The Geller Pass was a graveyard of ambition. The air was thin, freezing, and choked with the scent of ozone. High on the ridge, the Valdessan encampment looked like a drop of fresh blood against the white snow,crimson tents, crimson banners, and crimson men.
At the center of it stood General Valerius. He was a mountain of a man, encased in The Iron Maiden, a suit of ceremonial plate armor etched with pulsating red runes that wept a constant, oily mist. He held a Convenant scout by the throat, hoisting the man effortlessly with one hand.
"Look at him!" Valerius's voice boomed, amplified by the eldritch resonance of his suit. "This is the 'science' of the world? It shivers. It breaks. It cannot bear the weight of the Sovereign's gaze!"
Down in the valley, the remaining Convenant strike team huddled behind boulders, their hands over their ears as the Maiden's aura vibrated through their skulls.
"We can't get a clear shot," Ottina hissed, her sniper rifle shaking in her grip. "That armor... it's warping the air around him. Bullets will just curve away."
"Don't waste the ammo," Vale said, stepping past her. He wasn't wearing a coat. He wasn't wearing a helmet. He just had his hands in his pockets.
[ANALYTICAL EYE: ACTIVE]
[TARGET: GENERAL VALERIUS (FERRANTI ELITE)]
[ARMOR: THE IRON MAIDEN (CLASS 2 ARTIFACT)]
[WEAK POINT DETECTED: THE CERVICAL SEAL. RESONANCE FREQUENCY: 440Hz.]
Vale started walking up the slope.
The Valdessan soilders with rifles on the ridge spotted him. "Halt! Or be judged by the Red Sovereign!" a captain shouted.
Vale didn't halt.
"Fire!"
A volley of bullets, made with blessed Valdessan steel, rained down. To the scouts behind the rocks, it looked like a death sentence. But as the bullets entered Vale's personal space.
They lost their momentum, falling harmlessly into the snow like spent matches.
The 'Warp' around the ridge was so thick it was visible as a red haze. Vale walked through it like a man taking a stroll through a park.
Valerius dropped the scout and turned, his visor glowing with a malevolent crimson light. "A brave fool? Or just a man who has already lost his mind?"
"Neither," Vale said, stopping ten feet from the General. "I'm just the guy who's going to show your men that their invincible leader is wearing a tin can."
Valerius laughed, a sound like grinding metal. "I am blessed by Ossivael! I am the Iron Tide made flesh! You are nothing!"
The General lunged, his massive, rune-etched claymore swinging in a horizontal arc that could have cleaved a tank.
[VOID STEP: INITIALIZED]
Vale stepped into the swing. The massive blade passed through his chest as if he were made of smoke. Before Valerius could even register the miss, Vale was inside his guard.
"You talk too much about blessings," Vale whispered.
He reached up, his fingers glowing with a faint violet hue,the residue of his Pact with the Gatekeeper. He didn't punch. He simply tapped the seal at the back of the General's neck.
[DISRUPTING RESONANCE…]
CRACK.
The sound was like a tuning fork snapping. The oily red mist around the armor imploded. The runes on the plate turned from crimson to a dull, dead grey. The Iron Maiden, the legendary artifact of Valdessa instantly became three hundred pounds of useless, heavy scrap metal.
Valerius gasped, his knees buckling under the sudden weight of his own gear. The blessing that had made him a giant was gone, leaving him a sweating, middle-aged man trapped in a metal coffin.
Vale stepped back, looking up at the hundreds of Valdessan soldiers watching from the ridge. Their mouths were hanging open. Their God-given hero was currently face-down in the dirt, struggling to breathe.
"Is this your Sovereign?" Vale's voice wasn't loud, but in the sudden silence of the pass, it carried like thunder. "Is this the strength you're dying for?"
He looked down at Valerius, who was clawing at the snow. Vale didn't kill him. That would be too quick.
"Get him out of the suit," Vale ordered as the Covenant team finally emerged from the rocks, emboldened. "He's got a lot of intel to give us. And someone tell the Director..."
Vale looked directly into the sky, where he could feel a massive, ancient gaze watching from the stars.
"...tell him the negotiation has officially started."
[VALDESSAN MORALE SHATTERED]
[FAME REPUTATION (VALDESSA): 'THE UNTOUCHABLE]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: OSSIVAEL HAS TAKEN PERSONAL INTEREST IN YOUR EXISTENCE.]