Back to Created and Consumed: Ch 6 Pt 1

“Holy crap! That’s one of the most powerful Capital ships in the fleet!” Ehle exclaimed, “Juno, himself is a commander of that ship!” he punched the air and hugged me tightly, “What rank are we starting at?” he snatched the note and scanned it.

“It doesn’t say, just that we have to meet for dispatch this morning,” I cheered, giddy with excitement, “Get your stuff guys! We’re in!”

“You have about an hour to get ready; I suggest you all hurry up.” Doxo said from the doorway, he was already in his armour and smiling at us.

I couldn’t contain myself; I leapt from Ehle’s arms and embraced Doxo, “I swear you’re a friggin’ psychic! How did you know we would make it?”

“I didn’t, but like I said, you did well yesterday. There was no doubt in my mind that you would all proceed to the upper level…” he patted me on the head and said a bit more quietly, “Zyrra, this is your big break, if you do well at this, you’ll be able to fight in the war, you’ll be able to prove to the Hierarchs that you’re worthy.”

I looked up at him, “Even without this, I would do it somehow. This just makes things easier for me.”

Doxo leaned down to tell me something but stopped. I waited in anticipation but nothing came, he just straightened up and removed his hand from the top of my head, “Come on, we have to get going guys.” He smiled to cover his uneasiness and gave me a nudge toward my bunk, “Quickly!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After gathering our extreme minimal belongings, we poked our heads out of our quarters. The halls were packed with excited Sangheili, all greeting each other and chatting while massing out into the walkways.

“Wow, there are a lot of elites about today isn’t there?” Jurdo muttered, “Never knew the promotion of a few warriors would be such a big deal…”

Doxo grinned, he knew a lot more about this day than he had initially let on, “Today the Hierarchs unveil a great leap forward in our quest for the Great Journey, little has been said, but I’m sure it will be an excellent display… the Council has ordered us all to meet in the hangar while the Covenant is addressed about this matter in the Sanctum. We will be briefed on what’s going on upon our arrival on the ‘Truth and Reconciliation’.”

“Will we find out what the big deal is with the Journey?” Ehle asked as we slipped into the steady stream of Sangheili flesh filing out of the residential barracks and veered into a less crowded passageway.

Doxo took Jurdo by his wrist to keep him from falling behind, “Hard to say, I can only find so much out at a time… but I figure we’ll be informed of what the Council has found, either that or we’ll hear through the COM system, whispers in the mesosphere most likely. This sort of news is rarely kept quiet for long.”

We reached the intersection near the Mess Hall and slowed pace, taking the time to figure out which way we had to go to get to the hangar, “Isn’t that dangerous?” I asked, “I mean, if loose COM messages get out of the Covenant battle-net can’t the Heretics, or more importantly, the Humans use that information to track us?”

Doxo dragged us forward, past a gaggle of wandering adolescents and swerved to the left corridor, “Possibly, but the Covenant is far too smart for that, each COM message is encoded with a special recognition sequence, it would take hours to decipher it, in our case, minutes seeing as most transmissions are in Sangheili. By the time an enemy figures out what the message says we would be mega-lights away.”

“But with all of the new advances in technology like phonic detectors and artificial intelligence, it won’t be long before those processes quicken.”

Doxo looked at me and smiled, “Are you suggesting that the Humans and Heretics are beginning to catch up to us?”

“I am.” I concluded, “When the enemy defeats a branch of our military, they capture our knowledge in the process. They have the means to study it and they probably are already developing technologies such as personal shielding and DNA recognition for their own cause.” I watched the ground under my feet, “We are an advancing race, but we are not advancing fast enough…”

“It is little to concern with, Zyrra. We are constantly making steps forward in our development, leaving the Humans and Heretics behind us will not be a problem.”

Before I could question Doxo further, we burst into the hangar and simultaneously awed at the majestic Seraph fighter before us. It was spectacle enough to make you weep. The armoured hull was clad with Covenant symbols of hope and victory, and across the starboard bough, the name ‘Light of Passage’ was carved into the metal.

“Nice to see you’ve joined us fellas…” Gura cooed from his perch atop a weapons crate, “As you can see, you are some of the few who have made it to the next level.” He gestured to a pair of elites, one I recognised immediately as Morta Serracree but the other was foreign to me, “Seeing as we’re all present…” Six warriors? This had to be a joke! “… shall we?” Gura slid down from the crate and boarded the Seraph. Morta followed, and then Doxo. I hurried to catch him up while Jurdo and Ehle fell into line behind me, and then finally the last elite. Once each of us was onboard and seated, the hatch closed and the craft hummed into life.

“Everybody in? Excellent…” the Nukura pilot grinned back to us as Gura took the secondary controls, “… It’s your show Sir, take her out…”

Gura prepped the Seraph for takeoff, pumping the cells first, then slowly easing the ‘Light of Passage’ into the cradle of the anti-gravity field, “If you ain’t holding onto your breakfasts, I suggest you do, because if any of you lose it on my Seraph, you’ll be wearing it by the time we get to the ‘Truth and Reconciliation’…”

I held my breath and clutched the harness over my shoulders while the Seraph rose into the air and Doxo laughed at me. I had never flown in one of these before and I was scared for my life enough without Gura co-piloting it. “Relax, Zyrra. This is perfectly safe…” he told me, “… think of it as another test of courage, just like the one where Gura wanted you to defeat him. You kicked that one easy!”

My eyes widened, “Doxo!” I managed before Gura punched the accelerator angrily; the wind was squeezed out of me as the Seraph launched into the exosphere of High Charity. Through the cockpit window, the velvet of the universe, vast and littered with pinprick stars became visible through tears. I took a moment to catch my breath.

“This, this is what we’ve been training for…” Doxo mused breathlessly. The Seraph shot through the fleet like a drone in a swarm, other space craft in the fleet saluted, sending violet flares in our wake as we weaved between Flagships and the gargantuan Dreadnaughts. As Gura turned the ‘Light of Passage’ around to cruise along the fleet a second time, I caught a look at the colossus that was High Charity, her grace was breathtaking to say the least, to think I had only seen one hundred-billionth of my home before leaving that hangar, and now, I had seen all of it. It rotated slowly on its axis, tilted slightly to one extremity, surrounded by its equally enormous Covenant fleets, eleven in total. My eyes were ripped from the spectacle as Gura guided the Seraph toward a nearby Dreadnaught; “I give you the mother of the fleet…” the cockpit was suddenly flooded with violet light emitted from the underbelly of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ as it opened up to swallow us.

“We’re connecting with the Dreadnaught now, Sir.” The pilot reported, “This is Light of Passage to Truth and Reconciliation, requesting permission to dock.”

The COM remained silent for a moment then a deep Sangheili voice replied, “Permission granted, ready to dock in thirty seconds… we just have to clear you a parking space…”

“Many thanks, Truth and Reconciliation… Light of Passage out.”

We hovered in the sleepy hues for what seemed like forever, then the voice came from the COM again, “Whenever you’re ready, Light of Passage, you’re clear to dock.” the Seraph elevated into the Dreadnaught and did a lap of the landing bay. It was huge, not as cluttered as the one we had disembarked from on High Charity, scattered with heavy and light vehicles as well as other Seraph fighters and the slightly larger Drop-ships, I even witnessed a Flagship undergoing repairs toward the end of the hangar. We decelerated and coasted leisurely into the yellow-striped landing area, then with a small jolt, landed on a cushion of negative gravity while the secondary landing gear contacted with the deck below.

“Okay, before we leave this vessel, Morta you are needed in the Commander’s chamber, I suggest you stick with me, you five, find something to do with yourselves…” Gura rattled off some things for us to do which were impossible to do without any real knowledge of the ship schematics at all. We were ushered from the Light of Passage and left in the hangar alone while Gura and Morta marched through a large hexagonal door and disappeared.

Jurdo staggered a few steps before collapsing and ejecting yesterday’s drinks all over the floor, I began to feel the same way but managed to keep it all down. As he continued to empty the contents of his stomach, the stench wafting from the puddle made my gut contract.

Ehle looked up to Doxo, “Well, this is definitely… erm… a moment to remember…?”

I covered my snout to try to shield myself from the tangy smell of nutro drink, hydrochloride and Sangheilic bile, “And I thought Jurdo couldn’t get any more disgusting than he already was…”

Onward to Created and Consumed: Ch 7 Pt 1