**SPOILER ALERT!** THIS IS FROM ONE OF THE SHORTS FROM HALO LEGENDS, THE BABYSITTER, DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE SURPRISE! CONTAIN CHARACTERS AND FLASHBACKS OF STORY.
Characters:
O'Brien-red head, dark blue eyes, ODST sniper male
Dutch:blonde hair, blue eyes, ODST male
Cortez:Brown hair, dark brown eyes, ODST Master Sargent male
Gren:Blond hair, brown eyes ODST rookie male, heavy explosive expert
Trena: pitch black hair, gray eyes, ODST rookie female
Checkman(Deceased):dark skin, brown eyes, blonde, short hair ODST male
Cal-141(Deceased):SPARTAN female, golden eyes, almost white blond hair, Sniper
Rev-142:SPARTAN male, Description will be introduced in story
3 years after the mission to Heian Cortez's men have to, once again, kill another prophet. With 2 new rookies on their team, can they pull it off?
~~~~~~~~~
Location:Asteroid belt of Bose system, nearing Heian, May 17, 2546(Military calendar)
Ship: The Heart of Fire
"I think he's coming around, Heart! bring him in slowly! Don't want him to panic."
Cortez heard the voice break though his sleep. He felt his body, reanimating after a nice, long, annoying cryo-sleep. He tried to move but felt something stop his brain from processing the necessary info to move. He opened his eyes and the glass in front of him was ether blurring his vision, or his eyes were blurry. He finally pulled the room into focus as the glass lifted in front of him and he staggered out. A technician helped him stand.
"Sargent, take it easy, were still a couple days away from the objective, we wanted up on full alert by the time we get there." the technician, was a bit shorter than he was. "Once you find your footing, we'll show you to your room where your armor and weapons are stored. " The tech nodded over his shoulder and Cortez turned his sleep-laden eyes towards three other techies, helping his group out.
First one out was Dutch, he leaned against his cryo-tube and said something to the tech, by the way he walked away, he was scared. Next out were the two rookies, Gren and Trena. Both gruffly thanked the techies helping them and started to wobble around the bay, disoriented by the long sleep period. Last was O'Brien. He was helped by a female technician and didn't look too happy. He pushed her slightly away and fell flat on his face. Laughter emitted from the speakers.
"You guys better thank the techs, or next time I'll eject your cryo-tubes in slipspace." the voice belonged to a female. When he looked up he saw a woman standing behind a control panel. It was hard to see the facial features but her bright red hair could easily be seen. "Say thank you like good boys and next time I'll read you a bed time story."
O'Brien got up in to a sitting position and hauled himself up to his feet. He said thank you to the woman and walked over to Cortez, still standing with the help of his tech. "Need a pair of crutches?"
Cortez backed away from the tech and leaned against the wall. "No," He raised his voice. "But someone need to learn to drive better."
"Ha I'll tell that to Captain Regal, He will love any tips you assholes can offer." Heart's voice echoed though the cryo-bay and cut off. Cortez looked up to find her gone, from the overhead room.
The tech let out a low whistle, "You blew it." and walked away. "This way man, your rooms await you."
2 standard hours later secure room, briefing.
O'Brien ran a hand though his red hair. His blue eyes studied the room intently. He held his helmet in his hand, waiting for his briefing and mission, whatever it was. He turned to the sound of the door opening and closing behind a man that was the head of the ship, Captain Regal. The 5 ODST's in the room saluted the Captain. Gren and Trena scowled at the SPARTAN that strode in behind him.
"This mission brings up back to the Arch star cluster, back to Heian the planet where 3 of you have been before." the captain's eyes raked across Cortez, Dutch and O'Brian. "We need you to do the same as before. The prophet needs to be killed, but there's a catch. This prophet is under much heavier guard and will have multiple ships watching over the area for a number of days."
Cortez stepped forward. "How many days ahead will they be scouting?"
Regal leaned over a control panel a typed in a few commands. "Good question Cortez. We don't know but scouts from another ship, the Under Truth, said that patrols have started to increase, and they found your previous crash sights." He paused watching the screen pull up a battle plan and O'Brien face paled. "We need to create a diversion so you can go in with another meteor shower. Not going to be easy. But I think my driving skills could insert you safely enough to the ground of Bose 3." Regal's dark eyes darted to Cortez then back to the screen. "Got it?"
O'Brien felt his heart sink and lift at the same time. We're going back to the place where Cal died. And I still have her sniper rifle. O'Brien had kept that rifle, because he didn't think Cal deserved to die. O'Brien slung the sniper rifle and held tightly to its barrel. "Lock in load, baby! Got another sniper job for me?" O'Brien wasn't lost to the SPARTAN'S sudden attention his, Cal's, rifle.
"No, you're back up again, sorry O'Brien." Cortez said shooting a glance at O'Brien.
Regal nodded. "SPARTAN Rev-142, will be making the shot. You are his support and he is leading the mission." He rapped his fingers of the screen, bringing everyone back to reality. "This is not a suside mission. No charging the Covenant, no jumping off cliffs and no killing each other. You will have 2 days until the prophet arrives when you touch down. So try to keep it quiet."
"SIR YES SIR!" the group of ODST's snapped a salute and turned out the door. Walking down the hall, Gren made a huffing sound. "Great one of those damn SPARTAN's. Why do we have to follow them around all the time?"
The group slipped in to the food line. Trena answered. "Because we can't do shit!" Her voice dripped with venom.
Cortez looked at O'Brien, wondering if he was going to comment of the SPARTAN too. But he looked dazed as he took some food and went to go sit down near the window.
O'Brien blue eyes studied his food intently, playing with it, but not eating. He was too busy thinking about Cal-141, the person that saved his life, at the cost of her own. O'Brien had noted himself on knifes edge after the first mission to Bose 3. He usually had to restrain himself from slapping senseless anyone who made a snide remark about a SPARTAN. He looked up at his team, they were talking, but their voices were far away. He excused himself and left his food for the rest of the group.
Where would I find that SPARTAN? O'Brien thought stopping in the hallway to think. He spied a glowing screen and he tapped it, a young woman with blue hair and light blue skin appeared. "What do you need O'Brien?" the AI said.
"I haven't seen you before, what's your name?" O'Brien asked resting a hand on the data port. The AI chuckled.
"My name is Loka; I have to get back up to the bridge soon, so make you request snappy." Loka holographic eyes seemed to sparkle.
O'Brien laughed. "Loka? Nice name. I need to find a SPARTAN, any ideas?"
Loka paused. "Which one, there are 4 on board, 2 awake, 2 in cryo-sleep, which one do want to beat up?"
"None of them need to ask one a question." O'Brien stopped, thinking of the name of the SPARTAN in the briefing earlier. "Rev-142."
Loka nodded then her gaze defocused and looked beyond him. "Exercise bay 34, it's locked to keep the marines and any venom tongued ODST'S out, but I'll override it just for you." Loka winked her purple eye at him. "Need a Nav marker?"
O'Brien nodded sheepishly, "Yeah, I didn't get the full tour, sorry."
Loka laughed. Her voice sounded absolutely delightful. "Put you helmet on and I'll walk you to where you want to go." O'Brien shoved on his helmet and started to follow the nav marker.
Soon he found himself staring at the door which had a 34 painted across it in big black numbers. He heard the locks undo themselves. Loka voice echoed his ear. "Have fun, O'Brien."
O'Brien took off his helmet and opened the door; it was dark, very dark. He heard a click behind him as the door shut. He walked in seeing no signs the SPARTAN was here. Then he heard a softer snap, the click of an unsafeyed weapon and spun on heal only to fall against the wall when a he saw the SPARTAN materialize out of nowhere. He felt the sniper rifle that was slung on to his back though his armor.
"Are you Rev-142?" O'Brien asked, fear tinted his voice, he made sure to slap himself mentally for looking so weak.
The SPARTAN that stood in front of him was easily over 6 and 1/2 feet tall, and wore the olive green armor he had seen most SPARTANS in.
The SPARTAN clicked the safety latch on the MA5 he was hold to O'Brien's face, but it was still pointed in his direction. "Why?"
O'Brien answered, "You were interested in my sniper rifle earlier." He waited for a reaction, but didn't get one. "And I was wondering why."
Rev slung the MA5 back over his back, he leaned against the wall, the gold face plate seemed to be looking down on him. "And? What do you want me to say? I admire you?"
O'Brien felt a bit taken back by the snappiness of the SPARTAN. Most SPARTANS were quiet mellow and didn't retaliate at ODST'S that teased them, unless it went to a physical fight. "N..No." O'Brien unslung the rifle. "Here does it mean anything to you?" O'Brien studied the reaction of the armored giant in front of him, the slight slack in body, the small twitch his helmet, O'Brien watched Rev carefully.
Then Rev walked back over and took the sniper rifle, carefully in his hands, allot more carefully than any regular person. He studied then broke the barrel where it could be taken apart for cleaning. "You ever see anything different about this, ODST?" He held up both ends. O'Brien didn't see anything.
"Please Rev, call me O'Brien. I..." he trailed off and stared at the helmet in his hand. "I like SPARTANS now."
Rev tensed his shoulders a bit. "Anyone could say that." He snapped.
"But I mean it. Whatever my fellow ODST's say on the mission is their business, not mine. Cal saved my life at the expense of hers, and I can't make as much as difference in this war as you or any SPARTAN can." O'Brien's blue eyes snapped to floor realizing he made more than one mistake. He just fed out a diary confession to a SPARTAN, and said Cal without stating her number, and he knew that must make it seem a bit more personal.
Rev stayed silent for a couple seconds, then he spoke, "Cal... She's dead?" the SPARTAN leaned on to the wall next to him and slid down it to the ground and stared at it. "I was told she was MIA, and still alive down there on Heian." Rev golden helmet tilted slightly to the side, "That's what I get for trusting an ONI spook."
O'Brien didn't know how to react to that. A SPARTAN literally immortal, with the armor was get emotional right next to him. It confused his brain. He cleared his throat, "You know that's Cal's rifle."
The SPARTAN gold face plate turned to look up at him. "I noticed it was her's by this. Its custom, most SPARTANS are not allowed to carry personal weapons because they get attached to them. Cal was...different."
"So she was." O'Brien glanced at his helmet and noted a com line was on, someone was listening. "Just a sec." He spoke in to his helmet. "Loka?"
A slight sigh emitted from his helmet then Loka's voice echoed around the two. "Sorry, just wanted to make sure no one got killed."
Rev hopped back up. "Were launching in 2 minutes, let's get down to the bay."
Heian night time, drop off sight of Cortez's men and Rev-142
O'Brien had to admit, the group was getting jumpy. he watched as Rev moved silently though the woods. Cortez, him and all the other kept careful watch of their six and each other. So far, thing were going okay. they still had to make it back up to the ruins Cal died at. It made O'Brien's throat choke up.
Then A sudden snap of a branch made the group turn and glance around. O'Brien raised his sniper rifle clicking it to ready it to fire. He saw Rev pointing his rifle at Cortez, before he could ask, Rev fired at Cortez. It hit the air behind him two more shots and an elite faded in to view, it purple blood pooling on the ground.
Rev motioned to the group to get moving. They happily obliged. "Hey you think the freak can aim right?" Gren whispered.
"Shut it, rookie." O'Brien snapped.
~~~~~
Two hours later.
~~~
They had finally made it to same spot where they had been last time. The only difference was they still had a day until the prophet landed. Banshee patrol constantly flew over the mountains and hills, making looking for the drop ship containing the prophet very hard. O'Brian sat quietly staring though the scope out upon the landing pad, seeing only an elite and a couple grunts. He was jumpy ever since he got here. O'Brien was felling the one thing he hated, fear. It got in the way. The slightest noises made him snap his head around.
Powering down the sniper rifle O'Brien looked over the ridge and saw beautiful it was, the sun setting over the forest mountains and the buildings rising majestically out of the tall trees.
"Hey, O'Brien stop looking so awestruck. Come over here and eat." It was Dutch.
"Sure." O'Brien took off his helmet and started to eat the dry rations he had received. The other 4 ODST's talked quietly among themselves. He glanced around see the SPARTAN looking out over the veiw too. While his team was distracted O'Brien got up and walked over. Silently he offered the other half of the ration to Rev.
He shook his head, typical SPARTAN mode, no words just signals.
"Okay Trena you take watch, if you need someone to replace you just ask me." Cortez leaned back on the wall. Dutch leaned next to him and O'Brien huddled in a corner and Gren slept to the right of Cortez, heavy fire auto fire gun cradled in his hand. Rev slept across the small room, away from the ODST's. Trena took up position near the hall which they entered.
The night crawled on slowly. O'Brien couldn't sleep so he leapt up quietly making his way over to Trena who was now fast asleep. O'Brien took a quick survey and found Rev missing. Then he heard a sound, crying? He followed the sound up a smaller flight of stairs where he found a sobbing ball of armor, Rev-142.
O'Brien didn't know how to approach the crying man. He gently laid a hand on his shoulder and was and thrown back by a punch to the gut. O'Brien lay winded when a gloved hand entered his vision. He took and stood up staggering as his lungs inflated.
"Sorry, O'Brien, just a little emotional over Cal." Rev said quietly. "Thought you were the enemy."
O'Brien nodded, "As if I expected anything else, should of known better." He paused taking second to glance down the stairs. "Was Cal your girlfriend?"
Rev faceplate shone in the weak light of the moon. "No..." he paused "just a friend."
Rev had been staring though that damn scope for over an hour. O'Brien marveled his patience. The Group of ODST's Dropped flat as a Banshee made a close pass near their hiding place.
"Damn, maybe the Covvie forgot to come?" Gren suggested.
Almost as if answering the rookie a Covenant drop ship dropped from the sky, with a couple of fighters as escort.
O'Brien kept glancing back at the hall entrance, afraid that a Brute would appear. He brought up his scope and watched as two elites and three brutes surrounded the ramp in which Mr. Pretty floated down on a chair.
"He would win the beauty pageant wouldn't he?" Trena quipped.
The Spartan was completely quiet. He sighted the scope and started to aim...
When a Covenant drop ship appeared over a ridge, head straight for their sniper position. Rev jerked back and started to run for the hall, with the group in close behind him. Rev stopped up short as the air down the hall rippled and at least 20 or 30 elites appeared, donning plasma pistols.
The sound of excited barks sounded behind then group, a plasma round smashed in Cortez sending him to the ground.
Rev made a circular motion with his hand and everyone turned to their sides. Cortez, Gren, and Trena towards the Grunts and Jackals, Rev, Dutch, and O'Brien towards the elites. O'Brien fired off shots with Cal's sniper, hitting a couple elites in the head, then switching to his MA5. He fired semi-auto bursts to the elite's, his fire caught a couple elites.
It was too close, the hall was filled with grunts and jackals now and elites moved backwards.
"Why the Hell..." O'Brien never finished his question as plasma grenades flew thought the air towards the group. O'Brien drove forward and rolled, he heard multiple explosions and a cry a pain. O'Brien unrolled and kept firing at the elites.
The O'Brien saw Rev dart forward, lighting quick and snatch a sword from an elite and shove it into his gut. He cleared away the rest of the elites with the help of O'Brien's fire. Rev ran out of the hall and the group closed up behind him. Gren was running a bit slower, an injury perhaps. Cortez and Trenna where fine, their armor scorched with plasma marks.
But Dutch was missing, He must of died in the plasma grenade bombardment. O'Brien swept away his fear and grief, ejecting the spent clip in his MA5 and slapping another in its place. He ran quickly over the ground the roar of Banshees getting louder. O'Brien watched Gren unslung the missile launcher from his back and slap two missiles into it. He turned and stopped.
Two banshee's roared over head, hosing them down with plasma. He fired the first missile it hit the banshee dead on and it tumbled out of the sky. The second banshee pulled up trailing smoke from its purple body. He glanced over at Trena who was reloading her MA5 was armor piercing rounds.
The deafing roar echoed tough the forest and saw Rev engaged with two Brutes, each swinging a gav hammer at the quick moving Spartan. One swing connected with Rev sending him flying and smash against a tree. He helmet rolled on the ground, broken.
"Oh my god." O'Brien gasped as the Spartan got back up and faced his attackers. His face was hard, carved from stone, skin a ghostly color from not enough sun. His hair was bleach blonde and his brown eyes where edging on gold.
He was flashed back to Cal, bleach blonde hair stained with blood and lifeless golden eyes.
Rev was Cal brother. That explained the related numbers and why rev had called Cal a friend. O'Brien held out his hands to Gren, "Give me the missile launcher."
Gren protested, "But..."
"Now." O'Brien snapped, his blue eyes blazing. Gren handed the missile launcher over in front of his surprised team. O'Brien face set its self in stone and he took aim at the three fighting. He lined up the sights and fired.
The missile hit a brute dead on, but the resulting explosion threw the other brute hard in to the ground and Rev skittered on the ground in front of the group of ODST's. Rev stayed unmoving on the ground in front of O'Brien, the other brute got up and glanced over to the missile lanucher in O'Brien hands, it ran away, blood leaking from multiple wounds.
Waiting O'Brien snapped, "Cortez, call extraction, now, we got wounded." He put the launcher on the ground and knelt next to Rev-142, His eyes closed and a small line of red blood leaked from his mouth. 'Rev? You still with us?" He clasped the Spartans hand.
Rev squeezed his hand and nodded.
"Eyes to the sky boys and girls. This is Hawkeye, get somewhere we can pick you up." A male voice echoed over the team communications as a pelican roared overhead. "The Covvies are gaining on you, so move your slow asses to the edge of the forest; I can pick you up there."
Rev stood up and started to try to walk, he fell against a tree. O'Brien came up beside him and taking the hint Cortez slipped on the left of the wounded Spartan and helped him limp along.
"Can't you girls go any faster? I am picking up multiple contacts approaching you."Hawkeye's voice was dry over the com.
"Sorry Hawkeye got a wounded team member to help." O'Brien answered.
"Have the Spartan that with you carry him." Hawkeye sounded annoyed.
"He is the wounded team member, team A-21 out." O'Brien shut off his radio, ignoring the looks he was still getting from the rest of the team.
As the team strapped in to the pelican, it almost immediately started evasive maneuvers. The ship shook as it started out into space. Then ship fire came completely out of nowhere. A clocking shield unwrapped from around the large ship, but it was not the Heart of Fire it must of been the Under Truth. The seraph fighters dissolved in the fire and tumbled out in different directions.
"Welcome back Team A-21. This is the ship Under Truth. We will be taking you home." A voice echoed though the pelican.
O'Brien silently praised the whole galaxy for still being alive. He sparred a glance over at Rev as they landed in a hangar, artificial gravity catching the craft. Rev was out cold. O'Brien undid his harness and hauled the Spartan out of the pelican, where medics took over the job.
A team A-21 walked away, O'Brien glanced one last time over his shoulder at Rev. I hope I see you again sometime, Rev.
3 years after the covenant war is over, UNSC Mars orbital faclity~~
O'Brien raked a hand through his red-grey hair. He stared at the papers that lay in front of him, slightly frustrated that this mess up but he knew it wasn't really a mess up.
The paper stated that two different people wanted to see him, it didn't state any names just a location. Room Gamma, a classified level X-ray. He had been given a provisional code word to enter. The thing he was afraid of was that he would exit in a body bag. He had 3 children and a wife back in Seattle.
"O'Brien you presence is requested."An artificial voice echoed though his room.
"Thanks Conner." O'Brien mumbled. Ever since the war ended he had been working here, boring, but worth the money.
O'Brien got up and walked out of the room, slowly making his way to the elevator. He stopped staring at the elevator with hard blue eyes, before stepping in. He pressed the red button and the A.I.'s voice echoed though the elevator as it seal shut. "Codeword's: please?"
O'Brien tapped in the code and spoke, "Code words: RULERSOFTHESHORE."
"Code words granted, gamma room level clearance accepted, have a nice day." the voice clicked off as the doors slid open. O'Brien felt a chill run down his spine; it was dark along most of the walls, save a couple lights which shone on the table centered in the middle.
O'Brien heard something move in the shadows and his hand instinctively went to where a pistol would been kept, if he had one. He saw a dark grey uniformed person push a person in a chair forward. He looked a bit frail, shook a bit, but otherwise looked pretty young, about 30 or so.
The man nodded to a chair. "Take a seat, sir."
O'Brien sat down in the chair nearest to him, despite the man looking quite frail he was at least 6 feet tall and still looked intimating. "Sir, why am I here?"
The man in the chair shook as her wrote down something in a piece of paper. "I had to meet you sometime; my friend talked highly of you." His dark colored shaky hand tapped one of data-pads on the table. "I've transfer data about me to your pad."
O'Brien glanced down as it displayed a picture of the same man, dark skin and eyes and the symbols of a Lieutenant Commander. O'Brien jumped up and saluted. "Sir!"
"At ease soldier, my partner should be along soon. If anything I think he missed you." the man offered a smiled. "Call me Fhajad."
O'Brien relaxed, but still felt of a chill on his back. Fhajad reminded him of someone, but he couldn't but his finger on it.
"You know Fhajad, giving my friend the creeps, isn't really all that nice. He doesn't look relaxed to me."
O'Brien stood up and whipped around, knocking the chair down in the process. He was unbearably close to a 6 foot tall man, with bleach blonde hair and brown-gold eyes. The light brightens and shone of the Lieutenant commander's bars.
"Surprised?" The man said.
O'Brien's mouth hung open, in shock. "Rev?"
Rev head tilted to the side, showing a bit of graying hair on his head. "Technically you should call me Sir, but I can make exceptions." He offered a hand to O'Brien.
O'Brien took and was pulled into a hug, it brought back the memory of being punched in the gut by Rev, he couldn't breathe. "Rev...I..Need to... breathe."
rev let go. "Sorry O'Brien heard allot about you, and I very happy for you. 3 children, 2 boys, one girl and a beautiful wife, not to mention skilled."
O'Brien face flushed red. He had married a pelican pilot. She was mean SOB at first but she lightened up after a while. "Yeah Rev. She rescued my ass out of Covenant trap. It was love at first yell."
"I see you met my Spartan friend Fhajad." rev motioned to Fhajad.
O'Brien smiled lightly. "How did you end up doing desk work?" He asked, his blue eyes meeting Rev's gold eyes.
Rev smile faded a little. He started roll up his sleeves. "Because of this." The sleeve rolled up to the shoulder on each side and revealed two prosthetic arms. The bits of wire and metal showing through the fake skin.
"Oh." O'Brien touched his shoulder where the prosthetic ended and real skin began.
"Yeah, oh." rev paused. "Both arms got infected and they tried hard to save them both aboard the Under Truth but it was too much for the medical unit. Emergency amputation and stuffed in cryo until I was dropped off here to get these and work here for the rest of the war."
O'Brien tried to process the thoughts running through his head. Rev must of felt lost without his Spartan buddy to fight by. He turned towards Fhajad. "How did you end up here?"
A dark look flashed across Fhajad's face. His body made a sudden slam against the table. The orderly waiting in the shadows rushed forward but got such a glare for Fhajad that he backed off. It took a couple second to realize Fhajad meant to slam the table.
"The augmentation process. All Spartans went through it. Harder bones, denser muscles, better eyesight. The list goes on." Fhajad paused. "The chemical which made my bones harder to break reacted the wrong way with my bone marrow." He paused his body shaking a bit more than before. "It gave me Parkinson's disease"
O'Brien mouth hung slightly open. He thought Spartans where born like that.
Fhajad closed his eyes and curled his hands into fist. "DAMN. You don't know how bad it was to sit behind a desk and send your friends to their deaths."
Rev walked over and gently laid a hand on Fhajad's shoulder. "I should have thanked you, O'Brien. You saved my life." He paused pulled out a box and slid it over the table and it stopped in front of O'Brien. "For you."
O'Brien picked it up and opened the small box. When his blue eyes glanced at the content of the box, his mouth emitted a sound of disbelief. The box held the symbols pins of the Lieutenant rank.
Rev smiled, "Consider it my late thank you, O'Brien. Your now our second in command." He motioned to Fhajad then himself.
Suddenly O'Brien recalled Cal's blood-stained, lifeless face and shook his head. "No Rev, if anything I should be thanking you."
Well there you go; this is my rendition of what happened after the Babysitter ended. I own Rev-142, Gren and Trena, but I do not own the rest of them or Halo. I changed some stuff because someone said I got some stuff wrong, I'll explain some stuff to you.
Gren and Tren: They are here because they took the place of Checkman and it balanced out the squad after Dutch died.
The reason Rev-142 didn't know Cal was dead was because he was being shuttled from planet to planet without break, an ONI freak informed him before he went to Heian that they MIGHT find Cal. It was so Rev thought that his sister was okay and he wouldn't freak out over it.
I put it under hurt comfort because I'm a nerd and I view it that way. I cried my eyes out when I watched Prototype the first time and didn't really care for the Duel. Review it please, constructive criticism welcome!