The Good, the Bad, and the Didact

Composer

Mantle's Approach exited slipspace, along with several Covenant liches. I stood beside the Didact on the bridge; he was wearing his armor again, and had his eyes focused to what was in front of us. This area of the galaxy had no planets, and the first thing that came to view was a Halo: Installation 03.

The ring was large and silver, and it was surrounded by countless asteroids. I began to wonder how on earth Mantle's Approach would be able to get close enough to the station, to extract the Composer. The liches were already moving in towards the station, and soon phantoms were arriving alongside of them. The Didact watched as the onslaught began, but it was hard to tell from here.

The Didact turned to me. "Emily, I need you to board that station and locate the Composer for me. The Covenant will take care of any hostiles. But, if there are any humans on board do not let them take you away from your objective. Use any means necessary to find the Composer for me. You will know it when you see it,"

I didn't like the sound of that, and I wished the station was abandoned. "I am loyal to you Didact, but I don't want to kill my own kind,"

"Killing is not your objective, but whether you like it or not, your kind on that station will suffer casualties."

I sighed, and did not want to dissuade him. He was expecting me to find the Composer, and perhaps kill my own kind if necessary. I didn't want to, as much as I wanted to be on his side.

Then I thought of two ideas: a ceasefire between the Covenant and the humans on the station, and get them to evacuate. If the Covenant refused that, then my backup plan was to keep them away from the Composer until the station was evacuated. That way no one would have to die, and the Didact would be free to take the Composer.

But there was the matter of what would he do with it once he had it? There was a high chance he would go to Earth with it. Perhaps that would be the time to possibly risk my life to stop him, and tell him how I felt. Maybe he wouldn't kill me after all, now that he seemed to be starting to like me as well. But if only I knew for certain what his ancilla was helping him find inside his Forerunner heart.

I decided to respond with this, "I will do what needs to be done then."

The Didact nodded in trust. "Once you have led the Covenant to it, I will order all Covenant forces to retreat and report back to me. My Prometheans will take you back to safety on my ship as I take the Composer."

I put my mind off human casualties. "Very well, send me onto the station," I said.

The Didact put his hand on my shoulder. "Good luck Emily," He said, and I looked into his eyes for a moment with love, and then I walked over to his Promethean Knights waiting for me at the exit.

The two Knights grabbed hold of me and teleported. I shut my eyes and waited for it to be over, and then I landed on a hard metal ground. I opened my eyes and the sound of gunfire was heard all around me. The Covenant had already begun engaging the humans in the station's hangar. Most of them were scientists, and a few of them were Marines. I was glad there were no Spartans to assist. I quickly got up off the floor and out of the range of fire.

Several Elites were muttering in language I did not understand, but I could only guess they were commanding the Grunts and Jackals. I backed away into the hall behind the firefight in the hangar, and decided it was best to find out who was in charge. They could perhaps know where the Composer was.

I bumped into something invisible behind me and turned around, an Elite appeared growling before me; its jaws wide open and then it snarled in words that sounded like gibberish to me. Then I had an idea.

"Give me your active camo, I can use it to sneak by the human forces and locate the Composer," I told the Elite. The Elite growled angrily and spoke Sangheili once again. Why didn't these Covenant speak English like the ones we had a truce with?