A/N: So this story will go in Scarlett's POV and Jack's POV in every chapter. Next chapter will be this through Jack's POV.
Chapter 2 - New Relations (Scarlett's POV)
Scarlett sighed happily, putting her new Air Assault armor on. Her armor was basic, at the moment, but she'd been told she'd earn cR after succeeding in battles, which she could spend in the Armory for new upgrades.
After all, there wasn't much else the credits could be used for.
Scarlett's thoughts had often drifted to Kat, and how she was holding up with all the other IIIs in the newly formed Noble Team.
Finally, Jack strolled out of the base Scarlett had been waiting outside of. Scarlett's jaw dropped. Jack's armor looked perfect, unlike the armor she had been given.
"How did you...?" She asked, eyeing the Gold Visor, Commando chest-piece and Soft Case utility. "Surely you have to rank up for that!"
Jack smirked, before putting his helmet back on. "Let's just say I know the right people."
Scarlett rolled her eyes. 'Great, a cocky know-it-all as my teammate.' She thought.
"Well, are you going to get in the 'hog, or make friends with the building paneling?" Jack asked sarcastically.
Scarlett rolled her eyes and hopped into the gunners seat, Jack driving.
"Where are we going, anyway?" Scarlett asked, as Jack began driving very fast and not very safely.
"New Llanelli, in Brunel system. Covenant are attacking the planet and the UNSC are requesting all available personnel to help immediately," Jack explained cooly. "So, of course, our skills are valued much and we are so desperately needed." He finished with a cocky tone.
Scarlett got the feeling that Jack was incredibly full of himself and believed that Spartans were far above the Marines in every possible way. Sighing, she got more grasped the gun tightly as a response at Jack's driving. She was not looking forward to working with him.
Finally, they arrived at the Pelican waiting to take them off Onyx and to New Llanelli.
Jack skidded to a halt, making Scarlett glare down at him.
"We're here." Jack informed her, clambering out of the drivers seat. He looked at her, still on the gun, then gestured towards the Pelicans open hangar door, "Ladies first."
Scarlett smiled slightly at this. He wasn't as bad as she had initially thought. At least he was relatively gentlemanly.
Scarlett climbed into the Pelican and sat in a seat right by the hangar door. There wasn't anybody else onboard, just some spare Assault Rifles and ammo lying on the floor. She suspected that some marines had been here previously.
Jack climbed in, sitting opposite her. He crossed his arms and sighed heavily.
He was silent for the rest of the journey, and because of his helmet, Scarlett couldn't tell if he was sleeping or just thinking. But the journey to New Llanelli would be quite long, so Scarlett decided to take a page from Jack's book and get some sleep, too.
Scarlett awoke to an annoying nudging on her shoulder. Her mouth was dry and she was thirsty. That was the only thing about sleeping with her helmet on.
She turned her head towards were the nudging was coming from. Jack stood there, an Assault Rifle in his hands. The hangar door behind him was open, and a battle was raging in the background behind him.
"Come on, we've arrived." He said, sounding rather irritated.
Scarlett grabbed her DMR and jumped out of the Pelican onto wet ground. Up ahead lay a large forest.
"Where are exactly are we going?" She asked Jack, confused.
"Across the forest is an facility that's under attack," Jack explained. "We can't take a Warthog through there. It's far too dense. We'll be too slow."
"So we're going to walk, through a dark and thick forest?" Scarlett clarified.
"Yep!" Jack replied rather cheerily, which made Scarlett even madder.
"You don't have to be so obnoxious and unhelpful." She replied through gritted teeth, taking point and entering the forest.
"Watch your motion tracker." Jack advised Scarlett, either choosing to ignore her comment or just hadn't heard it.
They walked for quite some time, coming across nothing. Scarlett stiffed a yawn, bored with the lack of combat so far. It was her first time out of training, in a real field, and so far nothing interesting had happened.
Suddenly though, they both heard rustling. "What was that?" Scarlett asked, her heart thudding. What if they were being flanked by Covenant?
"Probably just some wild animals," Jack replied calmly. "Keep moving." He ordered, prodding her in the back.
Scarlett sighed, but did as she had been told, jumping over a few fallen tree trunks, keeping an eye out. She swore she saw a flash of white go across the path in front of her, but blamed it on her tiredness.
"Hey, I can see the other side of the forest ahead!" She called behind to Jack, suddenly jogging ahead, wanting to get out of the forest.
"Wait for me," Jack began to call back, but Scarlett hadn't heard. Sighing, he increased his speed to catch up with her.
Scarlett was getting closer to the exit of the first. At last, she could get into some real combat instead of this boring forest.
Suddenly, an Ultra Elite wielding an Energy Sword came out of nowhere, growling viciously at Scarlett. So that was the white she had sworn she had seen.
Trying not to panic, she shot the Elite with her DMR. However it dodged with every shot, her bullets simply clipping the Elite.
The Elite roared, holding its Sword up, about to stab Scarlett. She held her breath and closed her eyes, knowing she couldn't win this battle, and just accepting that she was going to die.
She waited for the pain of the sword impaling her, but nothing came. She reluctantly opened her eyes and was shocked to see the Elite's eyes wide open, before collapsing by her feet, dead.
She looked down at the now dead Elite, stumped to what had managed to kill it. Looking back up, she saw Jack standing there, staring straight at her, a bloodied combat knife in one hand.
He had saved her.
"That's why you keep your eyes and ears open, and why you don't run off." He told her, taking one of her hands and leading her out of the forest.
Once they had gotten out of the forest, he sat her down on a nearby rock. Her hands were shaking.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked, concerned.
Scarlett nodded, still shaking from the shock. "You saved me." She whispered. She had never expected herself to come so close to death. Of course, the IIIs had been told that there would be dangers out there, but they had also been told the propaganda, "Spartans never die."
Scarlett had over-estimated herself, believing that nothing would harm her and that nothing could kill her. This was a wake-up call to her. She had to be more careful in the future.
"Yeah, it was nothing," Jack responded, shrugging this off. His cocky attitude seemed to have momentarily disappeared.
Scarlett realized then that Jack wasn't all she had initially thought he was. He wasn't obnoxious, or unhelpful. He was helpful; he had just saved her life. She could have become another statistic, another Spartan MIA. But she was fine, and that was due to him.
"I'm okay." She told him, swallowing hard and standing up. "Let's just get there, yeah?"
Jack nodded, not taking his eyes off her. He was still concerned.
"I can call transport in," He offered. "If you want."
Scarlett nodded, grabbing her DMR. "That'd be good."
Jack turned away and spoke into COMMS, "This is SPARTANs B489 and B312. Requesting transport, over."
"Copy that, tracking your position…" A voice replied. "Transport is inbound your location."
Jack nodded, satisfied. "Alright. Now we wait."
A few moments later and transport finally arrived. Jack got in the drivers seat again, Scarlett gunning. They headed over to main city of New Llanelli.
After en-counting a large Covenant attack force, and saving several civilians, Scarlett and Jack were heading back from their mission to a make-shift base on the planet for the night.
Jack had once again been very silent on the Pelican ride back, and assuming he had fallen asleep, Scarlett took out her locket and looked at the photos of her parents. She sighed and thought of them, feeling sad that they were gone.
"What's that?" Jack suddenly asked. Scarlett realized that he obviously wasn't sleeping. He was just thinking.
Knowing that there was no point in hiding the locket and pretending it was nothing, she decided to tell him, "It's a locket my mother gave me the last time I saw her."
Jack nodded. "I see. Soft spot, huh?"
Scarlett was surprised to hear this from him. "Yeah." She quietly replied.
"Well, for me, my mom left me and my dad when I was like 3. So my dad had to bring me up single-handed. When the Covenant invaded my planet, he freaked out. He didn't know what to do. Ran for it, and left me alone in the house," He chuckled at this memory. "Never really knew what happened to him and mom," He added, more silently. "I can only hope that they somehow survived. If they did, they'll think I'll be dead by now. Probably forgotten about me."
"I'm sure they haven't." Scarlett replied gently. "How could you, if you lost a child to the Covenant."
Jack swallowed, feeling emotional. "Yeah, you're probably right." He agreed, turning his head away from Scarlett. "Anyway, I'm going to get some more rest."
Scarlett nodded, knowing that the real reason was that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Even so, she hadn't expected Jack to open up and tell her. But somehow, she felt closer to him. He had saved her life, and she confided in him about her parents, something she rarely did.
Perhaps he couldn't be such a bad teammate after all.
