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Tau Chi II: Ch. 2 - Confession's Price
Posted By: Myth
Date: 6 January 2009, 7:40 am
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Covenant Battle Group: Prophet's Blade
Aboard the Confession's Price
Near Centauri III: Overlooking the Tau Chi engagement.
Sangheili were law aboard Covenant warships, the Hierarchs affirmed that. He thought. But these Brutes are becoming a problem that cannot be ignored. The Chieftain's brash decisions and naval combat stupidity would be the end of this offensive. But perhaps if their leadership was replaced...
Supreme Commander Sarkmere Talom'ee stood as a perfect specimen of the Sangheili Warrior. The Jiralhanae Chieftain stood across from him in the Jiralhanae District of the Confession's Price . The court was primitive and repulsive to the Sangheili Officer, but he had decided that to win leadership of the Confession's Price on the Jiralhanae terms would ease his path to dominance.
Chieftain Karkanus was an impressive spectacle to any but the proud Sangheili. The Brute's arms rippled with muscle, his armor made up from possessions of previous, now deceased Jiralhanae chieftains. The Jiralhanae held a massive hammer with a flat head, mounted on a two-meter long haft.
Sark growled quietly and let his robes fall to the ground, revealing his own resplendent golden armor. He held a device in each hand, one was his blade, The Unforgiving, the second was a point defense gauntlet, or a shield of sorts. He activated both, the shield flaring outward into a wide disk, and The Unforgiving leaping out from the emitter plate in its icy-blue glory. The challenge was now made clear.
Karkanus unleashed a throaty cackle and charged with hammer raised. Sark deftly stepped around the first blow; the hammer's head slamming into the deck plates, buckling them.
Karkanus lifted the hammer slowly, readying another mighty stroke. Sark advanced, slamming into the Brute's exposed snout with the shield, scalding the sensitive skin of his face. Karkanus roared in rage, throwing himself upon the Sangheili. The weight of the Brute might have crushed a lesser warrior. The Jiralhanae Chieftain was old and hot headed, leaving his next hasty hammer fall to throw his balance, allowing the Sangheili to display his swordsmanship. The Unforgiving whipped past the haft of the hammer and sliced deep into the Brute's upper arm, exposing the musculature and bone.
He cried out again and faltered. "Unworthy." Sark said, loudly enough for the observers of the spectacle to hear. "You dishonor your race with your spilt blood, Karkanus."
Sark swept again with the blade, but was parried by the haft of Karkanus's hammer. The counter attack missed him by inches, but again left the Brute Chieftain exposed. Sark advanced slowly, sweeping the blade across the Jiralhanae's abdomen, spilling his blood across the floor of the court.
Karkanus sank to his knees as more of his life-fluid poured from his open maw. "Relinquish your command to me, Karkanus. I have followed your customs and proven you unworthy of Chieftain."
"…I…submit, Sangheili." Karkanus growled, his hands grasping at the intestines slipping out of his exposed body.
"Excellent." With a flick of his wrist, Sark's saber flew through the Jiralhanae's throat, severing the head. The Jiralhanae spectators kept their eyes on the fallen head of their former Chieftain. "Do the Jiralhanae accept me as their new Chieftain?" Sark understood this was as crucial a part to the custom; he could easily be challenged again here.
He was answered with a collection of feral growls as two more of the beasts charged him, without weapons. Sark nearly laughed, the first was impaled on The Unforgiving, falling to the court floor with his former master, the second swung at him with a thick arm. Sark ducked the blow and slashed his chest for the trouble. The Brute stood for a moment longer, staring at his wounds. Sark snarled impatiently and lunged forward, the tip of the blade emerging from the Brute's back. The creature subsequently collapsed to the deck, now slick with Jiralhanae blood.
"Your dishonor stains the very floors of your court! Submit to me as Chieftain or bare your necks to me that I may cleanse your unworthy race from the decks of my ship!" Sark cried, brandishing The Unforgiving in the air, causing it to crackle ominously.
Only one more advanced, Tarkus, the nephew of Karkanus, who died at the hand of his uncle's killer, just like the rest. The Sangheili warrior growled in response to the Brute's indecision. He had had enough.
"I grow tired of this. Kaln…kill them all." His Special Operations Commander nodded and drew his plasma rifle; his lance of black-clad Sangheili did the same and opened fire.
Most of the Jiralhanae had not been wearing their armor. The withering sheet of plasma-fire cut down every Brute in the court in seconds, leaving them charred corpses. Commands flew through the ship to perform similar tasks towards any Jiralhanae onboard. If they would not bow, they would be cleansed.
It was over quickly. Sark exhaled and withdrew his weapons, looking over the genocide he and his soldiers had just committed. The Hierarchs would understand, of course.
One problem was now dealt with. He regretted that the Jiralhanae had not simply accepted his leadership from a diplomatic point of view, but relished the carnage. Like he had said before, the Hierarchs would understand…
Kaln approached him, flicking a spot of dark Jiralhanae blood from his armor. "A word, Excellency?" Commander Kaln Kadan'ee requested, replacing his weapon within the folds of his own robes.
Sark nodded turned to leave the bloodied Jiralhanae Court; he would likely have the district burned at the first opportunity. They watched as a pair of Kaln's Elites executed the last of the Jiralhanae throughout the ship's corridors. It would be presented as a mutiny to the council, so that Talom'ee would not blatantly portray his racism towards the Brutes.
Sark spoke first. "Seven ships from my command, Kaln. Karkanus sent hundreds to die with his pitiful attempt at crippling their command vessels…the fool should have known that the humans are resourceful, when their leaders are struck down, more rise to take their place. And we were forced to land valuable troops on the surface before the orbital path was secure! They forced my hand, Kaln."
"I do not question your decision, Excellency. But there is a new matter that requires our attention. We have lost contact with Fasa'ee and his legion…we do not believe it was the work of the humans…by the time they had landed their own forces…we had already lost ours."
"How can that be? The relic revealed this location to be a great cache of Forerunner artifacts…" Sark mused worriedly.
"Perhaps the Hierarchs misinterpreted…"
Sark smiled. "You are fortunate you are among friends, Kaln. Sangheili have died for less."
"Apologies, Commander." Kaln acknowledged, with little in the way of regret. "Allow me to take the K'Tano Legion to the site and shed light on this mystery."
They had reached the Command Deck now, where more Jiralhanae corpses were being removed from their stations by Sangheili replacements. Sark turned and looked him in the eyes. "I believe that can be arranged, but not yet. I will not allow more Sangheili to die needlessly due to carelessness. Whatever the Hierarchs need on the planet's surface can wait until the human fleet burned away." Sark said with definite finality. The Elite gathered his robes about himself and took his place on the Command platform to oversee the work of his subordinates.
The Jiralhanae had had their command, as the Hierarchs had requested, and been found unworthy. Karkanus's tactics might have performed well on the battlefield, facing human warriors, but their ships were not to be trifled with. And his were not to be thrown away. This engagement would be over quickly and decisively, without the sacrifice of the Covenant's warships.
"Move us into an assault vector. Let us burn away their impurities without further ado." The Commander ordered the navigation and weapons officers. The Prophet's Blade battle group slid into formation with the vanguard vessels and went about carrying out their commander's wishes.
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