A Rarity of a soldier

by Lon35hadow

Sangheilios

"Can't believe we're heading to your homeworld, Ruso," Twilight excitedly said, her armor being on due to rumors of a civil war brewing.

"Yes, you and me both, Twilight," Ruso said. The entire group was tightly packed onto a Pelican, along with a human scientist by the name of Evan Phillips. Nothing out of the ordinary, except he was a part of Kilo-five and had been personally invited by the Arbiter. Oh, and a member of ONI section 2.(1) How did the group know this? Well, Chakas had been taken to ONI HQ for analysis by them. While there, he had taken the liberty of extracting Kilo-five's data files from ONI, and sent them to Twilight, who shared it with the squad, as well as some of their more. . .interesting mission records. "And what of you, Phlliss?" Ruso asked him, unable to pronounce the "p" at the end due to split lips.

"Well, I never thought I'd be on the Sangheili homeworld," he said nervously. Appropriate, given the. . .odd company he had in the Pelican dropship.

"Well," Rarity said, "Long as you don't report anything to ONI, I think everything will be good," she said with an evil smirk as Phillips-his skin being white with red hair and a small beard- paled slightly. "Oh, and if there's anything transmitting and Osman can hear this, she'd better not try to take us out."

"You mess with the one of us," Nightmare said, "you mess with all of us. And one of us is essentially a goddess. I wouldn't risk pissing her off."

"Guys, lay off, even if you're right," Jacob said from next to the door. "This is meant to be a vacation for Ruso and shore leave for everyone else. Even if we're wearing armor, but that's because we've learned to expect fire fights wherever we go."

"Oh?" Phillips said, interested. "Where are you all going?"

"You really think we'd tell you?" Sawn asked.

"Well, we are on the same ship," the doctor pointed out. "So, unless 'Vadam is just a stop, it'll be in the same area."

"It's the first one," Ruso said. "My name is 'Tafam, after all. And if you want it's location, you aren't getting it from me or anyone else on this drop ship."

"Well, since I'm going to ask Arbiter if I can see ancient sites that contain relics, I may run into you all anyway."

"Not likely," Ruso said. "There are no Forerunner relics where I live."

"So, Doc," Bishop asked, "what exactly have you done related to the Sangheili?"

"Well, I am able to speak Sangheili without a translator."

"That is impressive," Jacob muttered. "Still, I don't think it sounds like native speak."

Phillips shook his head. "No, it doesn't. There'a a tonal layer I can't reproduce."

"Hey, whatever you guys are talking about back there," the pilot, another member of Kilo-five named Deravaux(2) said, "may want to finish up. We're almost in 'Vadam!"

"Well, I guess that's it for now, then," Josh said as he finished inspecting his magnum before putting it on the magnetic holder on his right thigh. "Still, I hope we don't see each other while we're here, Phillips."

"And why's that?"

"Because you seem the talkative sort," Josh replied. "I am annoyed by those types of people, more often than not. That's not a threat, just in case you're wondering, but I do tend to be a little hostile when it comes to those situations."

"I'll keep that in mind, then," Phillip said, though he was fidgeting a bit.

From there, it was a minute before they landed, and the group disembarked the Pelican-which had Tart-Cart on the side for some reason- and Phillips was lead into 'Vadam keep, while Diamondback was escorted to a Phantom by a Jiralhanae, whom Hades talked with in their native language.

"You guys understand any of that?" Tony asked the equines of the group.

"Not a word of it," Twilight said. "They switched their translators off, and I don't have one. Only reason I could understand it before is Equish is English but for ponies and such."

"Of course that's how it is," Jacob muttered.

After three minutes of walking, the group reached the phantom-of the T-44 variant(3)- and boarded it, the pilot already being in and knowing where to fly.

"Can't wait to meet your family, Ruso," Twilight said.

"I would hold back on the enthusiasm, Twilight," Ruso said. "They are very. . .xenophobic to those outside the Covenant, as many of our males were lost in the war."

"Well, that'll make things interesting for us," Nightmare muttered.

"Me just hope they won't see us as food," Pawas said.

"My kind may be meat eaters, but we do not eat other sentient species," Ruso said before thinking on it. "Well, my clanmates and I, That is."

"Somehow, that doesn't fill me with confidence," Rarity muttered.

Author's Note:

And so thus begins the Sangheilios arc, my friends.
1:In Mortal Dictata, there's a quote from Phillips that has it stating he's a part of the propagande section of ONI, or whichever's Section two. Though I have the book, I don't have access to it as of writing this chapter.
2:Best spelling guess. Again, don't have access to book as of writing this.
3: Halo 4 model

Comments

[forrest yuchnitz]

heh i just did the sangheilios missions earlier today in halo 5

[The dragon hunter]

As much as the books of the Kilo-5 trilogy are far from being my favorites (the main reason I read them was to learn more about the situation of the galaxy after the war, even if Karen Traviss did an horrible job in my opinion), I think that you should have portrayed the hostility between the ONI group and our heroes in a more subtle way. Phillips is a manipulative individual that exploit his knowledge of the Sangheili culture to learn about their secrets, but like every scientist worthy of such title he's also incredibly curious about the unknown. twilight could have used this to her advantage, sharing some harmless information about her world and the ponies, while at the same time using his game against him and collect some useful information.

[Lon35hadow]

7391988 Here's the thing: he didn't ask, and Twilight's time with everyone has made her much more wary of those she doesn't know. Plus she knows he's ONI. Also ONI.