Forsaken

In the silent beauty of space a lone shape broke the pattern of stars decorating the cosmos. It carried with it no purpose, no allegiance and no destination. The blood red metal was adorned with scars and burns of battles long since past and the once smooth and elegant shape was distorted by the rough angular panels now present. Onboard the ship and within the bridge there was a monotonous silence broken only by the occasional bleep from a terminal or the heavy footfalls of the crew.
At the center sat one figure, he had gone by many names, Sangheili, Zealot, Shipmaster, Monster and most recently, Traitor. Shipmaster Radst’ Volir had been called many things, some more true than others but ever since the Great Schism they meant nothing. The truth of the Prophets betrayal and the weight of the thousands he had mercilessly killed in their name making Radst pray for a chance, if any, to atone for his sins.
His reminiscing, however, was interrupted by Phraxus, his second in command.
"Shipmaster, we have picked up a distress signal. The Brute paused, bringing up a hologram in front of Radst as he stood. "A wreck, in orbit of a nearby world."A world glassed long ago, he didn't need to add - the hologram said as much already.
"Set a course, and prepare a Lance. Light weapons and gauntlet shields only." 
"By your word, shipmaster." Phraxus nodded, leaving the bridge without another word.
Once the ship had reached the planet and the source of the signal had become clear, out in orbit, floating aimlessly was a human ship, no bigger than a corvette.
Now Radst waited along with Phraxus and a Lance of his elites inside a Phantom boarding craft headed for the human ship. Only moments later with an ear piercing screech of rending metal the craft docked into an empty escape pod launcher and forced it open. 
However the sight that greeted them was unlike anything he was expecting.
As the metal doors slid open a chorus of cries and screams erupted from the darkness as well as an odour which seemed to erupt from death itself. With the darkness being somewhat illuminated by the red lights of the boarding craft Radst was able to look upon the extent of suffering conveyed by the screams. 
Scores of women, children and elderly humans frantically tried to run further to the back of the room with most seeming unable to and others seeming unwilling to waste their energy running. However few stood between Radst, his Lance and the civilians. Men armed with makeshift metal weapons and like the rest of the humans were dirty, scraggly and had a horrendous odour about them, but even they stood with barely functioning legs between them.
Seeing their fear Radst gestured to his Lance to deactivate their weapons as he did and then he kneeled down to address the humans. 
“Do not worry, we do not me-” 
Before Radst could continue a shriek erupted from a woman he made eye contact with which was followed by one of the men hesitantly stepping forward with his weapon. 
“G-Get away from her, or I-I’ll kill you” he said as he lifted what looked to be a pipe.
“You misunderstand, we do not wish to harm you” Radst tried to say over the muffled crying and scrabbling. 
“Fucking hingehead Liar! Your friends already destroyed our world! Leave us alone!” an elderly woman with two children yelled.
Radst tried again to reason with them.
“We have no allegiance to them, please, let us help you, we do not wish to harm you”
This seemed to only increase the outpouring of anger and hate towards Radst and his Lance behind him who grew unsettled at the surrounding and increasingly aggressive humans.
However as one individual stood, the whole crowd silenced and made a gap for him to pass through. A man stepped forward, clad in ruined green armor, bleeding from a gash across his forehead and clearly an elder judging by his whiting beard. 
He limped and stumbled forward to face Radst, giving him a once over and then looking back at his Lance before looking back to Radst and locking eyes, conveying not hate or anger but nothing, this human did not look at Radst but instead through him, as if he didn’t deserve to be recognized as a living creature. After a moment he finally spoke.
“I know” he rumbled “I read the reports, I saw the news, I heard about what your kind did at the end of it all, I head about the UNSC making peace with your Arbiter but do you think that means the last 50 years get erased?” he asked calmly as Radst knelt silent before him, lost for words.
“You and your kind killed billions, indiscriminately, all for some pointless, false religion, and you think just because you wised up and helped us at the end of it all that we’re okay?” the man let the question hang in the air
After a moment Radst decided to respond in an uncharacteristically quiet and small voice.
“I know you hate us, we know it well, we have committed massacres on a scale that no one species deserves, but now I stand before you, with my sins laid bare to the gods and I ask, let us, let me atone for the sins we have committed” Radst finishes in a voice laced with desperation.
A pregnant pause filled the room as the man stood unmoving looking up at Radst who had stood up during his plea.
As soon as it came, it was gone once the man answered.
“No” he paused to look at the people around him. “We rather stay here and starve to death than give you or your god forsaken men any release from your guilt, now get the hell out” the man finished with cold conviction.
Silence permeated once again as Radst stood looking across their faces and feeling the true depth of how these humans felt, willing to consign themselves to a horrible and painful death rather than even consider their help. He went to speak but stopped himself as he thought back, he thought back to his family on Sanghelios as he looked back at the elderly woman with her children, he wondered how he would feel if their lives had been switched.
Moments passed as Radst saw images of the same carnage being wreaked on his homeworld flash through his mind. He turned to his Lance and gestured to them to re-enter the craft. As they boarded Radst gave one last look to the people hoping to see some form of reconsideration but they all conveyed the same cold determination. He turned to his men and entered the craft and set route to his ship, now truly feeling the true gravity of his years of conquest.
Category:The Weekly