"At least you wouldn't be standing out in the night rain were that to happen," Ahkrin joked. The two Sangheili tried to smile, but were obviously too weary to do so properly and so it ended up looking more like a begrudging grimace. "So everything's fixed then?" the second guard broke the silence, obviously giving Ahkrin his cue to leave. He nodded. "If you have any more problems, just contact the agency. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bed to fall into," Ahkrin finished, turning around and preparing to walk away. "Lucky bastard--" the first guard began to call after him, before suddenly stopping and letting out a little gasp. Ahkrin froze, tensing. He looked back at the guard, seeing him staring down at Ahkrin's right side. Ahkrin followed the gaze of the man, realising what it was he was staring at. Protruding from the cloak he wore as the barrel of the whisper-carbine, looking incredibly dangerous. [i]Blast,[/i] Ahkrin cursed, turning around fully. The guards both had their weapons out, aiming them at him with shaking hands. "W-why do you have that?" one of them demanded nervously, voice rising a few levels in the middle of his sentence. Realising the ruse was over, Ahkrin tossed aside his cloak and revealed to them his full assassin's attire. Their jaws seemed to sink into the ground. "You saw nothing," Ahkrin told them in a deadly-quiet voice. "I am on official business of our most holy Covenant, no concern of yours. You will go about your duties as if you never saw me, and will not breathe a word of their to any lest you wish to meet the sharp edge of the blade you are both now so intently staring at it. Am I understood?" They didn't speak, only managing a terrified little nod between them. Ahkrin returned it, before picking up the cloak and throwing it over him once more. This time when he walked away, not a word was spoken. He suspected the two would not make so much as a sound for the rest of the night. * * * Wraith mortars sailed across the sky, cutting through the night like deadly falling stars. Their fire was retaliated by the heavy pounding of scorpion tanks and human defensive artillery. Banshees and vampires cut through the air, dancing with hornets, falcons and shortswords. Covenant crashed into UNSC. Zharn had seen it all before, and it almost always ended with Covenant victory. This time however, rather than be in the battle himself commanding a lance or two, he was thousands of kilometres above the war relaying orders to the entire army. The holographic projection before him did a very good job of conveying the scene; a fully three-dimensional representation of the battle below, in real time. As he barked orders to ground commanders, who would then relay his orders to their own troops, it felt like he was playing a game. Except the consequences were real. Every holographic figure who fell represented a real warrior. Their target was a human complex; intelligence had discovered that the humans had many facilities upon Baron VII focused on reverse-engineering Covenant technology. He had been ordered by higher command to ensure the destruction of all these research labs; by conventional means if possible, or by calling in a glassing in extreme measures. Zharn wondered if he could do that. To destroy an entire planet... surely that was a crime against the universe itself? A wonder that had formed over billions of years. And in hours he was expected to reduce it to glass if all went awry. He had his orders, though. For now he would do his best to merely destroy the facilities and perhaps force the humans into a retreat, saving the Covenant the exponential costs in energy and manpower that came with a glassing and also saving himself the horror of having to order such an act. "Pelicans attempting to flank Scarab sigma," chatter sounded across the tactical communications channel, which linked him to the entire army below. Zharn turned to his battery operator. "Fire quaternary guns at those Pelicans on the surface; burn them out of the sky," he commanded forcefully, and within moments his order was carried out. The ship vibrated as the plasma battery on its underside warmed up, until finally he saw out the observation window several torpedoes of brightest blue fall from the ship to the planet below. With precision that could only have been bettered by an associated intelligence, the plasma tore through the pelicans and set them ablaze. The threat to Scarab sigma eliminated, Zharn turned his attention back towards the greater battle. Even one completely unfamiliar with warfare would be able to see the humans were being pushed back by the greater numbers and firepower of the Covenant. He wished he could be down there, feeling the rush of adrenaline as his sword swiped across the battlefield. Up here, he felt... nothing, aside from a terror in his stomach stemming from the worry he would not do his job correctly. All eyes were upon him, he knew, waiting to see what the new fleetmaster would perform like. Suddenly, he noticed an anomaly in the tide of battle. Whereas a wave was cascading across the humans practically everywhere, nearly pushing inside the facility itself, there was a narrow strip slicing its way through the tsunami of purple and leading a mass of green into the breach. "Magnify!" Zharn shouted sharply, indicating on the hologram the area he wanted zoomed in. As if he were falling towards it, that specific area of the battlefield enlarged. Marines were charging into an entire century of Sangheili, roaring with morale they should not have possessed. Leading the charge was... what Zharn could only describe as a blur. It raced forward, cutting down Covenant in its unwavering path. The blur reached the foot of Scarab omega, before darting up its leg as if it were flying. Small guns fire echoed from within the mighty behemoth; piloted by Sangheili rather than the lekgolo fast becoming standard. Then, the firing stopped. Marines surged to meet the scarab but were not being attacked by it. Sickeningly, the scarab then began to sink down to the ground and the human soldiers boarded it swiftly, running up the ramps and firing out at the Covenant rushing towards it. A wraith spun to meet the scarab; its pilot contacted Zharn. "Fleetmaster, should I--?" the Sangheili within began to question. "Fire!" Zharn interrupted shrilly. The wraith raised its cannon, primed to fire-- Only to be swept away in a sudden stream of poison green, bursting from the toxic mouth of the scarab -- now obviously under human control. It spun to face the rest of the Covenant army, before its gun port charged up. "All units, focus on Scarab omega!" Zharn commanded, realising what was about to happen. "Battery officer, fire secondary weaponry at that vehicle now!" Too little too late. The commandeered scarab unleashed its payload upon a third of the attacking Covenant forces, instantly decimating hundreds of warriors and brushing aside wraiths, ghosts, banshees and revenants as if they were shades of light. After the deed was done, Zharn saw the blur which had wrought all this dive out boldly, followed by a mass of fleeing marines. They cleared the scarab moments before his ship's secondary fire bellowed into it, lighting it up in a blaze of emerald fire. But the damage had been done; many of the Covenant forces had been killed or injured by the human-controlled scarab, and now the humans were back in the came. The tidal wave of purple was pushed back slowly by an equally powerful gust of green, until eventually the two were even with each other, both refusing to give ground. No longer under constant fire, several evacuation ships left the planet's surface and tore into slipspace before Zharn's fleet could knock them back down. [i]How did this happen?[/i] Zharn wondered. "Rewind footage, focus in on... whatever that blur was." The last few painful seconds replayed themselves on the holographic representation, before being slowed down to a snail's pace. The blur was captured as it ran along the floor, bullets firing from it with cold, machine-like precision. "Enhance!" Slowly, the quality of the image sharpened until eventually Zharn could discern the origin of the killer-blur. [i]A demon,[/i] he realised with dread as he saw the familiar armour and flashing golden visor. He peered closer, and further dread swept over him as he recognised the numbering on its armour. [i]Not just any demon... it's the one from Eridanus II.[/i] Suddenly, he knew what it was he had to do. Pulling away from the command pedestal he viewed the battle from, he turned to his second. "Take command," he told the Sangheili, voice heavy. The sub-commander blinked with surprise, eyes rounding. "Why?" he asked. Zharn merely checked his armour was working and that his weapons were all where they should be on his person. When he spoke, he addressed the entire bridge. "I have a demon to slay." * * *