When Destiny Burns, Ep. 1: A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover

Chapter 4. 5 Operator pt. 1

So these were more of the hostiles...six-hundred more. And they were amassing in the middle of the night in the Beor Mountains...for what? Had they found the bodies and decided to come and search for him?

No...it was yet too early for that. He had only killed those fifty individuals last night. Unless...their marching tempo had been very high.

Way higher than normal humans.

Were they here for him or for the Varden? He could theoretically handle six-hundred primitively armed hostiles. But the Varden? If they were a rebel group that consisted out of humans with swords and spears...they would get massacred.

The Spartan considered his previous theory about high-ranking Insurrectionist personnel having staged all this and discarded it. It was impossible for humans to stage such a giant illusion, as he had spent more than seven days and nights on the move. He had seen cities, forests and lakes that all indicated that the entire country was so primitive.

Then he decided that the reason for this world to be so primitive lay with some calamity that had happened in the past, forcing everyone to start anew. Perhaps it had something to do with these extremely fast-growing dragons? Radiation perhaps?

Anyway, he could sneak down there, assassinate their groups standing guard and then eavesdrop on them. Then again...there was very little cover down there. They would see him before he could get the drop on them and that would mean combat...combat that the dragon could feel, as it had also responded to his aggression against the previous group.

Neither could he stay hidden halfway down the slope of the mountain, as the crumbling rocks and stones would give him away.

No...he couldn't risk eavesdropping on those things. They wouldn't even understand him; just because humans spoke English, these creatures would not automatically speak English too.

The whole language-thing only served to prove his theory. The language of the humans was equal to his own, so they couldn't have evolved on their own. They had to be descendants from UNSC forces.

And they had been attacked because the people living there were Insurrectionists. And Captain Wren had been alone in this world for more than a week now...

If he couldn't find that dropship and contact the When Duty Ends soon, he might never be able to return to the UNSC.

He pushed those thoughts away and returned to his dragon. He couldn't risk a confrontation, but he needed to be very careful in moving.

He sought out the consciousness of the reptile and sent a small probe of thoughts into its mind. 'We're moving.'

A vague and blurry image flashed into his mind and he caught a brief sense of terror, before the dragon fully woke up and replied to his statement.

It was curious and didn't want to go.

'We got trouble,' He told it and gently tugged at one of the horns on its neck, pulling it upright. Between them arriving near the Mountains and now, the dragon had grown an additional foot in height. It was growing at a ridiculous pace, as it now stood almost as tall as a fully-grown man.

It sure did tower above Grunts.

The dragon stated that it wanted to eat the trouble next. Hunger.

"That won't work," He agitatedly replied and together, in the middle of the night, they disappeared again.

The Spartan quickly found a small river running through the indent where the feet of two large mountains met. He knew that rivers generally led to civilization, so the Varden sure had to be at the end of it. It was a stroke of luck for him to have found it, as he needed any and all leads that indicated where the mysterious group of rebels had founded themselves. And water was a perfect place for that.

Soon, the sun rose up in the sky once more and signaled the start of the eight day in Alagaesia. The Spartan didn't encounter any other enemies, but he stayed on his guard nonetheless. Nothing would ambush him on his way to the Varden, that much he was sure of. And even though he had spotted the occasional groups of humanoids marching through the mountains, their tempo was just too low for them to catch up to him.

During the day, he started teaching the dragon all sorts of things. He had felt their bond growing stronger over the course of the week and he did not understand a thing about it. But he did understand that the dragon was more intelligent than he had credited it for, even after he had understood its humanlike intellect. Had he wanted to, he could have held an entire conversation with it purely by mental images and smells. It insisted on hunting for itself and he let he fly whenever it wanted too, but he never lost the mental contact with the dragon. Even after he had climbed another mountainside to investigate the next valley, where he had witnessed his dragon flying away until he could barely see it without zooming in, he had not lost contact with the dragon.

And he hated it. He hated that the strange effect that his touch had created had manifested itself in such a tight link between him and the animals. He could feel what it felt and every time the dragon did something, he was aware of the constant buzzing in the back of his mind.

But that link was not only annoying, it was also extremely dangerous. So when the sun started to set, signaling the end of the eight day, he decided to make camp and put up some ground-rules.

"Listen up," He told the reptile, "This link between us is dangerous and useless. If we are going to do anything, you will need to do exactly what I say."

Amused.

"Physical rules," He told the thing, pretending he hadn't felt its amusement at his statement, "You will move silently. You will only hunt after having determined the area to be clear and you will attempt to hide your tracks. Affirmative?"

Amused.

"Mental rules: whatever happens, you stay away from my memories and my thoughts. I don't need you poking around when I am fighting, clear?"

A snort, a plume of smoke and: agreement.

"What is the status of your mental skills?"

Confusion.

He sighed, understanding that the dragon might think him to be vague. "You read my thoughts, right?"

Agreement.

"Can you read other thoughts?"

There was a brief moment of silence, before: agreement.

The Spartan wanted to tell the dragon that it should practice its mental abilities, so that it might survive better. But it was going with the UNSC...so that they might learn from it.

On the other hand...he knew just how willing ONI was to gain an advantage for mankind. And as willing as they were, he was more willing. But if ONI ever got their hands on the dragon, they would most likely dissect it.

Alive. And then keep it for further experiments.

_word count: 1175 words_