Spec-Ops chapter 4

Kusovai hear a loud thump as if he had landed on the ground from an explosion. Uneasy, he stood back up and stared at the ground and immediatly noticed something was wrong. His boots looked diffrent. The toes had overlapping plates while the shin and calf area had various orinate peices. The armor was a shiny silver. Kusovai looked at his hands and noticed that they had hand gauntlets, like his old armor, but more primitive and also had the metallic luster of his boots. His arms where also covered in a more primitive variant of the standard combat harness. Kusovai soon realized that this was no ancient suit, this was the arbiter armor.

Kusovai looked around and streched his arms out. He felt taller and more muscular than he originally remembered.

"is this a dream?" he thought. Kusovai couldn't even answer that question. Kusovai looked at his hand again and this time stared in horror as it was smeared with red blood. He looked down and he saw a wounded human soldier on the ground pointing a weapon at him. Startled, kusovai raised his arms and was met with another shocking sight as he was holding a kisen style energy sword in his right hand.

"I don't remember having this!" he thought.

Kusovai heard the wounded marine shout something at him and fired his weapon. Kusovai flinched with each shot.

"My energy shields should have prevented them from touching my armor!" Kusovai though,but he soon realized that he had no shields whatsoever, and instead the bullets bounced harmlessly off his armor. Wanting to end this annoyance, Kusovai lunged at the wounded marine, slicing him clean in half. Suddently, Kusovai found himself in the bridge of a ship with multiple other sangheili at the controls. The marine's body had completely disappeared without a trace.

Suddently one elite who had the armor of an Ultra, stepped up to him.

"Arbiter, the cleansing beams have finished charging and we are ready to burn the human planet on your mark" he said.

"What? I never authorized such an action! And I am no arbiter, I am only a Special operations member" replied Kusovai, with a hint of confusion in his voice.

The Elite Ultra looked at him as if it was some kind of joke. Kusovai realized that the elite was being serious about the matter. Kusovai turned around and his blood ran cold from what he saw. On the mirror-like holo-panel of one of the ships' controls, Kusovai could see his reflection....but he looked like nothing he had remembered. He looked older, more muscular and over all taller than he had remembered. But the thing that disturbed him the most was his face. The entire right half was reduced to nothing but charred flesh. His eyelid has been burned away and his right eye gave a constant eerie gaze.

"No....NO!" Kusovai said in disbelef. The Elites in the ship turned around and stared at Kusovai shouting in defiance.

"NOOOO!!!" he screamed from the top of his lungs.

Suddently, everything went away and he felt something stroking his face gently and with grace. He struggled to open his eyes and he could make out a hand...small and elegant. As his vision slowly cleared, he could make out the silhouett of a female sangheili, a little shorter than he was. Kusovai tried to raise his hand, but he felt paralyzed, his limbs refused to obey his brain's commands. Finally, he began to regain control and senses. He looked down with his eyes and saw his hand holding that of the female's. He then heard a voice speaking to him

"Are you alright?" it spoke

At first it felt like it was coming from miles away, but he soon realized it was right next to him. His vision continued to clear, and he could make out more features of the one sho lay next to him. But all it took was one to instantly recognize who it was.


It was her! It was the female he saw in the city! Kusovai blinked to make sure he wasn't just dreaming again. But this was no dream, it was actually her. He was positive because he remembered her icy blue eyes and elegant look.

"Ye...yesh.." Kusovai answered with a brainwashed tone. The female tilted her head and raised a brow, then giggled.

"where...Where am I?" asked Kusovai, looking around.

"I don't know, you're the one who decided to sleep here" she replied

"'Tis true............what is your name, by the way?" Kusovai asked, intrigued.

"Miri 'Wattinree" she gladly answered.

"Wattinree..." Kusovai thought.

"You wouldn't happen to be the daughter of Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar 'Wattinree, would you?" Kusovai asked.

"No, my father was Ado 'Wattinree" she answered.

Kusovai then remembered that she had no way of knowing wether Xytan was her true father, since most Sangheili children are raised by a maternal uncle instead of their true fathers.

"I see..." Kusovai said

"I'm sorry for the misonformation" he added.

"It troubles me not" she answered.

Kusovai thought to himself how extremely luck he was that the same female he had fallen in love with earlier was right by his side! Kusovai tried to think of something to impress her.

"Did you know I once fought two heretic Jiralhanae and killed them both?" Kusovai said to her, an obvious lie since the two brutes had nearly killed HIM and not vice versa.

"Interesting! You must be a brave warrior" she said, amused by his "accomplishment"

"Not quite, you see I'm new to my squad. My maternal uncle wanted me to join the covenant army to become disciplined and fight for my family's honor" Said Kusovai, contradicting her.

"I see..." she replied, still interested.

"I am returning to Sangheilios in half a cycle" she added

"Really? I'd like to go back to Sangheilios and see how it has changed since my last visit" said Kusovai, a bit of nostalgia grew in his heart.

Suddently, Kusovai's COM systems crackled to life.

"Kusovai, where in the prophet's name have you gone to!?" said an angry voice. it was Sesa.

"Yes commander Sesa, I will report to you immediatly!" Kusovai hurriedly answered and turned off his COM system.

Kusovai was about to leave when suddetly Miri pulled him back and looked at one another face ot face. Miri closed her eyes and kissed Kusovai on the cheek. Kusovai's exitment skyrocketed, how lucky he was indeed! They gave each other one last goodbye and they parted, with Kusovai headed to the nearest teleporter.

Sesa, Ado, Zuka, Bok and Yayap stood near a teleporter, waiting for Kusovai to arrive.

"That boy is always wandering off getting into all kinds of shenanigans..." said Sesa with frustration. The stream of energy between the two panels of the teleporter flared and Kusovai materialized within the stream, and stepped out.

"Fool! where have you been?" demanded Sesa.

"Forgive me commander, I was searching for somewhere to rest and i-"

"No excuses from you!" shouted Sesa, and promptly hit Kusovai across the face with his hand.

The blow made Kusovai stagger backwards a litte. His blood boiled and he had the overhwhelming urge to hit Sesa back, but he knew that the punishment for striking a superior was almost certanly death.

Ashamed, Kusovai stood next to his other squad members and listened to what Sesa had to say.

"As you know, the Covenant empire has been at war with the Human race for some time now, and several of our brothers have died at the hands of these barbaric apes and their mutated armored vermin they refer to as "Spartans"" Said Sesa.

"The prophets have re-assigned us to take part in a coordinated attack on the human colony planet known as "Arcadia" Sesa added

Kusovai thought for a second and remembered that Arcadia was where Ripa 'Moramee first saw action when he had to capture a human professor. Ripa was an idol to Kusovai. As a child, he always wanted to be like him.

"The planet's population centers have been completely abandoned and have been at the mercy of nature for some time. However, the humans still dwell on the planet and have set up small communities on the planet's surface" continued Sesa.

"But commander, what threat do a few measly humans pose?" questioned Zuka.

Sesa looked at Zuka with surprise. never had he questioned his orders.

"What is the meaning of this?" Sesa asked Zuka.

"What I am trying to state is, that what is the point of attacking a planet with only small pockets of humans scattered on it's surface?" said Zuka, clarifying his previous statement.

"Well, from what the prophets have told me, the human armed forces are using this planet to gain resources and food, mainly because of the fertile nature of the soil there" answered Sesa.

"The other planet we destroyed near the beginning of this conflict also served a similar purpose of providing nutrition to the humans. Therefor, we shall do the same to this one as well!" continued Sesa.

Kusovai wasn't paying attention to Sesa however, his mind was elsewhere. He began to plan his future with Miri, but as if by some 6th sense, Sesa immediatly shattered his thought process and yelled at him to pay attention.

"We will have support from multiple infantry groups and cruisers from above. If all fails, the Cruisers will burn the humans to ash from the sky" said Sesa.

"FOR THE COVENANT!" yelled Sesa with his fist raised high in the air.

"FOR THE COVENANT!" replied the squad, and several other squads where where also working in conjunction with Kusovai's.