Mason stepped off the shuttle and took a deep breath of the air on Judges II.
God, this place is amazing. He thought.
The temperature was a marvelous 23 degrees Celsius, and Mason watched the clouds move through the sky. The air was rich and filling, and Mason stood for a few seconds just to take it all in.
Virtually identical to earth, Judges II is the premier resort in the galaxy (obviously, this is for humans). This vacation spot is located on the eastern coast of one of the planet's two continental landmasses, and is built as a seaside resort.
Mason was an ODST who specialized in fighting the Covenant. He had survived numerous campaigns and hundreds of individual missions in special forces, but when the Covenant war ended, Mason's unit was furloughed until he could be reassigned, which could take months.
Standing orders were to "enjoy the r & r while you have the time," so he booked a reservation on Judges II when he learned his unit had been suspended indefinitely. The planet was scarcely populated during the war, but people would most likely flock to it again with the Covenant war having reached its conclusion.
Mason walked out of the landing pad, and made his way through the buildings and various walkways till he reached the rotunda. The rotunda was a large building made of solid marble, with a high dome made of glass.
The structure itself was extremely ornate with exquisite design features. Even Mason, who is normally bored to death with art in general, had to stand and marvel at the architecture.
Six paths radiated out from the center, and led to all the attractions, resorts, restaurants, beaches, and retail shopping on Judges II. There was more than enough one could ever possibly ask or even dream to do on a vacation, all available to guests. Mason doubted that he would be able to see all there is on the planet.
He could not imagine the amount of time it took to build this place.
Of course, the same could be said for Reach...Mason stopped walking and stared at the ground for a few seconds before he banished the thought of the war from his mind. This was part of the reason he came here, he hoped he would be distracted from the horrors of war that were permanently ingrained into his memory. He took the path to his right which led to the hotel he would stay at.
While he was walking, Mason thought about what he would do first. 'Sleep like a log,' immediately came to his mind. Mason was so deep in thought, he failed to see a woman moving in his direction, and bumped into her. The woman dropped the small computer tablet she was carrying, but it luckily bounced off Mason's boot before it hit the (hard) marble floor.
Mason apologized profusely, "I am so sorry miss. I wasn't paying any atten–"
Mason stopped short of finishing his sentence as he noticed the woman's stunning appearance. She had blue eyes and short, flowing blonde hair that stopped at her shoulders. For a woman, she was very tall, only slightly shorter than Mason who stood at 6'2", and she had broad shoulders that also resembled Mason's. Women with this kind of build were almost always SPARTANS. He found her extraordinarily beautiful.
Her clothes were the standard military uniform which Mason also wore, which naturally led Mason to the conclusion she is a soldier in the UNSC (and if so, her hair was close to violating acceptable standards for women's hair length in the UNSC), and must be here for the same reason Mason was.
"Oh no that was my fault." The woman began. "I was so irritated that I wasn't watching where I was going and now I dropped my–" The woman bent over to retrieve the tablet.
Mason broke free of gazing at the woman's face, and rapidly kneeled down to retrieve the device for the woman. He inspected it to make sure it was still functional as he stood up and handed it to the woman.
"Well, it appears to be intact, it bounced on my shoe before it hit the...hard...marble...floor..." The woman looked directly at Mason, and he lost himself gazing at her face.
"Thank you." The woman said to Mason as she took the tablet from Mason and inspected it further. After several seconds, she asked, "I don't suppose you can help me figure out where my hotel is, can you?"
Mason stopped staring at the woman and responded, "Uh, sure, let me just see your reservation..."
Mason peered at the tablet and found the name of the hotel on the reservation. He had seen the names of the hotels when he was in the rotunda. "Yeah you just go and take the rightmost path." He replied as he pointed towards the path he just took to get here.
The woman turned back to Mason and smiled as she said, "Thanks." Her smile was halo-white (halo. Get it?).
She turned and walked down the path to the rotunda, leaving Mason to stand alone with his thoughts.
"Lindsay." He said to himself.
There were only two hotels on Judges II, so he did not need to see her reservation on the tablet to figure out "which other one" it was. The only reason he asked was so he could see her name and room number on the reservation, and now he had it.
"Lindsay." He mused again.
Mason turned around and walked down the path towards the hotel entrance. He decided he would not rest until he met Lindsay again. Suddenly, the fatigue of ten years of war hit Mason like a ton of bricks, and he decided that he needed to eat something and get some sleep first.
Mason dropped off his bags in his room, changed out of his military uniform to put on civilian clothes consisting of jeans and a green polo shirt, and then journeyed out to find a restaurant. He took the path on the rotunda that led to the restaurants, and decided on a fine restaurant that served barbecue as well as booze.
By the time Mason made it to the restaurant it was past midnight, and there were few people in the restaurant. He sat down at the bar, and mulled over the menu. It did not take long before he became distracted as his thoughts drifted to Lindsay.
A woman's voice broke through Mason's subconscious, and his eyes went wide. He sat up and turned to see Lindsay walk to a booth and sit near the window. She had his back to him and did not appear to know he was there. Mason looked around, and did not see anyone else, so she must be alone.
Mason turned back to looking at the bar and quickly tried to think of a way to start a conversation with her. 'Hey Lindsay, ever since I ran into you, and creepily learned your name, I've found it impossible to stop thinking about you. Would you like to have dinner together?' Yeah, because that totally does not sound like something a stalker would say.
He gave up on trying to think of something to say, and decided to just go up and talk to her. Slowly and cautiously Mason walked over to Lindsay. Although he had been in relationships before, although none of them ended up working out, he felt like he was a teenager again, nervously and timidly asking a girl out on a date for the first time.
When he decided he was close enough to Lindsay, he sighed, took a deep breath, and was about to say something when Lindsay, still looking out the window suddenly said, "Specialist Mason Forge, ODST. Am I right so far?"
She then turned to face Mason, who stood a bit shocked and confused all at the same time. "How do you know that?" He asked.
"I saw it on a pin on your uniform earlier when we bumped into each other."
"Well, you've got sharp eyes, too bad you couldn't use them to avoid running into me."
She laughed slightly, and Mason immediately felt more comfortable.
"So I guess since you took the time to read my minuscule pin," Mason continued, "I assume it's okay for me to tell you that I also learned your name, Lindsay."
"Yes, I'll admit what you did was very clever, I almost didn't notice your trick till I realized there were only two hotels on this resort."
"So you noticed? Well, you had me fooled, I thought you were hopelessly lost."
"I may have played dumb yes, but I had to make sure you were more than just a pretty face."
Mason gulped. She thought he was pretty? Well, she thought his face was pretty, but still.
"You're a SPARTAN, aren't you?" Mason asked with an inquisitive tone.
Lindsay turned to look at Mason with an almost shocked look on her face that slowly turned into a smile.
"You're definitely more than just a pretty face, how do you know that I'm a SPARTAN?"
"Well, for starters, you're abnormally tall, you look to be about 200 pounds, you have extremely broad shoulders, and you're able to read a pin on my shirt that a normal person has to carefully look at for several seconds to be able to read. In addition, you just heard me approach you even though I was walking carefully and slowly on a carpeted floor. You can't have freakish abilities like that and not be a SPARTAN."
"Well, Mason I was quite wrong about you, you're not just a pretty face, you're much more than that. Would you care to have dinner with me Mr. Forge?"
"I would like to, yes."
She gestured towards the seat opposite the booth she sat at, and he walked over and sat down. They both ordered their food and drinks. Mason ordered his favorite draft beer and Lindsay ordered a glass of water, something that Mason found strange.
"Water? You SPARTANS don't know how to have fun do you?"
"It comes with the territory. When you're kidnapped at a young age and learn to survive without fun, it's not so easy to learn how to do it when you're actually an adult. But tell me Mason, what do you like doing for fun?"
Mason immediately thought of several, highly inappropriate things that would fun right now, but he said none of them.
"I like to kill Covenant. It really gets my blood flowing. Especially when you get all the different colors of blood from different Covenant all swirling together. Of course, I'm sure you know what I'm–
A waitress cleaning another table next to the one Mason and Lindsay were at, stopped cleaning and starred at Mason with a somewhat frightened look. Mason saw her looking at him, and quickly stopped to explain himself to her.
"I–I'm referring to Covenant blood...alien blood, not–not human blood, heh..." Mason explained to the waitress, as she quickly turned and walked away. Lindsay stifled a giggle. "Hey! It was just a joke! I wasn't serious!"
"Christ..." Mason put his head in his hands momentarily. "The first day I'm back around normal people, this happens!"
Lindsay laughed again. "Well, I guess she just doesn't appreciate your sense of humor like I do."
"Yeah I guess she do–" Suddenly, Mason realized Lindsay had complimented him again: she found his jokes funny.
"What about you Lindsay, what do you do for fun?" Mason asked.
"I'm not sure, I've never had free time before..."
"What? Really? You've never once had any time to yourself?"
"No, not once in my entire life. I guess before they took me..."
Mason held up his hand, "All right, I get it. I'll tell you what Lindsay, if you feel comfortable letting me, I would like to introduce you to an activity that ordinary humans do almost every day–especially when they have dinner with someone. Do you know what it is?"
Lindsay shook her head, and Mason continued.
"It's an ancient ritual, usually done at night among very close individuals. Although the actual act itself is very short, the amount of time people spend doing it makes it sometimes last for hours."
Lindsay rapidly grew concerned and uncomfortable, "Mason what are you..."
"I'm referring of course to the communal act of drinking."
"Mason, we just met each other. I don't think that–wait, what?" Lindsay asked, confused about what Mason was referring to.
Mason called the waiter over.
"How may I help you?" The waiter asked Mason.
"This lady here," Mason pointed to Lindsay, "would like to have the same thing I'm having."
"What are you doing?" Lindsay asked Mason. "Are you trying to trick me into drinking a strong alcoholic beverage or something?"
Mason rolled his eyes. The waiter brought the drink to Lindsay.
"Waiter, please explain to my friend here what this drink is."
The waiter turned to Lindsay, "It's a name brand imported directly from earth. Alcohol by volume is 4.75%."
"Thank you." Mason said to the waiter. "There, you see? Perfectly fine to drink." Mason said to Lindsay.
She took a sip, and immediately recoiled in disgust.
"What the hell!? This tastes like shit!" She said accusingly.
"It's a bit of an acquired taste I'll admit. Just give it some time."
The waiter brought them their food, and the two of them began eating their meals. After a minute of them eating, Lindsay took a large sip of her beer, and nearly looked like she was about to throw up.
"God...I forgot what I was drinking."
Mason laughed and Lindsay looked at him for a moment and asked, "So Mason, where are you from?"
Mason's expression rapidly changed to a serious look, and Lindsay noticed it immediately, "If you don't mind me asking."
He quickly apologized, "No, no, it's fine." He took a deep breath before he continued, "I was born on an outer planet that was very similar to Harvest, being an agricultural world, only slightly more developed and with more people.
My parents both worked as...well the technical name would be growers. Most of the jobs on my planet had something to do with agricultural work, and my parents were no different."
He paused to eat more of his food and drink some of his beer. Lindsay then asked him, "Any siblings?"
"Yep, four of them, all younger than me. Two sisters and two brothers."
Mason and Lindsay both ate more of their food before Lindsay looked up at him and asked the next obvious question. "Was it attacked by the Covenant?"
Mason had spent the entire conversation bracing himself for this question, and he was prepared to answer.
"We were only a few days travel from Harvest at FTL speed, and we heard about the attack rather quickly. Like most people my parents were concerned about the attack on Harvest, but my parents were much more concerned than other families. Now keep in mind this is before we knew it was aliens attacking us, let alone a highly advanced, dangerous, massive, and morally driven alien conglomerate called the Covenant.
My parents encouraged people to leave the planet but none of them listened: either they did listen and dismissed it as just an insurrectionist attack, or they just didn't listen at all. What my parents did next I can only attribute as God's Will that me and my family made it off that planet, because they somehow knew it was dangerous to stay and they decided to leave."
Mason ate more of his food. "How did you get out?" Lindsay asked.
"They took out all of the money they had saved, took me and all of my brothers and sisters and they arranged for a friend of theirs, who had a large ship, to take us and all of our belongings to earth. It cost my parents everything they had, all of it."
"And they're alive now on earth?"
"Yes. They're all alive living on earth."
"And are they working now? How are they getting money for food?"
"All of my pay goes directly to my parents, who are too old to work themselves. Of course, now my siblings are older, and they all work now too, but I still pay the bulk of it. Together we make it work and now it's to the point that we're making enough to have some for ourselves."
"Wow Mason, I can't believe you and your family got out in time. Not a lot of people can say the same."
"Yeah...I know."
The two ate in silence for a few seconds before Mason asked Lindsay her story.
"So, I don't suppose you know where you grew up Lindsay?" He asked.
Lindsay shook her head, "I don't remember."
"Not even a little? What about your parents? Surely you remember them, right?"
Lindsay thought deeply for a while and answered, "No, I can't remember."
Mason sighed contemplatively. "Have you at least ever wanted to know about where you grew or who your parents were?"
"Actually yes I have, and I've tried to find out. Unfortunately, the records were stored on Reach..."
Mason shook his head in disbelief, "Oh my gosh...so you have no idea who your parents were, or where you're from?"
"No, no I don't..." Lindsay admitted, slightly disheartened.
Mason sat looking at Lindsay for a long time. His gaze slowly lowered to looking at his food.
"You're lucky..."
Lindsay looked up at him, confused.
"I–I sometimes wish I could forget all of those people who died on my planet when the Covenant bombarded it. I wish I could forget that..." He admitted.
Mason felt Lindsay reach out and place her hand on his arm. He looked up at her for a few seconds, and then looked back down, nodding in appreciation. "Thanks." He said.
"Don't mention it." Lindsay replied.
Eventually, the two returned to eating their dinner before the conversation quickly changed to a more light hearted discussion about various funny things that happened to them or others during their time serving the UNSC. Eventually, Lindsay finished eating her dinner, and got up to excuse herself.
"What, you're leaving? So soon? But you haven't finished your beer..." Mason protested.
"You want me to finish that disgusting drink you ordered for me? No thanks." Lindsay said sarcastically to Mason.
Mason smiled and stood up to shake Lindsay's hand. After they shook, Lindsay stepped closer to Mason and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"I enjoyed meeting you, Mr. Forge." She said as she stepped back from Mason.
"And I you." Mason said back.
Lindsay turned to walk away, and Mason stood next to the table watching her leave. After she exited the restaurant, Mason sat down and finished his meal. He thought of all the time he had on this resort, and although he did not know exactly how long it would be until he was reassigned, he knew that he had to get to know Lindsay better before he left, because the thought of never seeing her again made Mason feel very sad.