UNSC Ballista FFG-388 over Florida

October 27, 2558

"Okay," A tall, lean dark haired man that was clearly irritated, held his hands up in a surrender at the top of a pyramid structured room that overlooked an entire ship's bridge, "You still haven't told me why you are forbidding me from working in my own company!"

"It's everyone's company," An older man with graying hair and a slouched figure opposite him in his fifties shot back, "I think you were a little deaf when I had told you that we demanded that you take a day off, which I believe you are maxed out on vacation time and haven't spent a single minute working off the clock ever since we started this company. Can you let us just take care of the paperwork for once." He waved him out of the bridge, "Trip, this is Florida for God's sake! Go swimming, surf, shop at the mall or even just lay at the beach with a beautiful young woman at your side I don't care! Just anywhere but here!"

Trip gave an annoyed huff before turning and exiting the bridge.

Andrew "Drew" Rayson settled back in the command seat of the UNSC Ballista, a highly advanced Guardian class stealth frigate built to bypass enemy fleets blockading a planet and focus on the ground assets. When the war against the Covenant ended, the ships were scrapped and stored at a classified site, although fate had other plans for the lucky ship.

She was one of only twenty one ever made after orders to manufacture nearly two hundred had been canceled, leaving the ship to be extraordinarily rare, since the UNSC's secret Office of Naval Intelligence had retired them inside a secret vault for decommissioning.

Agent Trip Aegis was fresh out of the Office of Naval Intelligence's top secret Section Three for an undisclosed amount of years and had left the agency deciding to create his own corporation that undertook all the high stake dirty work that ONI or the UNSC didn't want to take accountability for, but couldn't ignore. They were technically freelancers, but primarily worked for the UNSC or anyone that didn't damage their interests. None of their work could be traced back from an average check on their dossiers. They were immensely successful so far. In less than a year, they halted a slave trafficking attempt to illegally mine gold, defused a political tension between elite and human colonists and defeated a powerful cultist group in trying to force their influence over the human race.

They were called the Strike Blades, or Blades for short. However, he and just about any Blades member would easily call each other as a family.

The Blades did see their fair share of troubles and many of them were averted due to Drew's planning. Aegis would agree that his number two was extremely valuable and would've dissolved the group had it not been for his number two.

Another thing that constantly nagged Drew was that they always attracted trouble wherever they went and it was coincidentally always ready to strike in their presence. It didn't matter if they were on a distant world fighting overzealous Covenant or at Earth, trying to stop the latest terror group from exterminating a large amount of the population.

An hour later, he had finished another final report when his personal comlink rang inside his cabin. He kept the floor to a clean and tidy appearance, but his desk was cluttered with utensils, machine parts and half-drawn diagrams of improvements he had made to the Ballista's systems, both internal and external. In addition to being the second in command, Rayson was also the ship's chief engineer and he had vouched for some of the most advanced engines humanity had ever designed. There were too many digits on their cost, but they had proven to be worth every credit.

"Andrew is speaking,"

"Is this Andrew Rayson?" A voice asked on the other line.

"Yes."

"This is Lieutenant Caroll of the Key West Police Department. Two robbers entered an electronics store, threatening the checkout clerk. A man in your company, A Commander Trip Aegis was also onsite when they had entered and now both perps are being escorted to the hospital under guard. He had personally disarmed and incapacitated them in a matter of seconds. We asked him if he could file a report to police, but he simply said that he was under orders to take the day off and referred to you."

Drew's mouth hung open. Aegis was out for only an hour and he already had run into trouble, "He neutralized two threats by himself?"

"He did." Caroll replied, "As soon as he went into action to attack the closer one, the second perp had a pistol and was too stunned to act before he too joined his partner on the ground. When all was done, he had gone up to the cashier and insisted on paying for his merchandise, even though she would have easily given him anything in the store free of charge."

"Do you need any of us down there for anything?" Drew asked, ready to send another member right down if necessary.

"We got it all taken care of. Thanks." The Lieutenant hung up.

"Unbelievable!" Drew exasperated to himself more than anyone, throwing up his hands in defeat as he strolled onto the bridge, "The Commander's off for an hour and he's already got two arrests."

The older man was known for his ranting, so typically the officers manning the bridge paid scant attention to whatever griping he had going on, but at the mention of the Commander, all heads had turned.

One of them looked completely different from all the other humans, formerly a member species of the Covenant Empire, humanity's nemesis for three decades, sangheili held grudging respect after joining forces with them late in the war. Upon its ending, the Blades had room and a handful of them, led by the former Spec Ops operative Vaal Talam had come under the company's influence. Talam was the number three and conducted his first operation with him as the direct commander a week ago.

Nearby was the remainder of the Ballista's senior staff, Vasili Suvorov and Conan Pyra, massively built operation leaders and Spartan-IV supersoldiers. Leah Roush, a small Floridian woman who supervised intelligence, Danny Tyler and Luke Riley, responsible for navigation and the vast arsenal the Ballista had in terms of firepower. The only senior member of the Blades that was absent from the bridge was Doctor Sofia Inselton, a Spartan-IV that formerly trained as a combat medic. She was only present if she was going to partake in an operation, when not, she would be found in her state-of-the-art medical ward with the latest and most advanced equipment available.

"Well let's all hope the rest of the day will be peaceful and the Commander can get his much needed temporary retirement from action." Vaal calmly concluded. He had seen his expression and ranting before putting two and two together.

"Oh don't jinx it Vaal." Drew groaned.

Two hours later, the majority of the crew had taken the day off, but spent it aboard the ship before the next mission by the Ballista was to be assigned. By now, Drew would have a good course of action, but Aegis was actually the one who usually viewed the assignments and accepted them, although not before he consulted with most others. He was filing the paperwork and devising a plan himself. for their next move.

And now he was on vacation.

After the Lieutenant had hung up, Drew shook his head in annoyance, "Holy shit. We tell Aegis to take a day off and he goes down there, gets two arrests and saves an entire shopping center. Any other regular human being would go out to relax in the sun and maybe go dolphin spotting. But no, he then decides to go on his own with a supposed day off to continue sacking bad guys while making ours a hell over here."

"What's a dolphin?" Vaal asked.

"Fuck me." Drew muttered.

The bridge doors parted and Leah Roush rushed in, excitedly chattering to someone on her comlink, "No Mom, I haven't seen Waypoint news yet…yeah. Well I'm here right now with an available holoscreen." She hung up, "Hey guys, ready for another surprise?"

"Does this involve Trip?"

"Yep." She pulled down a holoscreen and flipped the channel to Waypoint news, one of the main stations for delivering the UNSC's current events. The network was active all around the UNSC colonies and its name was nearly associated with humanity's everyday life. Being a reporter or journalist for Waypoint meant a lot of money was to be made. There were few rival broadcasters and local news stations that could compete against them, but they usually lacked their reputation.

The pretty blonde woman looked at the camera, "Thank you Mitch, and continuing our breaking news highlight here in South Florida, a devastating fire has continued to rage out of control upon a block of condos." Footage played showing massive flames licking the sides of a building, spreading far enough to threaten several others beside it. Several fire vehicles had sprayed jets of water over the flames, slowly and steadily weakening the blaze.

"We still have two unaccounted people from the complex, a nineteen year old girl as well as a man who has been positively identified as Commander Trip Aegis, who had rushed inside the building upon hearing her parents calling for her. Aegis was also seen earlier today disarming a pair of store robbers in an electronics store."

"God damn is he insane?" Drew couldn't believe what he was seeing, "That fire is going to be the end of him and he's risking it all for a girl?"

"That's what I admire of him." Vaal said in awe, "He views the safety of others as a higher priority than his own."

"Wonder if the Lieutenant is going to call us back." Luke pondered from the back of the room. As soon as he did, the ship's comlink began to ring with an incoming transmission.

"You had to say something." Drew muttered, accepting a set from the officer manning communications before strapping it on and listening for a few seconds, "He is speaking…ok Governor. We are aware of his deeds. Yes, ma'am. We had given him the day off of our work." He frowned, "Ok. Thank you."

The line clicked dead.

"That was the Governor of the Florida Peninsula. She wants to know why Trip is being involved twice in the media today."

"How did the Governor get ahold of us like that?" Leah asked.

"Because she and Trip went to high school on Europa together."

The screen then showed the entrance to the condos as something moved inside. Moments later, Aegis emerged, covered in ashes and as he walked towards everyone watching expectantly, smoke and steam curled away from his body. In his arms, he carried a teenage girl in a bridal fashion, who was clinging to him and staring up with wonder at her mysterious savior. It was straight out of a movie.

The crowd watching the spectacle burst into applause just as he emerged and the flames had now been reduced to large embers. Even Leah found herself smiling at the display. He gently set the woman down by a waiting ambulance, spoke to a couple of firefighters and policemen before promptly departing, seemingly disappearing, much to the dismay of the reporters and journalists who had arrived onsite.

"There you have it. That was Commander Trip Aegis, although he did not stay behind for any attention. A real hero today. More on this story in an hour."

Drew couldn't take it anymore and switched off the screen. "Unbelievable. Maybe I should just pray that nothing happens anymore." He put his hands to his face in frustration, "I told him to take the day off. What have I done?"

Both Leah and Vaal saw his desperation and couldn't help laughing, only to stop when he glared at the two of them.

The next hour and a half, their comlinks were constantly being barraged with calls from every single network station within the entire state of Florida, all of them vying for a very exclusive interview with the state's hero of the day. Drew, Leah, Luke, Vaal and the majority of the ship's staff calmly answered every one, saying the same thing that Trip Aegis was unavailable and they did not know his location because he had turned his personal comlink off. The main communication officers of the Ballista, Tongju even picked up word of a rally in downtown Key West in order to find him. To Drew, now it seemed like they were more on a manhunt rather than searching for a mysterious hero.

Drew knew that the reason most of them were patched to them were because Aegis had previously deferred any further inquiries about him to his crew. While many outside a hero position craved such media attention, he was no stranger to being in such a spotlight and although he didn't resent it, he had no desire to revel with the praise. He was just a person doing his duty.

By the evening, the public surge with Aegis' heroic antics had not worn off, although most outlets had called back once again, asking to contact them once Trip had a convenient moment for an interview. Thankfully, the Florida Governor had also stepped in to assist in dismissing media stations, insisting that all questions to be referred to her.

When Aegis' transponder pinged its next half hourly location, Drew was very surprised to see it a couple of miles south of downtown Key West in the middle of the ocean. What was he up to now? His mind already envisioned him swimming out to sea to save people from a sinking boat.

"Maverick," He spoke to their chief pilot in his cabin, "Get the hornet ready to dustoff in five."

Aegis wore a blue tourist shirt with a pair of brown shorts as he battled the fishing rod in his hands to furiously reel in another catch. He had been out for only an hour and managed to reel in four fish, but only one was worth keeping. The plan was to catch enough fish for the entire crew and Francois to make some sort of baked fish dish, but he knew that the time needed to catch enough for his crew of nearly three dozen could go for the entire day. Most of the fish came closer to the top by night, so he had rented a speedboat with fishing equipment and headed out to a rather deserted section of the sea to relax and put his mind to focus solely on fishing and nothing else. On his seat's cup holder was a half consumed bottle of beer from a local brewery.

The sound of a hornet's engines came into audibility as he finally overpowered the fighting finned creature and began to pull it back to him.

"Holy shit!" The mahi mahi fish was massive in size, exceeding his armspan and it thrashed furiously in the waves as it tried in vain to escape. With a grunt, he heaved it inside the boat and pinned it to a bench to carefully remove the hook.

The hornet now came into view, blinking beacon lights across its hull. One man was strapped in the passenger side as it slowly eased its way over by his boat. The water rippled underneath in a stormy fashion as the second figure leaped from the edge and landed on the boat.

Normally if he was concerned with retaliation, he would have immediately taken action, but he knew that the hornet was his and it had approached with intent to bring a passenger to board, which he already knew who it was.

"What the hell am I going to do with you?" Drew demanded as Maverick flew away in the hornet to spare them the hurricane forces of the jet engines. "I tell you to take the day off and then you get caught up in messes that take weeks to clean up, plus we are handling all the press' constant attempts to get ahold of you because they want to publish an article that tops the news headlines with your portrait on the front! And I'm not even going to comment on the fact that you strongly smell like smoke."

"It's a nice fish." Aegis calmly replied, holding up the dolphinfish as if displaying a trophy and ignoring his friend's rant. "To answer your question, absolutely nothing. You need me and I need you. Simple as that."

"Okay." He folded his arms, unimpressed by Aegis antics. "So let's just say that you actually took my advice for once and did relax a little. How do you end up tangled in preventing a store robbery and rescuing a damsel in distress from a burning condo?"

"Because I am undeniably an epic, sexy beast and you know it." He waved the comment off, "I was in the shopping center because of a very special day that was a few weeks ago and I wanted to get my number two a present." When Drew's mouth opened, Aegis finished his point, "Yeah remember? That was the anniversary of the Blades' founding." He reached over inside a box and lobbed Drew a smaller package, "It's a fitness-band, so you can set goals and watch your figure."

Drew had wanted one for months now after declaring his 2559 New Years resolution, but that still didn't defuse his frustration, "Okay, so then what about the burning house?"

"It was also concerning work."

"I thought I told you to take the day off."

"Work was only discussed for a small part. One of the guys from Acheron Security was in town for a local defense convention in Miami and asked if I could swing by a bar for a drink and talk about old times. As I drove towards the place, I see the house on fire and volunteer with the firefighters to put it out. Then one woman from the place is crying because she couldn't find her daughter who was still inside. I ran in and got her out."

"Some mom." Drew muttered.

"Either way, I didn't stick around for a debriefing. Just got a word of thanks from the firefighters and left, thankfully almost unnoticed."

"Unnoticed huh? It's not that I'm complaining," When Aegis gave him a quizzical look, Drew paused, "Okay, rephrase that, it was supposed to be a day where you can relax and rest so that we can hopefully mount some sort of response for the shit we've been chest deep in about the Societea. Adding to that, we get calls left and right demanding to speak with you and give you a key to the city or some honor shit like that."

"Are you done?"

"No and the Governor had also gotten ahold of me and wants to see you at her office tomorrow. She says that after what you pulled today, nearly every female human in the state is clamoring for your attention. And let me tell you that Florida women are just plain gorgeous, but that's your problem now. So for what you caused us today, I think I need to get even with you."

"What are you talking about?" Aegis' eyes widened when Drew suddenly reached forward, shoving him back. He stumbled, just as his leg hit a crate on the boat and he collapsed, unknowingly leaning on the rail and fell backwards disappearing overboard with a splash.

Drew couldn't help himself and began to howl madly with laughter. He had some hilarious moments at work, but the simple off balance shove he had done to Trip was priceless.

Aegis emerged from the surface, spitting a mouthful of seawater from his mouth and making a rather disgusted face.

"Ok." Drew held a towel at the edge, "Now we're even."

There is still more funny parts to come, although it might be lighthearted, it does have a significance later on.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.