Back to Created and Consumed: Ch 4 Pt 2

Two long weeks later…

Doxo was still not pleased with me for days after our disagreement; he was still convinced that I had a polluted mind and that my lying would get me into trouble with more than just him in the long run. Despite my apologies, he wouldn’t speak to me.

“Cheer up Zyrra, I’m sure he’ll change his opinion soon…” Jurdo attempted to console me, “… I mean, how long can Doxo hold a grudge for?”

“Maybe a written apology will work this time?” Ehle suggested. I elbowed him sharply in the ribs and he coughed, “It’s worth a try…”

“It wouldn’t bother me so much if I knew what I was apologising for…” I glowered at Doxo’s back as he marched past, “I don’t even know what I did wrong!”

“You contradicted him. He hates that.” Ehle wheezed.

“Go figure…” I muttered before entering the room which would seal my fate.

Beside me an older Sangheili inhaled deeply, “Ahh, the smell of carnage is fresh this morning!” he commented. I sniffed the air also; it smelled of carbon, this wasn’t surprising; there were scorch marks all over the Evaluation Arena. I was, though, slightly troubled by another aroma wafting through the room; blood, real blood, not the synthetic kind which we encountered in training.

“Charming…” I muttered under my breath.

We assembled in our rank lines, the least experienced and least favoured stayed toward the back of the formation, as a result, the larger and inadvertently more popular warriors were pushed toward the front. Doxo, Ehle, Jurdo and I were all bunched up in the middle, competing for a look to see what was going on.

“Why don’t they do this in order of height, you know, the tall ones first and the squirts last?” Ehle asked, naturally because he was one of the taller elites.

“Maybe because they know that you’re a lost cause as the first demonstration Ehle?” I jeered, but my comment possessed truth. It was testing our skills as marksmen; we had to hit a target one hundred and eighty-five feet away from us with just three chances to hit the bullseye. There was only one side-note to the challenge, ‘NO PRACTICE SHOTS’. Ehle couldn’t hit a Lekgolo at forty feet with an optical aid.

“When called, come to attention!” a voice boomed over the loudspeakers, “Ahnathee, Huka! Jorunadee, Dewa! Laveramee, Jega! Kataratee, Lega!”

One by one, Elites broke from their formations and walked into the arena.

“Jiserramee, Zyrra!” My name was called and I looked to Jurdo.

“That’s you, sheesh even I’m not that stupid!” he whispered, shoving me forward.

“Oikumee, Ehle!” The names were being read from a list, I heard Ehle step forward and stop beside me, we exchanged uneasy grins, “Hurriamee, Jurdo!” I suppressed a smile when a whimper sounded from between the shoulders of the Sangheili formation. Jurdo joined us, “Tahnamee, Doxo!” Doxo strode to Jurdo’s side and stared ahead at the judges.
“Serracree, Morta, my, my, again Morta?” the announcer sounded amused, my mood darkened when I saw out of the corner of my eye, the same elite who had tried to destroy me weeks ago. I failed see how a malicious killer could come across as amusing.
The remaining Elites were summoned to the front, a group of twenty-or-so, each varying in age and structure. There were a few unfamiliar faces; some were far too young to be even considered Academy material. Once assembled, the remains of the Sangheili who were not chosen were ordered to sit; a resounding shuffle and grumble of not being selected followed the command but quickly dulled.

A magnificent Sangheili Commander in elegant silver armour stood flanked by a Zealot on each side. Half of both left jaws were missing, probably cut off by plasma or broken in hand to hand combat; he was quite impressive. “Warriors!” He called to the assembly, “Today you will be required to perform specific tasks in order to determine which position you will take within the Covenant! Not all of you will be chosen! Those who are chosen will be awarded new armour and crests befitting their new rank! Those who are not will be reassigned into their Gudili Academy ranks and given further training! Each decision is final and cannot be altered by any influence but the Prophets’!” This was about the time where I could almost hear Jurdo’s heart pounding in his chest, if there was one thing he feared, it was his own skills being judged in a serious manner. “Begin!”

We were evaluated in a variety of ways, each method more difficult than the last. The first task was marksmanship, miraculously Ehle didn’t perform as badly as he had first thought; his surprise was obvious when he hit the target all three times directly in the centre. I checked his weapon for enhancements when I was called for my attempt and found that the rifle used for the task had been fitted with an auto-aim function. A retrial was ordered, much to Ehle’s distain, but even without the enhanced weapon, Ehle managed to get two out of three bullseyes.

During my attempt, I encountered a little bit of trouble in releasing the steam hatch on the weapon, this in turn overheated the rifle in my hands and scalded my palms but I still hit two of the three bullseyes required before dropping it and dousing them with cooling gel. Doxo and another Elite by the name of Tekra obtained a perfect score without hesitation, while Jurdo managed only one along with Dewa, Huka, and Morta while Lega failed to hit any target at all.
The catch of his weapon was jammed and he had to pull exceptionally hard on the trigger to make it fire, in his efforts to pull the trigger successfully, he failed to aim before he did so, his three beams shot harmlessly into the ground. I suspected sabotage but no retrial was conducted despite his objections.

Next was a test of skill with small arms, again Ehle surprised himself, we all did excellently in fact. The only Elites who didn’t do well were Huka and Dewa, who had both performed horribly after Morta’s perfect vital point hits. Everyone excelled in Sword battle, Doxo, Ehle, Morta and I each got a perfect score, Jurdo faltered on one manoeuvre losing a couple of credits for that but overall he did well. Infiltration came toward the end of the day. This task was severely tampered with. Someone had recoded the system so that not even the judges could crack it; they found it suspicious that only I could manage to recalibrate the whole server to return to normal so that the examination could continue. Thankfully they gave me the benefit of the doubt and I was allowed to continue to the next assessment.

Onward to Created and Consumed: Ch 5 Pt 2