The Secret Story of Dustin Echoes

Chapter 9 - A Sadder and a Wiser Man

            Dustin struggled to lift himself up, but he stumbled and rolled back down in the sand, wincing in pain. When he looked up, the Blackdagger seemed a great distance away. Then, looking at the sky, he beheld another ship approaching… a Covenant Seraph Fighter.

            “Oh Hell…” he groaned.

            “Dustin!” Diana’s voice cried impatiently in his ear.

            “It’s no good, Diana,” he replied, “I can hardly move. It’s over.”

            The Seraph touched down, and the hatch opened. A Grunt climbed out, followed by an Elite. The Elite then ordered his smaller companion to get back inside as he walked out to meet Dustin. As he approached, Dustin recognized something familiar about him. All Elites looked the same to Dustin, but this one was unique because of its distinctly red eyes. He had only ever seen one other Elite with eyes like that before…

            “Rebas?” he asked hopefully.

            The Elite nodded its elongated, armored head and replied, “Yes.”

            Rebas Noiproks surveyed the planet’s surface. He saw the Longsword fighter, the Blackdagger, the wreckage of the Covenant dropship, the dead body of the human woman, and finally, the body of Thanatos, with a knife stuck in his throat all the way up to the hilt. He looked back down at Dustin.

            “You slew Thanatos the Brute?” he asked.

            Dustin gave a short laugh and grinned, “Yeah… And as you would say, in single combat.”

            “Congratulations; your species continues to surprise me.”

            “Thanks… Hey, can you give me a hand?” Dustin nodded in the direction of his ship, “I can’t walk very well. I think that ‘Thanatos’ broke something.”

            “Yes,” Rebas said, helping Dustin onto his feet.

            The two walked out over the wastes, both feeling rather awkward. Once they were inside the Blackdagger, Dustin sat down in the pilot’s seat and blew out a sigh.

            “Rebas Noiproks… I have a request,” said Diana over the ship’s speakers.

            “What is it, computer?” the Elite replied.

            Diana paused before asking, “Can you carry the body of that female human in here… and lay her down in the cryo-tube?”

            “What…?” Dustin began, but Diana interrupted him.

            “I just can’t leave her body out there to rot in the desert! She’s… me, Dustin!”

            “Right,” Dustin said soothingly, “Of course, Diana. It’s not a problem. I understand.”

            “Very well,” Rebas said, turning and walking back outside.

            Dustin staggered back into the back of the ship and sat down on the bench there. He began painfully removing his Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armor as Diana scanned him for injuries. Rebas soon returned, carrying the body of Sarah Morrison over his shoulder. He laid her down gently in the cryo-tube, and Diana closed it. Dustin looked through the view window at the woman’s face. It was surprisingly peaceful-looking, unlike the visages of most of the soldiers that died in the Relentless Inquisitor. There were external no signs of injury on her body. Perhaps she could be healed? The thought only crossed Dustin’s mind for a second. It was unlikely.

            “So this is where we part ways, Dustin Echoes,” Rebas the Elite said suddenly, “I will leave, disappear into the shadows. A ‘Grunt,’ as your species calls them, whom I met on Urgas’s ship, has informed me of the location of a group of heretics… traitors to the Prophets. Perhaps I will find them and join their cause. It is good to know that there are others out there who share my views.”

            Dustin did not take his eyes from Sarah’s face in the cryo-tube as he replied, “Yeah… there are those out there who share my views as well. Unfortunately, they aren’t the UNSC… and they certainly aren’t ONI.”

            “So what will you do then? You will not take the Index back to your people?”

            Dustin looked up at Rebas helplessly, “I… I’m sorry, Rebas. But the Index… Thanatos destroyed it.”

            Rebas’s expression did not change, but his shoulders sank at the mention of this news.

            “Then it has all been in vain,” he said.

            “No, not entirely,” Dustin replied, smiling a little, “I’d do it all over again, in fact, if only for the memory. I’ve never known an alien like you. I never thought I would. Besides, I’m used to not getting much out of my missions.”

            Rebas nodded, “For the memory then. I believe that I can live with that. So what will you do now?”

            “Go home. Tell my people about what happened. Just like always… Unless you want to change the story, that is. So what do you want me to tell them? That you died? Or should I just leave you out of the story completely?”

            “No, do not do that,” replied the Elite, “Tell your people my story. And if you really see it as wiser to lie, then you may tell them that both my brother and I died in this battle. But truly, I do not see why you should wish to lie. Would it be so bad to tell them that you let me go? Perhaps you could set an example for your people as I have set an example for mine.”

            “Well, ONI certainly wouldn’t like that,” Dustin said, “But guess what? You’re right. There’s no reason to lie. To Hell with ONI!”

            At this, Rebas actually let out a short laugh.

            “Well then, I guess this is goodbye,” Dustin said, “because I think it’s pretty safe to say we’ll never see each other again.”

            “There is only a slim possibility,” Rebas agreed, “But that is enough for me. I will return to my ship then, and hope that my companion there is telling the truth about the heretics. Perhaps then I will once again find a cause worth fighting for. I do not think however, that I will ever again consider any cause worth dying for.”

            “I never have, Rebas,” replied Dustin Echoes, “I never have…”

            Later, both ships, the Covenant Seraph fighter and the Blackdagger, rose side-by-side from the sands of the mysterious planet, and shot out into the atmosphere. As they passed into space, both pilots looked at each other, or each others’ ships, for the last time. Dustin stopped for a moment to watch Rebas’s ship make the jump into Slipspace. As he stared out at the stars, the vast ring-world of Halo, and the disappearing Covenant fighter, he blew out yet another long sigh.

            “You’re going to recite more distorted poetry, aren’t you?” Diana’s voice asked teasingly, “You pass, like night, from land to land, but you have strange power of speech…”

            Dustin nodded and smiled, “Hey, you know it just as well as me. So you do it. Go on…”

            Diana obliged him immediately, “The Elite, whose eye is bright, whose face you used to abhor, is gone. And now the wanderer, turned from the darkened shore. He went like one that hath been stunned and is of sense forlorn. A sadder and a wiser man he rose the morrow morn.”

            “And I will,” Dustin said, “Set course, Diana, for Earth. It’s been too long since I’ve seen her.”

In a dark metallic office filled with dark metallic war trophies, lit by the harsh yet insufficient glare of artificial illumination, Dustin Echoes confronted his superior officer. They were both wearing the white ceremonial uniforms of Navy officers, though neither of them truly held such a rank. Dustin had told the man everything, omitting few details other than those that told of Diana’s possible malfunctioning. The officer had listened silently to the whole story. Now, as he reached the end, the officer finally spoke.

            “So, you just let this Elite go?” he asked.

            “Yes, Sir,” Dustin responded, “Would you not have done the same?”

            “No, I would not have,” the man responded bluntly, “We will discuss that later, however. For now, you may go.”

            “What about the body of Sarah Morrison?” Dustin asked, “Will she be buried?”

            “That’s classified information,” the officer replied emotionlessly, “Suffice to say that Sarah Morrison had plans if anything like this were to happen to her. We are going to follow those plans.”

            “And Halo, Sir?” Dustin asked, “What about the other Halo? The information that was in the Index, the information the ring might still contain somewhere, could save millions of lives. It has to be researched.”

            “It will be, Dustin Echoes,” the man replied, “The best men in the field are working on it as we speak.”

            Dustin narrowed his eyes. He once again felt sick of ONI’s secrecy, especially to him. He replied to the officer’s answer with another question: “Who?”

            The officer narrowed his own eyes in response: “The best. Men.”