Chapter 2:
Kat limped her way across the canyon and reflected on her thoroughly rotten situation. She had woken up weaponless, aching like she'd been run over by a warthog, and with barely functioning armor.
Some rudimentary field repairs enabled her to move and walk, but her armor was missing major components and those that remained were badly damaged. There was no way she could outrun anything faster than a particularly fat Grunt, or win a fistfight against anything more vigorous than that same Grunt. She was a sitting duck out in the open, and Covenant troops were sure to come looking for her.
Luckily, she spotted a UNSC base not far from where she had fallen. A quick scan of the blue-bannered base with her HUD on 2x zoom showed no movement. Nothing appeared on her motion tracker either as she came closer.
"Hello?" she called, as she entered the base. Her own echo was all that responded. "UNSC friendly here. Hello?"
She grimaced at the interior. It was a mess. Empty rations containers, bottles, popcorn, and unwashed clothes covered the concrete floor. The Covenant must have cleared this place out and ransacked it, Kat imagined. They also seemed to have drawn crude graffiti on some of the walls. Odd.
No bodies were found, but she came across a pile of discarded yellow armor on the threshold of the back entrance. She felt a momentary pang of sadness when she shifted through the pieces. Whoever the armor had belonged to must have been killed in the fight. Vaporized by plasma, maybe.
With only passing guilt, Kat stripped off a few essential parts and used them as replacements for her own armor, sighing in relief as her armor regained basic functions. She decided to search the rest of the base for medical supplies, computer equipment, weapons, and tools so she could continue with repairs.
It was during this search that she came across the naked girl.
"What are you doing here?" said Naked Girl, arms crossed under her breasts. She cocked her head to the side to stare at the stunned Spartan. "The party's not until later and it's five bucks a head."
"Identify yourself," Kat demanded, after the initial shock.
"Pssh, you can't card me," said Naked Girl. "I'm 21. Who are you?" Her voice was shrill and whiny, and it grated on Kat's nerves. "Wait, are you part of the band?"
"No. Why are you naked?"
Naked Girl rolled her eyes. "You can't sunbathe with armor on. Duh."
"So the yellow armor belongs to you?"
"You mean the gray armor? Yeah it does. I even wrote my name on it. With stickers."
"…Right."
Kat turned away and headed for the computer module she spotted out of the corner of her eye. The girl was probably a shell-shocked civilian who had somehow gotten mixed up in the battle, she decided. Probably needs a full psychiatric workup.
"Well if you're not part of the band," the girl continued, "and you're not here for the party, are you here to see the other Blue guys? If you are, they're already gone. Blue Army shipped them out."
Blue Army?
The name rang a bell. That and several minutes on the computer confirmed Kat's suspicions. She remembered reading the classified files on the shady Project Freelancer, headed by ONI's Dr. Leonard Church. A study of "Blue Team's" roster revealed the girl to be Private Kaikaina Grif, who she now recognized as a simulation trooper.
Kat's headache increased. She sighed and removed her helmet so she could massage her temples. The girl wasn't shell-shocked. She was just an idiot.
"Hey, you're kinda hot," Private Grif remarked. "Wanna make out?"
"Where's your commanding officer?" said Kat, ignoring her.
"Commanding officer? You mean like that Sergeant guy over at Red Base? Ours is dead."
"In the fight?"
"Nah. Aspirin overdose. Pfft. Amateur."
"Great," sighed Kat. She noted that there was a Sergeant at Red Base and planned to contact him as soon as she got communications back online. Her fingers flew over the keys on the computer. The technology was badly outdated, which didn't surprise or hinder her.
"Hey, are you looking at porn?" said Private Grif, peering over her shoulder, naked breasts pressed unconcernedly against Kat's right pauldron. "Cuz I haven't figured out how to get it on this computer."
"Stand back, Private," snapped Kat, as the signal hissed into existence. "Noble Leader, do you copy? This is Noble Two. Repeat, this is Noble Two. Noble Leader, do you copy?"
"… kttch… This is Noble One…. kttch… Kat…ktcch… SitRep, Noble Two..."
"I've made contact with a UNSC simulation base under the jurisdiction of Project Freelancer. My armor is compromised with limited mobility. Requesting evac."
Private Grif yawned and wandered off. "This porn is boring," she said. "Wanna go raid the medical supplies and see what we can get high on?"
"Seriously," pleaded Kat. "Get me out of here."
"… ktcch… negative… we've got our own problems at the moment…"
There was the sound of explosions and plasma turrets discharging over the radio. She could hear the crack of Jun's rifle.
"Copy," said Kat, trying not to sound too disappointed. She wasn't too keen on spending more time than necessary with the idiotic simulation trooper. Due to the nature of Project Freelancer, she couldn't reveal any information pertaining to herself, Noble Team, or the war… or really anything outside of simulation parameters.
"Kat! There's one… no two Covenant dropships on approach to your position, ETA five minutes at current velocity. Hold position until we get there!"
"Copy," said Kat, her voice growing hard. "Noble Two out."
She felt like swearing, but kept her frustration inward. It was time to be efficient. She was good at that.
"Private Grif," she called, and the girl appeared around the corner, now wearing heart-print undies and bra. "Get back in your armor. There's Covenant inbound and I need a full weapons-"
"Covenant?" wondered Grif, scratching her behind. "Is that the name of the band you're in?"
"There is no band!"
"Oh. Then who did I blow last…"
"On second thought, just stay put and shut up. I saw turrets on my way here. I'm heading topside to get them online."
After a brief call to Red Base, which only yielded a voicemail recording in bad Spanish, Kat scrambled up to the turrets on top of the base. She found them offline and in minor disrepair, but there was ample ammunition in good condition. It was as she was performing maintenance that she heard a shotgun being cocked.
"Freeze, Blue!" came a gruff male voice from somewhere behind her. She froze as she felt the barrel of the shotgun against her back. Left eye twitching, she held up her hands.