An Elite's Tale

The Arbiter didn't wait for them, Ludo noticed as he and Joha passed through yet another one of those peculiar connector rooms and found themselves outside on a bridge bolstered on both ends by barricades and turrets. Bodies of slain Jackals and Drones littered the entire length of the bridge like trash on the shoulder of an abandoned highway.

A Phantom approaching from the east caught Ludo's attention and he immediately switched on his light bending camouflage, prompting Joha behind him to do the same. As it flew nearer, he was contacted by the Shipmaster, who inquired about his position.

"Ludo, we have captured the cruiser and are inbound with Zuvo and his team. How close are you to the Scarab?"

He squinted at the Phantom and lowered his carbine, finally noticing the distinct yellow methane re-breather apparatus the Grunt on the turret was wearing. It was Fliz, who waved his stubby little arm happily at Ludo and Joha once they deactivated their cloaking equipment. Neither of them waved back.

"Commander, we're on the bridge," Ludo answered. "Joha and I got separated from the Arbiter in our last battle. He and another Elite we encountered have gone further ahead."

Ludo understood why, and couldn't really blame them for hurrying to the control room, but it still irked him all the same. He wanted to be the one to kill the Chieftain. Despite the Covenant's growing tensions between the Brutes and Elites, he had never concerned himself with the ongoing politics, just mostly kept to himself until he was dropped via dispersal pod and allowed to do what he does best. Become a cold, calculating killing machine. To mercilessly slay all who stood against the Shipmaster. The only enemies Ludo had ever made were opponents on the battlefield, and not a single one had lived to tell the tale, so it was safe to say he had no enemies.

During the invasion of Reach and the failed prevention of the destruction of the first Sacred Ring, he fought alongside many formidable Brutes that he's still proud to have been allied with. But when the Arbiter was thought to have died, hundreds of Elites were horribly massacred by the Brutes, apparently acting on standing orders from Tartarus himself. Ludo considered that any sympathetic Brutes were presumably thrown in with the Elites, but the Brutes he knew were far beyond sympathetic.

Ludo was going to kill Tartarus, no longer a need or want but an idea in his mind demanding to be fact. However, he kept in mind that Tartarus was and always has been an obedient puppet, yearning for authority. The real murderers were the Prophets, and he resigned himself to the idea that he would take care of them just the same.

Rtas was hovering over the bridge now. He said, "It is expected, under the circumstances. Go catch up to him, I will secure this bridge for the time being."

As Zuvo, Xepo, and a couple of Elite Minors dropped one by one from the Phantom behind them, Ludo and Joha jogged through another angled room and were heading up a ramp when they heard the gunfire and explosions and quickened their pace, actually having to wait a second for the automatic doors at the end of the hall to slide open.

They were in the doorway of a huge chamber with a ramp directly in front of them that went up to a second tier. Supply crates were on both levels against a giant wall that divided the chamber in half. It was from the other side of the wall where the sounds of war were coming from. Eye contact and a nod. That's all it took to confirm they had the same idea. Joha took the ramp and moved in from the second level, while Ludo moved in from the ground floor.

This was the part Ludo enjoyed the most. The transformation. He could already feel his core turning to ice as he emptied his mind of all thought and emotion. He drew a deep breath. He was now entering combat mode. The Plague of Rtas 'Vadumee turned invisible and quickly moved into the other side of the chamber.

He'd entered into some sort of jailing area. Energy shielded containment cells lined the walls on both floors. Brutes and Jackals were amassed in this room as though it were some type of command center, which it probably was given its location. It took all of about three seconds to scan the room and count and differentiate his allies from the enemies.

Theg was off to his left taking cover in a powered down containment cell, pinned down by the high explosive anti-personnel grenades being fired from a pack of Brutes crowded in the middle of the room, guarding the exit. Every now and again he would lean out and shoot back, but could only get a few rounds off each time before the grenades forced him back into cover.

In a similar cell near the exit, the Arbiter had his back against the wall, struggling with three Brutes who had him cornered. A silvery blue beam from Joha's rifle flashed overhead and the furthest Brute flew forward into his teammates, dead, knocking them off balance. The Arbiter lashed out with his Energy Sword and dropped the other two in a single back-handed slash. Four of the Brutes in the center of the room left their posts and poured into the cell to take him down.

Still merely a shimmer in the light, Ludo moved to strike and en route saw two of the remaining Brutes in the pack get sniped within seconds of each other and crumple to the floor. The Brute Major that was standing between them threw down a bubble shield just before Ludo dashed forward and spanked him on the side of the head with the underside of his carbine.

As a result, the Major went sliding across the floor into a wall and the shield expanded to full size, with Ludo inside. Being invisible, Theg hadn't seen him move in and threw a plasma grenade at two Jackals the Plague had sidestepped to get to the Brute.

Both Jackals cawed in fear as they dove away from the bright blue explosion. One of them had actually been able to escape into the safety of the bubble shield, smack dab into Ludo's forth swinging foot. Reinforcements then came storming into the room, directly into the bubble.

The first of the beasts delivered a vicious swing with the giant, deadly bayonet attached to his weapon but Ludo hopped back and toe kicked him in the belly. The blow was as unexpected as it was devastating, and the Brute doubled over, groaning. Ludo casually set a latent plasma grenade on his furry back and shoved him towards his teammates, then dove backwards out of the shield an eye blink before it exploded.

He was still on the ground, staring forward to see the results of his work. Nothing had survived, not the bubble shield and definitely not the Brutes inside. Then Ludo saw that Theg was suddenly standing beside him with an arm outstretched.

"That was exhilarating, was it not?" The older Elite asked rhetorically as he helped him to his feet.

Ludo saw the Arbiter walking out of a cell full of dead Brutes and putting his sword away, then saw the shields to all the containment cells shut off.

"Shields down," Joha called from up top, apparently having found the controls.

Zuvo and his Elites walked in just as the prisoners were coming out of their cells. Everyone was shocked to see that two of the four prisoners were Sangheili High Councilors. They were all supposed to be dead. All of the Elites in attendance, including the Arbiter, stood stock still, raised their heads high, and placed a closed fist over their heart in a traditional salute. The other two prisoners were a pair of Hunters, most likely the Councilors' security detail.

Zuvo stepped forth, "Holy High Councilors, it is imperative we get you back to Sanghelios. You are the only known living Councilors so far, and progress on that front is not looking optimistic. We have the Shipmaster standing by for extraction. Itan, Soze, escort them back to the cruiser."

The two blue armored Elite Minors did as they were ordered and took the Councilors to Rtas's Phantom on the bridge. The Hunters, however, stayed behind. Upon the Councilors' departure, everyone began locking and loading, searching the fallen for weapons, ammunition, checking themselves for injuries or battle scars.

Joha hopped down from the upper tier sporting an extra energy sword on his hip. Theg was removing a second needler from a tipped supply crate. Ludo managed to find something that caught his eye as well. He retrieved the Beam Rifle from the magnetic holster on his back and lightly tossed it to Xepo, who thanked him. He then holstered his carbine and stooped down to pick up a spiker.

Officially designated as the Type-25 Carbine, this nasty looking little device is the Jiralhanae standard, all-purpose weapon. A fully automatic rail-type weapon fed via drum magazine, it fires superheated metallic spikes capable of tearing through armor and flesh with relative ease. Mounted under the barrel of the deceptively heavy weapon are two large, sharp blades made of tungsten carbide, allowing the user to become even deadlier in close quarters combat.

Ludo had seen quite a few Humans armed with those booming shotguns get savagely slaughtered for underestimating those blades, and he did enjoy the idea of giving the Brutes a taste of their own medicine by using it against them.

Plague," The Arbiter called from where he stood near the door. "Take point. Hunters guard the rear."

Ludo nodded without a word and turned his cloaking unit back on before walking through the threshold of the open doorway.