New Tyne, Venezia
Peter was walking back to his office, today's work had just ended for him. It had been a boring day, really. There had been considerably more meetings with the council lately, and Peter knew why. With all that had happened in the past weeks was beginning to exhaust him completely. Running an entire planet was not as easy as he had first thought, but who else would step up to do the job? No one, except him was up for the job.
Opening the door to his office, walking inside and closing the door behind him surprisingly vociferous, but Peter hardly cared right now. He went to his desk and sat down and took his boots off, then laid his feet on the stool that was sitting beside his desk. He opened his drawer and took the bottle of wine that he kept there for emergencies. This was an emergency for him, last time he had a drink was with his friend, Staffan Sentzke when he asked if he knew any possible crew members to his new ship. Peter had pointed out about two ex-UNSC deserters who had arrived on Venezia. They had later turned out to be not so much deserters as he had hoped. Those two had caused quite much trouble for Venezia, the Stuttgart armory was still being renovated and Peter had lost few good men. Next time Earth tried to do something like that, Peter had promised to kill them himself immediately. They didn't need or want anyone to intervene in their business.
Taking a sip of the wine, Peter sighed heavily in fatigue. Tomorrow would be just as long day, or even longer. In that case, he would have to visit his old friend, the bottle again. Looking down at his desk, Peter's eyes focused on the picture that was sitting on his desk. It was him and another person in it, holding each other's shoulders and grinning widely at the camera. The person was his best friend and someone he considered to be a brother, Quinsio Oneto.
They had known each other practically since their birth, they were easy to mistake as siblings. They were brothers in everything but blood. Peter and him had been quite rebellious as teenagers, preferring to do their own thing than follow someone's orders. They shared many qualities with each other, especially their deep resentment of the Unified Earth Government's control across human occupied space. Peter could recall them harassing UNSC soldiers often with throwing rocks at them or howl insults at them.
It was no surprise that they also became insurrectionist's together in their early-twenties. Venezia had a very vocal support for the Insurrection since it started, but they did not have an organized army or militia to fight the UNSC. Not until Quinsio proposed they themselves create it. It was a grand task they had taken, but they succeeded. Quinsio was a natural born leader, he transformed the ragtag movements into an formidable fighting force that was now the Venezian Militia. Quinsio always had a strong support among the populace, which helped them greatly. For the first time, they were winning against their overlords. But soon the UNSC had enough. Peter later heard the reports of an counterinsurgency operation by the UNSC that had left many of the Militia's leadership either captured or dead. And his friend, Quinsio was one of them. He had been designated a priority target by none other that the Office of Naval Intelligence. They must have hoped that the rebellion would cease if they took out our figurehead. They had later paid the UNSC back kindly by blowing up their base in New Tyne.
After that, they scrambled to find a new leader to replace Quinsio, and since Peter had served as his second-in-command for years, he was the valued candidate. At first, Peter had not wanted to take the leadership position, but after many talks with the Militia council he accepted. He always took his job very gravely, he wanted to make his friend proud. In the end, they were successful in driving out the Earth scum from their world in 2544 and started to establish a local government.
Peter just wished his friend and brother would have been there to see his greatest dream come true.
A knock on the door roused him from his reminisces. ''Who is it?'' he asked.
''It's Linberk, sir. Do you have a minute to talk?''
''Give me a minute.''
He put the bottle back in to the drawer and picked his boots from the ground. He opened the door and his first deputy stood outside his door in attention. ''What is it, Reza?'' He really was in no mood to talk with anyone right now.
''I was just here to deliver a message to you from our friends on Gao.''
''From Arlo Casille, I presume?''
''Indeed, it seems he has something he wants to discuss with us about the UNSC's operation on their home. They also asked us to inform the Keepers about this. Apparently it could be important.''
''I will inform them myself tomorrow. Anything else?''
''No, sir.''
''Then goodnight, Reza.''
He shut the door again before she could answer him back. He appreciated Reza greatly for her ruthlessness and loyalty, but even she could not replace the wound that had been left to him after Quinsio's death. Returning to his seat, he picked up the picture in his hands and gazed at it. a few tears threatened to come out, but he kept his emotions in check. After all these years, he still had not gotten over it. But how could he? How could he forget his best friend, closest ally and brother. He simply couldn't.
''God, what would you have done, Quinsio?'' He would never get an answer to that question.
Putting the picture back on the desk, Peter was beginning to become aware of the time. It was 23:53 now, if he went so sleep now, he could at least get six hours of sleep before he had to get up again. Walking to his bed at the corner of his office, he took his boots off again and laid down on the bed. He was too tired to even undress himself. Besides, nights were often cold on planet such as Venezia. Peter crawled under the covers and closed his eyes.
Same shit, different day.
Author's Notes
This was just something that I thought about one day, I have always been kind of more interested in side characters in the Halo novels than main ones :)