EliteCommander

Halo: Aegis Team

It had been for Vael ‘Virisusai, quite a long, silent flight in the back of a Pelican dropship. He had spent the past week on Earth at a different one of the Humans’ military installations. He had been selected by the Swords of Sanghelios, with the direct approval of the Arbiter, for this “Aegis team”. He was to serve as the commander of the Swords of Sanghelios warriors underneath him, to represent the interests of the Swords of Sanghelios, and to serve as the commander of the team itself on any mission where the Sangheili were decided to have authority. It had been a simple decision on the part of the Swords, once they had agreed to form this team. However, he had the impression that there was some confusion among the Humans. Vael was not privy to the weeks of inter-departmental discussions and arguments as to who should have jurisdiction over the UNSC contributions to the team, after HIGHCOM approved the plan. Being something of a…unique team, UNSC Naval Command, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and Spartan Operations all had their arguments for taking command. Vael did not have any knowledge of these discussions, but he did know that he had only today been given a direct answer as to who would be his counterpart among the Humans.

Eventually, the hours of silence were interrupted by the voice of the pilot. “Approaching LZ, prepare to disembark.” The two Human soldiers serving as Vael’s escort looked briefly at one another, but remained ever stoic. The rear door opened just as the Pelican was touching down on a landing pad just in front of a large, roughly-conical building in the middle of a massive Human city: HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6. The landing area was in a protected courtyard, surrounded by high walls and security gates. Even still, as Vael stepped out of the back of the Pelican, he could still get a good view of the skyline of the city. He had learned some of this place before coming here. The city was called Sydney: a place that had been devastated by the invasion of Truth’s fleet during the war. Very little of the city had escaped severe damage, or outright destruction, at the hands of the Jiralhanae. Yet, after just five years, most of the city had been rebuilt. As Vael stepped away from the Pelican, flanked on both sides by his two Human guards, his thoughts went briefly back to his own home on Sanghelios. The city around him now was entirely alien to the structures of his own people, or even the former Covenant. Its scale could perhaps be compared to his home, but in Vael’s eyes, its many skyscrapers were cold and utilitarian. On Sanghelios, their cities were built into mountains, valleys, and caverns, becoming just as much a part of the landscape as the stones themselves. In this place, there was hardly any landscape to be seen, just metal and glass. Still, if nothing else, he supposed he could respect the Humans’ resilience to be able to face such losses and recover in short order.

As they approached the entrance of the building, they were met by two, black-armored security guards that wordlessly took over escorting Vael into the building, while the other soldiers returned to the Pelican. His new guards escorted him into the building; although, they did not make it any farther than the atrium before one of his new guards had him stop and wait where they were following a short conversation with one of his superiors. As patient as he usually was, Vael was growing frustrated with the continued delays the Human bureaucracy tended to cause. For today, he knew that he was meant to be meeting with an agent from the organization known as ONI, Major Alice Robinson, as well as the Captain of the vessel to which they would be assigned for their first mission. He knew that all of the members of Aegis Team had been selected and were on Earth, though he was unsure if they had all yet arrived. They too would be meeting for the first time today. In any case, Vael could continue to remain patient with the Humans for a while longer. He could tell that his guards were anxious to get moving as well. The sight of a Sangheili warrior in the middle of a Human city did draw some attention, especially from civilians who had reason to visit the UNSC’s headquarters.

Vael might have been more irritated had he known the true reason for the delay. Approval had not been given to reveal the existence of the facility’s underground complex to the non-Human members of the team. Normally, there would be no issue using one of the secure meeting rooms in the skyscraper above-ground. However, someone had neglected to consider the fact that they would require a secure room specifically on the ground-level, owing to the fact that one member of the team weighed approximately 5,000 kilograms and could not make use of any space not accessible by cargo elevator.

Halo: Aegis Team

@ReusableSwordUnggoy are allowed, and we don't really have an explosives expert yet. So, that sounds good.

@AndromedaiI think Aviza is pretty much good to go. It does seem that you accidentally added two sections for rank, with different ranks. "Spartan" would be the correct rank for post-war. It will be good to have a medic on the team. I approve her.

I probably should have put a section for "specialization" instead of just skills in the CS format, especially since Spartans are trained to do pretty much anything well.

Halo: Aegis Team

@Muttonhawk Almost had me there...

You've made a pretty interesting Sangheili, in my opinion, and that is a pretty good reason for him to have been selected. I don't see any problems, so I accept him.

I have one other person who has sent me a CS, and I expect to be accepting that one as well. I believe I will work on starting the IC tomorrow (technically today for me). We will start off getting introduced to each other and the mission, so I will still be accepting for a while, in case there is anyone out there who is interested, but hasn't yet said anything. @DeadDrop, I remember you expressed your interest in the IntChk thread. Are you still wanting to join?

The Apotheosis Arcanaeum

Name: Sika

Race: Therian (Kobold base form)

Age: 10

Appearance:

Kobold

Affinity: Vitamancy

Talents:

• Hunting and other wilderness survival skills
• Trap-making
• Cleverness and creativity
• Strong memory
• Team-oriented
• Unyielding optimism

Problems:

• Incomplete language comprehension outside of her tribe’s language.
• Almost entirely ignorant of how to live among civilization
• Diminutive size
• Unyielding optimism

Recommendation Letter: Sika was considered, from a young age, to be a strange one among her tribe. She grew up just a bit different from all the other Kobolds, and those differences only grew stronger as she became older. She would always tend to get lost in the caves or at night, and she eventually figured out that she could not see in the dark nearly as well as her kin. As well, while she does have claws, they did not become proper digging claws as she matured, so she could not easily contribute to many of the tasks that her tribe would find simple. She would find herself the subject of ridicule from other children for the fact that she could not explore the caves as they could, and she always felt the need to try and live up to expectations she simply could not meet.

While she practiced hard to try and learn skills to make up for her shortcomings, Sika still ended up as sort of a black sheep of the tribe by the time she was an adult. For a while, she could only hunt during the daytime, and she could only use traps that did not require too much digging. However, she was a perseverant, adaptable, and clever individual. She learned how to create tools to overcome her weakness in digging so she could craft more types of traps for hunting. For the kinds of prey that only tended to come out at night, she started patiently observing their habits and preferences so she could figure out lures to bait them into her limited vision, or simply into her traps. For navigating the darkness of the caves her tribe tended to use, she, throughout her life, developed a rather impressive memory and sense of direction. Even so, despite her accomplishments, Sika never ended up satisfying herself her own standards of being a worthy member of the tribe. In her mind, she had to go through so much extra effort just to do the same things as everyone else.

The event that would eventually come to reshape Sika’s life was the arrival of a group of outsiders. They were an expeditionary group, sent from the Apotheosis Aranaeum to study the Kobolds and other tribal people that lived in the remote areas of Crystaalilk. They were, as all outsiders, met initially with suspicion. But, Sika’s tribe, while defensive, was not a bloodthirsty one, and when the outsiders came bearing gifts of food and supplies, her tribe was honor-bound to treat with them as they would another Kobold tribe. The gift the outsiders wanted in return was one of knowledge, and it was one that was granted, albeit reluctantly. The task of leading around outsiders all day and answering endless questions was not a particularly desirable one for most of the tribe, so of course, Sika was one of those selected for it.

Over the course of a few months, and a few rounds of gifts on the part of the expedition, Sika spent most of her time with an Elvish man named Melecus tasked with studying the particulars of the tribe’s dialect, and their history. She was surprised to find that he could already sort of speak their language at the start, but even still, it took some time before he learned enough of their tribe’s particular dialect that they could communicate effectively. At that point, she spent most days doing just as she was asked and telling as many of the stories and myths of her people as she could remember. However, unlike most of the other Kobolds, she also returned that curiosity in kind. She asked Melecus about where he was from and what stories he could tell her. She learned some of his language, and more importantly, became engrossed in the concept of magic and being a mage. Sika started telling stories more personal to herself, rather than the tribe as a whole, and he eventually identified that she was not a Kobold at all, but rather a Fey like himself. A Therian.

Even after a few attempts at an explanation, Sika never truly understood what it meant to be a Therian, and she still thought of herself as Kobold, but she did understand that it meant she could be something else. She could have a body other than her own, and considering how much she hated the body fate had given her, that was an idea she latched onto. She told him she wanted to go to the Arcanaeum he had told her about this magic, though it was some time before she got her answer.

It was just before the expedition was set to move on that Melecus offered Sika a chance. It would not help her to join him, but she could make her own case for acceptance into the Arcanaeum. He gave her a book with hand-drawn maps, which he taught her to read, as well as copies of notes he made on their respective languages to help her translate and learn more of his language. He told her that, if she could make it on her own from her village to the Aranaeum, then the journey would be enough to prove her worth to them. He had written pages of helpful advice to assist her journey, and finally, gave her a pouch of circular, shiny objects. He told her to go to a specific city and wait for a specific woman, a “captain” of a big boat, to give her that pouch, and tell her that she wanted to go to a place called Trasis. The woman would take her on the boat to the island, and only then would Sika be able to reach the Arcanaeum.

Melecus had also tried to warn Sika of the many dangers and challenges she would face on such a journey, but she had not spent much time worrying about them. As soon as the expedition left, so too did Sika. And indeed, her journey was one which could be written into a novel. Across many miles, many regions, and many landscapes she walked. She had no carriage or beasts of burden to carry a stockpile of food and supplies, so every day called upon her skills of survival to hunt and forage in order to sustain herself. Melecus had given her some descriptions and illustrations in the book of a few types of plants that were safe to eat in regions outside her homeland, but that was far from enough to make it easy. Even the simple act of walking could be made a challenge when forced to traverse everything from mountains, to thick forests, to swampland. She had to find new ways to hunt creatures that behaved in ways she had never seen, and to fight off dangerous beasts that could easily see her as a meal. She dealt with injury and pain, exhaustion and hunger, all while protecting with her life the gifts that Melecus had given her. Sika was mentally at her lowest when, under the guise of a friendly offering of a warm meal, she was lured into the camp of a small group of highwaymen, beaten, and robbed of her few belongings. Still, even when it would have been easier to give up, she persevered, tracked them despite her injuries, and stole in the night everything they had taken from her.

It took over a year, a year of pain and persistence, but Sika never faltered in her commitment. She made it to the city, braved its frighteningly large crowds and alien buildings for days until she could find the woman Melecus had described and gave her the pouch. She boarded the impossibly large boat and endured days of the most sickening nausea she had ever experienced, but she finally made it to the island. The final stretch of the journey to Medaya was a casual stroll compared to everything she had been through. But, through it all, as just a diminutive Kobold, she had finally made it to the Apotheosis Aranaeum.

Halo: Aegis Team

@SkyrteI think that Tasuma's background works. Some of Regret's invasion forces had certainly been left behind after his carrier fled, and it was pretty much immediately afterwards that Truth sent his Jiralhanae-led fleet with orders to wipe out any remaining Sangheili and Human resistance. If Tasuma was among a small pocket of Sangheili-led holdouts left over from Regret's invasion force, I could see there being an impromptu truce, especially if a prideful Brute let it slip that the orders came from the Hierarchs. Miranda, Johnson, and the Arbiter returned from Installation 05 before the Fleet of Retribution, so they wouldn't have to wait for the fleet to get their truce "confirmed".

I can tell by many of the little details in your CS that you've done your homework on the Lekgolo, so you might already be aware, but if you haven't already, you might try looking up voice lines from "Colony" in Halo Wars 2. Lekgolo are...weird, so that might help. At any rate, unless I've missed something, I'm pretty sure I can accept Tasuma.

That does mean I won't be accepting any more Lekgolo for now.

Halo: Aegis Team

@Crab Bane I do think that your character having grudges against many of the former Covenant species does make for a nice source of potential drama. Although, I do think we have to take care to make sure that his superiors have no reason to believe he will engage in any potentially harmful behavior towards allies of those species. Otherwise, they would not have selected him for the mission, despite his skill. It's a fine line to walk, but his superiors just have to believe that he will behave.

The Apotheosis Arcanaeum

@Bliss AudaciousI think the usual approach is just to post it into the OOC for review before approval.

Halo: Aegis Team

A thunderstorm is threatening to knock me offline, but I have finished my CS for my primary character and put it in the character tab.

Halo: Aegis Team

Name: Vael ‘Virisusai

Rank (If applicable): Commander

Species: Sangheili

Appearance (for his armor, at least):

Appearance

Height: 7'10"

Skills:Vael bears the title of a blademaster, and with good reason. He also has general combat experience befitting his many years of experience, and has a long history of leadership.

Preferred Weapons/Equipment:

• Type-1 energy sword
• Type-25 plasma rifle
• Type-57 carbine
• Active Camouflage

Background: Vael ‘Virisusai is an old and experienced warrior, having already held the rank of major at the start of the Human-Covenant war. For him, the war had been an opportunity both to strive for the honor and glory of victory, and to serve the will of the gods. Early in his career, there was nothing that had set him apart from other ambitious Sangheili warriors. He did not have any particularly exceptional skills, nor an enlightened strategic mind. What he did have was the ability to survive, and to learn every lesson he could take in from every battle and skirmish.

Over the course of the war, every facet of Vael’s skill as a warrior was honed to a fine edge. From simple aim, to his ability to keep a calm mind in the chaos of battle, Vael became a more and more deadly presence on any battlefield. Victories, and especially defeats, shaped his judgment and leadership ability just as much as his personal combat skills. Like many of his kind, he preferred to kill in close quarters, especially with a blade. In both fighting against the Humans and countless hours of training and sparring among other Sangheili, he learned the intricacies of using a blade in a variety of contexts, and against different opponents. Given his people’s respect for swordsmanship, it was this accomplishment, perhaps more than the others, that most helped him to ascend the ranks of the Covenant. In the end, it was not accident, nor fate, nor genetics bestowing natural talent that created the warrior Vael became. It was pure, earned experience.

In the closing years of the Human-Covenant war Vael had ascended all the way up to the rank of Zealot, and in the final months, he had remained on High Charity after accepting an even more honored position. He was present when High Charity arrived at Installation 05…and present when the San’Shyuum wholly betrayed the Sangheili. Being stationed on the Covenant Holy City, he was a part of some of the thickest of fighting against Jiralhanae-led Covenant forces, then later the Flood as it infected the city. Ultimately, he did escape the parasite and went on to join the Fleet of Retribution to cleanse Earth of the Flood. From there, he took part in the Battle of the Ark, which finally put an end to Truth’s Covenant.

Following the end of the war, many Sangheili returned to their homes, to their clans. Many of those allied with one faction or another, but Vael did not do so immediately. His life had been one of honor and war, but most of all service to a faith he now knew to be a lie. Shortly after the Battle of the Ark, he secured a small ship and simply…left. He was not seen in Swords of Sanghelios space, nor that of the UNSC. With the exception of a single re-fueling run on Squala, it was as if he had vanished from civilized space.

Then, after a year’s absence, Vael suddenly returned to Sanghelios itself. He pledged his service and loyalty to the Swords of Sanghelios. Given his history, he rose quickly through the ranks. However, those who knew him before the war would have saw some changes in him. He was more reserved, both in terms of speech, and in a more cautious, calculated style of leadership. Perhaps the most notieable change is that, while he still kills his enemies without hesitation, he no longer shows the same eagerness to take glory in battle. He no longer demonstrates his pride in his kills, nor intentionally seeks the most challenging of foes. Despite all of this, his effectiveness has not diminished. He continues to be an honored warrior among the Sangheili, but for those who knew him before, one cannot help but to wonder what else has changed within him. Despite this, he has been chosen for the Aegis Team as a Sangheili warrior with enough skill and experience to be comparable to a Spartan.

Halo: Aegis Team

@Crab BaneYour CS, as it is now, you can move to the CS tab if you want. If you make any changes or additions, just remind me so I can look them over.