Herald

Halo: Edge of Midnight

Tapo'hatam continued to stand at attention in the corner of the room, careful not to be seen leaning against the wall as the Commanders arrived. Out of habit he acknowledged Chuka'Mdaham first with a Sangheili salute. His eyes narrowed suspiciously when the human Commander introduced himself as being a part of ONI. Being on the opposite side of the war Tapo'hatam was familiar with the human intelligence organization, but his more recent experiences had anything but polite as many Sangheili volunteered for 'debriefing' by the agents as part of the deal that was allowing them to work with the human military.

Tapo'hatam had been aggressively and rudely questioned at length on everything having to do with their technology, the events leading up to the splintering of the Covenant, what he knew of the blessed rings... Everything that could possibly be of interest to their scientists, historians, and warriors. What irritated him the most was the questions they asked they often knew the answers to better than Tapo'hatam himself. Which means they were trying to see if he was being deceitful. An insult which has resulted in a few awkward moments when Tapo'hatam had pinned an particularly foolish interrogator up against the shatter proof glass and threatened to tear the man's tongue out for daring to imply that the Sangheili were surrendering or changing sides because the humans were stating to win. It was a burst of anger he regretted, but one that he was held blameless for once it became clear the interrogator had gone off script with his questions.

Tapo'hatam saluted the ONI Commander regardless, knowing it would be expected of him. When it was announced that they would not being until the last of those summoned arrived for the briefing, Tapo'hatam let out a grunt of dissatisfaction. It was one thing to waste one's personal time, but what agent could think themselves important enough to delay an entire meeting. He was quick to let the irritation slide though, perhaps there was a good reason. A training exercise gone overdue? Or perhaps they were in another briefing...

Fortunately they did not have to wait long. Tapo'hatam watched the human all but perform a sports game slide into the room and quickly take a chair, barely outpacing a pair of their 'military police'. Another human curiousity. They had warriors... specifically to police their warriors. The concept of a warrior needing anything other than the authority or combat prowess of their commander to police their actions was a foreign concept. In Tapo'hatam's mind the closest thing he could equate it to was when some of the Covenant races had to drive their Unggoy soldiers towards a battle when all the little methane breathers wanted to do was run in the opposite direction.

Human disciplinary matters aside, Tapo'hatam was more eager to find out what they had been summoned for.

"Your em-Pees seem overmatched, sir," Tapo'hatam said, moving along the wall to stand behind and to the left of Lucy's chair, "we are accounted for now. If it is agreeable, I will relieve the em-Pees of their burden with this one so that we may move on with the briefing. Unless she is to be remanded to the brig immediately?" Tapo'hatam's eyes were focused on the ONI Commander, not even offering Lucy a glance. Interacting with the human chain of command was always a shaky step. Technically his rank was equivalent to the demons- Spartans, but it usually took a grand amount of patience or quiet threats for a human to recognize that.

Halo: Edge of Midnight

Tapo'hatam considered the artificial intelligence with a curious look in his eye. He had heard of the amount of personality these... artificial people could develop but she spoke as though she was a true individual. In a way it was like talking to a younger, but more intelligent sangheili. All the curiousity and energy of a child but a mind approaching appreciation of philosophy and metaphor. Strange that humans could or would create something that clearly outclasses themselves in mentality. Then again perhaps that is why there are so few of them. From what he understood these constructs were difficult to obscenely difficult to create and most collapsed into uselessness within their first decade.

Still, what a life those few years must be.

He had been staring at Maya the entire time but blinked and seemed to do the sangheili equivalent of shaking his head when he realized he had been staring. The comment about flirting and philosophizing was meant with a laugh from the warrior.

"The two are not so different in my culture. It is valued to find a partner who's mind finds the same beauty as your own, whether that is in poetry, painting, or battle," Tapo'hatam explained, "the con-... Maya speaks well of how harmony and peace are best forged. If this is flirting then I am flattered." He did not seem to understand that leaving the sentence on that note communicated anything other than she was complimenting him. From his perspective he had given her a compliment as well by trying not to refer to her as a construct, but by her name.

"Will the following please report to Conference Room Seven. Cassandra Reed, Tapo'Hatam, Chur'R-Jev, Lucy Holden, Kajina Yates, Solares Morgenstern and Edward Lance as soon as possible."

Tapo'hatam closed his mandibles and narrowed his eyes, a sangheili gesture akin to a frown as he looked up at the ceiling. He was scheduled for two more training sessions today, but they were over an hour from now and none of the other names were on his roster for the day's scenarios. Still, with the discipline of someone who's life was defined by their service he quietly put down his eating utensils and mournfully looked at the meal he had only gotten a quarter of the way through eating. Regret was for the dead though, and he stood up and gathered his tray.

"A delightful conversation, perhaps there will be another during my time here at the station," Tapo'hatam said directly towards Maya, then turned a look on Solares, "Spartan. I apologize if there was any disrespect in not addressing you directly. It looked as though you were enjoying your sandwich, and then I was distracted by your companion." Tapo'hatam bowed his head slightly, a gesture of respect for another warrior though it seemed the earlier 'teasing' had not gone entirely unnoticed.

"Researcher Byrd. I shall attempt to see that my next training session includes simulated holy- excuse me, plasma grenades, so that the data you are curious about might be interpreted by the station's systems," Tapo'hatam said, catching himself when translating the name for the weapon so many sangheili and unggoy favored.

With each remaining person given a personal farewell he turned to discard the remainder of his lunch and add the tray to the pile slowly growing near the disposal devices. He walked towards the lifts but pressed a button to summon a different lift than Cassandra's. He offered no explanation for this, but in his mind he was simply larger than humans or spartans and those he found himself in lifts with were often uncomfortable to say the least.

His greater stride did come in handy though, as he was the first to reach the Conference room, waving his ID card over the scanner and waiting for the doors to open before moving inside and quietly taking up a standing post in the corner of the room. Unfortunately Anvil Station was a human design and the seats for someone of his size were very limited he had found.

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

Leon did feel a small surge of pride at forcing Jadarl to tip at least some of his hand. If these were wild guesses... they were far too accurate to be wild guesses. The gods of course could give him this information but if they had why did they now also choose to reveal Leon and Iliskra's real employers. As with all information gathering, it was the information that was missing that most interested Leon.

He knew they were from Chandlerscross, something they had mentioned to only one person since their arrival. It was possible he could have learned of it from Ibdur, but then why bother asking them about the rest if Ibdur had broken? Jadarl did not mentioned the meeting at the manse. Nor did he mention the mercenary camp or the ambush they had fought off on the way there. Curious details to be absent. And damning ones.

Leon's face went stone cold and he met Jadarl's gaze with an empty look on his face. His finger tapped the arm of the chair, trying to draw Iliskra's attention to his hand where he used basic sign language to spell out Elthel's name.

"My companions have names, Jadarl. Kindly use them if you want this conversation to go anywhere. If you use the word elfblood to describe her again you'll be very impressed at the lies I can convince myself of purely out of spite for you," Leon said, a bit of irritation at the insulting word used towards someone he had fought and killed alongside.

"Chandlerscross. Interesting you should mention that," Leon said, "though it makes me wonder exactly what games are being played here."

"But you've shown some truth to me, so I will show some to you," Leon offered, "Your description of our route is accurate enough. And Lord Shadow did send me a glimpse of you, two in fact. One in which you were surrounded by some rather welcoming types in red and black robes. You mention your god being rather close to Blackheart... there are only two that can claim that particular tie. Since you're not slitting my throat in the dark like a proper shadow, I have to wonder how a servant of the Mad One managed to convince a group like Shagarm to permit him entry."

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

Leon laughed out loud. He couldn't help it, the words were genuinely funny to him and he was already halfway to accepting that he wasn't getting out of here without some kind of torture. After all who would come to rescue them? Ibdur? The talons? One was supposedly a captive himself and the others either didn't know or didn't care about their situation.

"I'm sorry, that was unprofessional of me," Leon said as soon as he calmed down, "part of the joke is that you seem to think I'm some kind of priest because I have a fancy mask." Another pointless lie, but a maskarran would always deny their truth to an enemy even if the enemy already knew it. Secrets are to be kept, not confirmed.

"The other part of the joke is that you believe a god of thieves and trickery would tell you the truth. By all means, invoke the shadows, which would make you more of a priest than me by the way, and see what half truths a god dabbles in to their delight," Leon said, his tone even and empty of any mockery. It was a challenge, a gesture that if Jadarl honestly believed he could compel truth from a god, he should do so.

There was a small possibility, a trickle of unease that Jadarl could be or perhaps had access to another maskarran. That was often the trouble with secretive religions. It would not be the first time maskarrans had offered their gods aid to both sides of a conflict and Mask delighted in the chaos that unfolded.

"Truth and lies are a funny thing Jadarl. There exists only two possibilities: either I am a liar, in which case you would do well to trust only what your spies have told you," Leon said, rolling his neck as though it was getting stuff, "or your spies have lied to you, in which case... What could they possibly be doing right now while you are here playing 'whos got a secret' with the unluckiest man this side of the moonsea."

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

Maskarrans were trained for interrogations, both giving and receiving. One did not attain even the first rank of the priesthood without proving they could hold onto a secret despite the torturers bite. Leon was no exception to this rule and as soon as it became clear that Jadarl was asking a question his face became completely empty. Even his thoughts became a grey line. Mind reading magics and truth potions were common enough in Faerun, if one wanted to keep a secret, one had to build defenses ahead of time.

Of course, that didn't help him determine -why- Jadarl wanted to know. It was possible he was being honest, that he was afraid of someone or something out there that could be such a threat to him he needed to know if he should jump ship.. but what?

And why did Jadarl say there were three of them... when there were four involved in the raid on his house. Five technically. And Ibdur hadn't even been a part of it.

"That's easy enough. We are simply a band of... reasonably talented individuals that required some work. With our skill set that does tend to drift towards skullduggery as a preferred method of coin. As you can imagine working for or against the Red Wizards sounds like a terribly good way to end up either undead or just plain dead dead. So that leaves your little slice of heaven down here. We make our way to the bar... we have a good time... we put out our usual feelers for work and well... this halfling man comes up to us and says he happens to know the location of a house that belongs to a somewhat wealthy alchemist. The raw coin potential ain't much, but gods damn the opportunity to filch some real magical potions? So it was nothing personal, unless you've pissed off a woefully inept halfling burgler recently," Leon related, purposefully stretching out his words and the story, carefully weaving truth into his lie. It was possible he was selling out Willory, but any wizard worth a divination spell would have already known about the other thieves.

Still, he really hoped Iliskra was able to take some kind of advantage from him running his mouth.

"So I'm afraid we're simply caught up in the middle of a job gone wrong where it seems we were left holding the bag. If you're looking for a conspiracy to hunt you down, I'm afraid you would have to ask that halfling... Tiny Tom I think was his handle, has a thing for elven womenm" Leon said, the last bit a deliberate lie to test for any obvious truth detecting magic.

Halo: Edge of Midnight

"Spartan Commander Reed," Tapo'hatam corrected himself when Cassandra introduced herself, "I do not mind inquiries into our technology. Though I imagine Researcher Byrd here has more than enough examples to... dissect when appropriate. Keeping secrets and raining deceit upon their allies is what tore the Covenant apart. The Swords do not intend to repeat their mistakes." There was an edge of bitterness to his tone, not for the events as they occurred but for all the waste that came before it. He did not regret his actions against the human race prior to the revelation of the prophet's lies but neither did he celebrate them.

The Artificial Being drew his attention, a curious avatar of light that took on a shape reminiscent of some lore he had discovered in humanity's databases. It caused mixed feelings to radiate through his body language. His right fist clenched slightly like it was missing the feel of a familiar weapon, but the indulgent tone he kept in his voice spoke of how he was at least trying to consciously resist the old belief that artificial constructs were abominations of technology.

"Observant, yet blunt. I am finding it difficult to not like you," Tapo'hatam said lightly, "your words answer their own unasked questions. Only a fool would pretend that things are not... the Sangheili word does not translate well into the human tongue. Awkward in the manner by which a blade breaks against another blade and leaves both warriors without a means to finish their duel? My people do not ignore our part in the Covenant, we can only point out that when their lies were revealed our first act was to draw their blood. Our second act was to stand beside the humans while we did it."

"And now that the Covenant lies in pieces... what are the Swords to do? Return to fighting a war that should have never begun? Or would offering our necks as compensation salve the burns we left on human worlds?," Tapo'hatam tilted his head to the side in curiousity as though he was legitimately wondering how the artificial being saw things. He switched to his native tongue, "I have little to gain by being unfriendly among allies. Better to swim with the river than to be still and sink to it's bottom."

Halo: Edge of Midnight

Tapo'hatam was intrigued by the number of guests he was receiving during the meal. A few humans tried once in a while to share a table with him, some out of respect for the still fresh alliance between the Swords and Earth, others he had a feeling did so on a dare from their fellows. The scientist that was first to approach him received a curious tilt of his head to the side and a gesture that indicated the seat was open and available. Tapo'hatam tried to gauge the man's intentions but human's used more facial features to convey their thoughts than Sangheili, who were used to emptying their body language completely as a form of respect to one another.

The humans attempt to speak Sangheili was amusing, they all sounded a few octaves too high to Tapo'hatam's ears. Like a child that was reading from a book of higher learning. Of course he assumed he must sound the same to their ears.

"Tapo'hatam," the warrior returned the greeting by extending it's own hand and engulfing the scientist's up to his wrist. Tapo'hatam had learned early on with this that he could not bring any real strength to the greeting. Normal human bones snapped and ground together into so many shards at the flex of his alien muscles. He switched to the terran english language effortlessly to make conversation more comfortable for those around him, "You are welcome here, if you do not mind the fish's smell. The aroma is part of the enticement."

They exchanged some polite conversation about their duties aboard the station, with Tapo'hatam expressing an interest in the Mjolnir shield technology. In some ways, it was superior to the Covenant's designs and one of the few edges humanity had over their previous foes. There had been some discussions about Sangheili armor being outfitted with terran technology, but there were still a great many purists among the Sangheili who saw such desecration of their armor and weapons as offensive no matter the gains to be had. Tapo'hatam had similar views but saw it as a personal choice and offered no grudge against those Sangheili embracing terran technology. After all, their demons had proven-

As though thinking of them had summoned one, their table was approached by one of the advanced modified humans themself. Tapo'hatam's mandibles moved in a slightly inwardly drawn motion, the equivalent of a grin for their species. Many former Covenant species still feared the demons, but for some Sangheili it was like being in the presence of a grand enemy warrior. Someone who's innate existence bought a level of respect reserved usually for other Sangheili warriors. The respect was always a bit of a double edged sword though, the same grin that greeted a fellow warrior was also the grin that anticipated an epic amount of skilled violence.

"Of course, Spartan-Captain," Tapo'hatam said, combining the human's word for their demon soldiers with what he assumed was her rank. He was still getting used to UNSC insignia.

"We were discussing the pros and cons of Mjolnir shield technology versus Sangheili adaptability. Our Active Camoflauge is still superior to the terran equivalent, but your shield projectors compensate better for extreme ballistic impact-"

Halo: Edge of Midnight

Eight men and women sporting some of the most technologically advanced weapons and armor the UNSC had to offer slowly advanced into the darkened arena that had been constructed inside of Operations Training Room 4 of Anvil Station. With the dim light, half the team activated their night vision visors while specially assigned spotters switched to infrared in an attempt to spot the enemy team. Both sides had been deployed simultaneously into the arena, so neither side had the advantage of getting the drop on the other just yet. Nearly a full minute went by before one of the spotters reported a heat bloom behind partial cover near the right side of the arena.

Two riflemen moved to flanking positions and advanced on the heat signature, switching to thermal settings on their weapon sights. Banished forces still made use of active camouflage, a deadly advantage early in the Covenant War especially when what was usually concealed was an angry Sangheili who's natural strength matched those of the improved Spartans combined with the combat prowess of a warrior society. Their fingers hovered over their triggers as they got into position. A silent countdown passed between them.

Both soldier rounded the corner of the chest high cover wall at the same time, their sights trained with exacting accuracy on the heat bloom... only to feel the slight tug of tripwires on their ankles.

"Two men down, Sergeant," a gruff voice called out over the coms, "Cerberus 4 and 8, you've been killed by rigged fragmentation devices. Congratulations."

Both soldier cursed loudly, but kept their radios turned off. Slowly they sat down, one of them tossing the other a piece of gum as they settled in for the rest of the exercise.

"The heat source?," the Sergeant called back over the radio.

"Upended metal trash can, five thermal flares lit underneath and tied together. All heat. No light," the voice responded.

"Which means you can see us right now, can't you," the Sergeant mused.

"Good instincts, Sergeant," the voice sounded amused.

"Aerial Flares!," the Sergeant ordered and four flares fired up into the air and hung there, slowly falling back towards the ground as they burned bright. It was a good call, but it was too late to save Cerberus 2 as the man had the rifle knocked from his hands and was dragged around another piece of cover and tapped twice on the chestplate, a silent knife kill.

The missing soldier gave the rest of the fire team a direction to aim their weapons though and they slowly began to advance on Cerberus 2's last known location. A cluster of four beanbag rounds took one of them off their feet and they returned fire as a plasma sword snap-hissed to life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cerberus Squad filed out, cursing their luck as they headed to the locker room save for their Sergeant who trailed behind them and examined a data pad. Stepping out of the room behind him was a sight no human wanted to see this close to one of their fellows. A sangheili elite warrior in yellow-colored armor reaching out with a hand that could snap a human spinal cord like a dry twig to tap at the data pad in the Sergeant's hands.

"Your trainee's did well on their weapon accuracy, but they need a reminder that glancing shots barely drain sangheili shields. They are served best by aiming center mass first, then adjusting for their target profile-," Tapo'hatam rumbled as he helped the Sergeant scroll through the readout from his armor. A small handful of years ago, he never would have dreamed he would be assisting their one time enemies with training excersises... teaching them the best ways to kill a sangheili warrior. Time and fate waited for no being though, and after the shattering of their Covenant with the Prophets, the Swords of Sangheilios stood ready to fight alongside and hunt down the fools who refused to honor the cease fire between Sangheilios and Earth.

"Perhaps this information is better viewed with a... beer," Tapo'hatam said, gesturing at the corridor which led to the cafeteria.

"No. I should debrief the men and give them double range time tomorrow," the Sergeant said quickly. Too quickly. Tapo'hatam still made so many humans nervous. The Sergeant didn't even salute as he broke away from Tapo'hatam and made his own way towards the locker room.

The Sangheili shook it's head, pushing down the irritation that was so quick to rise when he interacted with a human. He tried not to take such things personally.

After all, a few years ago he would have killed that entire team of humans and barely bothered to note their deaths in his records.

He walked into the cafeteria by himself, taking a moment to take a plate of cooked fish and herbal tea from an unngoy worker. The cafeteria was still somewhat segregated due to the differences in dietary needs between humans and the former races of the Covenant. He purposefully took a table that was closer to the middle, muttering what the humans often referred to as a mantra of peace before digging into the aromatic meal.

Halo: Edge of Midnight

Tapo'Hatam "Taps" / "Tapper"

Tapo'Hatam

^{"K'iri juuch'imo Shak'o, k'unjo res jrashta" // "Accept the new Path, or die like a fool"}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ Tapo'Hatam _________________________________________________________ 60 Terran Years | Male _________________________________________________________ Swords of Sanghelios | Sanghelios W E A P O N S & E Q U I P M E N T W E A P O N S & E Q U I P M E N T _________________________________________________________ [+] - W E A P O N S & E Q U I P M E N T ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Domotos-pattern energy sword ◼ Gadulo-pattern needle rifle ◼ Zo'klada-pattern plasma pistol - S K I L L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Stealth Operations ◼ Sabotage ◼ Medium Range Marksmanship - O T H E R I N F O R M A T I O N _________________________________________________________ [+] - M I S C I N F O ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Part of the Personal Guard Lance assigned to a Shipmaster prior to reassignment to Anvil Station ◼ Participated in the Battle of Earth and subsequent Great Schism, preventing the assassination of his Shipmaster ◼ Notable features: Dark Blue eyes, runic tattoos in Sangheili across chest and left arm, Wide burn mark on left arm covering up a Covenant tattoo(replaced now with the Squad Designation in a show of unity) - T H E M E S O N G ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin ◼ Favorite Halo? Halo 2. Scarab boarding actions, "Back in my day we had a stick. Two sticks! And a rock! And the whole platoon has to share that rock!", and missions on the Covenant side. If you know, you know. -

S E R V I C E R E C O R D... S E R V I C E R E C O R D... ________________________________________________________________________________________ Tapo'Hatam served with pride and distinction during the opening years of the Human-Covenant War aboard the Sangheili ship Decisive Preservation as part of the massive Fleet of Righteous Purpose. Originally assigned as infantry, Tapo'Hatam proved an effective special operations officer when deployed against the steadily growing resistance of the UNSC ground forces. Unlike many of his allies he proved adaptable to the changing nature of the war, forgoing the more formal assaults carried about by the majority of the Sangheili in favor of subtlety and skillful removal of the enemy's ability to fight. In his mind there was just as much glory gained through the defeat of any enemy by denying them the ability to effectively fight back as their was in engaging them openly on the battlefield. His promotion to the personal guard of the Shipmaster after the devastating loss and vengeful reprisal on Actium in 2545 was one of the proudest days of his life. He felt his place on the Journey was assured, and was content to be the hidden sword at the Shipmasters side. It all fell apart in 2552 when the Prophet of Truth ordered the extermination of the Sangheili race in reprisal for a supposed attempt by the Sangheili High Councilors to rebel against the Covenant. Like many Sangheili, Tapo'Hatam was confused and angry at the news knowing it could not be true yet unable to fathom calling a Prophet a liar. Yet when the Jiralhanae boarded the Decisive Preservation it was Tapo'Hatam's energy blade they found waiting for them. When the real truth of what the Prophets had done and the facts about the Great Journey came to light he followed his shipmaster into joining the newly formed Fleet of Retribution in turning their wrath upon those who had betrayed them. Tapo'Hatam was deployed several times over the following weeks of combat to weaken the remaining Covenant forces and provide unexpected support to UNSC forces that found themselves still outmatched by Jiralhanae zealotry and firepower. Following the ceasefire that was enacted after the defeat of the Prophet of Truth, Tapo'Hatam has recognized the new age dawning before him and has requested reassignment to Anvil Station in the hopes that fostering positive cooperation with humanity will make up for what he views as the sins of his past. He sees humans as children playing at the game of interstellar expansion and hopes that some influence from the Sangheili will guide humanity to a future where both factions can carve out a more permanent kind of prosperity. He is well aware that old wounds still fester in many of the humans, turning the tide in the battle for their homeworld does not erase nearly 25 years of war and genocide. However, someone must try. And in the spirit of cooperation Tapo'Hatam finds himself assigned to Anvil Station. ________________________________________________________________________________________

<Redacted>

Bumping for attention. Just need one more!