A/N: Just as I was finishing chapter one and mentally mapping chapter two, I had an impulse to write a chapter following Team Saber. Therefore, before catching Tom and Lucy again we will be taking a look at Saber's post-Glassland state and their potential future in the UNSC.
1st Movement: Stacking the Deck
Chapter 2: Progression
Part One: Nothing to Lose But You
"So we've got a semi-circle kill zone all set in front of this portal that the doctor said would take us into something called a 'Dyson Sphere'. The doctor said it was kinda like a safe house, only it was a whole other separate dimension. Ain't that crazy?" By now Ash-G099 was getting a good response from the mix of ODSTs and Marines he was telling his story to every time he paused. After a chorus of "No way!"s and "Seriously crazy."s, et cetera, he continued, "Anyway, there we are, half circle kill zone, popping everything that moves. Linda and Mark, this friendly neighborhood marksman to my left, are having a field day with the dumb bastards. But even all of us couldn't keep 'em are range long enough. The first Covvies to get close were a pair of Hunters. Figures, right? Now we handle 'em all right at first, but we had started to run low on ammo and they start getting a few shots at us. And then…"
Suddenly Ash skidded to a halt in his fiery revelry when he realized just what part of the story he had arrived at. The beginnings of a lump tingled at his throat, but he swallowed it down quickly while the soldiers listening in started to inch toward the edges of the seats in anticipation, some literally and some figuratively. Then Ash continued, but now lacking a lot of the bright energy he spoke with before, "Then time kinda slowed down for a few seconds. Both of the Hunters fired a blast at Kelly. She was caught with lead feet, couldn't move. We all watched and thought she was done for, thought none of us were fast enough to save her. But Holly was. Spartan G003, quickest Gamma there ever was. She dove out in front of Kelly just in time to take the shot."
The room was dead silent as Ash paused again. This time the peanut gallery didn't have any catcalls or add ins. Just quiet for a fallen comrade they never even knew. Ash continued, "A couple of us were still knocked down by the concussive force, though, and that gave the Hunters an opening. Or at least that's what they thought. Will from Blue Team threw down his gun, he was out of ammo, and charged the Hunters with nothing but his bare hands. The guy was an animal! He was ducking, diving, kicking, tearing, tucking and rolling. All of us, even the Covvies, just stopped and watched. Hunter blood, or ooze, or whatever they have was everywhere 'cause he kept ripping off big chunks of 'em, fistfuls at a time. Finally he tore off a good sized piece of the one that slowed down more and it just…fell. He actually killed the damn thing hand-to-hand."
The room erupted with cheers; it even got a smile out of Olivia and Mark, who were sitting on either side of Ash on the rec room couch as he told their tale. It took a good forty seconds before Ash got the uproar to simmer down enough for his to continue the story. He continued once more, "Yeah, it was awesome. The thing is, he was all kinds of tired and beat up after that. And right when he turned around, the other Hunter put a blast in his chest. He should have been shot all the way across the room and through the next three walls, but not Will. No, he had his last say. He didn't even skid back. In fact, he took a big step right toward that other Hunter like he was gonna rip it apart too before he died on his feet. Now that's a real warrior's death if I've ever seen one. But the ceasefire couldn't last forever, and before we knew it the Covvies were pressing forward again. It wasn't long after that Lt. Ambrose orders us to go through the slipspace rupture that would take us into the Dyson Sphere. The IIs, the doc, and my team went on through, Lucy brought up the rear with Tom over her shoulders. We waited on the other side for Kurt but…He never came through. It wasn't until Tom woke up and told us what the Lieutenant's plan was that we knew what happened. Lt. Ambrose was holding the trigger for a FENRIS nuke, and he waited till we were all through and the portal closed before he blew himself and all those Covvies straight to hell on a nuclear wagon."
There was another silence for the unmet fallen once more. If there was anything the men on that ship understood, it was the bitter taste of retelling the death of a comrade. Even though Spartans were meant to be the epitome of a human war machine, every man and woman in the rec room could see the hurt show through the Spartan IIIs before them as Ash to the tale of their friends' demises. The first to break the silence was an ODST leaning against a vid hockey table to Ash's right.
"What was the Dyson Sphere like?" the older soldier asked. Actually, this man looked like he could be over three times Ash's age, maybe more. He had to be at least forty-five, with silvery gray streaks just over the ears in his once perfectly jet black hair. His piercing blue eyes only enhanced his already sharp Slavic features, and thin wrinkles were growing more and more noticeable each year shifted with every move of his face. Ash was surprised to see a man of that age still in the ODST force.
'I wonder if that's what Tom will look like when he's that age,' Ash thought bemusedly.
"Ah, yes, the Sphere, also known as the Shield World. See the spot we were spat out was this-" Ash was suddenly cut off by Olivia's, Mark's, and his Port Stanley issued pagers all going off at once. All three IIIs checked their pagers to find the same message. They were to report to Parangosky at once. "Looks like that's gonna have to be a story for another time, we've got a summon from the Wicked Witch of Space."
Ash finished his jibe with a wink to the soldiers, who all got a nervous laugh out of their commanding officer's secret nickname. As the far too young warriors left the room, the ODSTs and Marines thought back to their own teenaged years and thanked their lucky stars that they had not made the cut for the Spartan program.
"Mark!" Olivia called out down the hall, although it sounded strange for her to be loud, as she was almost as unaccustomed to yelling as Lucy was.
"Yeah O?" the marksman said as he stopped and turned to face her. Olivia caught up with her former, and now future, squad mate and nibbled her lower lip for a second before continuing.
"Is it right?" she asked, "You know, doing what we're doing? Especially with Ash so…whatever he is right now."
Mark blinked, genuinely surprised by the question, before responding, "Well, of course O. We're soldiers. We just finished an assignment, now we got a new one. A big one too. Aren't you excited? I mean, we're all sad about Dante and Holly, but Ash'll be fine, just like us."
"You know it's not that simple Mark. Not for Ash," Olivia said with the slightest edge to her voice, but coming from her it cut deeper and cleaner than any energy sword could. Mark's lips pressed together from having his little self-created illusion shattered as Olivia continued, "And then Tom and Lucy turned it down to go to the reserves. I understand Lucy doing that, but why did Tom? He's an incredibly capable soldier."
"Please Olivia, do you really think Tom would go anywhere Lucy wasn't?" Mark mused, thankful for the change of focus from his bereaved leader. Mark's keen sniper eyes where exceptionally perceptive to more than just what was down his scope, and he had always been fascinated with watching Tom and Lucy. They had one of the most marvelous, nearly symbiotic relationships he had ever seen. Of course, that wasn't saying too much since as Mark had only ever known life at Camp Currahee besides the fragile memories of his burning homeworld.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Olivia said, for it took a fool not to see that Tom and Lucy had a bond beyond words, "I just hope Ash is ready, or…I don't know. Are we ready?"
"We have to be, O," Mark said softly, setting a hand on his friend's shoulder, "for ourselves, and for him. We'll be fine, I promise."
Olivia so desperately wanted to take her friends promise with absolute certainty, but faith would have to do for now.
"Ash!"
She was facing him this time. She turned around before the blasts hit. Time had slowed down again, the hunter's cannon blasts barely inching toward her.
"Move! There's still time, get out of the way!"
She smiled a sad smile. She shook her head. She wasn't in her SPI armor, but was clad in her everyday gray training-wear. Just how she looked on any other day. The green orbs of destructive plasma were half way to their target now. He tried to move, tried to run to her, but he was frozen solid in place. All he could do was call out and watch.
"Please move! You can do it, just move! You can still make it!"
The plasma was a meter away. Over the course of a moment her demeanor changed from melancholy content to a slow, creeping, panicking fear. Her eyes widened, her mouth parted. She reached out to him. He forced his arm out, reaching to her. He started to move now. He inched closer and closer. But not fast enough. The cannon shots were there and he was still far too many feet away. Her back began to arch and disappear at the same time as the blasts hit her, her head slowly whipping up but her eyes never left his. Her hand was still stretched out toward him.
"Holly!"
Everything turned green.
The green suddenly receded and Holly was standing before him again with her hand out to him, but this was much different. She making little skips backward toward the edge of a cliff face, and he would have warned her if he didn't see the lip of a lake over the edge that was undoubtedly safely and directly below. She was dressed different too. Now she was only wearing her modest gray undergarments.
She was gorgeous. Most thought her shaved head was unappealing, but Ash always disagreed. The early signs of a woman's figure were gracing her incredibly well toned body. Her hazel eyes were alive and captivating, inviting him ever closer. He could feel the breeze slide freely over most of his body, save where his boxer shorts covered.
"C'mon Ash, hurry up! You said you'd jump with me!"
"Of course, Holly. Always."
He caught up, grabbed her hand, she laughed, and they jumped. Ash cackled wildly as they plummeted hand-in-hand into the icy lake water that they had escaped Camp Currahee to enjoy for the first time. This was one month to the day before she died. On her fourteenth birthday.
Ash broke the surface of the water and suddenly it was pouring rain. Not only that, but he was no longer swimming in crystal clear lake water. He was crawling through mud underneath electrically charged barbed wire grid. He watched Dante's boots kick through the mud, as Ash had volunteered to take up the rear. Holly had gotten through first, and was helping her squad mates up and giving them an extra boost as they began the charge cross an open field being sprayed into with blanks. Holly hauled Ash onto his feet and they began to sprint. As per usual Holly pulled ahead early. That's just how she was, always a step ahead of him. Ash was fortunate to only take one blank to the shoulder during his dash across the field, but just as he was just about to reach a barricade set up for cover at the end of the clearing, two bursts of blanks hit him right in the feet, one burst per foot. Must have been Tom that made that shot. He was the only one who could have done it besides Lt. Ambrose, but Tom was definitely the only one devious enough to think of a shot like that. Just as Ash was tumbling face first, a pair of smaller hands snatched his wrists out of the air and threw him clear over the owner's body and behind the barricade.
By the time Ash hit the ground he was even farther in the past. Now he was flat on his back looking up at a girl a few months older than him, she was already ten, yet much smaller. Still, she had managed to throw him over her hip with a classic Aikido throw they had just learned that evening. His competitor was kind in her victory though, and extended a hand and a smile to him. He took both, and returned a smile of his own. Even then her smiles were radiant. As she lifted him, she spoke idly, informing him of a secret just for fun.
"When I grow up, I wanna be as strong as a bear! Think I can do it?"
The green flash returned, even more blinding than before, then dissipated into stark white. He heard her one last time, once more in her teenage voice. In her final voice.
"Did I do it Ash? Was I strong?"
"Yes, Holly. Stronger than you could imagine. Holly I-"
Ash woke, bolting straight up in bed, raggedly mumbling her name. A whisper from the last remnant of the dream echoed in her voice with a smile in the words, "I know."
Ash's mind, still delirious from the dream, tried desperately to cling to the imagined sound, but there was nothing he could do to save it. He couldn't even save her voice. Sweat drenched the young Spartan's sheets, and he didn't notice until he lied back down that his fists were clench. Ash took a deep breath, working out the final shudder from the aftershock of the dream that had haunted him every other night. He didn't bother to check the time; it was undoubtedly some indecent hour in the "morning" according the ship's operational clock. The Port Stanley was orbiting the Earth longitudinally, so the Sun was always off the port side. Still, there was a clock to dictate times for crew shifts and to give the infantry onboard a day and night cycle their bodies could make sense of.
While he doubted he would be able to sleep again, Ash tried to at least rest his eyes. He had a big day ahead of him. Parangosky said the Spartan IV augmentation process would be relatively brief since there only a couple procedures that would successfully integrate with his Spartan III augmentations. When the admiral had promised him that he would have a fireteam with Mark and Olivia definitely on the roster he couldn't have said yes fast enough. Ash had been robbed of his team before they had even graduated from their training at Currahee. He would not lose his team again now that he had a second chance. While Ash was still rather inexperienced, despite the amazing things he had already seen in his short career thus far, he was savvy enough to know that few soldiers ever got a second chance at anything. And he would not fail. Never again.
Part Two: New Age Blues
"Some of the old hands here know what you're in for. The rest of you: you're due an education."
Commander Sarah Palmer's introductory speech was lacking the ingratiating optimism of a typical academy initiation speech, and that was just fine with Fred-104. The same sentiment seemed to be shared by the female Spartan IIs that flanked him on either side. While Linda had suggested taking up the end three seats closest to an emergency exit near the rear of the auditorium (Fred still was skeptic on why the UNSC Infinity needed an auditorium besides that it was so big it had room abound for it), but Fred had belayed her suggestion, taking the three of them to seats in the center of the right section of the bisected audience. When Linda made motion to protest, he gave her a simply, slightly cheeky answer, "Morale."
At the very least they were noticed. Before Commander Palmer took the podium Fred's sensitive Spartan ears picked up plenty of excited chatter about the three veritable giants in the crowd. The soldiers may not know their names yet, but there was no doubt they were some of the legendary Spartan IIs. Fred scarcely paid attention to Palmer's speech, and instead was observing their fellow Spartan IV candidates. There had to be at least 500 men and women in the cavernous auditorium. From his seated position there was only so much he could distinguish, even being the largest human in the room. Before him was a menagerie of people of all colors, sizes, and ages. Halsey would have balked at the genetic imperfection she demanded for her Spartan II candidates. The four figures that stood out the most of what he could see were four figures in the very front row. Four figures that must have been about the same size as himself and his two counterparts.
'Spartans. But who? Can't remember who's even alive anymore. Well, we'll just have to socialize after briefing. Heh, Linda will be thrilled.' As if on cue Sarah Palmer finished her mercifully short speech a moment later and ordered the prospects to proceed to medical examination preceding their augmentations. The crowd rose sporadically and began shuffling toward the exits. Fred was quite nearly perturbed by the inefficient chaos around him. It was so…civilian how they all moved. The uneven steps, accidental bump-ins occasionally requiring an "excuse me, sorry", the inefficient non-linear routes his colleagues used to maneuver nearly made him dizzy. Fred almost chastised himself for being overwhelmed until he remembered he hadn't been in this big of a crowd his entire life unless it was a battlefield.
Before standing, Fred tapped Kelly and Linda's knee of either side of him, signaling silently to wait a minute. Then he pointed up to the four Spartans at the front of the auditorium that now towered above their peers after standing up. The female Spartans raised their eyebrows comically simultaneously at the sight of possible follow IIs.
"Well, are we staying by the punch bowl all night, or are you gonna ask one of them to dance?" Kelly quipped. Fred smirked lightly and stood, his companions following. The four other Spartans also seemed irritated at the slow shuffling manner their new colleges moved in as they waited at the very back of the crowd heading for the rear doors. Blue team waited at the end of their row toward the center for their unfamiliar brothers and sister to reach them. It did not take long before the other group spotted Blue team and gave a short wave, which Fred returned, and made it a point to reach their compatriots. At last, the meeting could commence as the unknown four stepped over the last couple rows in front of Blue's.
"Matilda-110," the woman said, slight Cajun accent prevailing over years of separation from her birth family. Not skipping a beat, she extending her hand to Linda, who was nearest her, for the three men's large forms to Matilda's right prevented her from reaching Fred or Kelly, "We were Black team during the war. And my boys here are Victor-101, Charles-003, and Ulysses-125."
"Linda-058," Linda said politely, waiting for Fred to take over. Linda was in a particularly detached, Zen-trance-like mood today.
"I'm Fred-104, and this is Kelly-087," Fred said.
"I can speak for myself, Freddy, dear," Kelly mused as she reached over him tauntingly to shake hands with the Black team men first, "Nice to meet you. We're Blue team. Or I guess we were Blue team."
"Ah, easy to forget it's over, isn't it?" Matilda commented kindly in her smooth creole. Then she shrugged an offered a winning smile seldom seen among such hardened soldiers, "Well, as they say; on to the next adventure, non?"
A/N: Sorry if there wasn't much for Blue team in here. Just wanted to give them a starting point as we get the ball rolling. Also, they made a convenient vehicle to keep time moving as well. As for Black team, I'm not going to be cannon precise on their characters because there's little out there with them and I really don't want to go through the trouble of tracking down and reading the comic that features them. Sorry I'm such a lazy ass ! Anyways, next chapter may be shorter, as it will be only one "part". But worry not, I intend it to be a fun one. I also plan on writing chapter 4 simultaneously, so stay tuned for that hopefully-soon-to-be double update.
