Isn't It a House?

“Hey, Estrada,” began Parker. “Whaddya think of these joint ops we’re all going on with the aliens now?”
“I dunno,” I quickly answered as we approached the Forerunner installation. About a hundred paces away, on our left flank, were the Elites and their friends. The Swords of Sanghelios or something like that. On our right were the new aliens, the ones we just met a few years ago. The fox guys, whatever their names are. Eddies or something? Anyway, they sent down people with us to help secure this Forerunner structure.
The installation itself was in the middle of an isolated valley on an untouched planet. The scientists picked it up on scanners a few weeks ago and I guess they got all worried it was a Flood research facility, so they went to red alert for this one. And so we’re here.
We paused shortly beyond the front door and crouched in long grasses. Our outfit accompanied a squad of Spartans, but it was weird since it was less about being ultimate badasses for them and more about… collecting data. Specifically, they seemed really interested in the new aliens, the fox guys. One of the Spartans, wearing an all-gray MJOLNIR suit, kept taking notes while he was watching the aliens. And one of the aliens, a guy (or gal) with this long overcoat over an exosuit and his helmet’s chinstraps just hanging off the sides, this guy was just staring right back at the Spartan. I don’t want to sound offensive, but to me, the alien had just such a weird stare. It was so damn creepy.
So, some of the new aliens, the Elites in charge, and the Spartans all got together in a little huddle, and we kept back.
“This place doesn’t look too big,” commented Parker. “I mean, it looks more like a big house than a research facility.”
“Whaddya mean?” I asked.
“Well, I mean…” started Parker. He then pointed with his finger. “There’s a fence, it looks about the size of a big house, and… is that a fucking pool?”
“A wall made of hard light that looks like metal is more than just a fence, Parker. And the pool could actually be a cooling vat for some sort of reactor.”
“An outdoor nuclear reactor? Are you high?”
“I’m just putting ideas out there.”
One of the Spartans nodded and moved forward. This guy had on red and green armor and with his MA5 in his hands, he approached the front door. A scanner using bright yellow and gold light came over the Spartan, and after a few seconds, the door to the facility opened. Strangely, it seemed small enough for only one or two people at a time, and not those big sliding doors you see on a lot of Forerunner places. The Spartan in front nodded, and we all approached the site. Then, the Spartan checked the door, then cautiously went inside in a swift motion, his rifle’s barrel aimed at the space within. There wasn’t any commotion, which was a good thing. Our confidence bolstered by the peace, we picked up the pace as we filed in quickly, one at a time. First, the rest of the Spartans breached, followed by the Elites, then the new aliens (the ones that looked strongest, mind you, the ones in the MJOLNIR-like suits), then us ODSTs, and finally some of the aliens’ regular infantry started wandering in, while other ones – along with the Grunts and Jackals – mostly stayed outside.
We entered what I could only describe as a foyer, with large staircases leading to the second floor on either side of the space. Everything was this slick off-white or gray color. The furniture, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, everything that wasn’t nailed down was that color. There were these metal works hung up on the walls fashioned in abstract lines and swirls, and in some corners there were examples of pottery, of vases and things of that nature. On the floor there were mats made of natural fibers: animal hairs and plant fibers. One of the fox aliens threw up this sort of scanner. It was about the size of a can of preserved meat or vegetables, and it threw out a thin gold-red light as it floated along above our heads, moving to scan the home. While it quickly moved throughout, the Spartans, Elites, and alien spec ops guys moved fast and hard to secure the structure. We put it a little bit of effort to keep up, but we did. Corners were checked, rooms were cleared, and eventually the whole structure was secured without a shot being fired.
With any possible danger debunked, everyone just started wandering out for all intents and purposes. We would have to wait a few minutes for everyone’s scientists to show up, so it gave us some time to really look around and examine the structure. Everyone just sort of spread out and intermingled with one another.
As soon as I entered this large room with an assembly of furniture seemingly used for leisure and relaxation, a very loud thought popped up in my mind. It basically said, “Oh my God, Parker was right. This place is a fucking house.”
“Isn’t it a house?” Parker’s voice suddenly appeared from behind. I jumped a bit as I turned around. He deactivated the black tint on his ODST helmet, revealing a wide grin with a missing front tooth and a shallow scar down the left side of his freckled face. He held his DMR with one hand as he settled down into a rather comfy chair.
“Must’ve been a rich Forerunner to have a house all the way out here.”
“And it’s such a nice house. I wonder what they did for a living.”
“They were probably scientists of some sort,” said one of the Elites. His English had a pretty thick accent but he was good. “Most of the art around this place seems catered for a sophisticated mind, and I took a glance at some data terminals.”
“Lemme guess: the words started to reappear as Sangheili?” asked Parker.
“Indeed. You have some experience then with Foreurnner systems.”
“Seen it once at a Halo installation. It was crazy. In one second the data was in gibberish, but in like five minutes I started seeing English. I mean, it was nuts.”
“Yes, we get it,” I said. “It was mental, insane, absolutely bonkers?’
“I’ll give you one more: it was next level.”
I looked at the Elite, and the completely confused face he had just made me lose it. I let out a stifled laugh, and I was joined by Parker. The Elite seemed to lose some patience with us as he shuffled in place.
“Anyway, what did the data say?” I asked.
“It spoke of terraforming research and colonizing more planets in this sector. No doubt these scientists were some sort of frontier researchers or xenobiologists.”
Then, another Elite came up behind the one, and spoke to his buddy in their language. They seemed to be in a bit of a disagreement, and then the subordinate showed some Forerunner item he had in his hands. The leader took the thing, looked at it for like a second, and then chucked it to the corner of the room. I gathered all of my willpower to not laugh in that moment as the subordinate looked defeated and went out of the room.
“Hmm, that caused somewhat of a commotion, no?” asked the Elite.
A Spartan shouted, “Are we good?!”
“We’re good!” Parker yelled out. I held in my laughter even harder, while the Elite seemed somewhat amused himself. He walked to the other side of the room, crossing the front of us. He looked out to the pool. Then, the subordinate came back.
“The Unggoy, Kig-Yar, and most of the regular Erdellian infantry have formed a perimeter around the house,” said the Elite, in English. His seemed to be more shaky than the other Elite’s, but he still spoke pretty decent English.
The senior Elite nodded.
“Oh, so they’re called ‘Erdellians.’ Huh, okay,” said Parker.
“Yeah, I didn’t know that either,” I confessed.
Speaking of, one of those guys walked into the room, the one with the overcoat and loose chinstraps. He said a few words in the Elite language, then looked at us. He seemed to grin, and then he made this movement where he sort of made an upward curve shape with his snout, and he made a back-and-forth motion twice. Parker and I looked at one another in confusion, and the Erdellian then looked at the Elite.
The Elite said some words in his language, and then the Erdellian let out a noise, I almost want to say it was like a person saying, “Ohh…” But it had more of an… more of an “eyyyhh” sound. He then stiffly raised his left hand up, palm open and facing us. We waved back. Then, the Erdellian lowered his arm. He grinned again. “My English is not very good,” he said in the thickest accent ever. I couldn’t even begin to describe what it sounded like. It… it almost sounded like someone who didn’t know how to speak trying to speak. “But I know a little words.”
“It’s good,” I said. “You should keep up the practice.”
The Erdellian smiled but looked somewhat befuddled.
I repeated myself. “I said, ‘it’s good.’ You know, keep practicing in speaking English and you’ll get it.”
The Erdellian kept smiling, but his confusion only seemed to deepen. He looked at the Elite, who I guess translated.
“Ey, ey, yes! Yes, ey, yes, thank you. Thank you.” The Erdellian grinned – nervously from what I can tell – as he placed his free hand on his chest. In his other hand he held, by the pistol grip, this blocky rifle or something of that manner. I don’t know what the ammo was but it didn’t look like a weapon I would want to be shot by. Then, the Erdellian asked us something. “What name do you have?”
“My name?” I asked.
The Erdellian nodded.
“Well, I’m Leo.”
“I’m Terry,” said Parker.
The Erdellian pressed his hand against his chest. “I am Keh-lee-on.”
I nodded my head. “That’s a good name,” I said.
“Thank you,” replied the Erdellian.
Then, I looked at the Elite. “What’s your name, man?” I asked.
“Eh?” uttered the Elite.
“What’s your name?”
“Kai,” said the Elite. I nodded my head again.
“You know, your English is pretty good, Kai.”
“Well, I have fought your people for over twenty years. It would only be sensible to know your language.”
“Hmph. True.”
“It became somewhat easier after I learned to read your signs. Erm… well, it would, logically, for anyone.”
“Yeah…”
I didn’t like them. I still don’t like them. But for Kai… man, there was just something about him in particular. And I don’t want to be one of those “Oh, I didn’t mean you” types of people. But I will say that Kai… you know, I’m not sure if he was like most of them, especially when the war was still going on.
But I’m not sure how much I can have this settle in my mind. I mean, it sort of feels like trying to make us endure the unendurable. First we’ve been fighting them forever, and now all of a sudden we’re working with them, hand-in-hand, Kumbaya shit? We’re just gonna forget all those planets and all those people on all those planets and what people like Kai did to people like all the charred corpses I’ve seen dumped into mass graves?
I dunno. But I’m a soldier. And soldiers follow orders. And my orders are to play nice. So, I play nice.
Category:The Weekly