Star Wars: the Covenant

Chapter 11

Kalleem was wondering just how big this structure actually was. It was enormous. But with the Jiralhanae guarding the main entrance, he and his Sangheili brothers were able to cover more ground at a more reasonable pace.

He looked at the Huragok. For the last few hundred meters they had become fairly agitated. They were now leading the group with increasing curiosity.

The squad turned a corner before the Huragok bolted down the hallway, their gas bladders pushing them through the stale air.

Kalleem groaned as he ran after them, hoping whatever got them so riled had something to do with their mission. Eventually the hallway ended with a small door, the Huragok nowhere to be seen.

Kalleem retrieved his plasma repeater on his back and approached the door with caution, His squad members doing the same behind him.

The doors slid open with a hiss and Kalleem stuck his repeater inside, ready for anything. He relaxed his grip on his weapon as the two Huragok floated into view, their tentacles fiddling with a large holographic keyboard.

"Stay here" he said to his troops. Kalleem stepped inside and the door slid shut behind him.

The room itself wasn't much to look at, but hovering over a pedestal at the center of the room was a massive hologram showing a map of the entire galaxy. The Silent Cartographer, Kalleem thought in amazement.

He stepped up to examine a small red circle highlighting a star system on the far side of the galaxy. Kalleem wondered if this was where the Destroyer resided.

The hologram suddenly changed in correspondence with the Huragoks' actions with the keyboard. It now showed a single star system with three rocky planets orbiting two bright yellow stars. The second planet was noticeably different with a surface covered in brown and a bright red circle surrounding it.

"Do you have the co-ordinates?" Kalleem asked the Huragok. One of them bleeped a response which Kalleem interpreted as a "yes."

"Come" he said to the two floating aliens, "We must deliver this information to the Hierarchs."

Slightly disappointed to have not been able to explore the Cartographer's records further, the Huragok reluctantly followed Kalleem from the map room. They stepped through the ancient door and Kalleem faced his Sangheili comrades.

"Do we have the location Shipmaster?" asked one of them.

Kalleem nodded and smiled, "we have what we came for" he said simply. Kalleem led the way back down the hall towards their exit. They turned a corner as Kalleem's comm. unit began to beep.

"What is it?" he growled into his mike.

"Shipmaster, we may have a problem." Replied one of the Jiralhanae stationed at the structure's entrance.

"What kind of problem?"

The Jiralhanae sounded uneasy. "Shipmaster the fight has moved to the surface of this world. The sky is filled with ships and I can hear the sounds of battle beyond the crater. Should I call for extraction?"

Kalleem thought this over, remembering that the Prophets had said this would be apart of the distraction they would require. "Yes," he told the Jiralhanae, "we should be there by the time the drop ship arrives."

Now that he had the location of the Destroyer in his hands, Kalleem was almost hoping not to come face to face with any of the heretics. After all, if so much as a single projectile punctured the Huragoks' skin, the buoyant gasses which made up their interior could easily catch fire and ruin his chances of ever even seeing the great weapon created by the gods.