A halo fanfic about master chief (John) and the Arbiter (Thel)
Some time between Halo 4 and 5
Thel put up his hand to block the backwash from the pelican's engines. Once, he had hoped never to see the day when one of these craft would land on his world, but now, it filled him with joy. It put down, the rear ramp lowered, and a man in green armor stepped out.
"John!"
Thel ran up and embraced him. It had now been 6 months since they had last seen each other. He had taken John on a tour of his family's vineyards, and showed him the idyllic country life that many Sangheili now enjoyed. Of course, not Thel, but many. John hugged back, hard.
"John, I am overjoyed to see you - but why have you come unannounced, and in a military craft?"
John's face split into a shit-eating grin, the kind Thel had fallen in love with.
"I wanted to show you something. It's ok, it's been modified! Nobody knows we're here."
"We?"
John theatrically waved at the pelican. Three floating, pink forms slowly emerged, waving several sets of arms wildly in front of themselves. Thel's jaws dropped.
"JOHN WHY DO YOU HAVE HURAGOK WITH YOU?"
"These are some new buddies. Hold on, let me ask them to turn on their translators."
Small metal loops around the creatures' necks crackled as their speakers activated. They continued to flail their arms excitedly.
"Hello," said the first. It leaned slightly awkwardly to one side, and had to correct itself. "My name is Leans Awkardly."
"Hello," said the second. As it moved, it bobbed up and down rhythmically. "My name is Bobs Rhythmically."
"Hello," said the third. When it stood still, it slowly rotated in place. "My name is Rotates Slowly."
This did not help Thel recover his composure.
"Ok, ok let me explain. So, it turns out that some spartan training groups some years ago discovered another Forerunner shield world, and found these buddies. They got recruited into the UNSC, and they've been working on ships since then."
The three went back into the pelican and started pulling unassuming grey boxes out. Thel tried to pull himself together.
"The new UNSC flagship? The Infinity?"
"Yup. Their handiwork."
Thel pondered for a second.
"We had suspected, but it seemed unlikely."
"Yeah, they tried to keep them under wraps. But, as it happens, after the whole Didact thing they didn't really know what to do with me. They just put me on the Infinity with full access to everything. So I started wandering around. Being around the new spartans was hard, anyway - they all just think of me as some sort of legend and not a real person."
Thel nodded. "I'm sorry, it must be lonely now."
John shrugged.
"Yeah, it is. But then, one day I was walking around the engineering section and saw one of the Huragok floating there, working on a panel. I couldn't believe it. I walked up to it, and it just held out its hand and asked me for my iPod."
"Your what?"
"It's an old Earth device that plays music. I like to listen while I walk around the ship."
"Ah."
"And so I hand the iPod to it, and, like they do, they took it apart, and put it back together."
"Surely it couldn't have found something so trivial interesting?"
"You would think. But then it put the earbuds up to its head, and pressed play. An old Earth rock song came on, and it started bobbing its head with the music. It stayed like that until the song was over."
"The huragok enjoy music?"
"Apparently, and not just a little. It grabbed a piece of metal off the wall and made its own iPod, with the same songs and everything. Then it just floated away."
"I assume that was not the end of this saga."
John nodded emphatically.
"A few days later, I go back down to the restricted engineering levels. And there's just this group of 5 of them, and they all have iPods and are just doing their little head bob thing, all in perfect time to the music. So I walk up to them and I'm just jamming out with them for like, a few hours. And then, believe it or not, I thought about you!"
"I am flattered that you would still deign to consider me when presented with a room full of dancing huragok."
"Seriously, though. To be honest, I was happy. Really happy. I was laughing so hard with them and they were just jamming to some old Earth tunes. I've never felt like that before. And I wanted to share it with you."
"And so, you bring three huragok who I can only assume have helped you create an undetectable pelican so I can 'jam' with you, too? Did they make me an iPod?"
"They did, but that's not all."
He turned to the three floating blob lizards. They had assembled what looked like a small speaker setup.
"Hit it!"
Rotates Slowly slapped one of its tentacles comically on a large red button. The field they were in filled with a bright flash, and then what appeared to be a hologram of a human crowd appeared. It was not like anything Thel had ever seen - the images were perfect. He reached out a hand, and it went right through a person in front of him.
"This is...incredible!"
"Isn't it? I think the huragok get a little bored working on just military hardware all the time."
Suddenly, in front of the crowd a large stage appeared. On it was a collection of humans surrounded by musical instruments and microphones.
"We dug up some historical archives, and were able to find video records of a concert by one of the bands I listen to (and the one the huragok love). They're called Hoobastank."
"Hooba...stank?"
"Yeah. I think the early 21st century was a weird time for human culture. But they made some great music!"
The crowd started cheering. Just like the images, the sound felt real. Maybe it was real, Thel thought. He smiled.
"Well? What do you say? Do you want to relive an old Earth concert with me?"
"John, I would like nothing more."
John snapped again, and the huragok came forward into the crowd. Bobs Rhythmically had what looked like a lighter. The musicians started to play.
"What's this song called?"
"Connected."
John grabbed Thel's hand as guitars blasted out a wall of sound.
No one else
Will help us to get through
So by ourselves
We'll know just what to do
We are connected
We'll never be alone
We walk together
Forever down that road
John moved closer to Thel.
And if you fall behind
And don't know what to do
I promise I'll be waiting there for you...
Thel was holding John now.
Follow me into a better day
We'll be alright
No matter what they say
We are connected
We'll never be alone
We walk together
Forever down that road.
Thel could feel John's tears on his chest. His were falling John's hair.
John looked up into Thel's eyes.
"It's been hard without you. You are leading a whole planet now, and probably don't have time to be doing things like this anymore. But no matter what happens, I just want you to know that I love you."
Thel squeezed him tighter.
"John, you are correct. I am very busy. But I would not be here without you, and if you want to visit Sangheilios with your three huragok friends, I promise I will always be here waiting. I love you, too."
The huragok punched the button again, and everything went quiet and still. The stars were clear in the sky.
"There is no person in this whole galaxy, John, who can look out at the stars like this and feel what we feel. Who has stood before the total annihilation of all life. Who has had their entire being bent to be a tool of empire, of slaughter. Or," his expression softened, "who has seen the natural wonders of the installations and countless worlds, achingly beautiful. Who has carried the hopes and wishes of untold, ancient civilizations forward into the future."
He chuckled to himself.
"We are connected. No amount of space or time will ever change that, as long as we live."
They sat, and under the shining light of distant worlds, considered the memories that bound them.