HALO-Birdsong

Okay okay. Hi people. Yes, yes I'm a skirmisher. Ack! Don't shoot! My name is Tuki, and these guys are Twitch, Gizmo, Eke,Jak,Rue,Cara,Scout,Lucky,Shimmer and Siri. My,um,'team'. No worries, though. We're not from the Covenant. Or here to take over the Earth. Honestly, I can't believe you people watch those movies. What?! Whaddaya mean you've never heard of Skirmishers? Oh. I see. Universe mix-up.  Okay.......Anyone heard of HALO? Good. So you guys know. On top of that, does anyone know where I can find a computer? You do? YAY! I need to write all this down.....If anyone's interested, I can let you read it when it's finished.


Okay, so here's how this all started. We all met on the battlefield. None of us were of the Covenant, we were all rouges. We had weapons, primitive though effective. I had my bow and arrows, Twitch was pretty good with a spear, Gizmo scavenged and customized whatever weaponry he found on the battlefield, and there was Rue. Rue was barely
6 when we found her, and she had no name at the time. But, after watching her for a time,seeing her skill with a slingshot and throwing knives, I somehow made the connection between her personality and that of Rue, the little tree-warrior from The Hunger Games. So we called her Rue. And then, there's Eke and Jak, whom we met later. The two of them, both goofballs, had gone rouge a couple years back, and were both experts with sniper rifles.  Then, something changed. After a small skirmish near a base(not sure which side it was for, too busy trying to keep Gizmo away from unexploded plasma grenades), we found an unconscious Spartan. And, at sweet little Rue's request, hauled him back to camp. When he came to, of course, he freaked out at seeing he was in a camp full of Kig-Yar. Thankfully, we had all changed out of our armor and into normal clothes for the night, so we didn't appear armed. Then, he caught sight of Eke and Jak's sniper rifles along with Gizmo's needler and fuel rod cannon leaned up against a tree. He kept trying to call for back up for about an hour after that, even thought his radio was broken, and it took some convincing to get him to sit down and catch his breath. Next morning, Twitch and I went hunting for breakfast.  Shooting fish with a bow and arrow is easier than you think. And, of course, our little Spartan didn't trust the fish we brought back. I had to eat one before he would even take a bite. After several weeks living in our camp, he came to trust us enough to tell us his name was Hunter-1377. I'll never understand the way humans name their kids. Anyway, after a few more weeks with Hunter, things changed for us YET AGAIN. This time, it involves a rescue squad, some guy with a shotgun,a Yanme'e who can sing, and Twitch running into a wall. I'm just gonna skip all the boring stuff about camp life and cut to the chase.



At like 3:30 in the morning, we heard some weird humming noise.Turned out it was Hunter's rescue squad. They had sedative filled darts, obviously to be used if they ran into any wildlife. Unfortunately, that wildlife turned out to be us. Our luck seemed to stay the same, as we were captured, interrogated, and imprisoned. It's what you might call a bad day.  At About 3:00 A.M., Twitch looses her head. And no, there's no squawking or panicking, just random singing . The Spartan guards seem very confused, until Gizmo manages to find this miniature flute that he always carries with him....whatever song he's playing is familiar to me. Not sure why this happened, but most of us started singing. It was quite a comical sight, because some of the Spartans and Marines joined in....The things one does under stress usually make one laugh at one's self. It was impossible not to burst out laughing, because seeing someone trying to dance in heavy armor is just hilarious. Sometimes I worry about us. Everything stops when something else decides to sing with us. The voice is haunting, almost ghostly, yet somehow soothing. I remember hearing these words burst out from our off-key chorus.


If sand waves were sound waves
What song would be in the air now
What stinging tune
Could split this endless noon
And make the sky swell with rain

If war were a game that a man or a child
Could think of winning
What kind of rule
Can overthrow a fool
And leave the land with no stain


Twitch leaned toward me and whispered.

"Wow. Creepy."    

A Yanme'e, or drone as the humans call them, had been hanging stealthily from the ceiling. She was rogue, like us, and her shell, unlike those of her kin, was shimmering jade green. Her right wing was only half of what it used to be. Some of the Spartans seemed  to know her, calling her Shimmer, while some of the young Marines addressed her as Half-Wing. I'll call her Shimmer, as I think that's her true name, and I can see why it would be. Anyway, most of the humans present seemed to be friends with the crippled Yanme'e.  Maybe I shouldn't say crippled, because Shimmer could walk and run faster than I could, and she could seemingly float using the wings she had left. I learned later Shimmer had been rescued from the battlefield as a nymph, and raised in the UNSC. Sometime after that, when she had reached adolescence, she was sent with a group of Spartans on her first mission. During that mission, she took a hit to the wing from a concussion rifle, destroying half her right upper wing, thus giving her the nicname "Half-Wing". Two days after we'd been captured, we were all questioned individually. They asked us how old we were, where we were born, if we had any connections to the Covenant, and so on and so on. When we'd answered all their questions, we were free to roam about the base. Shimmer offered to be our escort to make sure we didn't get into any trouble. The first thing we did is run, just for the heck of it. We'd been cramped in a cell for two days, what'd you expect us to do?!Stop laughing!

Back to the point.

Late that night, while we were all sleeping, it happened. The attack, I mean. All we could tell was that Covenant forces hit the base, and hit it hard. Explosions everywhere. Shimmer woke us, armed us, and told us to find Hunter and get orders, because he was the only one she truly trusted. Hunter immediately told us to go to the hospital wing and get any survivors the heck out of there. That was the area the Covenant would target.  I asked twitch to help me open the door, because she can pick a lock in under ten seconds.

"Sure. Helping makes me feel fuzzy inside. Either that or I shouldn't have eaten that green furry stuff that was in the fridge."she says. Even in times of crisis, Twitch never fails to make me laugh.When the lock clicks and the door slides open, those who can walk begin trying to defend themselves from us, they were especially defensive against Twitch and Rue, and I expect the too-much-caffeine look Twitch had in her eyes didn't help the situation much, and they were just plain freaked out by rue, who by this time had discovered her ability to breath oxygen and was without the normal methane tank and re-breather. Earlier that week, Shimmer had designed some new armor for her, and that was what she was wearing at the time. I finally get everyone calm enough to listen to me, but it's Rue who's best at communicating with the wounded. Her voice is so soft, so sweet. Rue can even soothe Twitch when she starts crying, and that's pretty hard to do, because when poor Twitch starts crying, she starts bawling, hyperventilates, sniffling, and looks so pitiful you can't help but try to comfort her. Rue's the only one who's been successful in that field.  Rue's got everyone's attention, so I let her do the talking. She explains who we are and our orders, and those who could walk helped us get those who couldn't into the bunker. We run back to Hunter for other orders, but when we get there, the attack is over and we find out he's been taken prisoner. Twitch can't handle it and starts crying her eyes out, and Eke and Jak follow suit. Gizmo hugs me so tightly  I can't breathe, and despite his trying to choke back his tears I can tell he's crying because I can hear his breathing and it's shaky. Eventually, his head rests on my shoulder and tears start flowing. I have to hug him back, but it's Rue's  behavior that's worrying me. She's sitting there, sniffling, and clinging to Hunter's dog tags. I've never seen her so upset.  I know now that she was closer to Hunter than any of us. She'd never had family before us, and we and hunter made up the only family she had. Loosing a member of this rag-tag little family was crushing her. Right then, right there, we all made up our minds. Simultaneously, we decided. We were going to save Hunter. As we dry our eyes and prepare to leave, a straggler from the attack came careening down the corridor. I could sense the terror that shone in its eyes. It was another Grunt, and a scrawny one at that, its little ribs were visible under its armor. I expect it was half starved, as the Covenant treated the poor little things as cannon fodder. It had the ability to  breathe oxygen as Rue, which was considered a curse by Grunts, and it had probably been driven out of its pack during the battle. I catch the panicky little thing by the hand, and take it to the medical wing where Jak helps me administer a sedative. The Unggoy was drowsy almost immediately. The Grunt's eyes grow heavy and soon it dozes off with its head in my arms. Rue comes to investigate cautiously, and a spark of recognition flickers in her eyes. A soft gurgling noise rises in her throat, and she curls up next to the smaller unggoy and falls asleep. When they wake up, Rue's as strong as ever, but the small one is weak with starvation. It gets shakily to its feet, but it has to lie down again. Twitch says he can hear the little one's stomach growling from where she's standing across the room.

I know there's a kitchen around the base somewhere, so I leave the others with Tiny, what I called it for  the time being, while I got to find the kitchen. When I do find it, it's been raided by other Kig-Yar,  and one of them's still hanging around, feeding on whatever meat was left by the others. A  little hissing and bearing of teeth on my part is enough to get him to accept me as dominant. He's starving as well, that much I can see, and I wonder if his regiment was simply lost and stumbled upon our base by accident. If that's the truth, then our base must have appeared a safe haven among eerie landscape, and the Kig-Yar there would have been able to smell the food inside.  He helps me gather enough to feed both himself and our other straggler, and we return to the others. Eke seems a little aggressive towards the starving kig yar, but then again, he thinks the thing was with the Covenant by choice.

It's more likely the poor guy was forced to fight for the Covenant. Eke and Jak calm down once they see that I've accepted him, but they're still suspicious and won't allow him anywhere near Twitch or Rue. While eating, the two stragglers introduce themselves. The unggoy is Scout, the Kig-Yar is Cara. Cara is drowsy after eating, I guess because he hasn't had a full stomach in a while. He fights sleeping as long as he can, but eventually he looses. Scout on the other hand, turned out to know Rue. They were two of six Unggoy chosen by Spartan scientists to be given the ability to breathe oxygen and trained to fight for the human side. Scout had been wandering in our direction when the attack happened and taken shelter inside our base to avoid being killed by other grunts.  It turns out Scout is an excellent strategist, and Cara's specialty is hand-to-hand combat.  They're both great additions to the team, and everyone knows we can use more extra hands for our little rescue mission. Eventually, everyone crashes. I sleep till about ten in the morning, but Rue's been up since five. Scout's curled up in a ball next to an unconscious Twitch, who's drooling. It's hard to concentrate on anything over Gizmo's snoring, Eke's slumped against a wall with his head leaning to one side. It takes me a minute or two to find out where Jak fell asleep, until I look behind the heating/cooling system. It seems almost cute until the thought "Someone's gonna have to wake them up" crosses my mind. Eventually,though,they wake up on their own and we are taken to questioning (again!) because of Hunter's capture.I explain over and over again that we had nothing to do with it, and eventually they believe me.I don't know weather it was my explanation or Rue's quiet crying that convinced them.  Cara and Scout, however, are imprisoned and interrogated further. I don't know how the humans got the answers out of them, but when they're released, Scout clings to me and hides behind me. Cara explains, though. "They didn't do much. I think it was just all the armor that scared her. They let us go when we told them we were friends of yours." I'm surprised they trust us that much. And then we're all called to a conference room.Turns out, the USNC are planning their own rescue mission. And apparently, we're needed. They want us to infiltrate the Covenant base, earn their trust, and break Hunter out ASAP.



'Course I was nervous. I mean, none of us actually look or act much like warriors. First words that go through my mind: "Oh no.We're doomed" But we have to leave before I can really begin panicking. About three hours into the trip, Twitch disappears. I can't find her, Rue can't find her, Gizmo can't find her, none of the humans can find her, (not such a big surprise),and not even Cara can find her.  I'm then hit on the head by something falling out of a tree. And landed on by a Yanme'e who lost to gravity. Thankfully, it's Shimmer. Shimmer's tumble out of the tree is quickly replicated by two more Yanme'e and a Sangheili,minus the landing-on-the-unwary-skirmisher-below part. The Yanme'e are known as Luna and Nox, one female and one male, are shy and keep to themselves.  The Sangheili, known as Luo 'Ferre, or "Lucky", is, on the other hand, very talkative. She is young, around sixteen or seventeen, like me, but has encountered and escaped the Flood more than a few times without injury. I presume that's where she gets her nickname. I take a step back when she removes the odd band around her shoulder to apply some sort of medicine.The stuff is an off-white color,and it smells of aloe and melon. There's a nasty, purple gash running the length of her upper arm. It worries me. I think it's infected until I remember that Sangheili blood is purple.

"Looks like it hurt." I say, much to Luo's surprise.

"It did." she mumbles back. "I was a thief...I was running as fast as I could between and behind shops, trying to get away from the two warriors chasing me...I couldn't see the blindwolf that was right in front of me,guarding the little produce stand...when I passed it, it recognized my scent...and it attacked." The gash looked fresh.

"How long ago was that?"I ask. It might not be the ideal get-to-know you conversation, but it was a start.


"Two weeks. Thankfully, Shimmer was there, or I would have bled  to death. No self-respecting Sangheili helps a thief." Luo had tears in her eyes now. I wish I'd never brought the subject up.

"Shimmer knew you were a thief. She helped you.We knew Hunter-1377 was a Spartan and would probably consider us enemies-we helped him. Not all beings are stubborn snobs. Probably not even all Sangheili."

The reply I get comes in the form of a bone-crushing hug.It's interrupted by a squawk from the brush. Luo gets the deer-in-the-headlights look, and we both take off at top speed. I was surprised to see how easily I could keep up with the 8'2" elite.Eventually, we reach Twitch, who seems to be frozen in place with her beak gaping open in terror. And we look up to see why. The creature that is terrifying her is a Guta. Which is weird, they're supposed to exist only on Reach, and we're not on Reach. This animal is abnormally large, even for its own kind.  It's also abnormally aggressive, but I have no clue why, as I don't see what threat a couple of scrawny Kig-Yar and an teenage Sangheili could possibly pose to something so powerful. And then I see the round, ivory object that's clutched close to Twitch's heart.  

"Twitch..Give the mama back its baby..." I whisper, so as not to agitate the beast that's staring us down. Twitch stalks quietly over to what I think is its nest, and almost lays the egg down. Suddenly, Hunter comes crashing through the bushes, guns aimed at the Guta and blazing. The creature falls over. I hiss at Hunter.

"We had it handled! It was protecting the egg!WHY did you shoot?!" I move towards the dying animal and stroke its head as the light fades from its eyes.

"Don't worry", I say. "We'll take care of your baby." It makes a quiet sound;something like 'thank you'. And then it's gone. Luo screams at me "It's Twitch! She's caught!" I move closer. Her leg was caught by the Guta's heavy tail. No one can move it. At least, I don't think so. She's still holding the egg, which is starting to chirp. "Help." She falls unconscious. With the combined efforts of Luo, Hunter,and a Mgalegloklo who responded to Twitch's cries, we're able to pull her free. I can't tell, but I think the leg is broken. She can't walk, that's for sure. Luo is about to scoop her up, but Hunter stops her. He picks her up instead, cradling her as you would a baby.I want to cry. For no reason at all, I want to break down and cry. It probably doesn't help that I've just been through a traumatic experience. Seeing your best friend nearly killed...watching a mother die trying to protect its child....it gets to you. Luo takes the egg from Twitch and hands it to me.  

"I think I'll go on ahead, give you and the Spartan time to catch up." she says. I have to say, I'm grateful for her decision.
"Hunter...what happened? We thought you were captured...that's why we were out here. We were trying to save you." "I was captured. Well, halfway.  I got away before we got where we were going." Suddenly, there's crashing behind us.

"Stand still, Tuki. I got a couple of people I want you to meet."  Two seconds later, a pair of Huragok along with the Mgalegloklo who helped save Twitch appear. "Meet More-Distracted-than- Most,Smaller-Than-Some and Tune." 

 "Well that's a mouthful."

"Yeah. The guy who was in the cell next to me called the huragok Blythe and Zach."


"If you weren't at the base, how were you in a cell?" "We were on a cruiser,Tuki."

"Oh." No one says much after that, we walk on in silence. When we get back, someone's giving a speech about 'valiant efforts'.

"Holy crap, Hunter, they think we're dead!" Both of us take off for the room the sounds are coming from.  We're not going fast enough to get there before the ceremony starts. I let out a noise I never knew myself capable of just to let them know we're still kicking.


"Squaaaarreeeeeeeeekk!!!"  We get to the doors, and everyone stops and looks at us. Blythe,Zach, and Tune back out through the door nervously. The spartan who is speaking looks like he's just seen  a ghost.I have to catch a Marine who falls over backwards lauging.


"As you guys can see, we're not dead." I say matter-of-factly.  

The Marine's friend responds "Miss,we never thought you were. We just got word that the war was over."  


"Oh...Hehee...oops..." I say.   I hear Lucky's voice from behind me say



"Awwwwkwarrrrd!". Hours later, in the infirmary, Twitch comes to. At first,she's babbling nonsense. Something about 'rubber biscuits'. The only thing that's coming out of her beak which makes any sense whatsoever is "I don't wanna go to school". Funny, she's never been to school. Thankfully, her leg wasn't broken badly,just a hairline fracture. With a special cast on, she's able to walk within another few hours. She keeps gnawing on the metal bracelet around her wrist. I don't think she's supposed to do that, but none of the scientists say otherwise, so I guess it's alright with them.  Lucky and Shimmer come careening down the hallway on our first walk.

"Tuki! Quicly! " Without hesitation,we start sprinting. 'We' meaning both Twitch and me. I keep hearing "Ow" from behind me. We get to the biology laboratory just in time to see a tiny Guta poking its head out of the egg. It imprints itself on Twitch and Eke. Without warning, a white feather floats down from the rafters above and scares me. I guess I was still a little jumpy. I look up. A pure white Skirmisher is perched there. It leaps down with grace I could never muster. By the bluish color of its eyes I can tell it's albino.  By it's voice I can tell it's female. Older than me, but not quite full-grown. Jak warms right up to her. I think I see him blush a little, but I can't be sure.



"My name is Siri.Yours?" it asks.

"Tuki""Twitch""Gizmo""Eke""Jak""Rue""Scout""Cara""Shimmer""Lucky""Hunter". Names go around the room. Luna and Nox were still sleeping when we left the room; it was early morning. Everyone goes back along the same hall to get to their quarters.Siri will be bunking with me and Twitch for the night. Actually, everyone ended up crashing together because of some unexpected events.  White light fills the room, none of us can see more than two feet away from our faces. Subsequently, we all huddle in together so we don't get separated. When the light fades,we're  in an open, grassy field in the middle of the day. It's warm, which is a nice change from the 50 degree (All temperature measurements are in Fahrenheit for now) environment we had been in. And then we notice the two teenage boys who are staring at us open mouthed. "Dude, is it just me, or do those look like a bunch of jackals and skirmishers?" "Yeah, they do." "Holy cow, man, there's a spartan! And an elite! And a drone and some grunts!!"  "Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming." "Dude...we're not dreaming."


And that's how we got where we are now.