfering with the map and the radar! Unggoy return here!" N'jero roared furiously.

The grunt groaned and swiftly ran back into the cockpit. "Yes excellency?"

"I need you to look out through the port-side turret flap."

Kayap, without word, ran to the left side of the phantom. The narrow flap began to fold out and he stepped onto it. He felt scared but it was his current objective. He would complete it. He held onto the turret and looked around. All he saw was grey. "Lower phantom! All me see is clouds!" He yelled with all his might.

The phantom broke through the bottom of the dark clouds and soon he saw where grey-colored mountains with hints of browns and greens.

"Me see land and no enemies and a base. Elite base me hope." Kayap told himself. The phantom continued to drop in altitude. "Kayap, elite say return inside!" Dawjaw cried to his pack-brother due to the howling winds.

Kayap carefully returned to the phantom, soaking wet. He shook his body to dry himself. The platform folded up and closed which caused the interior to darken.

"What did you see?" Kadap asked.

"We're flying between mountains. Land is abundant in trees and there is a base." Kayap explained in his native tongue.

Kadap ran off to his brothers to share the news. Popad waddled to his elder pack-brother, "Elite says we're landing in a base. By the looks of it, it is ancient like all the other structures around here on this blasted ring. Elites, hunters, and our kin are fortifying there."

Kayap nodded in acknowledgment and sat down. "When war is over I'll take our kin back home. Me hear it is abundant in methane. Fresh and clean too."

"One day brother. One day." Popad said.

The phantom shuttered and soon the feeling of inertia pulled the grunts. N'jero stepped out from the cockpit. "Follow Unggoy. We have arrived."

N'jero tapped several holograms on the wall and the circular gravity lift peeled open and a purple misty diamond-like shape formed. The elite and grunts stepped into it and softly landed on muddy, mossy soil. The air was thick and humid and had an odd smell.

They looked out and saw towering mountains in the south and hill-like land in the north. It had some scattered groups of mountains. Flat rolling lands surrounded the base. Tree canopies from miles out could be seen.

Then they looked at their new base. They noted a large tower near the northern portion of the base, along with blocky buildings in the south, southeast, and eastern areas. Then in the western places were what appeared to be a large bunkered area with shade turrets at each corner. Kayap assumed it was the main structure.

"Unggoy, come with me." N'jero pointed toward Kayap, but, oddly, in a non-threatening way. Kayap was confused.

"Exellency, why you need me?" Kayap bravely asked.

"You know what the deacons are?" Kayap nodded. "You have been promoted to them. Why? I don't know, I heard several things about politics with your name said. But, unlike normal deacons, you are of higher class in a way. For that, you are required to attend meetings, gatherings, even plannings for battles. Understood? Good."

Kayap eyes had widened. He had seen deacons before. They were intelligent grunts. They had special talents unlike most of his kin. 'Father would be proud of me.' Kayap thought to himself.

The elite and the grunt traveled through several heavily guarded interconnecting passageways. Soon they reached a hall that had two rows of tall menacing Sangheili Honor Guards.

The Honor Guards were amongst the most skilled and feared of all Sangheili. As they were handpicked for the duty to protect any important figurehead of the once was Covenant; as they were commanded by the highly revered Lights of Sanghelios. The Honor Guards themselves wore highly ornate and distinct armor that was a combination of a glowing red and orange that featured jutting spikes and pauldrons.

The two passed by them. Their eyes fixed forward. They reached a ancient grey metal door featuring blue glowing lights at its mid-section. After the Sangheili gave clearance to enter, the pair marched through the door. They saw almost a dozen zealots and several generals and a single field marshal.

N'jero marched to a floating chair as too Kayap who found a smaller one. "This is the Unggoy?" the field marshal asked and was answered with a respected nod. The powerful looking elite looked down at Kayap and looked back up at the rest of the elites before him.

Kayap had never gotten close to a Field Marshall. He heard they had lead entire planetary invasions, widespread battles, and that they would lead small zealot strike forces for artifact retrieval.

"The Arbiter was last seen in the Quarantine Zone to retrieve the index. Sadly Tartarus had managed to assassinate him. The once holy city of High Charity has been contaminated by the parasite hours ago. R'tas Vadamee has created a force to keep this parasite from escaping to other locations." The field marshal gave the update.

"And now concerns upon the Brute encampment. We plan to strike hard in the tunnel entrance. With the distracting forces we'll be dropping in troops through drop pods, fastening the attack with minimum enemies. This should give them minimum time to reach the control room." The Field Marshall pointed toward the long tunnel which glowed orange and pointed to the areas near the control room which orange dots appeared in clear areas.

Kayap was in awe. He witnessed something only lucky grunts would be able to witness. But also, now he was some sort of figurehead. Kayap began to think hard on plans to return to the original world of his kin. "Unggoy, do you understand?" the large elite turned to him, giving a cold hard stare. Kayap nodded swiftly. "Good."

"Also you have been promoted to a much more political rank. A High Deacon. Very few Unggoy have achieved this rank. As the leader of the Unggoy Rebellion was one. You've earned the rank as he did. Records give this rank for you living through the many battles we've had and creativity with strategies and your unusually high Intellect. As you do represent your species now, do not disappoint me and the others as the last one had. Dismiss." The elite said and the elites and Kayap broke away from the table.

Kayap felt very proud and scared all at once. His promotion and his representation of his race which made him feel overwhelmed and yet still held still.

Kayap followed N'jero through the dark hallways to the bright sun of the outside that awaited them. N'jero dismissed Kayap and then the little grunt scurried away to the Methane Suite to see his pack brothers.

Popad watched the inner airlock slide open and his brother waddle through. Kayap disassembled his combat armor and placed it in a locker. He grabbed a plate from a nearby table and walked up to a cylindrical machine. He grabbed a tube and hung it above his plate and squeezed out the pasty food-drink that was the food-nipple. He quickly walked to the tables where the rest of his pack was. "What happened?" Popad quickly asked. "Elites promoted me. I'm a 'High Deacon' now."

"How did you rank up?"

"The elite say me fight and live in many battles and that I'm very intelligent with my strategies. He says I've earned this rank as the leader of the Grunt Rebellion was. Also he mentioned something about representing my species. Though, me could have misinterpreted his words." Kayap explained and then turned to his friend and gave a mischievous look.

"What was that dream about the food-nipple avalanche?" Kayap questioned.

"How about we leave old stuff behind. It was weird and scary." Popad gave the poor description. Kayap nodded.

"Me have dream about an explosion. It was great." Kadab piped.

Kayap furrowed his brows at the strange grunt. "You're one crazy pyromaniac you know?" which Kadab quickly nodded at the comment.

A elite, who appeared to be wearing an breathing apparatus, marched into the grounded methane suite. "Unggoy, you are needed at the tower." he pointed to the pack, particularly to Kayap.

Kayap nodded and motioned his pack to follow. They placed and pieced their suits together and marched through the inner airlock. The room hissed as methane was replaced with oxygen and then the outer airlock slid open.

They walked around several structures and into a small courtyard. In front of them was a hundred-twenty foot tower. The grunts stared in awe at the structural achievement of the past. They walked through a large door.

The little grunts marched up the flights of stairs to the main room at the top. The door glowed red and then went blue and opened up to reveal several grunts sitting near plasma turrets along with a few elites who had beam rifles at their sides. Then they saw N'jero holding what looked like binoculars.

N'jero motioned to the grunt that waddled over to him. "Yes excellency?"

"There had been reports of a gathering of a force three miles north away from the fore perimeters. Because of this, the attack for the tunnel has been called off. I need you along with several spec. ops Unggoy scout out the base. Any enemies you find, smite them." N'jero stopped. "You'll head out east and slowly head to the eastern side of this gathering. By the time you reach this particular area, most of the Loyalist forces will have started to attack this base. If you find any phantoms or banshees, you will return to the base to act as a surprise. Understood?"

Kayap nodded. All this time he was already planning. "You will head off now. You are dismissed."

Kayap marched down the stairs explaining the mission to his pack-brothers.

They saw the squads of spec. ops grunts awaiting orders by the dozen of ghosts. They walked their way to the place calmly. "We ready and awaiting orders, Excellency." the lead grunt had greeted Kayap. "Elites say we have to scout out some gathering place." Kayap said. Kayap told the others to check their equipment before leaving.

N'jero watched the Ghost squadron head eastward and started to make painstakingly slow curves northward 'till they disappeared into the woods. He looked northwards and saw tiny object lift into the air. The tiny objects seemed to move toward the base. N'jero's internal alarms set off and it caused him to immediately run down the stairs.

Kayap and his squadron were not even halfway to the enemy base when he spotted what looked like large birds with wings that didn't move. He then knew they were phantoms head off to attack.

N'jero rushed through the doors and spotted several dozen grunt squads who paid no heed to the objects coming to the base. "The enemy is approaching! All hands go to battle stations!"

Almost immediately a hundred grunts popped out of nowhere and rush to the armories. Three large wraiths came out from a subterranean vehicle depot. N'jero ran on top of structure and looked through the scoped and watched the objects steadily grow larger.

He turned and saw several grunts on the Type-42 Directed Energy Support Weapons, armed and ready. He looked down at the infantry and saw that they were hiding behind pillars and rubble. Three wraiths were lined up behind cover. Then he saw that the elites had retreated back into main base to allow the Unggoy to do the work for they were nowhere to be seen. The grunts had turrets set up at the windows at windows of the watch tower. Then he saw two hunter pairs eager for bloodshed that was to ensue hidden inside of a darkened structure.

N'jero looked down at the foot of the hill to see phantoms dropping off troops and some vehicles. Including revenants or what grunts called 'mini-wraiths.'

N'jero placed the rifle on his back and pulled out his energy sword.

A small grunt ran up to him. "Elite! Brutes coming!" The grunt walked to his post or rather ran, flailing his arms for some reason.

The Sangheili looked down and indeed they were coming. They had Spectre and Revenants along with the ground troops that had jackals lined up and the front with their shields up and brutes in the back.

They gave a signal to a grunt that caught it and made a bark. Every living thing in the area ran into the shadows.

J'rarak marched through the rubble with his forces without any confrontation. Jackals had spread out across the area and the platoon of ten brutes scattered in the midday sunlight. J'rarak was to busy to note that a jackal seemingly disappeared into the darkness of one of the structure and had never returned to the outside.

N'jero had sliced the head off a jackal and made a growling sound. With the command the grunts aimed they're plasma pistols or needlers and fired.

J'rarak roared in rage as a sudden ambush had happened. Jackals screeched in agony as plasma ripped through they're bodies and the brutes exploded in a cloud of pink and purple.

Their attackers were revealed as they marched out from the darkened hall and out in broad daylight. He pulled up his brute shot and fired a deadly grenade at a pack of grunts.

A spectre-gunner was firing upon several squads of grunts who were hiding behind rubble until wraith motor fire landed upon it, nearly disintegrating it. A revenant boosted toward N'jero who leapt out the way, causing it to drive into the room where the hunter pairs were. The vehicle flew out the room and rolled toward another structure and exploded in a fiery ball of red and purple.

The hunters charged out and startled several unfortunate brutes who were smashed and trampled. One large brute roared, "Fall back! Fall back!"

The remaining forces hurried out the battle zone. J'rarak had never seen such an ambush happen.

The grunts squealed and made small roars of victory. N'jero knew there were to be another wave. He watched as many phantoms hovered above the ground, dropping much more forces off along with more vehicles.

This was only an initial wave.

Chapter Five: Battle for Control

Delta Halo
Nearby Delta Halo's control room

Kayap zipped through the dark forest with his squadron of Ghosts. They were slowly curving west just as the elite wanted them to. A small sound of humming emitted from his left side. He turned his head quickly to see that a large number of phantoms were heading toward the encampment. He knew he would be returning to a smoldering battlefield.

He signaled for the formation to halt. He stepped out of his vehicle and toward the sound of angry roars. As he moved the ground elevated to a comfortable height to peer from. He waved his hand to the grunts that jumped off their ghosts and several of them crouched next to him.

They saw what appeared to be a small outpost. Four Phantoms were parked on the ground. A shade turret was placed on a small tower, unoccupied. Several shield-wielding Jackals were standing close to the Phantoms while a Brute in golden armor was standing upon a rocky ledge, chest out with his arm crossed, showing off his authority. They looked over to see a split between the bases of two hills that was guarded by two light plasma turrets which were occupied by jackals.

"Get the fuel rod guns out," Kayap whispered in his native language "give me a beam rifle."

Just as the Grunts disappeared behind the trees five Skirmishers jumped up the ledge and landed in front of the squad. They hissed and snarled as they neared the group. The largest one in the middle sprinted at Kayap and wrapped his rough three digits around Kayap's neck.

Many of the Grunts gasped in fear, some trembled.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time, to kill your filthy selves without being punished." The Skirmisher's slit pupils stared into Kayap's orange eyes. He tightened his grip, hissing in the pleasure of killing.

Kayap's eyes widen and he jabbed the Skirmisher's kidney with his fist. The Skirmisher eyes widen and released his grip on the grunt and held his side. Kayap took the chance and punched the Skirmisher in the side of its head. The Skirmisher stumbled back, grasping his bleeding head.

"Die, pathetic bird!" One Grunt hopped out from behind a tree with a Fuel Rod Cannon on his shoulder and fired at the skirmisher. The other Skirmishers rolled out of the way, terrified. The projectile landed at the Kig-yar's feet. The explosion sent charred half Skirmisher soaring into the air and down to the outpost.

The sound of a thump caused several Jackals to jump. They saw half a skirmisher lying in a small puddle of blood. The Brute roared and the Jackals ran into position.

"Likewise." Kayap mumbled as he rubbed his small throat. The other Skirmishers squawked and opened fire. The grunts leapt behind the trees for cover. "How do we kill all them? Its obvious they're more superior to us." One Grunt said, doubting their victory.

"They're not superior to us!" Kayap yelled. He looked around the edge and fired a Skirmisher who was shooting at two grunts hiding behind a large tree the plasma was eating away at.

Soon the head of the bird-like creature had been melted off by the extremely hot plasma and it fell off to the side, obviously dead.

The action seemed to have an effect on the other grunts. They seemed to become more courageous. As they leapt from behind the trees they fired away at the Skirmishers. Now it was the Skirmishers who were hiding.

"Flare!" One of the Grunts then threw a grenade which landed behind the trees.

They heard the sound of a squawk and soon the explosion sent an unfortunate Skirmisher's body flying into another Skirmisher behind another tree.

The Skirmisher attempted to get off the ground but exploded in a pink cloud. The last two Skirmishers jumped off the cliff to save themselves from the unrelenting Grunts. "Ha-ha! They give up faster than we do!" One grunt said. The grunts then busted out laughing at the cowardly action.

Kayap chuckled and then said, "Okay, now let’s get back to the mission. Eliminate enemy forces, and capture a phantom"

"What about the other phantoms?" One grunt asked.

"Destroy them." Kayap answered.

The grunts crawled on there hands and knees, crawling to the ledge slowly and carefully. "See if there are any snipers." Kayap ordered.

The youngest Grunt peered over the edge and looked over the base. The shade turret was pointing toward them, ready to fire. Then a thin bright purple beam materialized and disappeared within half a second. The little grunt covered his head. "They have sniper." The grunt whispered. "Get me the beam rifle." Kayap said.

One of the grunts scurried to the ghosts and grabbed a beam rifle off of one of the wings and traveled back. He handed the sniper-type rifle to Kayap who put the gun between two rocks and began searching for the sniper. He scanned until he saw the jackal aiming up behind a boulder, head exposed to Kayap.

Kayap took aim, waited, and fired the Particle Beam Rifle. The Jackal stood there for a second with a small clean hole between its eyes and it feel back, dead.

"Sniper is dead," Kayap announced "get the fuel rod cannons and eliminate the turrets."

Kayap threw down his Beam Rifle and pulled out his Plasma Rifle, while the other grunt ran to get the fuel rod cannons. Kayap looked over the rocks and looked at the base. The brute was nowhere to be seen.

He looked over to his left. There were only trees, rocks, and grass. Then He looked over to his right. There were walkways that lead to the side of the base and there spires sticking up from the side.

'Which could provide cover.' Kayap thought to himself.

The marched up, Fuel Rod Cannons on shoulder, they aimed down. The turret weapon began to charge up, and the Grunts rained the glowing green projectiles. The green fire contacted with the Shade Turret, exploding into a fiery purple cloud and shrapnel. The jackals ran for cover before grunts could decide to kill them.

In just a few seconds the base's defenses were destroyed. The Jackals were nowhere to be seen.

The Grunts dropped their weapons and drew out their small arms.

"Follow me." Kayap waved to his squad.

The Grunts traveled down the rocky walkway, aiming at the base for any enemies. Suddenly, came a indirect rain of green glowing plasma bolts.

"Find cover!" One of the panicked Grunts cried as he ducked and moved behind one of the grey rocky spires.

"What we do now?" One of the grunts nervously asked.

"Try to kill them," Kayap had then gotten an idea, "overpower them!"

Kayap peered around the edge of the rocky spire and aimed at one of the lower ranked jackals, firing away with his Plasma Pistol. The shield collapsed and the hopeless Jackal became a bloody pile. Kayap noticed the Jackals became demoralized by the death.

He turned his head to see that one of the Grunts had been shot in the arm and that the younger Grunt was tending to the wound.

"Shoot one Jackal at a time, brothers!" Kayap shouted.

N'jero watched as several Phantoms flew to the foot of the large hill, dropping large quantities of troops and several vehicles. The jackals were being rounded up as if they were grunts.

Without Kayap these grunts would be low on moral, but due to their large numbers they would stay confident.

The Wraith Tank, as the other two were destroyed by the initial attack, that sat in the back of the base rolled around some ruins into the opening, surrounded by a pack of Unggoy Heavies and a pair of ghosts. Two Spectres drove up behind several pillars. N'jero was surprised, he hadn't expected his force to be quite as large as it was.

'Though, they are Unggoy.' N'jero thought negatively.

The large elite watched the forces stir and move. The smaller figures move to the front as the larger figures shifted to the back with the vehicles. N'jero needed to boost the grunts' moral and their anger to the enemy.

The proud Sangheili stood upon a rocky platform and looked at his army. One of the grunts had pointed at N'jero and soon the entire army was looking toward. "Unggoy, once the lowly and weak, you must be strong! You have feud with the Kig-yar and now is your chance to release your hundred year hatred upon them. Show us that you are the higher being than those birds! Represent your species at best! For Kayap, your hierarch, and your Homeworld!"

The Grunts let out wails and roars of confidence and excitement. They smack at the ground with their rough fists and let out uproars that would terrify even a hunter.

N'jero had felt intimidated by these actions for the first time of his life. He had never seen such ferocity in his service with the Covenant. 'If only the Unggoy were this moralized. We would've won the war years ago.'

The ground shook beneath his feet as a pillar behind his army exploded in a blue fiery ball. The elite spun around and looked at the enemy to see that there were two Wraiths firing upon them.

Popad jumped behind rubble as Jackals had come out of nowhere and begun firing upon his squad. "What the?" Kadab looked confused. "How'd they get here so fast?"

Popad shrugged and fired his plasma pistol at a pair of Jackals. Popad spun around as a Brute broke through the wall behind them. They watched in horror as he neared them, chuckling. Kadap immediately open fire upon the large beast, out of fear.

The Brute swung its giant hand to crush Kadap. The small Grunt jumped out of the way before turning into slush by the brute. "Eat this, brute!" Kadab threw a plasma grenade to the Brute.

The Brute roared and franticly scratched at its back as the grenade embedded itself into the brute's back. With a short hum and an explosion, the Brute was mere body parts. The grunts wailed in victory and stepped back to the rubble.

"I'll go look." Popad suggested.

"Okay genius! That sounds great! I'll wait and see where you die and then I'll go somewhere else!" Kadab responded. Popad scowled at Kadab and looked out.

"I see a dozen Jackals between us and the tower, or not." Popad said as he watched a Wraith boosted and crushed them. A group of grunts were running in terror from two berserked Brutes.

"So?" Dawjaw pushed for information.

"It looks likes a drone nest on fire out there!" Popad squealed. The squad giggled at the thought. "It’s that bad?" Kadab asked. Popad nodded.

They heard the noise of a cackle behind them. "Guys, we have some bird-faced freaks here!" Dawjaw backed away from the angry jackals.

The others spun around to see that there were four jackals, all were majors. "You no scare us, ugly freaks!" Kadab stepped up. The jackal primed their weapons.

"This is how you kill jackals!" Kadap quickly tossed a grenade in the center of the Kig-Yar squad. With a loud explosion, the jackals disappeared.

"I think the brute was their leader." Dawjaw suggested. "That why they looked angry."

"With faces like that, I think they must be angry all the time." Kadab said.

The ground shook with an explosion and the grunts covered their heads as dust and rock fell from the moss covered ceiling.

"Our Wraith is dead." Popad felt like panicking, but held together.

N'jero ducked as debris and shrapnel flew through the air from their Wraith. He looked at the burning ruins of the vehicle and saw that the pilot and gunner were dead, blood and gore replacing their position.

The Elite spun around and primed his energy sword, challenging two large Brutes. N'jero charged at them and gracefully lowered himself while slicing the first Brute in half and then jumped into air and stabbed the double pronged sword into the second Brute's chest.

N'jero pulled the blade out of the beast's chest and looked for more. For his years in the Covenant, he had wanted to kill the primates. Now, he had his chance and was willing to take it.

The Sangheili charged and stabbed one unsuspecting Brute in the back. Then he sliced another's head off. Slaughtering more Brutes and Jackals in the graceful blood bath, he ran to find cover so that he could regenerate his stamina.

Suddenly, in a terrifyingly loud explosion that shook the earth beneath him, the Elite and all the other forces looked to see bright purple and blue fireball at the base of the tower.

Popad and the rest of the squad watched from behind the cover in the structure, the rear of a Phantom explode as the hunters combined their assault beam projection against it. However, to their horror, the flaming Phantom curved downward and crashed into the foundation of the communications tower.

The very earth shook under the massive explosion. Pieces of shrapnel and debris flew into the air and raining down out off the smoke filled sky.

To make thing worse for any warrior in the courtyard, the tower slowly began to fall to its side due to being unable to hold up at the loss of most of its foundation.

Popad eyes widen as he realized that the tall tower would crumble and fall toward their location.

"Panic! Run for your lives!" Kadab screamed in horror.

The Grunts scattered and left the structured like ants and the warriors in the courtyard ran. The massive tower crushed the box-like structure, along with anything with its descent.

N'jero was amazed, ignoring the fallen structure; his army was winning the fight. The large Elite had wished the grunts were like this when they were fighting the Humans, Demons especially.

The Jackals were backing in complete and utter terror and the brutes were even backing away. Grunts leapt on top the remains of the tower and were growling at the enemy ferociously. The numbers of the Unggoy grew quick as they left the surrounding structures.

There in front of the enemy, were an uncountable number of Grunts, growling and spitting at the enemy. With that N'jero stepped out in front of the horde of Unggoy.

About to give the order to kill off the rest of the army, the Grunts began to fall, dead. The jackals and brutes began to close in on the army as the grunts began to lose moral, gaining only terror. "Snipers!" N'jero swiftly scanned the rooftops.

N'jero fired at one that stood atop a ledge outside the base. Then another, soon the Unggoy joined in and the snipers fled for an unknown reason. Snipers would keep killing until either they were dead or the army was eliminated.

The Elite looked at his army and found that the snipers had killed two thirds of his forces. N'jero growled in anger.

Popad was terrified, the army of grunts was now equal to the invading army, meaning that their forces were weaker compared to the enemy.

The enemy was acting odd, instead of picking off the grunt army; they stepped aside to reveal an unusually large Brute. The Brute was almost entirely covered in armor and was wielding a massive hammer of some sort.

Out of the blue, the brute charged the elite and swung his hammer. The hammer never hit the elite, but some gravitational shockwave sent the brave elite soaring into the air and through a building.

The firefight was short-lived. The Kig-Yar numbers dropped quickly when the Unggoy started picking one off and soon another. Kayap had taken one of the wounded with him, knowing that a Jackal would be in one of the phantoms. He would allow the Grunt to kill one, though slowly.

Kayap floated up through the gravity lift on the belly of the Phantom, follow by the wounded grunt. He had drained his plasma pistol during the previous firefight and was weaponless. Though few jackals were reported alive and the brute had seemingly disappeared, meaning that there was no true danger at the time.

The grunt crept up into the cockpit; there a jackal was sitting as if he were waiting for orders from a brute. Kayap then wrapped his arm around the jackal's neck and pulled him out of the seat and dragged him into cargo hold. There awaited an angry and wounded grunt.

"He's all yours." Kayap told the grunt.

Kayap floated down the gravity lift of the phantom, hearing only the screeches of pain emitted by the soon to be dead Kig-Yar.

"Ha Ha, brute flee!" One grunt laughed.

"He knows we’d destroy him." Another gloated.

"He fears our grunty strength!" The youngest squeaked.

"Into the Phantom, all of you!" Kayap barked. The grunts stopped gloating and immediately followed the command.

By the time the Grunts entered the Phantom, they had grimaced looked on their faces as they looked at the mutilated Jackal. "It got what it deserved!" One of the grunts commented. Another kicked the dead body as a sign of disrespect to all Jackals.

Soon the Grunts settled in and Kayap walked into the dimly-lit cockpit. "Remember to destroy the rest of the Phantoms, so that any survivors won't make any use for them." The little Grunt nodded at the command and barked at the Co-Pilot. The Phantom rose into the air and held position.

"One of us had placed some explosive charges on one of them. He said that it should detonate and cause a chain reaction." One Grunt informed from behind. "Does he have the detonator?" Kayap inquired. The grunt nodded.

"Tell him to detonate the charges." Kayap said. The Grunt disappeared up into the cargo-bay to give the command.

N'jero winced in pain as he attempted to get up off the dusty metallic floor. He felt around his chest until he winced in pain by touching his right side. The shockwave from the gravity hammer had cracked his ribs.

He snapped his head up as the wall on the other side of the hall exploded. He scrambled and crawled into another room. He watched the door as he heard the heavy footsteps of the massive brute. He slid up the wall quietly to be were he was standing, back against the wall.

N'jero froze as the foot steps halted on the other side. A massive dark brown arm broke through the wall next to the Elite's head and grabbed N'jero by the neck. The Brute pulled the Elite through the wall. The Brute laughed and tossed the Elite through another wall, sending him into the air.

Kayap watched a small cloud of grey dust and rocks explode from one side of a structure. A large figure flew out of the dust, followed by a much more colossal figure.

"Zoom in on that!" Kayap pointed at the figures.

The view screen zoomed in on the two figures to reveal a elite and a gargantuan brute. "It’s the elite!" The co-pilot acknowledged. "He's going to get killed by that brute!"

Kayap immediately ran to the cargo bay of the Phantom searching for something to hatch a plan. The grunt looked at the mangled jackal and ran back to the cockpit. Kayap saw that the brute was raising some sort of giant hammer; only a large blade like structure on the hammer was facing the elite. Kayap then formed a plan.

Popad watched a Phantom close in the remains of the base, hoping that inside was his pack-brother Kayap. The grunts heard what sounded like laughter and gloating. The brute had his hammer, blade-wise, facing the heavily damaged elite. Popad saw something odd; he saw a body slide out from the starboard side of the transport ship.

The Brute laughed at the bleeding elite. "Now, I shall finish you Sangheili!" The Brute raised his giant hammer, spun it to have the blade faced the elite.

But then, out of nowhere, a mangled and dead body smacked the hammer's head at rather high speeds. The hammer slipped out of the brute's tight grip and was lying against the ground, covered in purple blood. 'What?' The brute thought.

His face then contorted from confusion to anger when he saw a Phantom spin around. The brute anger vanished and returned to confusion when he watched a white-clad Grunt jumped out of the starboard side of the troop-carrier.

The brute smirked, and said to the kneeling grunt who was across the battlefield, "What are you here for Unggoy! What do you plan?"

The Grunt stood up and then taunted the Brute, "Me plan to kill you today, ugly fat Brute!"

The brute burst into laughter at the grunt's words. "Kill me? Kill me? Do you know who I am? I am J'rarakum! Field Marshall and War Chieftain of the Covenant you foolish grunt!"

Kayap then said back, "Yea? Me Kayap, High Deacon of my species!"

Brute growled loudly in anger at the grunt's reluctance to show fear. J'rarak stomped across the field as did Kayap. They reached each other in the middle starring each other in the eye. Kayap felt fear grow in him as he realized what he was facing, but he held it in.

The Brute War Chieftain bent over and came eye to eye to the small grunt. "Fear me now?" The brute growled out. Kayap then responded, firmly, "No."

The brute backed and roared in rage at the grunt. Kayap stood as firmly to the ground as he could. The brute, even angrier, beat the ground with his giant fists. Kayap felt a powerful urge to run and hide, however, he stood there.

"I've had enough of your defiance, grunt!" The brute then swung his fist at the grunt. Kayap, almost out of instinct, jumped onto the brute’s fist and angled himself to be where he wouldn't fly into the air with a broken body. The grunt quickly crawled up the Brute's arm and began to beat at his head.

The brute didn't flinch at the action which then Kayap began to chew on the beast's neck. The brute roared in utter fury as pain flared on his neck. He grabbed at the grunt and managed to get a hold on the grunt's methane tank.

J'rarakum threw Kayap off his back. The enraged brute charged at Kayap. Kayap galloped at the brute and leapt into the air. J'rarak swung his fist and Kayap landed on it. The grunt pulled out two handles and clicked a purple glowing button on each one. Long purple glowing needles jutted out of the hilts.

Kayap stabbed the blades into the shoulders of the Brute. J'rarak roared in pain and grabbed Kayap and tossed him away from him. Kayap stood up and stumbled.

"Ha-Ha! You thought that would kill me! You foolish grunt, you can't kill me." J'rarakum seemed to choke on the word 'me.'

The brute felt extreme pain inside his body. He reached for his shoulder and plucked out a small purple needle. J'rarakum looked at Kayap and went to kill him. J'rarak, the Field Marshall and War Chieftain, fell and was dead before he hit the ground.

The enemy was shocked. One of their most powerful leaders was defeated by a mere Grunt. They felt humiliation and pure anger.

Kayap looked up and terror as the other Brute roared and stomped in rage. The Jackals screeched and squawked.

Popad motioned the remainder of the Grunt army to follow him. With that he stood beside Kayap. Kayap and Popad along with the rest of the squad wailed and howled at the enemy. Soon all the Grunts began to howl and bark and wail. The enemy was once again faced with terror and fright.

Kayap and all the Grunts dropped their weapons and charged at the enemy. The Jackals began to open fire on the charging and moralized Grunts. Even as the Grunts numbers fell by the little, they never stopped.

The Grunts first reached the Jackals and began to brutally mutilate the weak bird-like Jackals. The brute swung and roared as the grunt chewed and tear at their flesh. The grunts, after years of hate and torture, now released all their anger upon the enemy.

Soon the Grunts were searching for any survivors. Kayap was tired. He had fought Skirmishers and Jackals during the skirmish, killed a Brute Chieftain, and attacked an army with his kin and he was now resting again rubble next to the heavily wounded elite who was being tended to by the orange-clad Grunts.

Grunts dragged out large battlefield methane tanks to refill the grunts methane tanks. Other grunts were dragging dead bodies into piles and they placed their own dead into single file and covered their bodies with rocks and a large piece of stone at the one end that marked their names.

A large CCS-Class Battlecruiser hovered above the battlefield, alarming the remaining Separatists. Two Phantom Troop-carriers exited the large spacecraft. The two troopships hovered above the remains of the communication tower and unloaded several high ranked elites. Two ultras and a zealot approached N'jero's wounded body. The Zealot looked over at Kayap.

"Unggoy, we are somewhat honored to be in your presence, you had rescued our brother not only once, but twice." The Zealot said sternly and Kayap had then remembered him.

"You the Zealot on the docks!" Kayap said excitably.

"Yes and we are rather awestruck that you've managed to kill that blasted brute." The Zealot looked over at the dead Brute that two Elite were looking over.

"As for I too." N'jero said weakly.

"Excellency, Elite is suffering from broken ribs and a punctured lung and many cuts and bruises." One Grunt examined.

"Get him into the Phantom, we'll medicate him onboard the ship." The Zealot directed.

"Brother, the Brute was killed by severe internal damage. I believe the Grunt managed to 'shoot' the needles out of the hilts. The needles must’ve super-combined inside him. All the organs in and around the chest was shredded into pieces by the needles." One of the Elite said.

"Unggoy, how did you manage to even kill it like that?" The Zealot looked back down at Kayap.

"Brute doubted me and taunted me, he get tired of taunting and tried to kill me. Even then he made big mistake. He doubted my grunty abilities and I jumped on his back. Me stabbed needles into him and press button. Brute threw me off him and laughed at me. He called me weak and then he died. He died before hitting ground, Excellency." Kayap sucked in his methane air after explaining what happened.

"You are truly amazing, Unggoy. Gather your forces on 'your' Phantom." The zealot turned and walked away and then started to speak with a Special Operations elite.

"It appears that the grunts respect their dead, unlike the brutes." The black-clad Elite observed.

"Yes, for years the Unggoy had been doubted and used as cannon-fodder. Now, from what I've seen, the grunts can be rather powerful by moral. But we've never given moral to the Unggoy." The zealot said.

"Remember the Unggoy Rebellion? The Grunts became especially deadly because of their anger. Also with the moral that was given by their leader. They would've broken the Covenant apart if we hadn't threatened to glass their Homeworld." The elite said.

"Indeed, brother, indeed" The zealot floated into a Phantom.

Kayap was excited and anxious by the fact that the high ranked Zealot had said the words 'honored' and 'your presence' in one sentence.

Kayap and all the other grunts began looked for any hiding or unconscious Grunt survivors. After much time they rallied back to the field and boarded the Phantom.

The Phantom hovered higher and then travel up into the void of space.

Chapter Six: A Ship for the Grunts

Delta Halo
In Phantom Drop-Ship

"Kayap! Look, hurry!" Popad screamed to his brother.

"What?" Kayap looked at the view screen that was being observed.

It was the Sacred Ring firing off some sort of massive blue ball from to the Control Room toward a growing ball of gold that was forming in the center of the Halo. The ball of gold seemed to be sucking in energy as the blue bolt was absorbed.

"By the gods." Kayap mumbled the words every Covenant Loyalist and Separatist would be saying at the moment. Was this the infamous Great Journey the Covenant dreamt about?

The ball exploded in a fiery ball of light. Its blue glare stretched many miles before it dissipated.

"What the?" Every grunt mumbled. They were confused. This was not what the Prophets spoke of to happen.

"This is strange. Maybe we'll find out what happened later." Kadab said.

"Well. Nothing truly happened. No Great Journey, but good thing though. We would be dead if it happened." Kayap said.

Kayap ambled down into the Phantom's cockpit and looked over the Grunts who toyed with the controls. He saw a battle near the once great city of High Charity. Blue streaks raced away from one ship and traveled to another. Random red second-long beams sliced through one ship or another. Ships even rammed into each other.

The Phantom over a large CCS-class Battlecruiser and they could see a massive Assault Carrier. "Fly into that hanger-bay." Kayap told the black-clad pilot. He turned and walked up and into the cargo-bay that housed wounded Grunts and sleeping Grunts. Even a few Grunts stood up in the back dual-wielding plasma pistols.

"Kayap! Guess what me did!" Popad excitedly as he scrambled to his pack brother.

"What?" Kayap looked at his brother, bewildered.

"Me set up some veteran Grunts! Me request them to be guards! They say yes!" Popad was almost literally jumping in his skin.

"What? I'm confused. Why is this important?"

"That mean we are like their leaders in their eyes. Me just excited because me never had such respect and stuff!" Popad scurried back to the rest of the pack.

"Brother, may the grunt god be with you." Kayap mumbled.

"Kin-brothers be ready to leave our own Phantom. We are docking in the big ship, Assault Carrier thing." Kayap informed.

There was a small moment of silence before the chattering resume. Kayap returned to the cockpit and looked into the view screen. He could see small corvettes drifted through the dark void of space. Even a few Reverence-Class cruisers were there as still, looming menacing silhouettes that guarded the Assault Carrier.

"I’m inputting access codes. We're clear to dock." The Pilot called and pushed on the throttle.

The Grunts onboard felt their bodies 'drop' as entered through the monstrous energy barrier. The Phantom floated toward a docking ledge and hovered above. The pilot expertly placed the Phantom onto it and activated the gravity lift.

"Alright, we're here. Off the ship." Kayap directed.

Kayap and several Grunts leapt off the sides of the of the transport. Other Grunts hauled out large methane replenishing tanks and unloaded the wounded Grunts.

Kayap looked around the hanger-bay and noticed that there were an oddly large number of Phantom and Spirit drop-ships dropping off elites and hunters. As if it was like they had been removed from a ship. 'Could be forces from the stupid ring.' Kayap thought. He turned to do his duties.

While Kayap pointed to where the methane replenishing tanks would be placed and blue-clad elite jogged up the incline and stopped behind the white-clad Grunt. He was hearing the Grunt give orders to the others, even the Ultras. 'This must be the High Deacon.' He thought.

"High Deacon, the Imperial Admiral insists that you arrive at the bridge." Kayap almost jumped as he didn't know that there was elite was behind him.

Kayap nodded to elite and requested the direction to the bridge. The elite had simply answered, "I will be guiding you."

Kayap still felt odd as the elite had spoke to him respectfully. He had gotten used to it though, but it still felt strange.

Popad was at his side along with the 'guards.' They then set off for the bridge. They passed through many dimly-lit corridors and past several Elite Honor Guards. They came up to a rather large door and it blinked several times before peeling open to reveal a room filled with Elites and a rectangular holographic table in the center.

"Imperial Admiral, the High Deacon has arrived." The Elite sidestepped to reveal Kayap, Popad, and the guards.

"He has brought his brother and several other Unggoy?" The tall Elite smirked. "I may understand why you've brought your brother, but who are the others?"

"They guards, Excellency." Popad blurted proudly.

"Guards? Interesting." The elite searched the four grunts up and down, only noticing that they were all dual-wielding either Needlers or Plasma Pistols.

"Councilors, this is the mythical High Deacon we've spoken about. Kayap these are the councilors, you will see them again. So do not be surprised whenever you do see them." The elite said.

"Anyway, you may seat." He said to Kayap and Popad.

The grunts inspected the floating chairs. They had seen Sangheili shipmasters and Prophets sit in them. But never an Unggoy.

They climbed up the short stairs and seated comfortably in the anti-gravity chair.

"We have some news from the Special Operations Commander of the Covenant. The activation was no activation. It was merely a beacon, which was sent to all the halo rings. Also the Prophet of Truth escaped from the embattled High Charity through the Forerunner Keyship with also carries the Demon." The room seemed to have gotten darker from the mention of the 'Demon.' Kayap simply ignored this thought and listen to the elite give the news. Popad merely gaped in amazement. The Imperial Admiral then looked back to Kayap.

"Now to you Unggoy, is it true that you have defeated the Brute Field Marshall," Kayap nodded, "So it is true, Unggoy, you do know that you had killed Tartarus's nephew?"

Kayap's beady red eyes widen in surprise. He had not only killed off a Field Marshall and Chieftain, but killed the ruthless Tartarus's nephew. To answer the Imperial Admiral's question, he mutely shook his head.

"Unggoy, due to your rank as High Deacon, which a rank that had only been achieved by the Unggoy who begun the Unggoy Rebellion years ago, do you request a ship."

Kayap's eyes widen so much that he began to worry that his eyes may roll out of his head. "A what?"

"A ship, Unggoy, do you request a ship?" Again Kayap couldn't believe his ears. Kayap slowly broke from his daze and nodded slowly.

"Good, I would have given you a ship even if you said no. Now I may explain why you need a ship. These are dark times, Unggoy. Even you must need a ship, maybe even a fleet. This Covenant stretches all around this arm of this galaxy. Our former Covenant had managed even expanded out of the arm. This means that there are thousands upon thousands of ships out there willing to kill you. Without any ships, you'll be outmatched. Unggoy, this will be the only time I will hand over ships to you." The large elite looked at the rigid grunt.

"This ship is a Covenant Corvette. It is a ship that most shipmasters would start with. This is a good thing for you. Although it is a bit large I must say. They built it to a length of about nineteen hundred meters instead of the average length nine hundred fifty-six meters. This is a good thing though. There are more ship-to-ship weaponry built into it. More room for crew-members." The Sangheili leaned back.

"You're a Imperial Admiral, right?" The grunt asked and was answered with a nod.

"It be great honor speaking with you, Excellency." Kayap said respectfully.

"Leave to your ship Unggoy, there are surprises awaiting you there." The ornate elite waved him off. Kayap leapt off the chair and marched to the door, followed by his brother and guards, and stopped midway through.

"Before me leave, where's N'jero?" Kayap asked before exiting through the wide door.

"He is onboard your ship, awaiting your arrival, he is in your debt and so he has agreed to be at your side on your greatest journey." The elite's skin between his mandibles seemed to pulled up, like a smile.

"Thank you, Mighty One." Kayap said and left with Popad and their guards.

As they passed through the many corridors and pass many of the Covenant-Separatists, they made it to the massive hanger-bay. And there was the Phantom troopship and the grunts awaiting their arrival. Kayap marched up the incline and barked to gain attention.

"We have our own ship! We have our own ship!" Popad announced happily as he ran to the group.

Kayap chuckled to himself. He himself was too, excited but also nervous. He joined the wails and howls of happiness with his kin-brothers.

Then a little grunt crawled up behind Kayap and tapped his shoulder. Kayap stopped wailing and turned to the grunt.

"Can me come with you? Me studied ship controls and know how to fly them." The grunt smiled in pure joy as Kayap nodded his head firmly.

"Let’s go and get aboard our new ship!" Kayap said as he trotted to the Phantom.

With that the grunts packed up and either boarded the troopship right away or hauled the large methane tank onto it. Two jet-black armored grunts marched down into the cockpit and sat in the seats with Kayap behind.

"Find a ship that looks like this," Kayap held up a ball that split open and a hologram of a unique looking, double-hull designed ship popped up, "and find one that is the largest of all of these ships." He closed it and held onto the seats as the Phantom ascended into the air and zoomed to the energy-barrier. It passed through and into the dark void of space. Four space-banshees surrounded the Phantom and soon a bleep sound came from the co-pilot computer system.

"They want link, High Deacon." The co-pilot said.

"Answer them." Kayap replied.

Soon a high-pitched voice filled the cockpit. "High Deacon, follow us, we'll guide you to your ship. This is great! We have our own ship! And new armor types, brother!" The caller announced and disconnected with the Phantom's communication system.

"New armor?" The pilot asked involuntarily.

"Imperial Admiral said there will be surprises when we arrive to the ship, grunty brother." Kayap told him.

The grunt-controlled Phantom followed the space-banshee lance to what appeared to be too oversized Covenant Corvette. It was even larger than a CCS-Class Battlecruiser! It also seemed to be over-going construction in the engine area. "What they doing?" Kayap asked. "Me don't know." The pilot answered him.

The banshees split apart from the Phantom to reveal a massive shielded door that was shaped like a part of a beetle's wings. The shield seemed to power down as the bright blue shield dulled. The pilot pushed the throttle and the Phantom flew in and hovered in the air.

The pilot turned the Phantom ninety-degrees and once again, expertly lowered the Phantom onto a built-in pad. "Me never seen these pads on the other corvettes." The pilot said. "Maybe because this hanger twice the normal size. In fact, all the ship parts are twice the normal sizes." The Co-pilot said as he pressed and pushed several controls to power down the Phantom.

Kayap back and turned and marched to the cargo-hold. The Grunts were already unloading everything on the ship and Kayap jumped down the flaps on the side of the Phantom.

Kayap was very happy to see N'jero waiting in the middle of the hanger-bay, who seemed to be a mile away. Kayap almost immediately ran to him. "Elite! It’s good to see that you’re alive and well."

"I wouldn't be alive if you hadn't arrived in time to kill that blasted brute. You know that was a dangerous and stupid thing to do. But I have to admit, it was very heroic of you. Most Grunts would've ran and hide from him." N'jero complimented.

"It was quite humorous to see the beast's hammer swept out of his wretched hands by a bloody and mangled body that came from nowhere. He looked rather gobstruck." The elite chuckled.

They turned and walked away from the middle-pad. Passing between two large portable energy shields and through a door, Kayap began to wonder why he hadn't seen any elites or hunters. "N'jero, why haven't me seen any elites?" Kayap stopped looking at two grunts who were installing a methane replenishing tank into a slot in the wall.

"Because this ship for your race. Not ours or the Megalekgolo, you do not require my kind with the leadership and moral that you bestow upon your Unggoy." N'jero explained. "And the Imperial Admiral you had met has lived very long life, to say even before the Grunt Rebellion, has heard Unggoy continuously talk about claiming there own ship."

They continued walking, through a door and through a complex of corridors that were filled with excited grunts. Grunts would wave to Kayap and even one told him, "Great Leader, you lead us to the destruction of the Jackal bird-freaks?" and Kayap nodded to the fellow grunt.

"So I discussed with the Imperial Admiral about giving you your ship. We couldn't just hand out the rarer Assault Carriers and even the common CCS-Class Battlecruiser to your kind, though. But he was willing to hand over this ship. Saying that, 'He must learn to control a ship just as any shipmaster has.' and with that we removed all the elites and hunters and assigned them to new duties. This ship belongs to you and your kin. Even though I would say, it would matter if he gave you a CCS-Class Battlecruiser. This ship is larger than it. But it could have been the rarity." While the elite spoke, Kayap was remembering that there were many Phantoms and Spirits in the Assault Carrier.

"So you say that this is grunt only ship?" Kayap cocked his head in confusion. "Only grunts?"

"Well in some ways, you may have visitors onboard. I am a crew-member. I'm here to guide you to good decisions and to help teach you how to run this ship." said N'jero.

"Good, because me don't know how to give orders to others." Kayap said.

"You'll learn without my help. Depending on the situation." said N'jero.

They walked through a door to see a dozen grunts in it. On the far left was a shield door with four controls on it. Outside was the four Plasma Turrets which the controls were part of. There was a decline and an platform that stretch across the right of the room.

They sauntered down the incline. "Unggoy, these are the Plasma Turrets, let you know that this is to be in operation during ship-to-ship warfare." N'jero stretched arm out, showing Kayap.

"Me seen these before. Me was on ship like this before, only it was smaller. Were there were three turrets. This ship is twice as long as the normal ones?" Kayap asked and N'jero nodded.

"Then there would be six turrets. Where would the other two on each side be?" Kayap turned to look out of the shield that separated the vacuum of space and them.

"On the stern of the ship. In the construction of this ship, they found that they could add more systems to the ship. Twelve turrets in the bow would be too crowded. So they placed two in the aft. This created a much better offence in ship-to-ship warfare." N'jero elucidated.

Kayap nodded to this information, "It does make sense to do that."

"Well, what's the next room?" Kayap turned and walked toward a door with N'jero walking next to him.

"The bridge. It is the room you'll spend most of the time in when you are not in ground combat." N'jero said.

"Ground combat? Well, me would like to fight the stupid jackals and brutes." Kayap nodded to himself.

After walking through spider-web like passages they reached the bridge door. The door peeled open to reveal a very large room. It was dome-like and there were several platforms below the main floor and around the sides. I the middle was a bowl like section with a railing around its perimeter and in the center and above it was a hologram of High Charity and the battle around it. At the back was an empty anti-gravity chair.

When they entered, there was a large greeting that was of wailing and howling and even clapping. "See Unggoy, they have great faith in you. Don't let them down." N'jero whispered.

Kayap and N'jero marched to the hologram bowl. There were five grunts dressed in ornate armor around it, signaling that they were Deacons. One of the political ranks of the Unggoy. They wore white robs with almost glowing ornate silver patterns that overlapped the small shell of the methane tank. These types of methane tanks were incredibly rare as grunts of the rank of Deacon would wear them, but not all would.

A grunt who wore odd looking armor walked up to Kayap and halted his movements. His armor was almost completely brick red. He wore small pauldrons on his shoulders that had a glowing gold stripe on each of them. Even the chest piece seemed the same way. Certain parts around the upper chest stuck out with the bottom part curving in to the lower chest. Gold stripes stretched from the shoulder and curved in complex ways around the chest armor. He also wore guards that wrapped completely around his forearms. His methane tank was smaller than the normal methane tanks he always saw in battle. Also he wore a helmet that covered his entire head and spikes jutted out of the top and sides of it and stretched back.

Kayap was baffled at the sight. 'The escort did say there would be surprises.' He thought to himself.

The grunt identified himself giddily, "I am the Unggoy Honor Guard of Balaho. Well, that's what the Sangheili told me I was. Which one? The Imperial Admiral. He even gave me a small stave. It’s special too! It has a built in plasma rifle. Though it doesn't look like a plasma rifle."

He wasn't the only Unggoy Honor Guard. There were about a dozen more that guarded the doors and the Deacons and they all brandished the 'Unggoy' Energy Staves.

"And your Honor, Me present your robes and backpack. You put on robes when I finish putting on your backpack." The grunt walked behind the grunt and pushed several buttons and pulled the cylindrical methane tank off. Kayap held his breath as the grunt placed a foreign looking methane tank that looked like the wings of a beetle.

After a small moment of attaching hinges to the new methane tank, Kayap breathed in the fresh methane. Kayap placed the robes upon his body and soon his helmet. He didn't like looking through the inside visor when in non-combat situations and so he pressed several buttons on the side of the helmet and the side portions seemed to retract, like a cat’s claw.

Kayap smiled at the look of the armor. His robes had striped patterns that shone an intricate gold glow. He looked at the lowered hover-chair and walked up to it, N'jero followed close by. Kayap stepped up the chair and sat.

"I must say, Unggoy, you look much like shipmaster and a counselor." N'jero smirked.

Kayap looked around the room. Ultras were sitting in stationary chairs in almost what seemed to be a circle in the front, besides the walkway separating the two sides, working on the system controls. Kayap knew now that now he had stepped on a perilous journey that would he ultimately lead his species home and the colonization of many other methane worlds, if there were any other ones at all. Kayap motioned to one of the Deacons to speak up. The quietness was torturing him.

"High Deacon, we have a situation that we must immediately act to." The Deacon spoke.

"Yes?" Kayap cocked his head, wondering.

The Deacon pressed a button and the internal view of High Charity sprang up. "The Flood has overwhelmed several enemy-controlled areas." Three structures that hovered glowed red as well at the grounds below and around also. Signaling what the Parasite controlled.

"The Loyalists control almost the entire city." A little more than of the city areas turned purple mostly around where the Keyship one stood. "The Separatists control these areas." The other parts of the city turned green. "Our kin are located in these areas." In some of the Flood controlled areas began to glow blue and but then the most amazing part was that the color was scattered all around the city.

"How many of our brother do you suspect are in the city?" Kayap said as he began to feel desperate to save them.

"Me estimate about, at least a little below five-hundred thousand and dropping. We can only have around a thousand more crew-members, but that number of open space is dropping as well." The Deacon said.

Suddenly an almost brilliant plan came to Kayap's mind. "N'jero, there are many ships unused in High Charity right, as in Corvettes."

N'jero clicked his jaws together in thought, "It is highly plausible that there would be many unused ships." N'jero nodded.

"Well, me have a plan. We fly right through the huge battle and get into the city. We then set out to collect all of our kin that we can and have some of them get onboard this ship and take any ship we can, mostly the corvettes and even a few destroyers if we can. If we plan to board and take over a ship. We'll need a more complex plan." Kayap sucked in air after saying such a mouth full.

"So the plan is; we fly through the heat of the battle, get into High Charity, save as many of our kin as we can, and steal a few ships so we don't overstuff our ship, right?" A younger Deacon simplified.

Kayap nodded, "Yes, in a nutshell."

"N'jero, can we leave or should we contact the Imperial Admiral first?" Kayap looked at the elite for advice.

"I would contact the Imperial Admiral first. He'll most likely answer yes." N'jero advised.

"Contact the Imperial Admiral; me would like a word with him." He said over the Ultras who tapped at several controls, who were recently doing system checks.

One of them said, "Contacting Imperial Admiral R'Kolo Rolamee. He has answered, High Deacon."

A hologram of the Imperial Admiral suddenly replaced the image of the city. "Yes, High Deacon?" He asked.

"Me request that I leave the fleet to find as many of my kind as possible on the embattled High Charity. Maybe even steal a few unoccupied ships to put any excess onboard it." Kayap began to hope for the best answer, yes.

"You may Unggoy, but be careful to not be shredded apart by the warfare outside the city and be careful and make sure no parasite boards you ship. It is now your property, take care of it. May the gods be with you." With a dull flash the hologram of the Imperial Admiral was then replaced by the previous hologram.

"Wait, what were they doing to the back of the ship?" Kayap inquired.

"They were adding an undamaged shield core to this ship. It had come from a heavily damaged CCS-Class Battlecruiser. It was surprising it was untouched, considering the extensive damage on the ship itself. The shipmaster decided to donate the Ship-Class Energy Shield to this ship. After some time of rebuilding it so that it could fit this ship, they implemented it. The ship’s core accepted the foreign device. What is the current progression of the installation?" N'jero turned to the eldest Deacon.

The Deacon tapped several holographic buttons and answered, "It is ready."

Kayap heard this and then said, "All shields up to maximum power. We're going in hard and fast."

Chapter Seven: An Old Enemy

Covenant Loyalist-Separatist Space
Covenant Corvette 'Righteous Faith'

Grunts raced back and forth, grabbing weapons and placing on combat armor. The grunts organized into squads in the hanger bay. Others placed portable plasma turrets on the platforms above.

They were just issued the order to prepare for battle. A battle to rescue their kin upon High Charity and inside them, they prepared for a war to return to their Homeworld Balaho.

Popad ran through the corridor and somehow winded up in the room with the controls to the Plasma Turrets. He looked out to see that the ship was moving, as he could see the Assault Carrier leave the view. The ship was turning.

Kadab turned and noticed that Popad had appeared in the room. "Popad! Come here!" Kadab waved to kin-brother.

"Kadab? What are you doing in here?" Popad ambled down the walkway.

"Me was going to ask you the same thing. Well, me in here because me want to destroy enemy ships if we can. So, why you here?" Kadab questioned.

"Well, me was going to find Kayap. But, I ended up here." Popad explained.

"See you later, Kadab." Popad continued toward the door on the other side.

Popad walked through a several corridors, while asking directions to the control room. After being lead through about a dozen corridors he walked through a door and was greeted by two grunts who wore odd-looking armor.

Popad looked over to his right to see his brother sitting in a hover-chair with five Deacons around the hologram in the middle of the room.

"Kayap!" Popad waved to get his brother's attention. Kayap looked over, startled.

"Popad? Hey, come over here!" Kayap nearly jumped out of his chair as he patted the side.

Popad quickly scurried next to Kayap. "Where's N'jero?"

"He went off," Kayap paused and looked around until he spotted him, "Over there."

Popad looked over to where the Ultras were tapping controls. N'jero was looking over there heads, inspecting their duties.

"So, what happening?" Popad looked out the bow, watching as they closed in on the battle.

"There are more of our kin on High Charity and also more ships. Me plan to take some ships and rescue our brothers." Kayap explained.

"Well grunty brother, shall we survive yet another battle." Popad placed his hand on the chair and shook in a way.

"Shall we." Kayap smiled behind his facial mask.

"Sir, we have an engaging Covenant-Loyalist Corvette!" A white clad Ultra shouted.

"Have the crew man the plasma turrets and point defense lasers!" Kayap commanded.

Kadab heard a grunt shouted over the COM that an enemy corvette was about to engage the ship. Immediately he charged up the plasma turret along with the other three grunts at his side.

Kadap tapped several of the controls to lower a fraction of the energy shielding to allow the energy weapons to fire. Kapad, his newest friend, had told him to do so.

Dawjaw marched around the hanger-bay, inspecting the weapon placements. Making sure they were strategically placed incase any enemies boarded them. Dawjaw placed high-ranked squads in individual Phantoms for the rescue of their kin. He was ranked as Field Master and his armor color signified it as it was a gold and black.

The Loyalist Corvette came into firing range and rained down plasma torpedoes upon the shielded ship. The 'Righteous Faith' fired twice the amount of plasma torpedoes with twice the firepower.

The Loyalist Corvette was shredded apart by the plasma fire and half of it became molten slag as the 'Righteous Faith' passed by it. With its destruction the grunts howled in victory throughout the ship.

"Bring up shields to maximum strength! Were about to go through the big battle!" Kayap yelled.

With the command, Kadap pushed his little finger on the holographic pad and moved his finger up.

It was horrendous. Plasma torpedoes raced across the ship's bow or was being pounded by multiple low strength torpedoes. Seraphs exploded in front of the ship. Space-banshees twisted and turned through the vast plain of debris. Ships on both sides rammed into each other as flaming fireballs.

They sped through the huge mess and eventually came out. They were in front of a large shield door.

"The door is passable." One of the Ultras said.

Kayap motioned him to continue the ship's course. The 'Righteous Faith' moved through the door and was before a massive battle from all sides.

The place where the forerunner Keyship once stood was in flames. The entire city became wreckage. Red-hot spots of all sizes were scattered around the city floor. A large ovular shaped structure was lying upon its side. Giant red marks all over it.

Large pillars of smoke stretched across the great city. Fires all around, blue explosions here and there, and tiny blue streaks arcing in several spots. It was a massive war zone.

"Is there a large concentration of Unggoy in any area?" N'jero asked one of the Deacons.

"Yes, here." The Deacon pointed at one area nearby where the Keyship stood. "Sections 7B and 7D."

It was an ovular spot that stretched across the sections. "They are under heavy fire by the Loyalists. Mostly Jackal I bet." The Deacon said.

"Bring the ship there. Make sure nothing Loyalist or parasite gets aboard." Kayap said.

In the ship's hanger bay were twenty shielded doors protecting individual banshees in them. A grunt, clad in green, stood at the third floor and was issued an order by an Ultra to release the banshees. With that, he pressed several holographic buttons and the energy shielding disappeared. Mechanical arms held the banshees and brought them down onto the pads.

Several dozen grunts on the lowest floor in a Methane Suite were laying back talking to each other heard a voice over the COM, telling them to do patrols around the Corvette.

The grunts hopped up and placed on their Jet-black armor and specialized beetle wing shaped methane tanks on their backs. As standard combat methane tanks would not allow them to fit in the banshee.

The pilot-classed grunts pushed through a long corridor filled with grunts and walked out the lower door.

The ship, as fast as it could go, flew toward the city Sections 7b and 7d.

"Sir, I must warn you that there are many Tyrant-class Anti-Air Batteries below. But we are above the firing range, any lower and we'll be blasted into bits though." One Deacon said in his native tongue. Something the grunts started doing more often as they first boarded the ship.

"Do you know how many are controlled by the Loyalists?" Kayap inquired.

"Almost all." One Deacon said.

"This presents a problem. If we take the docked ships, then they'll be destroyed." Kayap said grimly.

"Well, we could capture any Tyrants that are nearby the docks." The Deacon suggested.

"That is a brilliant idea, brother." Kayap said happily.

"Sir! We're near our brethren! Should we send out Phantoms?" A pilot cried out from left side of the room. Kayap nodded.

Kadab, Dawjaw, and Kadap were called to the bridge. They were curious and a little nervous to know what their brother needed.

"Nice armor!" Kadap complimented Dawjaw.

"Thanks." Dawjaw puffed out his chest like he was some sort of hero that made the other two grunts smirk out of humor.

They strode through the last door to the bridge and were greeted by two Unggoy Honor Guards. They said their 'hey' and saw Kayap and Popad nearby a holographic map.

"What you need?" Dawjaw questioned when he appeared next to Kayap.

"Our grunty brothers are in need of rescue here." Kayap pointed to a blue colored portion of the map.

"You, Kadab, and Kadap need to command me forces there and aid our kin. Popad, Me and you need to capture several docked Corvettes and a Destroyer." Kayap pointed to a section on the side of the map.

"Question is, are you up for this mission?" Kayap queried.

The grunts nodded. "This'll be not much different than the last battle." Kadab said. "Well maybe."

Grunts scoured the hangers. Squads of majors lead minors hopped aboard Phantoms. Multiple Ultras lead their multi-ranked through the masses of grunts to the troopships. Several Zealots tried to control the large mess into groups in attempts to retain order. Due to only having a limited four Phantoms, some troops would stay on the ship and had to wait for a Phantom to return.

Kadab pushed and shoved through the sea of grunts with his brothers behind until he was in front of the golden-color of an Unggoy Zealot. The Zealot, like all zealots, wore the spire methane tank with the modified helmet of an Ultra that had two spikes jutting out from the cheek areas. They were rank above of which was the Ultra.

Dawjaw stepped in front of his lower ranked brother.

"Field Master." The Zealot addressed.

"We are going into battle, brother. Step aside please." Dawjaw commanded impatiently. He wanted to go into battle as fast as he could and kill the vile brutes and jackals.

The Zealot side-stepped and let the band onboard. He and his brothers were happily greeted by many of the grunts in the cargo hold.

The Phantom shuddered as it ascended into the air and zoomed out of the 'Righteous Faith' and followed the Phantom that was nearby it.

Four banshees escorted the troopships to a battle worn courtyard. The Phantom shook and vibrated from explosion from outside the shell of the ship. They then felt the pull of inertia as the Phantom slowed and descended.

The grunts primed their weapons and equipment. They were all terrified. Not knowing whether or not they would live.

They could hear the gunner firing his plasma turret at unknown enemy troops. The left side flaps opened up and the grunts charged out.

Dawjaw swiftly took cover behind a crumbled pillar and looked over it. He ducked as a green plasma bolt narrowly missed him. From his glimpse, he saw fifteen jackals at most.

But with the help of the Phantom, which fired its large plasma cannon on the bird-like enemies that fled. "Attack!" Dawjaw shouted and jumped over the pillar and fired his plasma pistol at Kig-Yar.

"Die buzzard!" One grunt roared and pounced on a Jackal and burned its head with the overcharged plasma on the plasma pistol.

Kadab raced to a destroyed Wraith and hid behind it. One grunt minor tried to run to Kadab before a flash of a purple beam cut through the grunt's chest. Kadab instantly felt enraged by the sight and looked over the Wraith and saw the glow of purple from the beam rifle.

Kadab barked to a squad of Ultras and pointed at the structure where the sniper was. They nodded and bore down at the Jackal with plasma fire.

Several banshees raced over their heads and dropped their banshee bombs on the Jackals in the courtyard. The brutes on the other side obtained control of several banshees and began pursuing the grunt pilots.

A formation of Seraphs flew overhead, attacking an unknown enemy. Another squadron of Seraphs flew behind when one of three large plasma bolts struck one of the spacecraft. The heavy fighter spun in the air and crashed into a structure at the side of the courtyard. The earth rocking explosion sent large amounts of dust material and debris into the air.

The grunt lifted their heads from under their arms and looked back at their stumbling enemies. With an instant they opened fire upon the Loyalists. Several of the Jackals feel with hot holes in their bodies. Others ran for cover.

"Eat this, Vulture!" One grunt yelled and tossed a trusty plasma grenade behind the cover. The explosion sent unlucky burned Kig-yar into the air.

One, shield less and wielding a Type-51 Carbine, fled into the building at the opposite end of the Unggoy forces.

"Let get 'em and rip out his heart!" One grunt nastily suggested.

"Or let’s take his limbs apart. One by little one!" Another howled.

"Man! We sound as savage as the brutes!" A red-clad major noted.

Dawjaw walked into the center of the courtyard and waved for his troops to continue. Kadab waved to his squad of Ultras to follow him in.

A dozen grunts comprising of Minors and Majors stumbled through the wide door and secured the position. Dawjaw stepped in and looked around. There was a three hall that separated into different directions.

"Field Master, the buzzard ran down that way." A Special Operations Grunt said as he inspected a trail of purple blood that ran down the central hall.

"Let’s move." Dawjaw ordered.

The grunts followed the trail and stumbled upon a large square room. In the center was a light. In the light was a Jackal, but it was dead and laying flat on its face.

Dawjaw stopped his troops from going any further. "Look, a spike." He pointed out. The deceased Jackal had what appeared to be spike in the center of its back.

"Brutes!" One grunt acknowledged.

"We prefer Jiralhanae, as you Unggoy shall call us when you are captured and put back into manual labor." A large Cyan-clad brute said as he landed from jumping off the second story rail. It wore large pauldrons and an ornate helmet that covered most of his face except his blood red eyes.

"No! We call you big hairy freaks! We are free and we will kill your pathetic kind!" Kadab snapped at the brute.

"Ha Ha! You are a foolish grunt. All you will ever be is cannon fodder." The brute growled darkly.

Suddenly Kadab grew rigid. He knew this brute from a bad experience. "Titanus!" Kadab shouted.

"How do you know my name, crab?" The brutes asked rudely.

"You tortured me! You beat and kick me around! You threatened me all the time! You gave me this scar the day before me joined Kayap's squad!" Kadab pointed angrily to an orange colored scar that stretched from his upper lip and back behind his left eye.

"Ah. You, how could you dislike the fun we had? Cutting you with my Spiker. Your blood still remains at the tip of the right blade." Titanus lifted up his Spike, showing off a dark teal blood stain on and around the tip.

"Die! You dirty piece of crap!" Kadab lifted his needler threateningly as well as Dawjaw and the other grunts that lifted up their weapons.

Suddenly, three Jiralhanae Majors, ordained and clad in blue power-armor, dropped from the second floor and stepped up in front of Titanus, priming their Spikers.

It was almost like a game of stare-down. Like a Texas stand-off between two forces. Each side waited for the other to fire.

After a minute one of the brutes roared impatiently and opened fire on the closest grunt, an orange-clad minor. The grunt fell dead with four spikes in its body.

The other grunts fired or dove behind cover. Kadab looked over at Titanus, his arch enemy. He was walking up to an unarmed Unggoy Major who cowered in a corner. Titanus was laughing despicably as he reached for the grunt.

Kadab jumped out from cover and ran up and jumped off a pile of debris onto the vile brute. He swapped to his plasma pistol and charged it as the brute flailed his arms to get a grip on the grunt. Kadab fired and hid his face from any splash. Kadab uncovered his face and sunk his teeth into the brute. Titanus roared in pain as the grunt chewed his neck.

Dawjaw fired his plasma pistol and managed to drain its shields without getting a spike in his head. "Kill him! Kill him!" Dawjaw commanded a low-ranking pack. The grunts turned jumped from behind cover and fired their plasma pistols at the brute that fell and died from the very severe fourth-degree burns.

The other brute watched his brother fall to the grunts and roared with rage. He threw down his weapon and charged at the cover the grunts hid behind.

Dawjaw flew a few feet as his cover seemed to have spontaneously exploded into angry brute. Dawjaw opened his eyes to see a Type-51 Carbine in front of his face. He scrambled up and eagerly picked it up.

The brute spun around after smashing an unfortunate grunt and locked eyes to Dawjaw. Dawjaw swiftly lifted the weapon up with ease and took aim. The brute charged at the grunt and Dawjaw fired. The grunt closed his eyes. Only the sound of gunfire filled his ears, not the sound of being ripped apart or broken arms. He cracked open one of his eyes to see that the brute had a smoking hole in his forehead.

Dawjaw loosened to see that he managed to kill a brute with a two handed weapon. Only a few could manage to wield this weapon, before they died.

Kadab felt himself soaring in the air before smacking against a stone wall. Titanus charged at him and he jumped out of the way before he could be smashed. The grunt grabbed the brute's Spiker from his leg and stabbed it with it. The Jiralhanae roared and swatted at the grunt only to hit nothing but air. The grunt pulled out the ammo of the Spike Rifle and plucked out a large spike.

The Grunt ripped the armor upon the Brute's back off and brought the spike behind his back and thrust it into Titanus's back. The beast roared and began to grab at his back.

Kadab continue to stab the Brute until his back was soaked with blood. Titanus managed to grab Kadab's leg and toss him across the room. The Jiralhanae pulled the spike out of his back and aimed and threw the spike at Kadab.

A Minor Unggoy was unfortunate to step in the path of the spike, only to have his neck penetrated and killed.

"Kill the Brute!" An angry Special Operation Grunt screamed.

"No! Take him as prisoner!" A Grunt Zealot reprimanded the Grunt.

Five Grunts voraciously leapt on the Brute and started to beat him and the Brute swung and flailed to the point to where he lost his all energy. A green-clad Grunt marched behind the Brute and placed a bar of metal between the Brute's hands. Soon the metal split into three different segments. Little ones floated outside and on the opposite sides of the hands and a circle of energy form on both sides.

The Grunts holding him up released him and let him fall onto his face. The Brute could only squirm as the Energy Shackles held his hands together.

Kadab steadily ambled to the Brute, "Flip him over."

Dawjaw and another Grunt grab the brute's wounded shoulder and flipped him over roughly and leaned him against the wall.

"What do want, crab?" Titanus snarled and spat at the Grunt's feet.

"Me want to know your operation, hairball." Kadab snarled back.

The Brute chuckled, "If you want to know, then I'll tell. We are stealing away your kin to do our dirty work once again. Though the Kig-yar is good cannon-fodder, they are more important than your filthy hides."

Kadab threw the Brute a blow to the face, which the Brute spat up purple blood.

"You chimps can punch rather hard." The Brute spat blood at the Grunt.

"Who's the hairy loser?" The Grunt retorted, causing the Brute to growl.

"Take him away, as a prisoner." Kadab ordered. The Grunts looked darkly at the Brute. Dawjaw thought he saw a hint of fear in the Brute's eyes, though it could be something else.

"Ha-Ha! He's in our little grunty hands now!" One Grunt said as he and his partner dragged away the Brute.

"Kadab, what was that all about? You and the Brute?" Dawjaw furrowed his hairless brows.

"Nothing, nothing you need to know." Kadab said lowly as if remembering a dark memory.

"Well, we need to not waste time so let’s go." Dawjaw said and motion the other Grunts to follow.

The Grunts followed a series of corridors and finally made it to the door to go to the outside. The door peeled open to reveal a crashed Spirit-Class Drop-ship. On each side of their vision were two squads of Jackal infantry that was lead by Brute Majors. They were firing at the Troopship.

"Our kin are in trouble." One Grunt stated.

It was true, plasma bolts and pink needles were racing out from the downed ship while the Loyalist fired upon the cover the Grunts hid behind.

"Me need you and you," Dawjaw pointed to two Ultras, "to take attack that squad over to the left."

"You and you," He point to an Ultra and a Major Grunt, "To attack that squad to the right. When I fire, attack."

"Kadab, and all of you, set up control in the building." Kadab nodded and herded the Unggoy warriors back in the structure.

Dawjaw pulled up his Covenant Carbine and aimed at one of the Jackals. He placed his finger on the trigger and lifted some higher to where the Jackal's head was in the crosshairs. He pulled and the Jackal fell.

The Brute roared and soon a barrage of plasma hit their position. Jackals fell under the plasma and needles. Then the other enemy squad fled into a building. The Grunts managed to pick off a few Jackals who didn't make to the building in time.

The Grunts hiding behind the Spirit-Class Drop-ship walked out from hiding. Dawjaw marched to the downed ship. A white-clad Ultra clambered over a stone pillar and ran up to the Field Master.

"Where are elites?" Dawjaw said looking as only Grunts walked tiredly from the fork-like ship.

"It was only one when we crashed, but he ran away from us down that street." The Grunt pointed down a dark street. Dead burned bodies were sprawled about.

"Elite flee from a fight." Dawjaw said in disbelief.

"Yea and we've been fighting out here for an hour with those freaks on us." The Ultra stated.

"Do you know where other Grunts be?" Dawjaw inquired.

"Yea, here's the map the Elite left. It should have where Separatists are." The Ultra handed Dawjaw a square pad.

Dawjaw looked down the street. "We can help." The Ultra said as his forces gathered behind him.

"Good. Let me get Kadab. Then we can go."

Chapter Eight: Special Operations

Type-52 Troop Carrier
Ship Dry-Docking Station

Popad stood in the Phantom edgily. His mission was to capture three Covenant ships. It was a feat that was accomplished by the Grunts in the Unggoy Rebellion. The difference from then was that had a small force, while in the Unggoy Rebellion they swarmed the ships.

The Phantom came to halt, hovering above the ground. The side flaps opened and Popad and the toughest of the Special Operations Grunts hopped of.

Popad scanned the area with his Type-51 Carbine. There were no Loyalist forces in the streets. Popad waved and ran down the wrecked street, scanning the roof-tops for snipers.

They reached road that forked off to two different directions. Still, no enemies had yet been reported.

"We should head down this direction. It’s faster." Ladap, one of the few leaders of the Special Operations Division of Balaho, suggested.

"But their may be more enemies down there, as they may know that anyone would try go down there to get to the ships fastest." Popad rejected.

"But the prize, it’s worth the fight. As Kayap said, 'I need those ships as fast as possible.' So we should go down there." Ladap implied.

"What about the losses? We should get there, but with minimum losses. As Kayap had said, 'as fast as possible.' brother." Popad said.

"But we are the best for this job. Get in and get out with minimum losses. We've faced worse." Ladap stated.

"If you say so. So what would we face if we go down here?" Popad inquired.

The Grunt lifted a square pad, a map in the holographic center. He tapped several buttons.

"The enemies would've placed one or two portable turrets here," Ladap pressed several spots in the middle of the street, which glowed orange, "and maybe a vehicle or two behind."

"Infantry?" Popad questioned.

"They could be anywhere." Ladap said.

"Well let’s start moving." said Popad.

Ladap waved to his troops who snapped to attention and started scurrying the structure that separated the two roads.

"What do we have at our disposal?" Popad queried.

"We have a sniper, Yadad, best one we have. We also have a plasma turret in our arsenal and the rest of our forces." Ladap answered.

"Are there any strategic areas for our sniper and turret?" Popad looked at the map. The road was going to make a sharp turn several meters in.

"Best place for sniper would to be in the back, out of the major combat. Plasma Turret should be placed in an area that could defend him best." Ladap pointed.

Popad nodded and walked to the corner of the turn and peek around it. There were two older versions of the plasma turrets, the Type-42 Directed Energy Support Weapon, which is currently being replaced by the newer Type-52 Directed Energy Support Weapon.

There were fifteen jackals. Some had no shield for an unknown reason and several had shielding. There were four Brutes; three Minors and a Major.

Popad turned to Ladap, "Why do some of them have no shields?"

"From what me heard, they've been rapidly breeding that bird-freaks. Just like they did to us before we broke from the Covenant. Like some say, history repeats itself."

Popad nodded and the new Intel and said to all the Special Operations Grunts, "Let go fight."

----

Dawjaw swiftly rounded a corner, his Carbine primed and ready to fire. He scanned and then nodded to Kadap. Kadap then rounded the corner driving a Spectre with Kadab at the turret.

"Bad guy?" A Grunt pointed to a lingering shadow.

The figure moved out from the shadow to reveal itself as Elite Flood Combat Form. It dragged its long tentacles on the ground. Its 'head' was flipped back behind its back. It skin was a rotted brown and yellow. A bulbous creature that was embedded in the dead things chest cavity waved its small tentacles. The creature halted.

"Bad guy!" The same Grunt said in a confirmed tone.

The creature started at them. But before it reached them, it was crushed under a massive leg. This was the leg of a walker.

The Grunts looked up grimly. The massive walker peered around the corner of the large vehicle. Its large green eye looked at them.

"SCARAB!" One Grunt screamed in terror.

Kadap eye widen and back the vehicle into a pillar and spun it around. Dawjaw ran and leapt onto the vehicle's passenger seat and banged the side of the driver's seat.

"FASTER! GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!" Dawjaw screamed while looking into the green eye of the Scarab.

Several Grunts jumped on the vehicle and others ran into the building in hopes of getting away from the mega-walker. Which then its head split like a blooming flower. Then green eye magnified in brightness when the Spectre sped away. A green-teal laser-like beam formed and started to cut a track behind Spectre.

The beam was fast and right behind them. Dawjaw, Kadab, and all the grunts on the vehicle could feel the heat from the beam that melted a straight line in the road behind them.

The Spectre rounded a corner, smacking into a vehicle and boosted down. The Scarab climbed the tall structures and leapt down in front of them. The deadly beam-emitter charged and fired at the Spectre.

The vehicle was too fast for the beam to contact and it traveled underneath the building-sized walker. By the time the walker turned the Grunts had disappeared.

The Spectre came to a swift halt and Kadap started screaming for the Grunts to get off and get in the building. Kadap tossed a Plasma Grenade at the door, which blasted open as the grenade exploded.

The Grunts sped into the building and hid behind several metal pillars. They felt the constant rumble of the Scarab's footsteps. A massive foot passed by the doorway. The Scarab was still chasing them, not knowing that they were in the structure.

"Except for the fact that we almost got turned to mush by that walker. That Flood thing is a sign!" One panicked Grunt stated.

"What sign?" Another queried.

"It mean that there are more!" said the panicked Grunt.

Suddenly the door behind them hummed and the grunts drew their weapons. The door opened and two grunts clad in red armor clambered out.

"Reinforcements!" One Grunts said in glee.


----


Popad dodged an oncoming grenade from one of the Brute's deadly Type-25 Grenade Launcher, or famously known as the Brute Shot.

The Grunt rose from the ground and returned fire with his Carbine and managed to drop the shielding of the Brute Major.

Yadad, who was perched behind a smoldering Wraith Tank, sniped the Major. He aimed one of the Jackals who were manning a plasma turret and fired. The needle thin beam materialized and disappeared, leaving a hole in the Jackal's skull. The Jackal dropped dead.

Ladap threw a hopeful grenade at the last gunner. Of which exploded in a fiery blue fireball. Ladap barked and the Grunt who carried a newer plasma turret ran out from hiding and placed the turret between two Covenant civilian vehicles.

The Special Operations Grunt who manned the plasma turret gunned down two shield-less Jackals and fired at a hiding Brute Minor, who's cover was a civilian vehicle.

The Grunt continued firing until the vehicle exploded, sending the Brute soaring out and crushing an unfortunate Jackal. The Brute stood up only to be shot in the head by the deadly radioactive projectile from Popad's carbine, successfully killing it.

Two grunts ran out from cover, with Fuel Rod Cannons mounted on their shoulders. The pair rained the radioactive Fuel rods upon the enemy.

There were only one Brute and a few Jackals left. The brute roared, "Retreat!"

But as they fled, they were shot down by Yadad. The Grunts wailed and howled as they were victorious. Popad placed his hand on Yadad's shoulder, complimenting his sniping skills.

----

Dawjaw, Kadab, Kadap, and the rest of the Grunts who made it with them follow the two Majors through a long wide hallway.

The hallway was bright with white lights and a distinct light-purple color. The floor below them was a dark grey and looked like massive scales that overlapped one another.

At one side, there where a dozen wounded Grunts; some were missing one limb, others had gashes and cuts, and others were missing chunks of flesh. Grunt Deacons marched to each wounded soldier, praying to them.

They past through hall that was filled with sadness and remorse and into a corridor and up an incline. They passed multiple colors of the ranks through the corridors. They turned to the right and up to a door.

"The door was broken earlier when we captured this building from the Loyalists. Hold on." One of the Majors said. He knocked and said a strange word.

Suddenly two hands appeared in a crack in the door. The door slowly opened as two Grunts pulled it to each side. They entered into a circular room. There were large segmented window before them and several Ultras who were conversing with each other in front of it.

"Kin-brother! We've found fellow Grunts! They say that they can rescue us!" The Major bellowed.

One of the Ultras turned, a nasty scar on his right eye. "Rescue us?"

Several minutes passed as Kadab and Kadap watch Dawjaw speak to the Ultra, who apparently had been running the area.

"So how are we going to rescue all of our kin?" Kadap inquired. Then the sound of a massive gun firing a three-round burst came to their ears.

"There's a courtyard on the other side of this structure. So when we can, we'll start putting them on Phantoms and bring them back up to the ship. Thing is, we've got one of the Tyrant-Class AA Cannons next door to us. Those Loyalist run them." Kadab said, sitting atop a crate, as he kicked his legs. Another sound of three-round fire came again.

"So we have to kill it?" Kadap was answered with a nod.

"Why not use the ship to kill it?" Kadap probed.

"The ship will have to get in the AA cannon's firing range to do so. So we'll have to kill it." Kadab looked up as Dawjaw closed in on them.

"The Grunt has agreed to join us and not the Separatists. Lets kill that AA Gun. It'll stop the Phantoms from getting to us." Dawjaw lifted his Plasma Rifle.

----

Popad scurried through the last door of the structure they had been fighting through. They encountered mostly Jackals.

Ladap pointed up and Popad looked it. There ahead were four Covenant ships. There was another at right of their vision, but it was capsized from some sort of oval shaped structure. Then, there were two SDV-Class Heavy Corvettes in the middle and a large CPV-Class Heavy Destroyer off toward the left.

Popad looked at the security forces consisting of more than thirty Jackals and an unknown number of Brutes patrolling behind some barriers and a Wraith-Tank behind them along with several ghosts. Popad turned to Ladap.

"We'll need more of us to get through that!" Popad said angrily.

"Don't worry, calling in reinforcements right now." Ladap pulled out some sort of circular object and talked into it.

"They coming." He said.

"How many?" Popad queried.

"Four phantoms worth of troops." Ladap answered.

"That's a lot." Popad and Ladap nodded.

They hunkered down and started working up plans. One plan was to bluntly attack the enemy, but the plan was ridden as they saw a War Chieftain in the patrol. Bluntly attack would only result having a good number of their kin crushed under the Gravity Hammer.

They then came up with a plan to attack from three different sides. They accepted it as the enemy would be split into three different areas.

Soon the hum of the Phantoms was heard behind them and they turned to see them dropping of dozens upon dozens of troops.

They also brought Ghosts in. Ladap and Popad approached the newly arrived forces.

----

Kadab walked to a nearby weapons crate as they prepared their attacking force against the Tyrant AA Cannon that stopped their rescuers from coming. He grabbed his favored Fuel Rod Cannon and even attempted to wield the Concussion Rifle. When he finally figured out how to wield it, he fired it down a hall. The projectile passed dangerously close to an Unggoy Ultra.

The officer class Grunt scolded him from a distance. He was too afraid to get close to the Grunt, fearful that he would accidentally fire it and kill him.

Kadab didn't care to listen to the angry cries of the Grunt Ultra, he all too proud about being able to wield and fire a Concussion Rifle. A gun he usually saw Elites and Brutes wield.

Dawjaw came up behind Kadab and snatched the gun from his hands. "You don't need to be wielding this weapon until battle. You might kill someone and it shouldn't be any of these survivors!"

Kadab frowned in disappointment and looked up to see Kadap dual-wielding Needlers. "Twice the explosion, hey wait, you should be wielding these guns. But I won't let you; you might accidentally blow someone up." Kadap started to laugh at the Kadab angry face.

"Shut up, you big jerk." Kadab retorted.

Kadap laughed at his pack-brothers embarrassment and anger. Dawjaw came back and scolded both of them before telling them it was time.

"Lets go, we've got several Spectres and Ghosts setup." Dawjaw said.

The other two nodded and followed their brother through corridors that ran the opposite direction they came in. They reached the door that led them into a tunnel.

There seven vehicle waited them. There was a single Wraith-Tank, two Spectres, and four Ghosts.

"This tunnel leads straight to the field that holds the AA Gun." Dawjaw gave the Intel.

"Let’s go."

Chapter Nine: The Courtyard

High Charity Dry-Docking Yards
High Charity Lower Districts

Popad leaned through the open window carefully, hoping not to be seen by a Kig-yar Sniper. 'Jackals' Popad sneered in his mind. He hated them for everything; their pirating ways, betraying, and even for existing.

He let out a howl. The howl was a signal. The Brutes and Jackals head snapped up to see where the noise had come from. The lead Brute shrugged to his brothers and roared to the Jackals to continue their work.

Jackals were not much different than a grunt in the Brute's mind. They were weak and fragile though. But were as good as grunts when it came to Cannon Fodder.

Popad, before his foes could spot him, pulled his head and arm back in the building. He nodded Ladap who was waiting idly with his lance for Popad's signal for engage.

Popad barked and Ladap nodded back. Ladap barked as well to gain his lance's attention and waved his hand for them to engage.

First, it was silent. Then the sound of many feet spontaneously reached the Jackal's ears. As Brute ears could not catch sounds like the bird-like creatures could.

Secondly, colors of oranges, reds, greens, blacks, and silvers poured out from three different locations.

Then they released they were under attack when one of the Jackal fell with his chest completely melted open.

Jackals and Brutes alike jumped behind the Covenant Barriers; which looked like three connected plates with a wide base. They popped out their head and fired at the Grunts who either fell to the Loyalist, as in dead, or hide behind objects and returned fire.

Popad lifted up his carbine and fired it into a scarred up Jackal, who intelligently ducked behind his barrier. Popad aimed at another Jackal, who was less scarred and fired into its chest. The Kig-yar back and held his chest as it bled. Popad spun out from cover and fired again and killed the Jackal, putting a hole where its heart should be.

Ladap jumped out as an explosive grenade destroyed his cover and yelled to Yadad who aimed his Particle Beam Rifle and killed the Brute who literally blew Ladap's cover.

Yadad swiveled his rifle and shot a Sniper Jackal between its eyes before it could kill him. Yadad squealed in celebration at his kill. He had been counting his kills, but had lost count during the last skirmish. The last number he remembered counting was thirty-nine.

Yadad was a skilled sniper, for a Grunt at the least. He was once his previous squad's sniper. The Elite that once lead the squad had seen his sniper prowess during a battle with the Humans. After multiple battles protecting his squad from far-away snipers, he managed to get promoted to an Ultra. Now he was determined to become a Zealot with his skills.

Several bright blue explosions wiped out several squads of Unggoy. Obviously they had come from a Wraith-Tank. Ghosts had left their positions to suppress several other squads firing. Spectres drove around; spewing blue speedy plasma bolts at multiple squads.

Then one Grunt rose from cover, a Fuel Rod Gun primed on his shoulder and fired at one of the Ghosts that hovered in one spot, still as the blobs of fast-flying green bombarded his position. When the dust quickly cleared, the Ghost had become no more than a pile of molten scraps.

Soon all the Grunts resumed fire, focusing upon the closest vehicle around them. A line of blue plasma bolts tracked a Spectre and soon three managed to land on the nose of the vehicle. With a whine the front portion exploded in a cloud of blue and purple fire.

Popad watched as the legion of Grunts began to overwhelm the Loyalist Security Force. Some Grunts bravely ran at the roadblocks, tossing Plasma Grenades behind them. One Grunt, clad in orange, climbed on top of one barrier and was smacked away by a giant hammer.

The Brute Chieftain roared and smashed another with his Gravity Hammer. Several other Grunts challenged him and intelligently fired overcharged bursts at him. The Chieftain charged and swatted one and smashed another. He spun it to the blade structure and sliced an unfortunate Grunt in half.

Popad and Ladap grew angry as they watched their kin fall under the might of the Chieftain. But what also made them joyful was that the Brute was weakening with every dozen plasma shots.

Popad and Ladap marched to the Brute who locked eyes with Popad. He roared and charged. Popad lifted his Carbine and fired it into the beast’s decorative helmet, which flew off. Nothing stopped the Brute's movement; even the roadblocks were swatted away by it.

Popad lifted his Carbine. One shot will save his life, if he missed, he would be turned into pulp by the Chieftain's giant hammer. Popad fired and waited. All he heard was the sounds of combat. He opened his eyes to see the Chieftain lying at his feet, steam rolling out from its head.

Popad squealed in celebration of his kill. He looked over at a shocked Jackal, who threw down his Carbine and fled. Popad, with no mercy to the hated bird-beasts, shot it down.

Ladap eyes widen as he watched the Chieftain fall to Popad's feet as a green flash struck its head. The major threat was gone and he resumed firing his Plasma Rifle at a Brute.

----

Kadab boarded a Spectre's passenger seat, angrily. He was angry because his pack-brother Dawjaw had stolen the gunner seat of the vehicle. Kadab was always the gun-man, well, Grunt. Kadap had taken the driver-seat, which was normal.

The Ghosts raced forward, then the Spectres boosted behind, and a Wraith lumbered farther behind.

The Ghosts disappeared around the corner and the Spectres followed out.

The Grunts saw rolling hills before them, the colossal AA Cannon ahead, and Loyalist Ghosts speeding towards them. Soon they clashed at center and plasma bolts flew everywhere. They heatedly passed by Kadab's and his brothers' faces. They could feel the heat emitting from them.

Kadab turned his head toward where they had come from, watching as slow Wraith-Tank boosted around the corner aimed up and fired giant deadly arching plasma bolts. Now he was wishing he was the driver of the artillery vehicle.

The Spectres drove straight through the heat of battle and halted at the front of the giant AA Turret. The Grunts jumped out from their seats; driver, gunner, and passenger.

There were several three-plated barriers around the external structure and suddenly Jackals and Brutes raced out from it. "Enemy!" A random Grunt screamed and fired his Needler at the Jackals and ducked behind a Spectre.

Kadab pulled the Concussion Rifle that Dawjaw confiscated from him earlier, which was on the side of the vehicle.

"IT HAS A CONCUSSION RIFLE?" An unshielded Brute roared in disbelief, as he had never seen a Grunt wield such a weapon.

"What are you going to do with it? Shoot at the sky?" The Brute taunted and laughed.

Kadab felt the rage boil in his thick, bio-luminescent blue blood. He expertly aimed and fired. The red sparkling plasma bolt arch over the barriers and struck the laughing Brute, in the face.

The Brute flew back several feet and when he stopped rolling, it was apparent that almost his entire head had been vaporized, his neck molten, and his upper chest was charred. The Jackals and Brutes spun around and either screech or roared in rage of their fallen comrade. The Loyalists opened fire.

Several of the gunners resituated themselves and jumped back on the turrets and fired the fast bolts of plasma at the Loyalists.

Dawjaw aimed and fired his Carbine, successfully taking down a Jackal. He aimed at another and fired, though shooting it in the chest. So he fired again, this time killing it.

Kadap tossed two grenades and raced past the Spectre he hid behind. He skidded to a halt behind a barrier. He waved to the other Grunts. Kadab fired another round and then ran to his brother and stopped with his back against the barrier. Dawjaw saw this and fired another Carbine into a Jackal's skull and tossed a grenade.

Kadap activated a Plasma Grenade and threw it backwards, over the barrier. The grenade was a lucky one, because it stuck to a Brute's eye. The explosion killed the said Brute and several Jackals around him. Kadab turned to look forward and his eyes widen as a Brute in a Ghost sped straight at them, intent on splattering them into the barrier.

But to their luck, a plasma bolt from the Wraith land right below it and sent the Ghost flying over the barrier, crushing several Jackals with its descent.

Several other Grunts who had come with them raced pass them and started to overwhelm the remaining Jackals, as all the Brutes had been vanquished. Dawjaw and his pack-brothers ran from behind the barrier and straight to the structure.

Inside they saw a circular room with slopes that lead to the second-story and a cylindrical tank in the middle. In the core-like structure was a line of plasma and then a blue bolt began to form in the middle. The bolt then raced up along with another that was follow by the last, while this happen they felt the ground-trembling firing of the giant turret.

There were energy doors that lead to the internal core. Dawjaw waved and Kadab, proudly, march to it and fired an overcharged burst of his Plasma Pistol. The shield door flickered and disappeared. Kadab pulled out a Plasma Launcher and fired into the core. With multiple explosions, there came the sound of continuous alarms.

"Get out and RUN!" Dawjaw screamed and ran along with all the Grunts with him.

They ran and soon there came a loud whine and then an ear-splitting explosion. The shockwave sent the Grunts flying several feet in the air due to being too close. They landed and covered their heads.

The Grunts heard the sounds of battle, but it was fuzzy. As if they were underwater. Then the sounds became louder and the sounds more clear.

The Grunts rose to their feet and looked around. Then the ground rumbled. But it wasn't the pieces of metal that rained from the sky. It was distinct.

Like very heavy footfalls and it was getting louder and the ground shook a little more. Then the sound of extremely loud groans and cracking arose. Then dread filled their minds as a massive Scarab burst out from a wall-shaped structure.

Its front legs connected to the ground while the hind legs were inside the structure. There was a loud whine and it shot its green-blue focus beam.

----

Popad shot down a crawling Jackal and turned to Ladap who, with several other Grunts, was crawling all over the Wraith. The Grunts bashed at the top until it broke loose. They pulled out the Jackal and began to maim it.

Ladap walked over and said, "That's the last of them."

Popad nodded and barked and motion for the lance to move on through the structures.

The tall oddly shaped structure was void of enemies. They simply passed through many corridors and an atrium. The building was completely desolate.

"Poor protection me say." Ladap remarked.

It was when they passed through many corridors was when they finally saw enemies. The doors opened and there was a rise and when they walked up the stairs was a large field. But it seemed like there was a battle for the dry-dock station.

As there were many dead elites and grunts sprawled out on the field. Though there were also Jackals, Brutes, and Drones. Burning vehicles lay atop black burned ground. Depressions marked where explosion were. There was indefinitely massive battle that took place there.

Popad looked at elongated structure that would lead them to the platforms to get aboard the starships. But it was heavily protected by Loyalist Security Forces. As they had three portable turrets lined up across the many entrances and several Shade Turrets nested on the top of box-like structures at the front of the entrances.

"We have cover with all the dead vehicles. But we'll need to take out the turrets before entering the building." Popad stated.

"That's why we have these." Ladap pointed to a Plasma Launcher and a Fuel Rod Gun.

"True. Me plan is to have artillery in the back. Troops in the front." Popad said. Ladap nodded and traveled back to the Unggoy soldiers to tell the plan.

Ladap returned and a third of the lance returned with him. "These are the troops. The artillery is back there." He pointed inside the structure. Popad nodded and turned.

"Charge!"

Chapter Ten: Behemoth Scarab and Rushing

Courtyard of Singularity
High Charity

Dawjaw looked out the smashed open door as it was attempting to close. But merely sparked and vibrated.

He watched as teal beams sliced into the ground as it tracked vehicles that raced around.

“We can’t just sit here and let them die.” Kadab said.

“Yea, but how are we supposed to get on that giant killing machine?” Kadap inquired.

“Well, I tore through the building like rocks through jelly. There’s bound to a floor that runs parallel with the platform. I think we should climb to the floors until we reach the right floor.” Dawjaw stated.

“Eh, if I get to kill those buzzards, me in.” Kadap said.

“Even if you said no, you’d still have to come.” Dawjaw retorted and started up the stairwell.

Kadap grumbled and followed after his pack-brother along with Kadab.

They traveled several flights and were met with a hall. At the other end was bright light. They ran and stopped at the opening.

“Still got to travel up.” Dawjaw said as he pushed his pack brothers back. As when he looked up, all he saw was the belly of the beast.


They ran back down the hall and took a sharp turn to another hall. It was longer and had a Jackal patrol, comprising of two Jackals with the signature wrist shields.

The Jackals instantly spotted them with their keen vision and ducked behind their shield.

Dawjaw and Kadap overcharged their plasma pistols and fired. Two of the overcharged burst struck the shields, which then faltered under the overload. The third struck the Jackal on the left side.

Kadab fired his Concussion Rifle between them and sent the two dead Kig-yar husks soaring in the air, striking the ceiling and dropping back down on the floor.

The Grunts ran down the hall to the right and up more stairs where there was another opening. They raced down to the opening and Dawjaw looked up. He only saw mainly the back portion of the Scarab.

He looked to the side and saw what was left of what was once a hall. It was a ledge that stretched to a room which had two gravity lifts.

“There!” He pointed.

“Follow me and be careful. Try not to fall!” Dawjaw said as he stretched his arms and had his beetle shell-shaped methane tank against the wall. Slowly and surely, he started to move to the side.

Kadab looked over at Kadap and nodded and started mimicking the actions of Dawjaw. Kadap soon followed.

It took one terrifying, furiously windy minute to get across to the gravity lift room. In the fairly large, box shaped room was a Battlefield Methane Replenishing Tank. Dawjaw looked at his forearm mounted armor and read the percentage of the methane that was in his tank.

It read that he had only a third-left of methane. Immediately, as he didn’t want to risk suffocation, back into the Replenishing Tank and was pulled up. With the sound of suction and a distinct whooshing sound, his meter ran up to full.

He jumped off and nodded to his squad mates. They did the same and soon they were ready to continue.

Kadab walked up to a holographic panel and tapped several controls. His fingers danced across the buttons and sliders and soon and cylindrical purple beam formed over the black circles.

“This goes up, this goes down.” Kadab stated.

The Grunts, one by one, stepped onto the pad and were sucked up to the next floor. They didn’t continue up, as the transportation took them up by one floor.

This room’s hall, unlike the other, ran down to their left. Instead of ahead thankfully, because then they’d face another torn open path.

But, the there was a squad of three Jackals and a Brute Minor. Something they could handle.

The Brute roared and the shield-less Jackals opened fire.

“Why we see no Skirmisher yet?” Kadap said.

----

Popad skidded through the mud and next to a wrecked Wraith. He lifted his Carbine and fired at a squad of Jackals that fired upon him. Ladap skidded next to him and fired his fresh Plasma Rifle.

“I’m running out of ammo!” Popad yelled through the deafening sounds of explosions and gunfire.

Popad fired his final round into a shield less Brute’s skull and tossed down his Carbine. He pulled out a Needler and shot a few rounds at some Jackals.

“Someone, get that Shade Turret!” Ladap screamed into his COMM.

Soon a flurry of green trails whizzed over their heads and soon contacted the Shade Turret and its unlucky operator.

Another exploded in a purple and green fireball. The other two turned toward the Fuel Rod Gun Squad and immediately opened fire upon them.

One Grunt stepped out from hiding in another area and targeted a Shade Turret with his Plasma Launcher. Four blue bolts were expelled from the gun, one by one. These bolts stuck to the Shade Turret and exploded in a blue explosion.

The other Shade Turret turned its attention to Grunt and opened fire. The screamed and fell as the plasma bolts peppered him full of hot holes.

The event left it opened to the Fuel Rod Gun Squad who took the chance to blow the turret into a heap. Sixteen green trailing Fuel Rods raced to the turret and soon blew it apart until there was but only a smoldering crater of where it stood.

“Shade Turrets are down, charge!” Popad howled.

Like a swarm of angry bees, all of the surviving Grunts jumped out and charge at the enemy. They fired all they had as they ran forth. Then one Grunt fell as a beam passed through its head. Then another beside Popad fell. But even when the Sniper Jackals came up to the rooftop railing and snipped several individuals as they charged, but this didn’t stop the assault.

The Jackals fired their portable turrets frantically before they were mowed down by plasma fire. The Brutes roared, “Fall back to the building!”

Then that Brute was covered by green fire. The smoke cleared to reveal nothing that was left of the Brute. The Jackals fell into the structure as the surge of Grunts bore down upon them.

A random banshee that was soaring through air exploded and it as a fireball and fell downward into the building. It ripped a hole into the entrance.

Popad stepped through and tossed a Plasma Grenade into a group of Jackals, who were promptly blown apart.

Ladap jumped through the newly built entrance of the banshee and fired his Plasma Rifle at a Brute minor, who ran behind a slab of metal.

Yadad jumped in and fired his Beam Rifle, which put a new hole inside another Jackal Sniper’s skull.

Then the Fuel Rod Squad appeared, though they had Needlers instead of Fuel Rod Guns. One of them was suddenly crushed by a hammer. It was a Gravity Hammer.

The Brute Chieftain lifted up his hammer and shook off the remains of the Grunts. He roared and kicked another member across the atrium.

Yadad spotted the Brute and fired his Beam Rifle. The Brute snapped his attention to the Grunt. His shield flared as half of the shielding dropped.

He charged at the Grunt. Yadad fired again, only to hear the sound of a click. ‘What!’ Yadad screamed in his mind.

The Grunt quickly back as the Brute charged and raised his hammer. The Chieftain brought the hammer down in front of the lucky Grunt, who only soared back. Though the Grunt hit the wall and was then unconscious as his methane tank leaking valuable air.

Other Grunts snapped their attention to their comrades and ran to him. Popad noted the giant hulking Chieftain who was busy smashing Grunts who valiantly attempted to kill him.

Popad shot an overcharged round. Ladap ceased fire at his recent target and immediately opened fire upon the Brute Chieftain. The Brute charge and swatted Ladap away. Ladap scream was cut short with a disturbing crack.

“Ladap!” Popad screamed in terror.

Popad looked at the Chieftain in anger and started to toss every Plasma Grenade he had at the Brute, until the Chieftain was engulfed in a blue fire.

The hammer flew up out of the fire, bringing a trail with it, and landed in front of Popad.

Popad frantically searched for Ladap, who he found was laying on face unconscious next to a pillar. He turned to Yadad, who was stumbling to his feet.

He charged to Ladap. A Jackal stumbled into his path, only be to jump upon and beaten to death. Popad continued his venture and skidded next to Ladap.

It was clear that Ladap had broken a limb. His arm bled blue illuminate blood. Popad felt a giant hand grasp his methane tank and was tossed back five meters. Popad skidded and rolled until he stopped. He looked up and saw the Chieftain; appearing charred and bloody. The Brute snapped his attention Ladap with rage-filled eyes.

Ladap spun from his stomach and started to frantically fire his Plasma Pistol at the Brute. The Chieftain slapped the weapon out of the Grunt’s hand.

Popad eyes filled with panic as the Brute reached for the Grunt.

-----

Kadab stomped upon the ‘last’ Jackal’s neck as it attempted to crawl away. He looked up at Kadap, who was busy rearranging the insides of a Brute.

Dawjaw dropped his empty Carbine and reached for a dead brute’s plasma rifle.

“How much higher? We need to move before that Scarab moves out.” Kadab said.

“Not much. Just a few floors up and we’ll be leveled to the platform.” Dawjaw responded.

Kadap lifted his bloody hands up and he grabbed a dead Jackal’s Needler. Dawjaw motioned toward a door and Kadab and Kadap moved to its sides. Kadab tapped several holographic buttons and the beeped.

Dawjaw lifted his rifle up toward the door. It slid open and a Flood combat form fell through, clearly deceased.

“What?” Kadap stated as he kicked the dead thing’s body and turned to peer through the door.

In the room were a few dead combat forms. It appeared that some sort of free-for-all had recently happened. Flood blood and corpses laid sprawled about in the room. Jackals and Brutes stuck on the walls by spikes or were simply scattered around the room. Even a few orange clad grunts and some of their red armored squad leaders.

Dawjaw grimaced and so did the others. Kadab stepped into the room with his two plasma pistols aimed at random Flood bodies. He even turned them over to make sure there was no infection forms were inside them.

At the end were two cylindrical purple gravity lifts with panels next to them.

Kadab and Kadap stationed themselves on both sides of the doors, guarding it from any possible enemies that would appear at the other end of the hall.

Dawjaw tapped a few buttons and lift’s purple glow intensified for a short time and it emitted a pulsed hum.

“Let’s go.” Dawjaw said as stepped in and shot up.

Kadap shrugged at Kadab and stepped in. Kadab pressed a button and the door shut. He left the pad and stepped into the lift and shot up.

Dawjaw stopped at the chosen floor and was placed on the smooth metal. The door in front of him was blasted open and he could see the hall and the slanted platform of the Scarab.

Kadap came out next and last Kadab.

“We have a few Skirmishers at the end of the hall. One big Brute leading them.” Dawjaw observed.

“Oh now we have the tougher birds. Oh, and Brute are always big. Big stupid hairballs.” Kadap said.

“Shut up before those buzzards hear you.” Kadab scolded in a whisper.

One Skirmisher’s head snapped toward them. It stalked forward. When it reached the door, it was snatched away by some force.

Kadap stabbed his elbow into the Skirmisher’s skull, killing it.

Dawjaw pulled out a plasma grenade, clicked it, and tossed it down the hall. The grenade in a fiery blue explosion and sent the Brute toppling over the edge and the Skirmishers dazed or dead.

Kadap and Kadab took the advantage to take out the remaining forces.

Dawjaw trotted down the hall and saw the main platform of the scarab. It was below them. But it was only by a few meters. Kadab and Kadap raced at his side. Dawjaw nodded to them.

“Jump!”

Chapter Eleven: Entering the Beast

High Charity
Docking Bay, Entrance Structure

One minute, Popad watched in terror as the Brute Chieftain reached for his newest friend, Ladap. The next, he appeared on the Chieftain's head, lashing at it with his fists. The Chieftain reared up his bent form and thrashed his hands above his head at the grunt.

Popad fiercely tore at the Brute's red eyes. His fingers grasped the Chieftain's eyes and pulled them out. The Brute screamed in pain, grabbing at where his eyes once were. Popad the pulled out his Plasma Knife and brought it down and slit the Brute's throat.

The grunt jumped off the brute onto the ledge of a wrecked pillar. The brute grabbed his throat, garbling as blood filled his mouth. Soon the staggering brute fell to the ground with a thump. Popad released the pillar and dropped to the dust and dirt covered floor. He looked around for his friend and saw him lying against the same wall he was on before.

Popad scrambled to his friend through the crossfire of plasma, needles, and spikes. He skidded to a stop next to Ladap and held up his hanging head. The grunt was unconscious. Popad couldn't blame him; he had just faced a near death experience at the hands of a brute.

"Help! Help!" Popad screamed.

A black-clad Special Operations Unggoy raced over to them, dodging all kinds of projectiles.

"What is it? Ladap?" The grunt looked over the unconscious Ladap.

"His arm is fractured. This is an easy healing." The grunt pulled around a ceramic brace and snapped it on Ladap's arm. "It should keep it from healing abnormally." He stated.

"Just do this to wake him up." The grunt pulled his hand back and thrust it at Ladap's face, slapping him.

"Gah! What was that for?" Ladap rubbed his face.

"Stop, we need to move." Popad stopped the bickering before it could happen.

Popad stood up and walked over to the stairs. He looked around and quickly pulled away before a jackal could melt his face with a plasma pistol. The grunt raced back to the two.

"We have two brutes and a dozen jackals guarding stairway." Popad informed.

The Special Operations Grunt walked away, fingers pressed to the side of his helmet. Popad gathered up a plasma grenade and a Needler from a dead jackal. He grabbed a nearby plasma pistol and handed it to Ladap.

"Get ready. Stairs should be cleared soon. A heavy-weapons squad is coming in." The Special Operations Grunt returned.

"They should be here by now." The grunt said.

Suddenly, the ground trembled and a huge shadow outside closed in on the building.

"Duck!" A grunt squealed over the sound of gunfire.

The roof over the entrance suddenly exploded in fire, metal, and rock. A Phantom Dropship plowed out of the dust cloud and smashed into the stairwell with an ear-splitting explosion. A fireball extended to the ceiling, partially concealed by a massive cloud of dirt and dust that illuminated it even more. The floating metal pillar that hovered above pedestals on the ridges was blasted out. These objects turned into dangerous and almost inescapable objects.

The Special Operations Unggoy stood and shook the dust off. He looked around to see that grunts, jackals, and brutes alike were smashed. Survivors took the advantage to pick off other slower survivors.

Popad and Ladap stood up and shook their dust off. "We must move, hurry!" The Special Operations Grunt squealed and rounded the corner. But the poor grunt didn't make it far. It rolled down to the foot of the stairway, three holes in his chest.

"Great. No heavy weapons squad and no him. Hopefully a Scarab won't appear." Ladap commented.

-----

Dawjaw backed up to the wall and looked at his friends. Kadab and Kadap appeared at both of his sides. He looked forward. He began to have second thoughts about what they were about to do. Jumping and falling several meters could break their legs. Or they could completely miss the Scarab and fall to their deaths.

But if they didn't try, they may loose the survivors below on the field and in the structure. They just had to for their sakes.

Dawjaw barked and charged forward. They took the jump and felt the ice cold wind on their face and skin. Solid ground gone and their adrenaline spiked.

Dawjaw looked at the metal surface of the Scarab speeding toward him, or rather him speeding toward it.

The grunts feet collided with the surface and they bent their knees and at the same time, felt themselves push forward. Dawjaw groaned as the gravity pained him some. But what put him in absolute terror was that Kadap was sliding down the nose of the Scarab.

Dawjaw raced to his sliding friend. His eyes widen as he jumped at his friend who just fell over the edge.

Dawjaw gripped onto a metal plate sticking out from the edge of the Scarab and he grabbed Kadap by his hand. This was his luckiest moment. If he were to react slower, his friend would've been falling. More than just that was that, his friend's feet were only a few feet above the Scarab's head. If Kadap had fallen, he would've actually been vaporized by the Scarab's laser-like plasma beam.

The brave grunt suddenly felt his fingers slip from the edging of the Scarab's plate. His eyes were as wide as saucers. His brain screamed 'no!' Suddenly, a grunts hand grasped his and began to pull him.

"GAH!" Kadab groaned loudly as he pulled up the weight of the two grunts.

Dawjaw managed to get a grip onto the edge again and Kadab pulled him onto the platform. Kadab moved to a position next to Dawjaw and helped pull up Kadap.

"I think I soiled myself. I saw some vapor go out from Scarab beam." Kadap said, trembling. "Me so terrified."

Kadab patted the scared grunt, "Let's hurry and kill this damnable thing."

"Where's my boom-stick?" Kadab then queried as he looked around, as he was not wielding it.

"That's what I saw vaporize in the Scarab's laser!" Kadap said, as if he figured out a mystery.

"What am I going to use now?" Kadab questioned. He was answered when Kadap shoved his Needler to Kadab. Kadab thanked him and started to the back.

"Watch out for enemies!" Dawjaw said as Kadab creped to the back, his Needler primed and ready to fire. He pounced around the corner and aimed around the area.

Kadab straightened and looked around, puzzled. There wasn't a core, just a metal wall where it would be. Another was that there were no enemies either. He rounded the corner with a bewildered expression.

"There's no core." Kadab informed through the communication device in his helmet.

"Never mind, we don't need a Phantom." Dawjaw then cut off communications with the 'Righteous Faith' and turned to Kadab.

Dawjaw pressed tapped a button on his brace and tapped in some codes. He brought up his arm and pressed his fingers against the side of his helmet, "No core? That's odd."

"Well, not really, this Scarab maybe manually controlled. So we need to bust through that door." Kadab had just arrived and he moved over to the door placed where the platform rose to the Anti-Air Turret.

"Well, Kadab, do what you do best." Kadap said as he back a little.

Kadab rolled his eyes and pulled out a Covenant Charge, which could be comparable to a plasma grenade but with twice the explosion. Kadab set it on its highest level and pulled off the control and walked away.

He dropped down, activated his Plasma Knife, and stabbed the ground along with the others. He pressed a button and the explosive set off. A cloud of fire and smoke pillar shot off backwards. Metal plates and pieces of the door fell from the sky and bounced off the Scarab's metal hide.

They could hear the angry roars of brutes and surprised squawks of jackals and skirmishers. One jackal appeared at the door with its weapon up. Before it could fire, it exploded in a purple fire.

Dawjaw snapped his head up and saw what killed the jackal. It was one of their Phantoms. It hovered above them while dodged the plasma bursts from the Anti-Air Turret.

It spun and its side opened. Two squads of grunts jumped out and landed on the platform. The Ultra that led the other four majors in one squad nodded in recognition of Dawjaw.

Another jackal appeared out of the door and it opened fire upon the first grunt it saw. The jackal was immediately mowed down by plasma and crystalline fire.

The first grunt stepped in and started to open fire at a jackal before it was shot in the head by a brute with a Carbine.

Kadab pulled out two plasma grenades and activated them. Followed by other grunts, they threw them in. After a large amount of explosions, they charged in.

Kadap ran in and charged for the column near the back entrance, which was usually guarded by a plasma turret if there were any enemies behind it. He round the corner and surprised a jackal.

He grabbed it and pushed out of the back, dropping it down to its death. The grunt drew its weapon and aimed at a jackal firing at a grunt.

Kadab threw a plasma grenade into the brute with the carbine, which the beast threw down its weapon and tried to charge at them. But it exploded, killing three jackals too.

"The elevator is off." Dawjaw said, walking over to a closed hole.

"I got it." Kadap said as he typed in codes in the column's computer.

The elevator suddenly hummed and a purple light illuminated the antigravity. Kadap gave a down signal to Dawjaw.

"Okay, first squad go down." The first squad jumped in, single file, "Second. Okay, let's go."


Several Ultras pulled next to the hapless grunt, Ladap. Their plasmas pistols or Plasma Rifles aimed out.

"Is the Special Op. Leader okay?" One asked.

"Just a hurt arm." Popad said.

"How?" The Ultra inquired.

"Fat Brute Chieftain knocked him into the wall. See the blood." Popad pointed.

"He must've hit hard." The Ultra observed.

"Bad guy!" Another Ultra identified a jackal stalking to them.

The lead Ultra immediately incapacitated the newly inducted Loyalist cannon fodder. Another saw his brother fall and squawked at the grunt and opened fire.

"Arg!" The grunt roared as a burst struck his shoulder. Blue blood seeped from the burned wound. One grunt Ultra charged his plasma pistol and locked the trigger in place. He brought it up to the other grunt's shoulder and burned the wound. The grunt winced as the grunt cartelized his wound.

"Why you burn him?" Popad jumped in surprise at the action.

"We learn that humans sometimes burn wounds to, uh, I think it was to, cartelize the wound. It's supposed to stop the bleeding and act as catalyst for scabbing." The grunt explained.

Popad nodded at the new information. It was an ingenious way to bring soldiers back to the field.

"Is it safe to move up the stairs?" Ladap coughed. "I want to hurry and finish this mission."

The grunts nodded at this notion. One grunt informed, "We're winning the battle down here. Some of us have already made it upstairs. That Phantom made short work of most of them Loyalists up there."

"Lets hurry, we don't have much time."

Popad began up the stairs, ignoring the fact that a spike round from a spike had missed him by an inch. The other grunts follow close behind, guns up and around.

A few low ranking squads pass them. Each squad consisted of at least one major to command the common minors.

Popad walked over to the hatch on the side of the wrecked Phantom, curious of what was inside. But to his dismay, he saw blue blood, green armor, and an arm of one of the unlucky squad-mates. He said a short prayer and left the troopship with Ultras and Ladap nearby.

"Don't tell me we'll have to walk to each and every ship! That's a long surviving time!" One Ultra said.

"No, we have control over the entrance. Each ship-dock has an external pad for landing Phantom. It won't be long at this rate." Another said.

"So that means we take troops and land them there?" Popad queried.

"Yes, well originally, elites and other high rank troops would take that faster route. Now, with no boundaries, we can do it. The grunts in the Unggoy Rebellion did so." The Ultra said.

Popad nodded and walked off, calling to the 'Righteous Faith' for Phantoms and Banshee support. Ladap began to direct forces out, while leading others to key points of the structure.

Five Phantoms drop out from the smoke filled sky obscuring the 'Righteous Faith.' Multiple squads enter the Phantoms after they've landed and opened the side hatches.

Popad stepped up the lowered hatch, Ladap and the Ultra squad following behind. Popad turned to Ladap.

"You should go back to the 'Righteous Faith.' Its too dangerous with the injury you have." Popad suggested.

"No. I was requested to finish the mission, so me will complete it!" Ladap retorted. Popad shrugged to himself and set up on a circle.

Chapter Twelve: The Prophet and the Ships

Control Room
Corvette 'Righteous Faith'

Kayap sat in his gravity chair, troubled by his own thoughts. At last, he asked a long waited question.

"Ground Status?" He asked firmly.

"Flood control has risen by twenty percent. Loyalist control has dropped twenty-five percent. Separatist control has dropped down to zero percent, as they have abandoned High Charity by interior. Our control has risen by five percent." One deacon said, in oddly clear English.

"That means that Flood controls ninety percent, Loyalist control five percent, we control five percent, and elites have abandoned us giving their percent to Flood and Loyalist." One other Deacon said, even surprising N'jero by his mathematical correctness.

Kayap looked at the holographic map, frowning. The Flood now surrounded both the grunts and Loyalists. With the Loyalists unintentional holding off the Flood for the grunts, this gave them an open window for escape with the ships and refugees.

"What's the status on Popad and the Special Operation leader?" Kayap leaned forward, eyeing the highlighted blue area.

"They've managed to gain control of the entrance. Now they plan to take the ships as they are empty, as they are flying Phantoms to the pads.

"Ladap is currently injured, though it is a minor gash in his skin. So he was fitted with the Combat Injury Brace." One Deacon reported.

"Good, how about Kadab, Kadap, and Dawjaw?" He queried upon his other companions on the rescue missions.

"They were recently attacked by a Scarab, now they've boarded and killed the crew on the upper levels." A Deacon said before he was cut off by Kayap.

"Upper level?"

"Yes, this Scarab belongs to the Prophet of Singularity. It is much larger than most Scarabs, as it is also refitted for combat, defense, being a mobile fortress, and assaulting things." The Deacon said as he pointed to he pointed to his edge most finger.

"Report that they are to capture the Prophet." Kayap said and the Deacon tapped several buttons on his console and spoke.

"How many refugees are under control so far?" He asked another Deacon.

"At least over two hundred so far." The Deacon responded, "We've lost over a hundred warriors."

Kayap nodded; apparently the Deacon knew what he was going to ask. Indeed, to reach the rank the rank of a Deacon you would have to be intelligent. These Deacons proved such.

-----

Kadab aimed his Needler around the empty room. Dawjaw walked around and placed his hand on the grunt's shoulder. Kadap rushed the grunt squads to the two-way split, which would take them to the same location.

Several major ranked grunts explored an armory like room. It was filled with the Brute Plasma Rifles, Carbines, and other weaponry.

"We found a stockpile, leader." One said to his squad leader.

"Me got new Intel, listen up!" Dawjaw suddenly piped.

"Apparently, we've boarded a Prophet's Scarab. That is why is so massive. This Prophet owns the courtyard and structure. I think he wants to rid it of us before he leaves. His name is Singularity! Kayap wants us to capture him so he can interrogate him!" Dawjaw announced.

"Capture Prophet of Singularity? Great, when he finishes interrogating him we torture him! Just like he did to us!" One grunt yelped.

"Let's move! Kadab, Kayap, come with me! Squads, move down right hall!" Dawjaw said.

The two squads waddled around the corner at the end of the right as the trio rounded their corner. They descended down into a rectangular room with two cannon fodder type jackals which they dispatched with ease.

They stopped inside and looked around. They saw several fuel rod cannons, plasma weapons, and the infamous needle type weapons lay atop metal tables. Grenades sat on racks, along with certain grenades that they had never seen before. There was one type of grenade in particular. It had dome as bases and glass filled with a bright orange substance inside.

Dawjaw dropped his empty weapon and picked up a plasma pistol. Kadap did the same, only this time picking up a Needler. Kadap looked over Kadab, who was observing the strange grenades, and pushed the fuel rod cannon off the table.

Then when the explosive ordance clattered against the ground, they heard yelling and an explosion. Dawjaw motion them to continue and they did. Before Kadab left, he snatched two of the strange looking grenades.

Dawjaw appeared at the entrance of the large room. He could see six jump-pack brutes laying heavy fire upon one of the squads. The lead grunt was being repeatedly stabbed by the spikes of one brute. One major was lying against the wall of the other side of the room, blood splattered around him. Another grunt was in the middle of the room, his body charred and halfed. Then, he saw the last two major grunts lying dead near a chair; their bodies littered with spikes.

The chair belonged to the infamous Prophet of Singularity. He fired blue bolts of plasma at the grunts, laughing manically. Kadab pulled out one of the new grenades and threw them at a pair of brutes.

To the grunts' surprise, the grenade didn't explode; rather it caused the brutes and the area around to burst into bright red-orange flames. The brute waved their arms around in panic, running in circle to rid the flames. They gave their last roars and died the horrible death. But, they did deserve it; after what they've done to grunts, humans, and elites alike.

The prophets and brutes spun around in surprise, dumbfounded to what had just happened. Dawjaw pulled out his plasma pistol and started shooting at the brutes. He pulled trigger at a surprisingly fast rate, just as fast as a plasma rifle's rate of fire.

Giving the squad on the other side of the room enough to time to recover, they started to the prophet who frantically fired at the grunts. His terrible aim, due to his panic, the grunts easily overcame him. The grunts pulled him out from his only protected and the ultra crawled up and punched Singularity over the head. The physical contact knocked the prophet unconscious almost instantly.

The brutes were now mere husks and corpses. Dawjaw marched down the stairwell and saw the prophet, whose head bled.

"Heal him; we cannot have him dead because he bled out!" He ordered the squad.

Kadap turned to the table that one grunt pulled out to place the prophet upon. Then he turned to Kadab who observed his stolen possession, the flame grenade.

"Be careful, you might set yourself on fire." Kadap commented.

"Shut up." Kadab retorted.

"Hey, me just looking out for you. So, that thing sets thing on fire, huh?"

"Yea, this is indefinitely interesting thing." Kadab remarked. "Me going to bring this to Kayap so he can get a group of grunts to, safely, see this things function."

"Well, one thing we know is that it has liquid inside and you throw it. You throw it and it makes things burst into flames." A grunt piped.

"Yea, but we don't know how they contain it." Kadab stated.

The grunt shrugged and turned back to the fragile prophet. Dawjaw marched over to the two.

"Mission is, partially, complete. All we need are phantoms to pick up the survivors." He said.

Two majors dragged the prophet off the table and started to walk out. Two other majors stepped affront the two that held the prophet and continued with them, guarding them. Dawjaw motioned the last few to continue forth.

They travelled up the stairs to the weapon room and hallway and back to the elevators which they floated up and they travelled back up to the windy grey metal surface of the Scarab. The giant walker had stopped firing and all they could see is the charred courtyard that was once a beautiful landscape.

It was now scarred with burnt black lines. Smolder rose into the air from fires that sprung out from molten vehicles and the decimated Tyrant Anti-Air Turret.

Phantoms hovered above the battlefield. Some dropped to the ground, loading troops to take to the ships that Popad and Ladap captured. One Phantom arrived to load up the grunts and Singularity.

Dawjaw patted his pack-brothers' shoulders in victory.

-----

Popad jumped out of the hatch of the Phantom. He aimed around as the troops ran to the corvette's hanger, which the corvette was at its regular size.

They stepped upon Lightbridge attached to the hanger rim and the platform across. The grunts ran as fast as their stubby legs to allow them across the mind-bendingly solid light. It was rather a curiosity of how the light could be solid.

Out from the wide door behind were the brutes and jackals who attempt to get across first, but saw that they failed.

The lead brute roared in rage at the grunts' ability to arrive to the corvette first. He dropped down and charged on his four limbs. His mouth frothed with saliva as the grunts fuelled his rage.

Popad was the last to step aboard the hanger's lip and shot off pass the left lowest ledge and around the corner and then up the walkway to an upper platform. He tapped several buttons and the Lightbridge dissipated, dropping the unfortunate Loyalists.

But the one charging brute made a final leap to the hanger and grabbed the edge at the last second. He pulled himself up and stood, roaring. One grunt bravely charged the brute, firing his plasma pistol wildly. The hulking beast shrugged off the plasma fire and slapped the grunt out of his way.

Two other grunts, blind with rage of their kin brother, charged at the brute. Then they were followed by more angry grunts. Eventually the stamina of the brute fell as he swung at the air and kicked at nothing. Soon he gave way and the grunts quickly pushed him off the ship.

Popad turned to the other side of the room and saw that grunts were piling in the hanger bay from the other side. Soon enough all the grunts boarded their assigned ship.

Popad tapped more buttons and an energy barrier formed where the large open door was, bright and blue.

The grunt trotted down the walkway and turned right and passed through the open doorway. He turned to his left into another room and turned left again down a slopped hall. He took off to the left once more and passed through another network of paths and appeared in the plasma battery which was the room with controls to the plasma turrets. He then walked down the short walkway and turned down to the far side of the room to another door that opened to him.

He passed through a twisting hall and made it into the control room. It appeared like an atrium, it was wide with a shell separating the room from the outside.

He walked around the edge and stopped at the controls near the front, there were the controls. He looked at each holographic control; he knew how to activate the ship in two ways. One was that he could simply use the controls right in front of him or go to the engine itself and activate it from there.

With the controls in front of him, he splayed and tapped his fingers across the hologram and soon the ship whined and roared to life. Light sprung out to the eyes of the grunts. The engines warmed and rumbled.

Several Ultra and Special Operations ranked Unggoy flooded the room, running to each control that they could get to.

"You ready shipmaster?" One grunt asked.

Popad marched over to the hologram in the center of the room that revealed high charity's grounds. The blue dot marked 'his' ship.

"Me ready, let's get out before Flood comes." He answered.

The anti-gravity pods on the underbelly activated, pushing the ship up. As soon as the ship was a decent level over the docks the engines roared and pushed the ship. Then the ship, as the grunts routed it, curved rightly and headed toward the 'Righteous Faith' as well as the other corvette and the destroyer.

Popad tapped several symbols and found his ground-based pack-brothers' location. They were not but a few miles distant as the 'Righteous Faith' was.

So Popad typed in several coordinates for the three ships, changing where they were to go.

"Go to the coordinates me input." Popad commanded.

With that the ships hovered over the wasteland that was once the beauty of High Charity. The Flood reach was closing in on the survivors and to rescue them, along with the package Singularity. The prophet, who tortured grunts for the humor of it, was now captured and would be interrogated. He would also have his bad deeds done to him.

The Phantoms drew down and came up rescuing the survivors over and over to different ships. The other Phantom with Singularity and Popad's brothers headed for the flagship that held their leader, Kayap.

Chapter Thirteen: Of thy End

High Charity
The Righteous Faith

The Phantom hovered over the pad, the grunts scurrying around inside. The troopship landed and the side-hatches opened. A lanky figure flopped out from it and was caught by the little hands of the Unggoy.

Kayap strolled to the Phantom as Dawjaw and the others hopped out. Kayap patted the Ultras as they passed, telling them a job well done.

"I see we got the Prophet." Kayap analyzed.

"Yea and elites said we were worthless." Kadab said.

Kayap turned as a voice screamed out. It was merely the Prophet of Singularity who was being dragged away to be taken to the Detention Hall. He screamed curses and religious threats to the grunts as he was taken. Soon the capturers and the captured passed through a door and the Prophet's voice was muted from their ears.

"Me see that the mission was successful. Stranded was rescued and the ships captured." Kayap said proudly.

Indeed it was successful, thanks to the Flood distracting most of the Loyalists forces and the Loyalist stalling the Floods' approach. Kayap had captured a prophet with the potential of becoming the Prophet of Truth's, who was now the 'emperor' of the Loyalist Covenant, High Prophet. It was a rank of which the prophet would've taken with greed.

"Good thing Truth left him, otherwise he would've gained a brutal ally." Dawjaw remarked.

Another Phantom flew into the vast hanger-bay, holding an important payload. It landed and its side-hatches opened with Popad hopping out. Popad's eyes scanned the hanger bay until he spotted his friends Kayap, Dawjaw, Kadab, and Kadap. Almost immediately he ran to his group, with some tripping on the way.

"Hey! We got ships!" Popad stated.

"Me see." Kayap looked out of the gargantuan shield doors to see two Corvettes move into their fleet formation, he turned to the other to see the destroyer. "Me see."

"Now we must elect shipmasters." Popad said.

"We have the deacons, they'll be the shipmasters. Let's go to control room, we shall tell them." Kayap waddled off.

They trotted out of the atrium-like hanger-bay and marched through the dimly lit narrow halls of the neck of the ship until they reached the control room.

The guards checked them and then, in confirmation of the High Deacon, let them pass into it. The Unggoy had shown surprising vigilance since Kayap had come into reign. It was something that N'jero only seen during the Unggoy Rebellion many years in the past.

"Deacons!" N'jero shouted to the ornate attired grunts chattering with each other. They turned their heads in almost fear, seemingly thinking that the elite was now going to try to take over. The Deacons still didn't trust the elites, probably due to being lied to for so long. But they saw the High Deacon with his pack-brothers and they trotted to the holographic table.

Kayap jumped onto his chair and looked back to the Deacons, "As you can see we have gained three ships to our fleet. According to statistics, we have enough crew members to fill the ships, and many spaces to be filled if we run along our brothers on the way. However, we have three very important slots to be filled, the shipmaster slots. Who is willing to fill in these areas of importance?"

The Deacons were tentative at this notion. It seemed that no one was going to want to control them until one shaky hand rose.

"Me willing." The shaky grunt spoke.

After he raised his hand, two other deacons raised their hands.

"Great! Escort deacons to hanger, guardsmen." Kayap called out to the awaiting honor guard grunts. They nodded in return and moved into an ovular formation.

"Me get ship! Me get ship!" A deacon chimed happily as he withdrew from the bridge.

"How are you managing this so well, Kayap?" N'jero queried.

"Me was stationed aboard a supercarrier; the one that was eaten by slipspace bubble because of the humans. Well, I was ordered to guard the control room and I listened to the shipmaster's orders to the corvettes. I had enough time to learn the maturity of the shipmaster. Also, me practiced my English from listening to humans talk," Kayap withdrew a breath, "which supported me almost fluent speech."

"I can hear that from that mere explanation, Unggoy." N'jero pointed out.

A subtle beep alerted the Sangheili, causing him to walk over to the holographic readings on the control panel next to the holographic map's rim.

"We have another challenge Unggoy. The parasite has acquired control of the Holy City's Slipspace Disruptor nodes."

"Slipspace Disruptor Nodes? That means we can not jump from this horrible place!" Kayap shouted in fear.

"Indeed Unggoy." The elite tapped several controls.

"These nodes are located at the upper exit of the city. I've pinpointed these spires."

The view zoomed out to where they could view the exterior of High Charity. Then, the map zoomed to the top of the installation. There were four tall spires jutting out from the top in a square pattern around the rim of the opening with equal distance between each other. The tips of the spires shined blue.

"The spires are emitting a type of magnetic field that is tampering with every ship with the radius of two thousand miles. The only thing that it cannot affect is anything comprised of forerunner technology. Due to the forerunner technology having the ability to simply push away the magnetic fields with some type of repulsion device."

"Are we able to simply attempt to exit through the maximum range of the disruption?" Kayap questioned.

"That's a problem we cannot get around from. The parasite has also gained control of the drones that keep anything nearby High Charity. Nothing can exit, as the parasite wants control of all the ships here. If we can destroy the nodes and escape, then the same would be done with the separatists and loyalists. I would rather the Loyalists escape than the parasite gain a hold of their ships."

"Then we must destroy the nodes!" Kayap shouted, as he soaked all the information and learned of the harrowingly severe situation at hand.

"Open the fleet communications!" Kayap barked.

"Communications open!" An Ultra shouted back.

"All shipmasters, lead your ships to location A marked upon your holographic maps!" Kayap ordered.

All ships repulser engines fired to life and the ships slowly turned upwards and pushed towards the exit. After some time small fleet pushed out from the massive opened made for the massive forerunner keyship.

"High Deacon, we have small fleet heading to engage us in twenty seconds!" An ultra yelled.

"They consist of 5 covenant cruisers and 2 CCS-class battlecruisers!" Another ultra piped.

Covenant cruisers were another one of the once was Covenant Empire's most basic numerous engagement ships. These ships were elongated in shape in a similar way like the much larger CCS-class battlecruiser. But, unlike the CCS-class battlecruiser, there was no neck to the ships and 'wings' of the ships stretched from stem to stern along with a more bulged area on the middle of its' back.

"The CCS-class battlecruisers are older variant, High Deacon!" One grunt shouted.

The CCS-class battlecruiser had an older variant, a predecessor. This variant was somber compared to the modern variant. This one was slightly shorter in length. Its neck was much wider and had dozens of prongs jutting out forward from its bow and neck. Its belly had two rectangular structures divided and parallel from each other. The engine was also larger due to its older macro-sized repulser engines.

However, the back of the battlecruiser was almost twin with the current battlecruiser, but it sported to small bulges on its bow.

"It's a Kig-Yar fleet," N'jero stated, "only they would obtain larger outdated fleet ships."

Kayap looked up at N'jero in surprise. His mind was rattled with anger and bewilderment.

'How could even those lowly beast manage to obtain even small or outdated ships and the veterans of our race never obtain one?' Kayap interrogated himself.

"They're launching all their Phantoms, Banshees, and even Seraphs!" A particularly deepened-voiced grunt said.

"They plan to board us!" N'jero bellowed.

"Unggoy, I suggest warning every ship to secure their hanger bays!"

Kayap tapped several buttons on his chair, "Set guards on the hanger bays! Set up turrets, they going to board us!"

"Prepare pulse laser turrets and plasma turrets!" N'jero shouted to a group of Special-Operations grunts.

"Launch interceptors!" Kayap shouted into the fleet communications as well as the ship's speakers.

-----

The Type-27 XMF's launched from the undersides of the corvettes and the hanger-bays of the RPV-class light destroyer and the Righteous Faith.

The RPV-class light destroyer was somewhat smaller than CCS-class battlecruiser by approximately two-hundred meters. It was almost just as wide by being around one-thousand two-hundred meters. This ship was comprised of three bulbous sections that stretched from the bow to the stern. These were located upon its sides and back. It is armed with multiple pulse lasers, a single devastating energy projector, and two fore-located plasma torpedo launchers, or plasma turrets.

The opposing forces met and plasma was shot between them. Banshees and Seraphs raced past each other. Plasma torpedoes raced towards each other’s ships. Pulse lasers fired at the racing little interceptors. Explosions dotted the sky.

Popad raced to hanger-bay with Kadap, Kadab, and Dawjaw. An operator attempted to solidify the energy-doors.

"Why can't you make door impassible." Dawjaw asked.

"They're messing with the controls!" The grunt pointed to a phantom the remained outside the door.

"Kadap! Kadab! Get to the communications room and get to the dorsal landing pad and set up AA Shades with the other grunts!" Dawjaw ordered.

"Can you close shudders?" He returned to question the grunt.

"They're jamming all controls to the doors!" The grunt panicked.

"Do not worry."

But the phrase didn't stop the little grunt from panicking, as two phantoms entered the hanger-bay.

-----

Kadab and Kadap stumbled through the door of the communications room that was located at the center of the ship under the large dorsal landing pad.
What they say was already an engagement. Grunts and jackals fired at one another. Only thing was that these jackals were outfitted in a suit that signified that they were of the ranger ranking.

Kig-Yar Rangers were clad in blue-armor with a skin-tight vacuum suit. Their helmets were something similar to the Sangheili Ranger; an oddity due to that Kig-Yar Rangers sported an energy bubble that trapped their heads. On their backs were sangheili jet-packs. It was something that jackal rangers never generally wore.

They bounded into the air and fired upon Unggoy lances. One ranger landed nearby Kadab and Kadap and activated its point-defense gauntlet. The pair fired upon the jackal and its shield failed and was torn apart by the searing hot plasma.

The grunt numbers within communications room proved to be overwhelming the jackals and they fled out.

One grunt activated a gravity lift in the center of the room. In a bloodthirsty scurry to get outside and kill the jackals, they clambered into it. This propelled twenty grunts to the dorsal platform, where the jackals were preparing to jump to the phantom that dropped them there.

The unfortunate jackals were bombarded by plasma fire. Jackals either fell down, or off the platform dead and others were strewn around into the air by their damaged anti-gravity jump packs.

Kadab looked around and saw that the area was currently safe.

"We ready for the turrets." Kadap said into his mouthpiece, whilst pressing on a button on his mask which activated the communications.

"We're a little busy at the moment. We'll try to get them to you soon." Dawjaw's voice came, sounds of plasma fire in the background.

-----

Dawjaw watch as jackals and skirmishers jumped out from the phantoms. Then a squad of Skirmisher Murmillones leapt onto his platform.

Murmillo skirmishers were gladiators in the Kig-Yar world. These foes had orange armor that covered most of the body, along with small energy gauntlets attach to both forearms for additional protection, usually covering their head or body when strafing their enemy. These skirmishers generally strike in packs and will attempt to flank their enemies, or strike head in close quarters combat.

"I have this one." One hissed.

The skirmisher charged at him and tackled him and started to punch repeatedly the grunt's face, but continued to fail as the grunt kept his arms up to cover his face.

Dawjaw then kicked the Murmillo in the stomach and skirmisher double over from it. The Unggoy Zealot pulled out his plasma knife and slashed at the skirmisher. The orange clad Kig-Yar activated his plasma gauntlet, strafed to the side and charged at the grunt.

Dawjaw side stepped and tripped the Murmillo, who fell and slid to the edge and gripped the ridge. Dawjaw stepped up to the skirmisher who held on. The platform was high unlike the platforms in a typical corvette. It was in fact too high, even for the durable skirmisher.

The grunt bent over and grabbed the skirmisher's arm and pulled him up. The skirmisher was bewildered until the grunt brought his blade into the skirmisher's skull. The blade sliced through the helmet like a hot knife through butter.

The skirmisher went limp and Dawjaw released it. He grimaced as he looked down at dead skirmisher, whose blood covered the area around his head.

Then Dawjaw felt the arms of a skirmisher wrap around him and dawjaw slipped back. He gripped the Murmillo's wrist and pushed on his elbow, bringing it down instantly. The grunt then ruthlessly pushed the skirmisher off the platform.

He turned back to see the Murmillones flee as they saw their comrades destroyed by a mere grunt.

Plasma fire etched around the room, needles broke on impact against the hard metal walls of the hanger-bay.

"We ready for the turrets." He heard Kadap in his helmet.

"We're a little busy at the moment. We'll try to get them to you soon." He responded.

"Please, Dawjaw, make it soon!" Dawjaw heard what sounded like a space banshee racing by next to Kadap's communicator.

"Son of a b" Then he heard static as Kadap cut him off.

He turned as three grunts clad in green heavy armor stepped through the door attached to the platform, wielding Type-52 Guided Munitions Launchers, the plasma launchers.

"Bombard that position! We need to get the shades to the upper landing pad!" Dawjaw pointed.

The grunts lined up in a lance and aimed at their target, the entire area that had Kig-Yar on it. The tips of the guns glowed and opened like a blooming flower, and unleashed four consecutive explosive plasma shots.

The jackals turned to the horror of twelve randomly scattered shots came towards them like balled up explosive nets. The ground below them suddenly exploded a fiery blue, killing nearly all the jackals.

After the remaining jackals were removed by a nearby grunt-occupied portable plasma turret, a friendly phantom flew through the energy wall.

A dozen orange and red clad grunts entered the room, guarded by several ultra ranked Unggoy. These lower ranking grunts carried or dragged parts of the AA-Shade. Several Huragok followed behind.

Huragok fulfilled the most important roles within the past Covenant, the current Separatist, Loyalist, and Unggoy factions. This role was to maintain and repair technology.

Huragok are not a natural biological species, but an artificial species produced by the forerunners. Huragok do not have true tissue or skin. They have nano-mechanical surrogates so closely mimic their biological analogs that they seem almost indistinguishable to observers.

They have small heads with six dark eyes, and four tentacles that can split into very small, near-microscopic cilia. The Engineers use these cilia to construct, repair, or rebuild nearly anything they can grasp.

Multiple gas-bladders serve as their method of locomotion, allowing them to float through the air even after their deaths. The bladders also serve as part of their respiratory system; if their gas bladders deflate, they will asphyxiate and die.

Huragoks are a valuable asset to any faction that manages to maintain them. These creatures are seen as to care of nothing else other than repair, creating, and maintaining technology. Huragok are also peaceful and pacifistic creatures and have an extensive respect for life.

Huragok have a great compassion for their companions and others they befriend. Such as when Lighter Than Some had saved Dadab from a human by killing him with a "hunting rock."

Due to Lighter Than Some's and Dadab's friendship, the Huragok have been observed to prefer to side with the Unggoy rather than the other species of the former Covenant.

Ever sense then, the Huragok and the Unggoy have had tightly held ties together. This gave the Unggoy the advantage in some ways, as the Huragok had a specialty in technology.

The enemy's opposing Phantom exited the bay and was replaced by another troop filled Phantom. The heavy Shades continued to spray a torrent of plasma onto the hated Kig-Yar.

As the last Unggoy and last Huragok entered the Phantom and the troop transport sped out. Dawjaw pointed, "Finish those troops!"

-----

"Please, Dawjaw, make it soon!" Kadab cried.

A violent explosion caught his eye and he looked over and saw a huge blur barrel straight at him.

Kadab dodged the blurry space banshee in time to shout human profanities.

Kadap walked and pulled Kadab off the ground, brushing him off, "Engineers are going a nasty mess to clean up."

Looking over, Kadab saw that the banshee had embedded itself into the hull.

Soon enough the requested Phantom flew over, hovering as the Huragok poured out from the sides and the Grunts fell out, each carrying important cargo.

An ultra ranking Grunt walked over to one of the Engineers who wore unique armor. This Huragok bore golden color metal plates and a helmet that resembled a hunter's helmet. Only it encased the entire Huragok's head. These Engineers also held powerful personal energy shielding.

These Huragoks monitored and commanded platoons of Huragok. They were dubbed Lead Engineer and claimed official title of Huragok Majoris.

The Grunt performed sign language and as he finished, the Huragok make squeal. This alerted the others, who immediately began to assemble the anti-air type Shades. There were two Shades place at each side of the platform.

Kadab nodded to multiple Grunts, who in turn made way to each turret. Now the likelihood of enemies entering here greatly diminished.

Kadap waved for Kadab to follow and board the Phantom. The troop carrier raced back into the hanger bay, where the battle stayed by the Unggoy favors.

In the bridge, a pilot spotted something upon his map, "Sir, unknown transport heading toward the prison blocks. It appears to have a charge on board."

"Do you know the exact location?" Kayap queried.

"I believe we know that answer, Fleet Master." N'jero said in turn.

Kayap's eyes widened in acknowledgement, they were heading toward the isolated prison blocks. The prison contained the Prophet and the bastard Brute Titanus.

Kayap rushed away, Popad following closely. N'jero instantly went into command of the ship.

The Grunts marched through the intricate halls of the ships and soon, reached the hanger bay.

"What is it?" Kadab worriedly asked.

"Loyalist trying to get their Prophet back." Kayap tensely said.

They rushed the unoccupied halls and made it to the prison halls. There were ten smaller halls lined up to their left, one was separate from the others, isolated. Then, from one did a black clad grunt slide out from a door, blood smearing with it.

The Grunts rushed away to the door. Inside was an astonishingly horrific sight. Dead Grunts and Brutes alike were sprawled around the prison hall. Though the Brutes had less loses. At the other end, was Titanus and the Prophet who was walking to him.

Titanus turned to them, the opened hull allowed the wind to whirl around and some debris to suck out.

"You missed the fun, Unggoy!" He called out to Kayap.

"And so did you. I was ashamed to see that you weren't part of the guard squads." Titanus said to Kadab.

Titanus lifted the Prophet and gently tossed the Prophet to another Brute. The Brute placed the frail Prophet onboard the flatbed transport.

"I'll be leaving, but before I do, I'll give you a little present just so you remember me!" The Brute roared in laughter, taunting the Unggoy across the hall.

"As I said before young Kadab, you'll never be an independent empire. You'll live to be slaves!" The Brute spat the last words and tossed a bloody Spiker at the squad.

"Forget me not!" Titanus leapt onto the transport and soon an energy barrier formed around the flatbed, encasing the Prophet and Brute.

The transport speed away and left the Grunts baffled at the events. Kadab soon fell into a fit of angry dismal cries, Kayap bore a scowl, and Dawjaw sneered as he picked the Spiker from the blood stained floor.

"The bastard will regret his very words." Said an angry Kadap.

"Why is the Brute so cruel? Why are all Brutes so cruel?" Asked a sad Popad.

"Not every brute is cruel, just a very large majority of them are." Kadap responded.

"Return to the defensive stations, call in a repair team. I have stressing news for N'jero." Kayap walked away with slumped shoulders.

Popad followed along Kayap and the rest of the group returned to the hanger. Dawjaw called in the repair squad and added additional defensive forces to it.

Kayap and Popad returned to the bridge, N'jero looked back at the depressed expression that they wore.

"Have they escaped?" N'jero asked, although he knew of it already.

"Yes." Kayap murmured through gritted teeth.

"Do not heed such anger and sadness; we have attained some important information from them." The elite said.

"Sir, enemy ships falling back!" A Grunt informed.

"They've got what they want." N'jero noted.

Kayap nodded and returned to his seat, "Now we must leave this horrid place."

"High Deacon, there's something jamming me slipstream controls!" A Pilot wailed.

"Of course," N'jero said in realization, "There are spires located at the exit we want to leave through. The Flood seems to have gained control over them. They're specialized Slipspace Disruption Nodes, made specifically for this city."

"That means we can't leave this horrible place!" Kayap wailed in mix emotions.

"Indeed," N'jero agreed, "Another problem is that the parasite has taken control over the defensive drones that surround the city. This is inescapable problem."

"Unless we destroy the towers!" Kayap acknowledged.

"I have highlighted the towers on this map; each one is of different color for which ship should destroy these. I have notified the other Shipmasters of this problem. They are now awaiting your orders."

"Give out the command to engage spires." Kayap ordered.

N'jero nodded and roared into the fleet communications, give out the command.

The fleet emerged from the Forerunner Keyship's exit and split from each other. Each ship closed in on the spires and opened fire upon each.

Plasma torpedoes exploded upon impact and the few Energy Projectors sliced through the lightly armored spires.

The Destroyer finished its spire with a rain of plasma torpedoes, the Corvettes took some time to finish off their prey, and the Super-Corvette laid waste to its own spire.

"Is that all?" Kayap sat up.

"For now it is, but there will be more conflicts later. It is inevitable."

"Slipspace jump ready on your mark, High Deacon!" The Navigations Commandeer Fadjum called.

"Begin jump."

Wait so is that it?

That's the ending? Is this a cliff hanger of sorts?

Yea.

For the sequel Kayap: Redemption.

It should be a trilogy!

Here's the names, if you like them.

Kayap Rises
The Uggnoy of Legend
The Uggnor of Legend Rises

I was actually planning for a Trilogy for him.

Then perhaps I'll move into the Drones...

I_IRONMAN_I wrote:I was actually planning for a Trilogy for him.

Then perhaps I'll move into the Drones...

Dibs on Brutes!

Kayap: You can have your stinky brutes! 'Cept that one brute, Argonus... that's his name right?

Dem brutez mang, they dangerous.

I_IRONMAN_I wrote:Kayap: You can have your stinky brutes! 'Cept that one brute, Argonus... that's his name right?

Dem brutez mang, they dangerous.

Argonous. Brutes are awesome.

Brute Master Race!

Got it all wrong mang, Grunts Master Race!

...And I only got one 'o' off the name...

Meh, I'll be nice and say, Grunt/Brutes Master Race!

...Human Master Race!

That's final!

-.-

Fine...

Scottish Human-Master Race!

BAZINGA!

Native-American/Irish/Scottish/English/French Human Master Race!

Wait... I think I just described myself...