The Revenant

Dabap was starting to rethink his life. Up until this point, he thought he had done well: he was on the Dean’s List at Balaho Academy, siding with the Swords of Sanghelios at the end of the war, and going to Sanghelios after the war, where he believed the Elites would be happy enough to fight amongst themselves so he could live in peace, hopefully as a diplomat of some sort.

Those hopes were currently being dashed.

He was riding shotgun in a Type-48 Light Assault Gun Carriage, referred to by the humans as a “Revenant.” He’d heard stories about how dangerous they could be. They didn’t provide much cover for their occupants, and if the driver wasn’t careful the occupants could easily be shot out of the vehicle. And Dabap wasn’t getting the impression that his driver was going to be careful. The driver, a young Sangheili Minor, was giving Dabap the impression that he was hoping to work towards ranking up in today’s upcoming battle, and Sangheili earned ranks by getting personal kills in battle. A small part of Dabap was wondering if he would be better off bailing out of the vehicle while it was in motion and taking his chances with falling out of a moving vehicle.

His mission today was to combat an enemy keep. He didn’t know which one, nor did he care at this moment. He was more interested in not thinking about dying, so he settled for observing the terrain ahead of him on the screen in front of him. However, his thoughts drifted to how easy it would be to conceal explosives in the rocky terrain ahead of him, so his attention turned to the Warthog in front of their Revenant, which was being operated by some of the Marines the UNSC provided to assist the Swords of Sanghelios.

Suddenly, there was a bright blue flash from the front of the Warthog. The engine made a tortured screaming sound as it quickly stopped running, locking up the Warthog’s wheels as it died. One of the Marines called out “Sniper!” as he bailed out of the now-dead Warthog. The Warthog had slid as it died, and was now forming a sort of roadblock so the sniper could easily pick off what remained of the convoy that had been following it. Dabap flinched as he heard the sniper’s next shot; it missed his driver’s head by about fifteen centimeters. The Marines, having also seen the missed shot, used its trajectory to find the sniper, who was an Elite Ranger with an old Beam Rifle. The Ranger fired again and missed, and his gun overheated. The Marines quickly took down his shields and counter-sniped him, and Dabap silently cursed them for taking away his opportunity to not have to participate in the upcoming battle.

The Marines found some unoccupied seats on other vehicles, and the attention of the convoy then turned to the Warthog blocking its path. To Dabap’s dismay, his Revenant’s driver quickly cleared the obstacle with the light plasma mortar, and the convoy continued onwards.

Shortly thereafter, the convoy entered the territory of the enemy keep and were greeted by about twenty enemy Sangheili and at least four dozen Unggoy. The Revenant’s driver quickly began firing the plasma mortar into the crowd of Unggoy, causing chaos among their ranks as their bodies were launched into the air by the force of the concussive blasts. Dabap couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead; to him, the entire battlefield was screaming in agony. He fired his Plasma Pistol at the enemy forces, but was too shell-shocked to be able to hit anything.

The Revenant fired up its boosters and rammed through a column of enemy Unggoy. Something hit Dabap’s hand and knocked his Plasma Pistol out of his grip. He kept moving his finger, repeatedly pulling a trigger that no longer existed. The enemy Unggoy were appearing to retreat, although neither Dabap nor his driver noticed; the latter due to a frenzied state of blood lust.

A Sangheili Major hailed them on the battlenet. “Revenant 22, get out of there! Wraiths are approaching your location!” But Dabap and his driver were beyond noticing, and the convoy moved away, leaving them to their fate.

Presently Dabap noticed that the battle had become much quieter, and his attention refocused. He then noticed he had dropped his Plasma Pistol, that their Revenant was the only Swords of Sanghelios asset on the field, and that the absence of vehicular wreckage indicated that they had been left behind. He decided to get his driver’s attention. “Excuse me, driver! We’ve been left behind!” This only annoyed the Sangheili Minor, who proceeded to backhand Dabap out of his seat.

At the same moment, the sound of a Wraith’s plasma mortar firing filled the air. Dabap hit the sand and saw the projectile arc through the sky and land directly in front of the Revenant, ripping it in two at the seats and sending the pieces flying. Dabap averted his eyes as his driver was ejected at high speed towards a large rock. He looked at the sky to thank the Forerunners for his miraculous survival. Then he noticed a charred red object falling out of the sky, arcing towards his position.

The last thing he remembered was trying to run away.