The Skeptical Alien (Noble Six and Thel 'Vadam)

[Spartan 999]

SPARTAN-B312, Noble Six
Sangheilios, Haroun Region
Makeshift Council Chambers

“Hm...” came a curious female voice from his helmet's speakers. “'Mdama must be getting desperate, to have one of his better allies send in a suicide bomber or three, now. Especially since 'Lutar has been apart of the Swords for a few years, now. Much greater risk of compromising a useful asset, that way. Assuming what admittedly-sparse info we have about 'Lutar isn't wrong.”

“He is losing the war against the Arbiter,” Six replied in his usual calm and level voice. “The occasional piece of carefully-delivered inside information isn't going to change that, at the rate things are going.” He peaked around around the corner of an AA battery's base, head with a Recon helmet on slowly turning as it surveyed the area.

The building currently being used for strategy talks by the Arbiter and some of his higher-ups and allies was big, though rather squat and wide more than tall. And...also heavily defended and guarded, in case Covenant forces showed up. Always a possibility of that, nowadays.

But it wouldn't be a problem to infiltrate. Not for him.

“...By the way,” he added after a moment as he darted closer, taking cover beside a boulder. “What did you mean by suicide bombers? I don't think they have bomb vests or explosives implanted in their bodies.”

“Simple,” Kokabel chirped. “The bad guys have bombs that they're going to attempt to use on the Arbiter and some of his buddies. That makes them our targets. Thus, suicide bombers.”

A grin flashed across Six's face. “That's what I was hoping you meant, Koko.”

“Oh, stop,” the AI giggled. “You know I'm not that big of a fan of that nickname.”

“Would you prefer Bell, again?” Six inquired, steadily drawing closer and closer to the meeting hall as they spoke. “I could always go back to using that one again.”

“Eeehhh...no, not really.”

“Then Koko it is.”

Kokabel gave a playful huff. “Fiiine.”

By then, he'd reached the outside of the meeting hall. Six quickly found an entrance--made, more like, since he quickly and relatively quietly smashed through a weakened section of wall--and headed inside. He lurked in the shadows, avoiding the guards with practiced ease.

“Status and locations of the bombs?” Six crouched behind a pillar and brought up a holographic display over his left forearm.

“I'm currently detecting and setting waypoints on four of them,” Kokabel replied. “One of which is actually in the council chambers itself. You know, with the Arbiter and the others. Which...probably means that one of the three is actually a suicide bomber. You know, to observe the bomb and make sure it goes off.”

“I wouldn't doubt it.” Six traipsed off to the closest bomb in order to defuse it. “Though I assume that bomber would much rather prefer to make a nice, clean escape before the bomb goes off.”

The three outside bombs had been strategically planted along the outside of the council chambers to destroy and collapse the room in on itself, which would “hopefully” crush anyone within. Assuming they weren't already dead from the fourth bomb's explosion.

Once he was done with those three, Six spotted a gap at the top of a council chamber's outside wall. He clambered up to the gap and slipped inside the room that way, then hid himself behind a large bench in front of that wall.

The room itself was large and roughly pentagonal shaped, with five walls and five slopes in the floor, each with several rows of benches and seats on them. The middle, at the bottom and meeting point of the five slopes, was a clear circle about ten to fifteen meters in diameter, with a raised dais and holographic projection system in the center of that circle.

The seats weren't filled, but there were several Sangheili scattered all about the room. Most were clustered around the circle in the middle, and Six could plainly see Thel 'Vadam slowly walking around the dais as he spoke. A holographic image of Sanghelios, several ships (including some new ones the Swords of Sanghelios had recently acquired), images of Covenant activity and ongoing battles, and such were displayed from the dais.

Several of the Arbiter's lieutenants were absent, off fighting in some of the battles being shown, but most had left proxies in their stead. And, of course, there was the conspicuous absence of 'Lutar, the mole, traitor, Covenant sympathizer--however you wanted to put it. Well, only really conspicuous to Six and Kokabel, though there was the whole thing where it was mostly circumstantial evidence. Still, what they did have was...hopefully going to be enough to convince the Arbiter.

...Yeah. Hopefully. And even then, talking to the Arbiter was going to be tricky...

Six spotted the bomber. Or, one of them, anyway. He had a direct line of sight to the Sangheili, but he was two slopes away and almost on the opposite direction of the central circle from where Six was. He'd have to move fast if he wanted to ensure that nothing bad happened. Not to mention, the bomber was in one of the crowded front rows.

If he took the shot, he could eliminate the enemy from range and relative stealth, no problem. But that still left the matter of the bomb, not to mention that he could potentially inadvertently hit someone else on the bomber's other side. His sharpshooting skills were damn good, but they weren't absolutely perfect; he wasn't exactly the legendary Linda-058, after all.

So...that left him getting in close and taking the target down in close-quarters, then dealing with the bomb before it went off. And since the target was surrounded by other Sangheili, it couldn't be a subtle assassination, either.

“...Oh boy,” Kokabel murmured, evidently having come to the same conclusion as Six. “Talk about being tricky.”

Six didn't say anything as he started creeping through the rows of benches and seats. He didn't really need to, at this point.


((Layout pic. A in middle is Arby, 6 on right is Six, B on left-middle is bomber. The rest of the stairs aren't drawn because I'm lazy.))

[edtoxarsivaree]

Thel 'Vadam stood on the podium, trying to quell the outrage that had spurred forth when he had made the announcement of the new Fleet Mistress. Many of the more traditional Sangheili with the Swords had grown weary even with only the one Ship Mistress and the odd female in the ranks. To find out he had recruited one to be a higher ranking member had started quite the uproar. Most of this whole meeting was revolved around who would and should command the ships.

"One of those who have been with you from the beginning should control the ships this new 'Fleet Mistress' has given us. How do we know she isn't a loyalist who won't turn on us the moment we lower our defences?" One of the more brash warriors asked, standing tall so he could be seen. "You have many trained warriors who could do just as effective a job commanding ships if not more effective. Put them in command of the ships" He added, getting several others to agree.

It took all of Thels strength not to openly sigh. "Xaka 'Wasam, how would you have acted if when you joined the swords I immediately removed you from the command of the warriors loyal to you and placed one of my warriors in charge of them? How do you think your warriors would have reacted?" He asked calmly, taking relief in the sight of the opposer seeming to lose some steam. "I am sure the Ship Masters under Edto 'Sivar's command are loyal to her, as they are the only ones who remained after the seperation. I also don't believe she would betray us. She came to us afte fighting more than enough battles against the loyalist forces. She has no reason to betray us" He finished. Unfortunatly, it stil didn't solve the problem as the hall exploded into several arguments all at once. For so few in the hall, it may as well be full with all the activity.

((Shit post is sssshhhhhiiiiittttt ;^)

[Spartan 999]

SPARTAN-B312, Noble Six
Sangheilios, Haroun Region
Trying to defuse the situation

“Looks like sexism within the Sangheili is still going fairly strong,” Kokabel mused. “Good thing the Arbiter's progressive, since they really do need every ship they can get.”

Six paused to let one of the guards slowly walk past.

“Probably part of the reason why 'Lutar's making a move right now. Though I bet it's more because he'd rather kill the Arbiter before the Swords can properly integrate this Fleet Mistress' ships into their fleet, since that'd give the Swords an even greater edge against the Loyalists. Pun intended.”

Thirty meters from the bomber. A pop-up on his HUD showed that a double-checking scan from the Constellation confirmed the bomb's presence; it was beneath the bomber's seat, mostly likely concealed in a bag or container of personal effects. Six moved closer, swiftly and silently navigating through the rows of benches and seats.

The bomber opened up a communicator and looked at it for a few moments. Evidently he had a Bluetooth-like wireless device in or something, because he nodded and closed the device after a little bit. He stood and excused himself so he could “take a call from his superior” (more or less), then headed over towards one of the exits.

Six drew a knife, waited for a few seconds, then moved. A blur of grey, the hyper-lethal Spartan surged out from his hiding spot and nimbly closed the distance, footsteps still quiet and whisper-like despite his weight and speed. He caught the bomber in an aisle, knife plunging forward into his skull as Six put his full weight into the strike, driving him to the floor in a crumpled heap. The bastard never even knew what hit him.

He tugged the knife out and quickly sheathed it as he looked towards the bomber's seat. But...it seemed that after a moment of shock and confusion, the other Sangheili within the hall had finally noticed him. And were reacting appropriately.

Several energy swords hissed to life, and quite a few plasma weapons were lifted and aimed in his direction. Six knew the Arbiter would probably not recognize him, seeing as how he'd gotten an armor upgrade since they'd last met at the Ark.

“Better start talking fast,” Kokabel murmured.

Six rose to his feet and lifted both of his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Arbiter, it's Six. There's a bomb beneath one of the seats there,” he said, pointing at the spot where the dead bomber had previously been sitting. He hoped the Arbiter did recognize his voice, if nothing else. “You need to evacuate everyone in here, now, while I take care of it.”