the Militare (Vol.1: From warm passion to cold machine)

the hunter or hunted

"This devil needs to be culled, his existence erased from this galaxy!" Was heard by the new spartan, Mane. 

"The devil, it has awoken!" A random grunt exclaimed as Mane rose his head to see that he was in some sort of throne room. He had plasma restraints keeping his arms and legs chained behind him where there were eight brutes holding back the chains. 

"rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," Mane let out a low growl frightening the lower classes of the covenant and the elites moved to protect the sickly aliens in the floating chairs in front of them. But the one in the middle pressed a button on his chair and lightning was released on the spartan. Causing Mane to scream, then relax and not pull on the restraints. 

"Good, so, what should we do with this devil?" the middle sickly alien asked. When the entire hall erupted. 

"silence!" the old alien ordered then pointed towards a large brute with a giant hammer in hand. 

"Noble profit of Truth, let us release this Devil into the hunting grounds. This will teach the human what a true hunter is." The brute suggested. 

"Very good Tarturus, go ahead and rid the throne room of this filth." ordered Truth, causing the brute to pick up the spartan and drag him for about an hour, going through hundreds of doors. When Mane noticed that his Restraints were being removed, but before he could realize what was happening he was shoved into a mountainous, jungle area. 

"I am not having a repeat of Initiation!" Mane thought and wrapped his arm around a decent sized tree, causing him to spin around it and land on the ground with considerably less force. Mane then checked himself for weapons to see that he didn't have any. He immediately started moving up the Mountain.  Mane knew that his armor would keep his nutrients up for long periods of time, and that it would regulate his temperature. 

"For the Covenant's giant army's, they must have trouble feeding all those soldiers." Mane thought, to which he kept on trekking up the mountain till he reached a cave, he saw what looked like a sun setting, he spotted the mouth of what looked like a cave. Mane went in with the flashlight mounted on his helmet, he went about half a mile into the cave then sat down. leaning against the wall of the cave, he turned off the light on his helmet. 

"Dude, this is a spartan." Mane heard as he looked up, opening up his eyes to see a small group of humans in front of him. 

"he's alive, Jim, we are going to be saved." A particularly chipper pilot said excitedly, when she saw Mane's head move. 

"Holy shit he is," the man replied taking a step back. Causing the others to follow suit as Mane took out his scroll. 

"Sorry my augmentations caused me to go mute, do you know where we are?" Mane asked through his scroll. To which the soldiers just looked at each other. 

"This is a Brute hunting ground, they want to hunt us till we all die. We are at the Covenant capital, High Charity. And now we are prisoner's of war." The marine said, causing Mane to nod. 

"Wait, whats your name?" Ember asked. 

"Mane," the spartian responded. 

"That isn't the a name, thats a state. What is your real name?" Ember asked aggressively. 

"first things first, are there any more of you?" Mane asked, dodging Ember's question. To which Ember complied. 

"No this is all of us, I'm Jim, the pilot is Ember, we are the leaders of this rag tag team." Jim explained. 

"Do we have any weapons?" Mane asked, leading the others out of the cave. 

"I have a tactical knife," one Marine said, 

"silenced smg," an ODST reported in a oddly monotone voice. "with two clips left."

"I have my magnum, it only has 3 shots thou." Ember told Mane as they reached the mouth of the cave and Mane stopped. 

"plasma pistol," the final Marine informed. 

"and I have a plasma grenade," Jim informed, as Mane turned to them. 

"I was stripped of my weapons, but I will still fight. Do we have an objective, long term goal other than living to fight another day?" Mane asked, trying to grasp for some sort of goal or something. 

"Just to fight another day," Ember informed solemnly. 

"well," Jim said scratching the back of his head. 

"Jim its impossible, we know that." Ember said. 

"Please tell me, because I tend to make the impossible, possible." Mane said, practically begging for a goal. 

"When I got here the keeper of the hunting area met with me, he said that when the blade buried in rock at the top of the mountain was removed he would come into the arena." Jim started but was cut off by Ember. 

"when he comes he expects to see a champion, and if they beat him. they get to go home along with those of the champion's choosing of the hunting ground." Ember said, "but there were many who tried to remove the sword from the stone, most didn't make it there. Those who did, well, couldn't remove it." 

"One of the ones who made it was me," Jim said, "when I reached the stone, I found the hilt of an energy sword almost completely buried in stone. only one part you could touch." 

"Then I will remove it," Mane said with a fire sparked in him once more. 

"How?" Ember asked. 

"Doesn't matter, except I shall remove this blade from the stone." Mane said like a man who had nothing to loose. 

"Ok, but what will we do?" Jim asked. 

"Stay in the shadows, do not get caught. When I get the sword the brutes will come for you, wait till I get here. I shall slay them all." Mane ordered to which they started moving down into the jungle. Mane for his part looked up at the mountain, and then started climbing the cliffs up to the sword. 

'And that took me soo long, but by the time I came back there was so little left.'