"Your Humanity Is Impossible to Reason With!"

"Ha..."

The Gravemind in the holographic window exhaled an aura that made people feel disgusted. It opened its mouth, which resembled the petals of a man-eating flower, and spoke in a thick, nasal voice:

"Humans... let us have a proper talk. Don't reject everything right from the start. Perhaps... we can still cooperate."

"Huh?" William, who had already walked over to the Central Control Console, raised his left eyebrow slightly when he heard the Gravemind and asked:

"Cooperate? What could we possibly cooperate on? You're a species capable of devouring all intelligent life. We humans wouldn't dare cooperate with you."

"Heh heh..." The Gravemind let out a low laugh and continued:

"We can indeed devour everything, but... to this day, we haven't devoured you humans, nor your allies, the Sangheili.

"Instead, it was the species created by you humans that slaughtered many of my kind.

"Since we haven't harmed you or your allies, I believe we still have a chance to negotiate."

"Bullshit," William retorted in Chinese before continuing:

"The fact that I accepted your communication at all is already me giving this Gravemind with a million gathered brains some face. As for cooperation? Not happening."

As he spoke, William glanced at Carmen, who was seated in the captain's position, and raised his voice:

"Captain Ibanez, please launch four Quantum Bombs at the Shield World and wipe out this Gravemind who wants to stay alive."

"No problem, boss," Carmen replied with a smile. Then she shouted to the crew on the first level of the bridge:

"Prepare to launch the Tactical missiles. Destroy the target according to the boss's orders."

"Missile silos four, five, six, and seven are open."

"Launch authorization received. Tactical missiles launched. Estimated time to target: four minutes."

Since the bridge was positioned above the rear section