Grunts do the Heavy Lifting (Halo SI)

The last thing a person expects to hear when they wake up is a shout of “Muzuw!” which is quickly followed by the feeling of something grabbing said person’s body and yelling incoherently into my shoulder.

Blinking away the crud in my eyes I come face to face with one ugly looking motherfucker. Their body seems to be armored with a hard exoskeleton, much like crabs and other insects. Their mouth has a set of small, pointed teeth, much like what a reptile would have. Right now the creature is crying, but what is it exactly and why is it viciously hugging me?

“MUZUW!” It cries again, but before I can ask it who it was talking to, it cries out “Klikik said you were dead, But I knew it! I knew you were alive! Klikik told me that I should leave you behind! But I got you to the ship in time! Now you are better again!” While somewhat… informative it doesn’t actually explain what is going on. Looking around the room for additional clues only seems to show the walls to be somewhat glowing. The walls are shining with a metallic purple and appear to be plates instead of normal, non-glowing wall material.

There appears to be a large amount of medical equipment here, but it appears to be in bad condition, and in all honesty, it doesn’t look to actually be medical in nature, some things are more scrap than a scalpel. Looking closely at some of the scraps reveals a large amount of rubbish and trash. Where was I and what is going on?

I remain silent as the creature continues to babble, it’s hard to make out at first, but slowly your hearing improves until you make out what they are saying completely. “Dazik isn’t letting you out of his sight No I will now. Not after that Smelly Human knocked you across the head. I got him good though, took him and his legs before I had to run aw- retreat with important information. Yes! I didn’t run away from the smelly stinky humans and their big mean horrible Demon.” The creature, Dazik apparently, seems to be talking about fighting humans? But why would they be fighting humans? Wasn’t I human as well? So what the hell is going? Why would they help me?

Before I could ask a question I am interrupted by Dazik, "Big Boss Jiga was going to kick us both off the ship too! The Smelly Boss tried. The ship close too fast for him to do so though! Yes! I saved you from the Demon and stopped you from dying!” Dazik seems to preen at this as if expecting me to say something in response.

I think for a moment before finally saying something. “Thank you.” It’s quiet but you can clearly hear that it wasn’t my voice talking, what in the hell? It’s alien from anything I have ever heard but before I can figure out what is going on Dazik grabs me again, concern drips from their voice as they take hold. “What’s wrong Muzuw?! Are you still sick? AH! I GOT THE SOLUTION!” He yells that last part and runs off and begins digging through one of the scrap piles. They appear to be looking for something specific amongst the trash. I try to stand up but I don’t manage to catch myself correctly, falling to the ground I catch Dazik's attention causing them to dig harder.

It’s a confusing time for everyone involved, at least on my side of the equation. What in the world could possibly be going on right now? I don’t know what's going on and I am horrified at the thoughts of what any of this could mean, especially the fact that I may now be a grunt, during who knows when. This is a problem I need to fix quickly, figuring out where I am and what I can do to get away from whatever comes next. Although I doubt the situation could improve at all since… well… Grunts are basically slaves to everyone, Elites, Brutes, Prophets, Drones, Jackels, hell even the Engineers if they weren’t so kind, even then who actually knows if they won’t treat our kind as expendable workers if they need to.

I let out a startled scream briefly as Dazik stabs my arm with something, I don’t know what, but the world begins to bubble as whatever it is beginning to make its way through my system. I think I can hear Dazik saying something, but everything is too wonky for it to make any sense at all. I start to laugh, at the situation, at Dazik, at myself, in fear of what I have become, in horror of what is to come, in pain of losing everything I had, I even start feeling things I don’t even understand anymore. Everything is just falling apart around me in that one moment and I just… let it all out.

Dazik seems concerned at first, but once the laughing starts he appears to be beaming at me if you count whatever it is he is doing as a smile. I hope he doesn’t lose that smile, because of one of the thousands of things that I am going to do will probably cost him his life. I doubt he’ll last long if anything I know about the setting is true.

That’s when I hear something, I don’t know what, it’s harsh and appears garbled over a speaker of some sort, electronic buzzing plays in the background of whatever is making the noise. Whatever the noise is causes Dazik to look both excited and afraid. He turns to me and grabs my shoulders again and begins to shake me. He says something, but I don’t pick it up at first. He says it again and when he does I freeze. I ask him to repeat himself one last time and he does, he says the exact same thing as before.

He says, “Get up Muzuw! We are being sent to cleanse the dirty humans from the Holy Ring! We are going to make sure that they don’t escape or dirty the Holy Ring any more than they already have!” The zeal in his voice only confirms how fucked I am. A Holy Ring, a Demon, and a crash landing…

I… I am near the end of the war, at the beginning of the darkest moments before the dawn. At the twilight of the Covenant’s power. The reemergence of the Flood… I am not going to survive this at all. Not as I am, and neither will anyone else on the ship. We are all going to die a horrible, painful, no good death. Please let this all be a joke, one of the twisted fevered dreams that I have when I am sick… Please?

 

Being a Grunt SI limits what you can do on a reasonable scale, so this should be more like "My Isekai Adventure Among The Stars or How I learnt To Survive As A Grunt."

Ironically I was complaining a couple of days ago about the lack of Halo SI's and how the few good goods are shorter than 10k and the longer ones are riddle with the shit that makes you roll your eyes and give up.

 

To be honest, I doubt that I'll break 10k thus further proof of the curse. If my writing wasn't already riddled with shit

 

The writing seems fine, grammars fine, pacing

Writing seems fine, grammars fine, pacing fine, I just think as a Grunt you gonna really struggle to go further because as a grunt what can you even do?

 

Surprisingly a lot, Grunts are actually dangerous believe it or not, if you manage to get them training they can drown you in a literal flood of plasma without breaking, they just need a Deacon or leader to keep them from breaking.

Also ignore the fact they are basically slave child soldiers

 

Well I have to say that I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes