[H1]Tar 'Mdalak[/h1]
[I]The Kel 'Darsam - off Paxopolis Boardwalk[/i]
[hr]
Tar looked at her comrade. Her face must have been a picture and she hadn’t even known it. “Yes I… I have unfinished business with the Jiralhanae.” She suddenly got the urge to tell Kryu the whole story, or at least what she could remember. The recruits would probably tell everyone they saw, meaning the whole base would be privy in a few weeks. Better he heard it from her.

As Tar ground the last bit of her food between her mandibles and considered how to proceed, her helmet, sat on the bar beside her bowl, chirruped loudly. She stared at it. They didn’t get orders very often at all.

Putting her bowl down, she clicked her helmet back into place and hit replay on last comms.

[b]“All units will report back to the Repentant Proselyte immediately.”[/b] were the simple instructions.

She looked at Kryu, who was rapidly finishing off his breakfast in anticipation. “They’re calling us back to the ship.” She said. Despite her wobbly morning so far, Tar was excited. This hadn’t happened before, and could only mean one thing; there was at least a chance they’d go into battle. “They must have heard us talking.” She grinned.

She paid for both of their breakfasts and patted Kryu on the back again, letting him lead the way to the exit.

The broad street was alive with activity when they emerged from the side street of the Kel ‘Darsam. Sailors and marines of all species were quickly trooping from various buildings and heading towards the shuttleport. Some were unarmed, jogging quickly as they were unencumbered. Others were fully armoured and sporting assault weapons.

Tar and Kryu nudged their way into the flowing crowd, finding space next to a platoon of ODSTs. They were tall and strong by Human standards, and each wore a fitted black undersuit with the flaming skull insignia. Tar idly guessed their oversuits must've been stored on board their star ship.

One of the ODSTs noticed Tar looking and winked up at her, chewing gum and fingering the pistol in his chest holster. "Hey sexy." He called, blowing a kiss. Tar growled and turned to Kryu. "Hopefully the base isn’t under attack too, with us all standing around in the open. Let's move." She began picking her way through the slow moving crowd, opening a hole for her comrade to follow.

Kryu spared only a glance to the Humans. To him, their behaviors were far from consistent, and sometimes irrational in ways that he never would have expected before the end of the war. He had fought against them during the time of the Covenant, and his experiences against their warriors did not prepare him for the…oddities he would experience as their ally. Nevertheless, there were far more important concerns at the moment. He caught up to Tar and kept pace close beside her.

“Whatever is happening must be related to our warriors being put on alert. I doubt our superiors would collect us all from the city just for a test. If that is so, then it is strange they did not inform us of any threats. I dislike this secrecy.” Kryu commented.

Upon pushing her way through the crowd a ways, Tar found the reason everyone was moving so slow. A cargo platform carrying boxes of equipment had tipped over, covering most of the road.

After navigating carefully past it, the road was still busy but there was much more room to manoeuvre. Tar broke into an ambling jog alongside Kryu, as excited as her comrade to find out the meaning of their orders.

They slalomed past groups of soldiers in varying states of combat readiness and teams of base personnel heading for their regular duty stations. A few other Sangheili joined in, taking advantage of the course through the crowds Tar and Kryu were creating.

After traversing a few streets, roughly one kilometre in total, they reached one of the entrances to Paxopolis shuttleport. Given that Paxopolis did not have regular, civilian contact with other colonies, the majority of the shuttleport’s traffic were generally military transports. Though, it was particularly busy now. 

Fortunately, once they were in the shuttleport itself, the soldiers boarding their dropships were far more organized than the civilians in the streets going about their day. For Tar and Kryu, they lined up to board the same phantom heading up to their cruiser, the Repentant Proselyte.

After they both headed up the grav-lift and found their places in the phantom, Kryu nudged Tar’s side with his elbow to grab her attention. “Maybe we [i]are[/i] leaving Sarcophagus? We’re not under attack, else the city would already be going into lockdown, but I cannot imagine what aside from real combat would call for the aid of an entire cruiser.”

“Perhaps.” Tar agreed. “Not just one cruiser either. A lot of the sailors making their way back were from different ships. It seems most of the fleet could be mobilising.”

“I heard it could be a Brute battle group.” Said a Minor opposite them. Despite her extreme scepticism of the young male’s source of intel, Tar felt all her nerves tingle at the thought.

“A Brute ambush, outside the sphere? They have no honour!” someone called out.

“It sounds like a fair fight to me!” A Major at the far end stood up and hammered his chest. As one, every Sangheili in the Phantom’s hold began rhythmically beat their fists against their armour and produced a deep, threatening sound from the back of their throat.

This continued for much of the short journey up to the Repentant Proselyte, with different officers taking turns to whip them into a frenzy. By the time the Phantom docked in one of their cruiser’s enormous hangar bays, Tar was ready to tear apart the first Brute she saw with her own hands.

They all exited the Phantom via the grav lift and headed for one of the many doors into the ship proper. Tar knew Rangers prepared for battle in a separate area to her, toward the stern, so she caught Kryu before they parted ways. “If i don’t see you before - good luck, brother.” They shared a heartfelt salute.

Kryu hummed for just a moment, then gave a slight laugh. “I would wish you luck, sister, but I know you do not need it.”

Tar chuckled. “Just make sure I have a ship to come back to.” She playfully patted his arm and began walking toward the SpecOpsCon for debrief.