Captured Shadow

The world seemed a blur, a confused mess of twirling colors and objects that danced in and out of focus. Any noise that was heard seemed distant and unintelligible, muffled and garbled enough that trying to understand any of it made the sangheili’s head hurt. What was going on? Why is everything a distorted mirage? The sangheili’s breathing was a slow and deep inhale that filled their lungs to the brim with dust and ash, and a long and drawn out exhale that emptied all the polluted air out. Staying perfectly still and focusing on just breathing, the sangheili very slowly started removing the fog clouding their judgement and reasoning. A few moments would pass before the sangheili realized they were sprawled upon a smooth concrete floor and staring straight at what was assumed to be the sky. Bright flashes of orange and purple and other spectacularly vibrant colors pierced through the grayed out blue. Little dots could be seen zooming across her vision, occasionally they themselves would also become an orb of color, vanishing as the orb became brighter and then dimmed and dissipated. Slowly lifting themselves up to a sitting position, the once confusing and blurred out world around her became less fluid. Shapes and objects began to form and while the image was still a little hazy, the sangheili began to piece together where they were.

Small fires dotted the ground, burning fragments and small piles of trash and debri. Ahead of her was a sizable crater in the middle of the plaza they were in, large enough to swallow anyone standing inside the blast radius. Splotches of blood and gore dotted the inside and outside of the crater, and even limbs were scattered about. To the left, were the bodies of kig yar and unggoy, motionless, just as the sangheili only moments ago, sprawled on the smooth concrete floor. Wounds from human weapons were visible on their corpses as well as bullet impacts on the ground and objects around them. An unggoy holding on to the wound they received in the short fight that ensued after the explosion . Two kigyar were looking directly up into that grayish blue sky, watching the battle overhead. Fireballs and spectacles of color reflecting onto their unmoving eyes. Looking to the right were some more corpses. More kigyar, unggoy, and three spec ops sangheili lay there, defeated and broken by their attackers. Holy warriors of the Covenant, ready to face galactic horrors and certain ****, now face down in the ground with weapons still on their magnetic leg holsters. The symbols on their black metallic combat harnesses stained by their own blood.

As the sangheili turned their head back to what was in front of them and the last bits of the fog in their minds lifted, they began to remember what had happened leading up to the explosion. The invasion of the human colony of Jacinto III, a medium sized world with a decently sized human population, was stalling due to the human resistance in the planet’s major city centers. This city, called Cico, was putting up the stiffest resistance to the Covenant’s ****. Kara, a member of the Silent Shadow, was brought here to help look for weaknesses in the human’s defense. She was to lead a spec ops team behind enemy lines and report back anything of value. Weapon depots, bunkers and fortifications, possible high value targets, all were to be reported to her superiors and marked for destruction via orbital bombardment. Things went well at first and no human contact was made upon infiltrating enemy lines. Some marks were made on some objects and areas of importance the spec ops team encountered on their pathfinding expedition behind enemy lines. As they made their way to the location of a suspected high value target reported in the area , the team had to cross on open plaza in front of a shelled shopping center. They walked into an ambush and an explosive went off, sending Kara flying back and leaving her **** from the concussive **** of the explosion. Anyone caught inside the blast were instantly vaporized and the survivors were killed soon after by the ambushers. Realizing the potential danger she may be in, Kara was about to stand up and draw her plasma rifle and energy sword to face the enemy like a true sangheili warrior. At the very least she would die honorably in combat, taking as many filthy humans as she could as an attempt to seek **** for her slaughtered unit. She stood up and was reaching for her weapons when some debris behind her moved. Before Kara could turn and confront the cause of the movement, she heard behind her “Not so fast split jaw”, before something smacked the back of her head hard. Kara fell backwards back down to the ground, once again looking up at the grayed skies and beautiful display of orbital and high atmospheric battle. A human, an imp, came into view above her as the world around her once again began to turn into a blur and began to dim. The human looked ahead and said “All clear. Tell command to get the interrogation room ready, we caught one”. By the time the human finished speaking Kara slipped back into unconsciousness once again.

Kara doesn’t know how long she was **** for or where the filthy humans took her. She slowly came to once more and was met with a grey concrete ceiling and metallic walls of the same color. She sat there in the large surgical chair, for a moment, regaining her awareness and began to look around the oddly clean and sterile room. Metal clamps kept her legs in a fixed position against the chair and her arms resting on the rests. The clamps offered her limbs no slack, yet they weren’t painful or overly uncomfortable. To her immediate left were shiny metal tables with surgical trays filled with menacing tools and syringes filled with mysterious substances. Some of the tools looked sharp enough to cut through just about anything and some of the liquid in the syringes glowed and glittered in an odd yet intriguing way. Multiple displays of some sort were stacked on top of one another and were positioned directly behind the surgical trays, facing her. Nothing played at the moment, but seeing the surgical tools and displays made her considerably more concerned about the situation she awoke to. To her left were more displays, still not showing anything on their massive screens. In front of them was an empty table, but underneath the table was a bin filled with what looked to be scrap and unidentifiable objects. Some were what appeared to be small microchips, another looked to be a crudely modified sangheili minor helmet, with a visor in front of where the eyes would be positioned. Another helmet was visible too, though this one Kara recognized as her helmet. Kara could see her family crest on it, positioned on the frontal upper left as it glowed green instead of the red it usually emitted. while not as crudely modified and tinkered with as the minor helm, it did have a small barely visible antenna sticking out of the rear. At least the rest of her armor was saved from the disgusting filth that tainted her once glorious helmet. Looking directly in front of her was a large thick metal door that looked like a direct blast from a fuel rod cannon would struggle to penetrate it. Moving further up above the door, wide windows tilted down towards her could be seen, though nothing could be seen past the tint. She looked around, looking for anything she could use to her advantage once she broke free from her restraints yet nothing really seemed like a valid choice. Observing the room as a whole there were no vents or anything that could indicate weakened infrastructure, everything seemed solid and well constructed. Looking down at the clamps holding her in the seat Kara initially attempted to wiggle around her arms and legs to verify how strong the restraints were. Then she attempted to break them using sheer **** alone, groaning as she continued to apply pressure. Static from an unseen comms system broke her concentration, a little too loud for Kara to not wince at despite her best attempts not to show any discomfort. The static cleared, and a voice filled the silence. “I wouldn’t try that if I were you, those clamps are made of Titanium-A. You aren't going to break them no matter how much **** you use. Besides, you wouldn’t want to hurt yourself, we have plans for you.”

Kara was a member of the Silent Shadow, one of the best special operations units in the Covenant. She has beaten odds that would seem frightening and impossible by the lesser races. She has slain numerous humans and sangheili on orders by the hierarchs themselves. She was part of their aresennel, a cloaked dagger that could be used to eliminate an enemy before they even noticed she was there. Her blood began to boil, not at the thought that she may be tortured for information and killed, for said information would never be given, but that she would possibly die to a bunch of insignificant humans who had the audacity to not only tarnish her holy and righteous armor but who would also dare attempt to have her betray the hierarchs she lived to serve. “Silence you disgusting vermin!” she yells in their tongue. “Unlike your kind I have honor! I do not fear **** and I certainly do not fear you. I have slain numerous of your kind and mine in the name of the Great Journey. Once I break your feeble attempts to restrain me I will add you to that count human.” At that she continues to attempt to break her binds only to no avail. Kara tries again and again, yanking and moving frantically with all the **** she could muster. Minutes would pass before she stopped, only ceasing due to the by now fairly obvious observation that the human was right, the clamps would not break from her might alone. The pain in her sore wrists did not bother her and did nothing to distract her from the one goal in mind: freedom and the slaughtering of every human she encountered in this tainted place.

Time passed, yet not the sangheili’s patience. If the humans thought boredom would cave Kara’s will then they were sorely mistaken and would pay dearly for their insolence. However she was much more calm now, organizing what she knows about the room she finds herself in, the human captives, and any other relevant information into a course of action. As she sat there with her eyes closed meditating on what to do, how to do it, and when the door to the room clicked and began to open. Her eyes opened to see two humans walk into the room. Both were armed with rifles and clad in what the human ground forces usually wore for armor, with full face coverings and a visor attached to the helmet. But this time was different, as their armor was black instead of the usual camouflage patterns. The chest piece they wore had a small symbol on the upper left that could barely be seem from where Kara sat, indicating who these humans were. The Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI as humans often referred to them, were similar in some ways to her own special forces unit. While there isn’t much information available about them it is known that they too take part in missions of sabotage and ****, usually working in the shadows instead of on the front. Intelligence gathering and secret experiments and projects were very common amongst this organization, yet almost no one, not even their own members at times, knew much about them. She has had few encounters with them surprisingly, yet she knows that even the Silent Shadows tread carefully when dealing with ONI, as these humans are admittedly much harder to handle than their usual counterparts. The guards took their place, one on each side of the door, as the third and fourth humans walked in. The third Kara faintly remembers as the one standing over her as the darkness flooded her vision a second time. Getting a better look at this imp she realizes that he too is part of ONI, bearing the same symbol on his chest plate. He had no weapon in his hand but she did see the human’s sidearm attached to his hip. The fourth human followed right behind the 3rd, wearing not armor but a black field uniform they have been seen wearing on multiple occasions and a visor that covers his upper face. The visor itself had a small camera on top of the frame on the left side, a red dot signaling that it was already recording everything happening. He carried a fairly sized black case in his right hand that seemed oddly advanced despite its simple ergonomics. He swings the case upon the empty table on Kara’s left and pulls up a folded chair that was behind the stack of displays. The human unfolds the chair, places it on the ground, and takes his seat while the imp continues to stand to Kara’s right, slightly obscuring the instruments and tools on the surgery table.

“So this is the split jaw you captured running around friendly territory? Good catch Staff Sergeant, you didn't disappoint.” The imp looks at the human and states “I aim to please sir, nothing more nothing less”. The imp turns back to the sangheili, staring her down as the fourth human asks “What’s your name elite? It would be beneficial for everyone here if we didn’t have to call you split jaw every time we address you.” Kara stared back at the human, hate and disgust pouring out of her. “I hope your worlds burn and your kind brought to its knees under the just and righteous Covenant you vermin”. “Wow, well that was a tad rude wouldn’t you say Peck? Look, I won’t lie to you, you are really important to us. Your importance, among other things, is the only reason why you aren’t dead with the rest of your Covie friends. Play nice, or things will get very…unpleasant for you.” “Pay attention human”, putting emphasis on human,”because I will only offer this once. Release me, and I will kill you with as little pain and suffering as possible. If you don’t, when I break these bonds, I will take my time to break every bone in your body and carve our holy symbols into you before I finally crush your skull under my foot. Do not waste my time with talk vermin. If you are going to kill me just get it done with.” The imp, Peck, looks at the fourth human and laughs, infuriating Kara to the pont she tries to break her restraints once again, which causes Peck to laugh more. “Nice try at being scary, split jaw, but you're in our house now, and you aren’t leaving till we get what we want”. The fourth human grins at the ferocious yet futile display put on by the bound sangheili. “Like I said earlier, you won't break out of those clamps. Titanium-A is hard, apparently like your skull.” The comment got a few laughs out of the guards by the door and made Peck laugh harder. “Alright, well I don’t need anything else to tell me you aren’t going to play nice and cooperate. That's okay, we have ways of convincing you, we are known for being very, persuasive, after all.” Kara is worried about what these human’s will do to her. The idea of **** doesn’t bother her a bit but the thought of experiencing humiliation by them makes her rage and hate absolute.