I hadn't expected to run into the problem of FF.Net's Alert system essentially dying on me to hamper the release of these chapters. I'm honestly not sure if enough people realize these are up now or ever will because FF.Net has decided it doesn't want to fix the alerts quick enough. I'm rather annoyed, frankly, because I put a lot of work into these. I can only hope things turn out okay and that everyone piles in eventually to see the thing. I think I've been relying on the alerts to make up for my mess of a schedule. Anyway, I'm not gonna let that get me down. It's almost Halloween and folks deserve a treat for waiting so long.
The Nuke: This was sort of a late addition, but also useful in hopefully setting some things up for future chapters. I just felt, in the end, I needed something to really bring it home how much Zix's lying was endangering everyone. Also a better reason as to why Snarlbeak's men are not just busting right in and wiping out Shepard's team. The fear that they might set off the bomb, among various other things their boss will not be happy with, prevents them from doing so. I think it does illustrate one thing, how Snarlbeak's penchant to punish his "employees" to a horrifyingly cruel extent that they are essentially paralyzed without his direct guidance because they don't know what might piss him off.
Actually, this will be explored a bit next time, but the reason the Plunder Nest's defenders are so slipshod in how they defend the compound, with some being more aggressive than others, is because no one has called Zhoc and told him what's going on. Would you want to be the one to let him know that you've let someone sneak into his secret base where he keeps all his stuff? No. They're not telling him until they've resolved the situation or at least seemingly contained it. They do eventually have to report in, but Snarlbeak never has a complete picture of what's going on because no one wants to admit how bad it is.
Yeah, he's... very angry. Let's just say that.
The Duel: The culmination of Kesa's duel with the Brute Chieftain. I wanted this to feel like a boss fight and that's what I got. The complications of writing for an Elite who still believes in the Covenant is hard when you're also trying to make them an ally of your heroes. Not a true ally, but a fair-weather one. How do you have a fanatic justify their reasoning to work with someone they think deserves to be glassed into nothing? Well you try to think about how any fanatic justifies their actions in general. Basically I had her find loopholes for herself. As long as she's doing it to avenge a wrong, its okay if she gets help and advice from the Spartans. And she doesn't have to give them credit or think of them as people worthy of existing because they're just tools.
It makes for a difficult partnership because Chief is being reminded that the Elites hate him every second she's around. She is belligerent, she is arrogant, she is clearly hostile, and worst of all she's actually a capable warrior which means that all her bad qualities are reinforced because she's not an incompetent idiot that he can set straight. If she couldn't back up her talk with action he could at least try to reach her to work with him. But then again, if she wasn't capable of leading this uprising, she'd be useless to them from the word go. So Chief has to deal with the fact there is an Elite who considers him an enemy that he needs to work with more directly and there is no questioning or doubt in Kesa's mind about the Covenant that Thel will have in the future.
Kesa was fun to write, I miss the melodramatic sangheili samurai mode of speech at times. I think her time with the Spartans has planted a seed in her mind that humanity isn't what she's been told it is. She's not going to accept that at face value of course, she will refuse it because this is not something that goes away over night. But it's a seed, it's doubt, it grows. Seeing humans being honorable, helping her, it's not something she can ignore. If she was stupid, sure she could do that easy. But, as demonstrated, she is not.
In retrospect, maybe a little of the way I wrote this was a response to the TV Show and how it had Chief interact with a Covenant Agent. Oh we can't be bothered to make the face of the Covenant for this series an actual alien because we're cheap as hell. Also we want Chief and her to fuck and you can't suck face with something with no lips, so make her a human and come up with a really stupid reason as to why they didn't just fucking kill her and why she supports them. That show was fucking garbage, honestly, I think the simple fact no one really wants to defend it is clear enough evidence of that. So I guess I sorta decided to have Chief interact with a Covenant Fanatic in a way that actually made sense to me and was not just another excuse for a dumb sex scene. (I actually am okay with sex scenes really, I think they can move the plot forward or even develop characters. I'm against shoving in a sex scene because you think it will make people take your stupid video game adaptation seriously.)
So yeah, I probably made a subconscious choice here. I don't pretend to say I did it any better than some high priced Hollywood writer, I'm not that conceited, but at least I'm trying to use what upset me and build on it through my writing in a positive way
I also like that last little line Kesa gives the Chieftain, it's just some nice foreshadowing to Atriox as a potential future threat and how the Covenant will eventually fall. While still giving Kesa a chance to kill her abuser. She might not be good, but giving her the chance to avenge herself is still satisfying to me. More so that, even if she won't admit it, she needed a Spartan, plus two aliens working for the False Shepherd to help her. Overall, just a really fun fight to write cause I got to switch up so much on the fly. Never got boring.
The Grizzly Returns: Look, I really like the Grizzly. I love that awesome super tank. I've always loved super tanks. Every tank mission in Halo is my favorite mission if only because the tank is there. And I wanted it back and I figured, okay if Zhoc is stealing human weapons up to and including a nuke... he can steal a Grizzly for whatever reason. And then Chief can use this to help save Varvok at the end and take down the Locusts.
Varvok's Mission by the ways does have a bit of a Call of Duty or Rainbow Six feel. I've done that before with the Marines a lot, I think I needed to give the Batarians their own due on this for once. Plus it gives them a chance to see that the humans will come to save them when, really they could've just used it as an excuse to abandon them. I imagine a few Batarians were still worried about that. So, while it's not something that will make them change their minds... it is something that will keep in the back there as something that they can't just ignore anymore.
Free Black Chorka: Retz was always planned to free the Chorka because this was an important part of his arc. Accepting that sometimes Zek and him are on entirely different pages or even reading whole other books. Zek was fine with being lied to by Zix in the end, because he still got something out of it. He got to piss off Snarlbeak and steal a bunch of Ichor from his private reserve. In Zek's mind, they got everything they wanted so why shouldn't the Syndicate get something for themselves? So long as they split the take.
Retz does not care, because it's just another example of the Syndicate screwing him, putting his and other lives at risk, stepping all over and bending their own codes, rules and traditions, just so they can get ahead. Retz is not honest, but he does believe their is a code of conduct of how pirates are supposed to act. The Syndicate to him are a force that could be good, but they are mired in hypocrisy and it prevents them from being better. They're not the true solution they claim to be. They could be, but they refuse to be. Because it means giving up a bit of what gives them power.
You can see Retz releasing the Black Chorka as petty though. Zix has lied to him and put him and his friends in danger, she does not deserve credit for anything, but you're getting away. You won. Why screw her over now? To Retz it's because he can't let her win. He refuses to let her win after everything she's ever done and to be a party to the family that rejected him but still forced him to be a part of them. Retz himself would probably admit this was petty to a degree, but the bigger picture is he can't let Zek be indebted to the Syndicate in any way. He can't let them own his friends in some form. So an ongoing contract for the Black Chorka's Ichor? That can't be accepted.
And while he makes a good case for himself about WHY this doesn't violate their original agreement, I think the reason Zix lets it go in the end, besides not wanting to die, is that this gives her a chance to prove her point from before. That Zek is a selfish failure and will always only think of himself first and she ends up being right here. Because while he does accept it, Zek still feels disappointed in the choice Retz made because it meant giving up more Black Chorka Ichor in the future.
This is a case of the worst person you know having a point. Zek is selfish, he has been selfish and self-serving for a long time. He will do things that appear selfless, but ultimately it is for himself. Even when he helped blow up Halo it was because he wanted to say he helped do it to stick it to the Covenant one last time. He has always framed every single thing as what is in it for me. And sometimes that means what's in it for the people I like, but he won't go further if it means giving something up. It's why he doesn't want to help the UNSC, he does not see what being in another war will do for him, will help, will get him anything.
And Retz finally realizes, through this, that his friend is becoming more like the Syndicate. Zek will make decisions based on what he thinks is best for himself and the people close to him. But he'll never truly do what's best for others, like the Syndicate does with the other pirate clans. Zek just doesn't want to see the bigger picture while Retz is forced to look at it. The Syndicate refuses to help stop the Covenant because going to war is too much of a risk, it's not profitable. Zek agrees with them and has made a blanket statement now that he thinks they're right. The Covenant, in one way or another in his mind, will always exist. It's not his problem to fight it, he just wants to run from it.
At this point, Retz can't accept that anymore. He can't accept just doing nothing. Just letting shitty things happen. Letting the Black Chorka be kept in bondage. Retz took a stand and sacrificed personal profit for what he believed. And Zek is disappointed that he cared more about his beliefs than what profited them personally. Zek selling out his principles is the worst thing Retz can imagine happening and he will not let Zek do that again. Because he knows where that leads, he's seen it and it hurts him to see the person who helped him not just wallow in misery but actively chase and keep himself miserable. And why? Because he'll be rich! Because he'll get his own planet! He think it will make him happy and Retz knows it won't! It will just stagnate him! Just like the Syndicate.
This is the wedge in what I think has been the strongest friendship I've written in this story, something that will continue to be there going forward. It won't be the most typical, Retz is still loyal to his friend, but he now knows what needs to be done to stop this downward spiral that Zek is heading for. And it all comes from freeing the Black Chorka.
That's about all I have to share on this one that I haven't elaborated on already in other entries on here. Look forward to more chapters soon, assuming all goes well and the alerts come back. If not, well, we'll just have to figure something out I guess.
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