EliteCommander

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai and UNSC AI SHI 1203-8

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Like most of the others, Vael first prioritized heading to the armory to equip himself for the mission ahead. It would still be hours before they were set to begin, but he wanted to ensure he would be ready at a moment’s notice. He could manage the changes to his team, though his impression of the new Human was not particularly positive. Most Humans were not like the Spartans, who were strong, capable warriors even by Sangheili standards. The average Human was…variable. During his time in the war, he had seen excesses of both cowardice and courage from Human warriors. Sometimes, they would flee like Unggoy as their will was broken, and at other points, they would fight against overwhelming odds to the last breath against superior foes, and sometimes even attain victory. Only time would tell how this Human would compare.

Vael was not a normal member of the ship’s crew, but he did not attract near as much attention as the Humans undoubtedly would, aside from the fact that the crew he passed tended to quiet down from their conversations when he was near. As a high ranking officer, that was not a fact he found strange. He only heard parts of conversations between a few Unggoy on the way to the armory, but even though he heard them perfectly clearly, he found what they said to be as incomprehensible as it was irrelevant.

All of the team’s equipment had been transferred to the ship, and Vael quickly found the crate containing it after he arrived. Given the mission parameters, he did not intend to arm himself differently from his standard preference. An energy sword, plasma rifle, and his carbine would be sufficient for what they would be facing. For his armor’s equipment, active camouflage would be the most useful for the first objective of dealing with the anti-air cannon. After that, they would be returning to the ship, so there would be a chance for the team to adjust their loadouts for the assault.

Vael was surprised when the hologram of the Human AI, Shih, appeared at the end of a table near to him, at the center of the room. Evidently, it had been given approval to interface with at least some part of the ship. Vael was not sure that he approved, but it was not his decision.

”I believe there is something I should inform you and your team about.” Shih announced to Vael as soon as she appeared.

Vael turned his head back and spoke calmly. ”Very well. You may speak, construct.”

”Right…if you bring your attention to those crates over there, there is some new equipment that has been approved for Aegis team’s use. It took a lot of…debate, but there are weapons and equipment recovered from Prometheans that both UNSC personnel, and your people, can you. I may have to do some work to interface the armor abilities with your harness, but I have been told it can be done. The modules are adaptable.” Shih explained.

The concession to allow Vael and his team to use the Promethean equipment could have been seen as an offering of trust, through Vael doubted ONI would be so kind. Likely, it was a decision driven by circumstance and practicality. Jul ‘Mdama’s forces were still working with Prometheans after the campaign on Requiem, so it seemed likely that the Swords of Sanghelios would be able to recover Forerunner equipment just as easily. Sharing it with Aegis team now simply allowed them to seem more cooperative.

Opening up the crates, Vael did find a variety of options available. Promethean enhanced visual sensors, hardlight shields, and autosentries were all available, as well as a small variety of Promethean weapons. There were multiple boltshots, suppressors, and grenades, two lightrifles, as well as a single scattershot, binary rifle, and incineration cannon. They were all powerful weapons, but ammo availability would be a limitation. If one chose to use one of the weapons, they would only have a single spare reload.

The Cradle

Vreta gripped his weapon tightly, continuing to press on towards the surface. The situation was hard to interpret from within. Once they reached their destination, they would have the tools to expand their perspective on what was happening. The voice was something strange; perhaps something from within the Cradle? He suspected there might be an intelligence within the Cradle, guiding its actions, but he hoped it was nothing from within the Object they had recovered.

I’ve lived long enough to see nature defied at every turn. Death is no different. Vreta thought with a distinct conviction as they emerged from the subway. He made a quick assessment of the surroundings the moment they came into view. The headquarters itself was now in sight, with just a park between them. The quickest route would be through a grassy, vegetated area surrounding a statue. Vreta was, at this point, inherently suspicious of the plant life, considering how the Cradle always seemed to work through organic agents. However, he had seen more than enough cases of the Cradle suddenly taking over artificial areas to realize that it did not seem to matter. Perhaps the fact that the park was already filled with living beings would make it more difficult for the Cradle to take their place?

“There are the headquarters. What area do we need to reach?” Vreta asked.

The Cradle

Vreta flicked off his plasma blade before both halves of the creature had even hit the ground. Since his weapon cauterized the wounds as it made them, he was spared at least most of the creature’s fluids, though not all of them. Regardless, he could not afford to waste time. Every second mattered, and they needed to get to their destination. He holstered both his knife and plasma blade, then picked back up his rifle off the ground before sprinting over to 595 and Freyr.

Silently at first, Vreta moved towards the stairway, then motioned for Freyr to fall in line just behind him. “We need to move quickly. I can sense them, more creatures on approach. These or…something else.” He informed them. Rhia had put up warnings of what she was detecting via echolocation before the second creature was even dead.

Vreta did not worry about any other concerns other than what was directly ahead of them. This time, he took the lead as he guided them up the stairs towards the surface, and closer to their destination. Regardless of what he might have done had he been in control sooner, there was no time for worry or doubts right now.

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

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Vael simply observed through most of the altercation. His stance was that any problem between members of his team should be dealt with however they saw fit, on their own time. Indeed, he gave little restriction as to how his soldiers should behave, as long as they could perform well during their missions. The moment any of their issues started to affect a mission, however, Vael made it known that he would solve their problems himself. If necessary, he would have stepped in to remind Tar not to do anything that would prevent the Human from fulfilling his duties.

Ultimately, though, Tar decided to release the Human and go on her way. A merciful conclusion, overall; perhaps moreso than he deserved. In any case, Vael had made his own observations of the encounter, and drawn a few possible conclusions about this new team member. ”You do not carry yourself as most Humans around us, Petty Officer Flint. For most of your soldiers, we walk among one another, holding closed old wounds that beg to be opened, though we work to keep them sewn shut for the good of our futures. These wounds can bear anger and pain, or respect for some, but it is a history we have shared as enemies. I do not see that weight in your words. You are young, yes? And you do not know my people, not as enemies, and not as allies?”

With others approaching, Vael finally took the time to grab his datapad and confirm the new transfers to his team. Petty Officer Second Class Johnathan Flint, recommended for engineering expertise, and Infiltrator Comi ‘Masam, assigned by the recommendation of Spartan Ryker. The Spartan had proven himself a capable warrior during their time working cooperatively, but Comi would need to do the same, regardless of recommendations. At least her mettle would be easier to test than Flint’s. His reason for being among them were for skills that Vael was unfamiliar with, and that he did not truly know how to measure aside from seeing the results during the mission. ”The weight of words will only carry you so far. I still expect your merit to be proven in battle.”

The Cradle

In this position, the creature could not deliver a full-force blow with its legs, so their spikes merely scratched the surface of Vreta’s armor. Although, its tail proved to be more of a threat as it wrapped around his leg. Getting Vreta to the ground would go a long way to putting the creature in a position to do some real damage.

Underneath his helmet, Vreta was gritting his teeth. In the moment he had to react, Vreta dug his foot into the ground…quite literally. He jabbed a clawed boot into the platform itself, giving him a firm position to resist the pull of the creature’s tail trying to sweep him off of his feet. Rhia closely monitored the forces being applied across the affected sections of his leg armor, though the platform’s floor would likely give before that would, and indeed, that was precisely what started happening.

Vreta had not intended to resist forever. He only intended just to buy a few moments. Rhia tracked the plasma blade through the air during its flight and directed Vreta on when to intercept it. Without so much as taking his eyes off of the creature, he snatched the blade out of the air just before its tail jerked his foot out of the ground.

Vreta hit the ground hard as he fell onto his back. The beast wasted no time climbing onto him to pin him down, while raising one leg high up in the air to finally be able to get a good amount of force behind its spike. With Vreta’s blade in hand, though, it was already too late for it. As the leg started to jab downward, it was met with a swing that cut through the leg both in the middle of the spike, and father down close to the joint. Vreta wasted no time following through, using the momentum of the first swing to start a second cutting diagonally through the thickest part of its body to maximize the damage.

The Cradle

Rhia was not expecting its dexterity to be the unknown variable, but in any case, she worked quickly to adapt. She loosened the safeties on Vreta’s muscles to give him a better chance of taking this creature head-to-head. Luckily, its damaged jaw meant that it could not find much purchase biting down on his head. Teeth scraped against the armor, but could not get around his head to actually start concentrating the force. As far as grappling was concerned, the jaws that would normally be its main weapon were damaged. Being an animal, it may not have been creative enough to understand how to overcome its injury.

The creature was already grabbing a hold of him, so Vreta grabbed it right back in return. He got one hand on its neck, and another on the base of its left spike, then turned around and slammed it up against the column himself. A part of the column was crushed and crumbled under the force of the hit. From there, he released his grip with both hands and started to strike it in every way he could. Powerful, unrestrained blows to the bottom and side of the creature’s head came from one hand, while the other grabbed the knife from his magnetic holster and started to make quick jabs across any bit of soft tissue he could see. He kicked with the clawed boots of one foot, and even delivered a headbutt to try and smash in its teeth. He did not know its vital areas, precisely, but he could at least overwhelm it with attacks and give it enough injuries to make it reconsider wanting to be close to Vreta.

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

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Vael was aware of Human conventions for greetings. Many of the Humans who he had been working with as a part of Aegis team no longer bothered with them, since they all knew their customs were not shared. This Human, though, was clearly new. Vael did not know all of the UNSC’s ranks and roles, but the meaning of “engineer” was self-explanatory. If that implied the skills he possessed, then Vreta could see why he might have been selected to assist the team on this mission. They had objectives that would benefit from technical expertise. Vael did recall that some final changes to their team’s composition were being considered by their superiors in the days leading up to the briefing. He would need to check after this to see which had been given approval. These would ideally have been decided upon before the briefing, but logistical issues had been an irritating constant for Aegis team.

Tar ‘Mdalak’s interjection came uninvited, though Vael could not say the Human’s response was any more wise. On his part, Vael would not do anything to hold Tar back unless she threatened to prevent this Human from performing his duties. ”You have a great deal to learn, Flint.”

The Cradle

The action moved quickly as the beasts pounced upon them. They moved with speed and ferocity, and after firing on the encroaching creature’s legs, Vreta had only seconds to react. They were seconds which Rhia intended to use wisely. Her processor clock ticked over from one nanosecond to the next as she watched the creature inching steadily closer through the air through Vreta’s eyes. The neuron connections between his artificial eyes and brain had been replaced with higher speed connections, so his vision could actually update their mind fast enough to take advantage of her processing speed. And of course, she had his other sensors available to feed her data. Between his vision and echolocation data, she had precise measurements of the position and velocity of every part of the creature they could detect.

Naturally, trajectory calculations were trivial to Rhia. Even the simplest of AI could handle basic physics calculations. What was more difficult would be making accurate analysis of their strategic options based on the observational data she had collected so far. Regardless of how quickly she could think, Vreta was still limited in how well he could react to her recommendations in the seconds he would have. She had to make sure that every bit of the information she gave him was accurate.

Let’s see, what can we do about this? Rhia thought as she took a good look at the numbers the physics algorithms were giving her. Plotted out visually, the creature would be landing pretty much right on him, spiked legs first. Okay, not a great start. Need some penetration values; what have I got?

The likelihood of armor penetration would be given by the force that would be applied on the contact area, combined with the estimated strength of the spikes’ material composition, compared to the known strength of Vreta’s armor. Luckily, Rhia did have a few points of reference to estimate the material density and approximate strength of the carapace. Assuming this creature was not exceptionally different in composition from the female, she had observed values for its impact force against 595, as well as its speed and resistance to changes in motion. From that, she could get a reasonable estimate on its mass and density. The carapace’s strength was harder, but between the two creatures, their legs had taken three shots of known power from Vreta’s weapon. That provided enough data points for her to make a ballpark estimate of the material’s durability. Combined with the velocity calculations, the lower end of that range would still have Vreta’s armor holding, though the upper end became more worrisome. Of course, that would not do.

Okay, definitely got to do something about that. Start strafing right, rotate the hips, and… Rhia projected a few of the possible positions Vreta could take before impact. With quick enough movement, he could angle his torso so that the spike would strike a glancing blow against his armor, while still keeping in a position to defend Freyr. Adjusting for the force of the new impact, the armor would hold for any values within the range of Rhia’s estimates. Better. Now for the counter

Rhia did not estimate that Vreta could overpower the creature, but he did have the strength to fight back. He would just need to leverage the creature’s momentum against it. Based on the position he was going to move to, Rhia identified the points to grab on the beast’s underside so Vreta could duck underneath and throw the creature mostly in the direction of its own momentum up against one of the columns behind him. From there, Vreta would have a chance to open fire.

Rhia had the plan set, and so she projected each recommended action on Vreta’s HUD from moment to moment. She also spurred his muscles to move at the right times in the right ways to make each motion seem almost like instinct. Still, regardless of how much detail Rhia put into planning, they were still limited by Vreta’s ability to execute on that plan in real time. He could think quickly, but not nearly as quickly as her.

To Vreta, following Rhia’s instruction was like following a sixth sense. It felt like his subconscious guided him from one movement to the next. He started to strafe and turn his body so the spike would glance off of his armor. He let go of his rifle, ducked down low, and went to grab the creature as it flew overhead to throw it up against the column behind him. At the same time, he used his tail to push Freyr out of the path of danger. If all went well, he would draw his pistol and open fire into the creature’s underbelly at full power until it died, or something else happened. A Rothian sidearm did have comparable power to a rifle, but merely lacked in the versatility of firing modes and long range accuracy.

Halo: Aegis Team

Vael 'Virisusai

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Being aboard the Blockade Runner once again brought Vael back to familiar territory. Time spent among Humans was often spent in cramped quarters among suspicious and unusual people, so being back on a Sangheili vessel was something of a relief. Granted, Blockade Runners were somewhat uncomfortable even among Sangheili. The scented air and constant subsonic sounds of the vessel were not present on the Covenant vessels most Sangheili had been accustomed to serving on. There were still vessels from the Covenant among their fleet, but as they could not be replaced, more traditional Sangheili designs had come to the forefront the longer this war lasted. They tended to have less refined efficiency, relying more on sheer power in weapons, propulsion, and other systems. A lack of safeties meant that ships such as this could be pushed beyond the limits of Covenant vessels, but for less experienced crews, that made catastrophic failures more likely.

Stepping out of the pelican, Vael did notice a Human standing nearby, seemingly waiting for them. Ethat had already handled directing them to necessary locations around the ship, though it was possible that the Humans had some matter of importance for them. The UNSC was also contributing soldiers, vehicles, and equipment to this mission.

Out of Aegis team, Vael was the first to approach the Human. He was small, even by their kind’s standards: a fact that became all the more prominent as Vael towered over him. ”You have something to say, Human?” He asked.

Halo: Aegis Team

Hekar Taa-pattern Blockade Runner Magnificent Defiance, low-Earth orbit

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Given that they would be leaving that day, Aegis team were encouraged quickly into the pelican, though once they were aboard the Blockade Runner, they would be able to do as they saw fit until they arrived at Brissekh. Covenant slipspace drives were far superior to the traditional Human Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines. Journeys that, before the reverse-engineering of Forerunner slipspace technology, took Humans months, the Covenant could complete in minutes to hours. Brissekh was not too far outside Human territory, so it would only take a few hours to reach their destination. They would likely be waiting longer than that for the rest of the fleet to be ready to start the diversion.

Although a corvette by Sangheili standards, the Blockade Runner in orbit, Magnificent Defiance, was even larger than the Autumn-class heavy cruiser they had used during their first mission. As the loading ramp of the pelican opened, they were greeted with a curious mixture of UNSC and Swords personnel and equipment. Sangheili and Unggoy crewmen coordinated with Human marines to organize the vehicles and equipment that were being delivered by a constant stream of cargo pelicans. Obviously, the ship did not have proper storage facilities for Human equipment, not to mention differing organizational conventions between their two militaries, so there were no doubt no shortage of logistical issues for the two groups to iron out. Fortunately, that particular task did not fall to Aegis team.

Before leaving the pelican, Ethat sent each member of the team a map of the ship highlighting relevant areas. Quarters, mess hall, training rooms, and likely most relevant, the armory with their equipment. Given that they would not be staying on the ship long before the start of the mission, they would not likely need to stray far if they did not wish to.