September 20th 2552.
“This is an interesting situation” The room was quiet save for a humming power cell connected to the Demons stasis chamber.
“That is one way to put it, we need to keep this quiet for now” The pair paused, the room seemed oppressively still with only the two of them stood alone in the presence of the sleeping Demon.
“I have already ordered silence in this matter. My crew are loyal and no report of the Demons presence has been made.” Twilight looked at the holographic display before her, it displayed all the information within the stasis chamber and the dire condition of the Demon.
“Good, let's hope that the matter does not become known within the fleet, if the Prophet where to know then he would no doubt put pressure on us to release it to him.”
“Yes, he has already made demands of me Inquisitor” Twilight’s head snapped to the shipmaster.
“What demands?!”
“The Prophet demanded that I release the Human Shipmaster to the Truth and Reconciliation” Savo chuckled softly “However you were present and ordered the Human be kept within the brig.”
“But if I were to leave and put you in charge of the task force again...”
“I would have to relinquish the Human to the Prophet.”
“Right, well I will have to keep him with me in then, what if the Prophet asks for the Demon?”
“I would have to relinquish it even if you were present, secrecy in this matter is unfortunately necessary.”
“This Prophet is such a nuisance” Twilight knickered and looked back at the Human text.
“Such blasphemy! To think I am honour bound to defend that fool and base creature” Savo let out a mirthful laugh before sighing. “Onto other matters, I wish to ask for a favor of you Twilight.” The mare in question paused and turned to Savo.
“There is nothing wrong with asking.”
“This Demon, it represents a very important opportunity. Not for me but for my Clan. I understand this is a grave thing to ask of an Inquisitor, seekers of Truth.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at that but allowed the Sanghili to continue. “The records of battle show that collecting the human stasis chambers was done on your order, this makes the capture of the Demon your victory.”
“But if the records where to show me simply offering advice.” Twilight nodded and looked down deep in thought.
“My family, 'Sralcam bear a great many marks upon our honour, the opportunity to command this ship with my name was a miracle! To have the capture of a Demon to my name within sight of the holy ring.” The Sangheili bowed his head. “On the honour of my sons if not me.”
“It's not the truth, but it is very close.” Twilight sighed and nodded, opening her holographic display and navigating to her report after the battle. “You turned and remarked that the Humans were deploying decoys, I replied that Humans do not use decoys in the manner described. You then ordered the ‘decoys’ collected and investigated.”
“You do not know what this means for my family Twilight. I cannot express my gratitude but know that for as long as my name is remembered you will have friends on Sanghelios” Savo clasped his hands together. “Of course while I captured the Demon its inspection was best conducted by the present Inquisitor.”
“That would only be proper” Twilight smiled and turned towards the Human text excitedly. “It's actually very interesting, it seems this Demon was never awoken for battle because of extensive wounds, if we were to wake it then it would die in minutes.”
“And this Doctor Halsey claims to be its mother?” Savo turned towards the Demon with an odd look on his face.
“We must always consider the possibility she was lying, for what reason I have no idea.”
“But consider if her words are truth, the mother of Demons. Could she be the mother of the other Demons who plague Halo?”
“We know very little about Demons and how they are created, she could have been speaking metaphorically or she could be mad.” Savo nodded rubbing one of his mandibles.
“She asked you to help heal it. Is that possible?”
“No, the damage is too massive, several organs are irreparably damaged.”
“We do have a large inventory of frozen humans, could they offer the organs necessary?” Twilight turned to Savo a horrified look on her face.
“What a horrific thought, could they honestly be so callus?”
“Humans are well known for sacrificing the minor for the sake of the major.” The pair stood in silence for a moment before Savo spoke again.
“I have intercepted encrypted transmissions sent from this ship to Infinite Succor, from a terminal your Major used last.”
“Major Dash? Who would she be contacting?”
“I don’t know, I made no effort to break the encryption once I discovered the Major’s involvement, she is your subordinate and it's not my place to pry into your business Inquisitor”
“Send me the files please, I will have to get to the bottom of this.” Twilight shook her head.
“Of course, I will send you the files and remove them from my own data core, I wish you luck in your investigation Twilight.” after a lull in the conversation Twilight spoke up again.
“How is the battle on Halo going?”
“Poorly, before the Humans landed several sites on the surface were established by the Prophet, one of them was a series of structures on a large mesa. The site has been taken by Human forces and the anti air emplacements deployed are still active.”
“So taking it back must be done with ground forces alone.”
“Yes, but the terrain greatly favors the defenders, unless the Humans are stupid they will be able to maintain it for weeks. However they rely upon primitive fuel for transport, soon they will lack the capacity to leave the mesa by air.”
“Unless they can resupply” Twilight tapped a hoof on the ground.
“Of course, but how would they resupply?”
“The Pillar of Autumn! It would have everything they need. I want to go have a chat with the Human Captain, ready all ground forces in our task force for deployment on the Human ship.” Twilight turned away from the stasis chamber and towards the door.
“That would leave this ship undefended Twilight are you sure about this?” Twilight smiled and turned towards Savo.
“Trust me”
The brig, one of several on the ship, was a long and wide room with dozens of cells on each wall. On one end was a console on a raised platform where a warden could monitor the vitals and activity of the occupants. On the other end was a door that led to a holding area, preventing a prisoner who was for whatever reason outside of a cell from just leaving the brig.
In this case all of the prisoners were outside of a cell. Twilight strode forwards with four of her guard as the Humans all turned to look at who had entered, at the moment they were doing the daily four-hundred meter walk. The Humans would be allowed out of the cells and made to walk around the perimeter of the room until they had walked enough before they would be given the second daily meal.
“Inquisitor, come to join us?” Captain Jacob Keyes was straight backed and held an air of authority despite his disheveled uniform.
“No I have come to pick you up, the others can continue”
“Can continue” one of the other Humans, a women with fuzzy ginger hair called out as she wiped the sweat from her brow.“Do you mean this shit is voluntary?” Twilight turned to look at the woman, she did not have the flight suit worn by crewmen but had a green pair of trousers and a long-sleeved shirt.
“No, I misspoke you will continue now” Twilight turned as one of the Shanghili, cloaked at all times while on duty in the brig, ordered the group to continue the walk. Jacob was led out of the brig at Twilight's side.
“So this is where you take me to a dark room and beat information out of me?” Keyes fell into step with the smaller quadruped as the griffons fell in around the pair.
“Unlike your races notoriously dishonorable information gathering tactics the Covenant has a standard to uphold.”
“A standard that is only upheld in your presence it seems Inquisitor.” Twilight glared at the man out of the corner of her eye.
“You have yet to ask about the women who hit her head, do you simply not care about her wellbeing?”
“I am sure she will be fine if you did not kill her, she is very resourceful”
“Well she is fine, we even made a deal, she gave me the location of Earth and some other interesting intelligence.” Jacob turned his head slightly but gave no impression he was shocked at her words.
“Earth? Clever, I would have gone for ‘big rock’ myself”
“Trying to discredit her now? Did you know that the name of my species is Equestrian and the name of my homeworld is Equis?”
“You have a point to telling me that?”
“The Sangheili homeworld is Sanghelios”
“They the short ones?”
“Earth is simple enough to be the name of a homeworld, homeworlds are always simple and often only represent a unifying ideal or bond. Dirt being the connection all humans have with each other is as reasonable enough”
“I told you she was clever, you are starting to convince me that this Earth exists.”
“And all she wanted in return was a half dead frozen Demon.” Twilight saw the man draw his lips together more firmly before returning to his impressively neutral face.
“With how scared you lot are of Spartans I’m surprised you handed it over.” Twilight shrugged.
“It was the way she asked that confused me the most, she referred to the Demon as her daughter” Jacob missed a step as the pair turned a corner his eyes steel as he looked nowhere but forward.
“Sounds like Halsey alright, glad she made it.” his words were curt and his smooth gait had shifted into somewhat of a stagger. Twilight decided to prod somewhere else for the moment, at least while she was in the same room as the man.
“Anyway, we are going to the Pillar of Autumn, consider it a little field trip.” Twilight smiled as memories of her youth sprung forth.
“You want a tour?” Keyes looked down incredulously at the mare.
“Well, yes. But our main reason for going is to intercept the inevitable supply run the survivors on the ring will make, it's not like your craft run on modular and efficient energy cells after all.”
“A thorn in your side I bet?”
“Well more of a contained nuisance, the real issue of the Human presence is your propensity to destroy or desecrate Forerunner artifacts.”
“Like this ‘Halo’”
“Exactly, I am rather interested in how you made a starship superstructure so resilient with such primitive materials however.”
“Trade secret, we just make ships better than you lot”
“You take a large cannon and put thrusters and life support on it you are hardly Huragok”
The group finally made it to the main hanger and found it bustling with activity. Dozens of dropships were being prepared and several ground vehicles being readied for deployment, ask requested Savo had begun to mobilise all ground forces on the ship for deployment at the Pillar of Autumn. The Prophet of Stewardship had deployed a token force to the abandoned human warship but such a force would quickly crumble when presented with a determined human attack.
Twilights reinforcements while unannounced would be welcomed by the force present given the inevitability of an attack, or so Twilight assumed. If Keyes had any comment as to the apparent mobilisation of the Covenant forces he gave no impression, he simply walked with his hands clasped behind him gazing curiously at the bustle all around.
Standing next to an active gravity lift stood the familiar faces of Major Tath Kem and N'tho 'Sraomee. The pair where talking quietly in the presence of the rest of Twilights guard.
“-Had her! I am telling you she was talking to something in the room and when we stormed it she was gone, vanished!” Tath was pointing a finger angrily at N’tho who had his arms crossed smuggly.
“You expect me to believe that the human simply vanished? I would wager that you simply saw an opportunity for fresh meat.”
“When I was under orders to capture them? I am a professional, when I have a contract I follow to the letter, I am telling you it was some sort of teleportation!” Twilight approached the pair and cleared her throat causing them both to turn and bow their heads in respect.
“Inquisitor, it is good to see you are looking well, might I ask why we are bringing the Human with us to its ship?” N’tho turned to stare down Keyes as he waited for Twilight to respond.
“Not right now, we will be departing immediately.” Twilight turned to Keyes “Step into the gravity lift” the Human calmly did as he was ordered followed by Twilight, the ship had a pair of Griffon Honour guard, N’tho, Tath, Twilight and Jacob with Major Dash secured within the pilot compartment.
With a lurch the ship was disconnected from the Sacred Inquisitor’s magnetic rail, the dropship would soon be followed by the rest of the ground forces when they were ready.