Zephyr jolted awake and hit her head on the bunk above. "Hey, you ok down there?" asked the voice in the bed above. "Uh, yeah, bad dream."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really."
"Come on" The owner of the voice jumped down from the bed, "Talk to me." Zephyr looked down. "I'd really rather not talk about it to a person I just met Huntress." Huntress sighed and knelt next to Zephyr.
"Look, what you dreamt can't be that bad. Besides, who'll give a damn? Few of us don't get nightmares since we got here. So talk." Zephyr just stared for a moment before finally talking.
"I dreamt, that I was surrounded by zombies, and that my family was here to, only without armor, Blade was there but there were to many... he couldn't save us in time, no one could." Zephyr began to tear up. Huntress nodded and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, don't worry, it was just a dream. I know all of this is a lot to take in, but everyone here knows the pain of what you're going through." Zephyr nodded and rolled away from her. "It's not just that, I don't want to change, I'm not a soldier and I'm not a Spartan."
Huntress only patted her on the back. She's the opposite of what Blade normally brings in. I wonder why she let her stay here when dozens of other places could've taken her. She sighed and climbed back into her bed, wishing Zephyr didn't have to go through this.
Eighteen months ago...
Huntress was wondering why she even listened to Blade sometimes as she held onto the banshee's wing. "Hey! Watch it Falcon!" yelled Blade on the other wing as he was nearly scrapped off it. "Do you want to do my job?" snapped Falcon. "Target's coming up fast, reports say there are at least six Spartans and two Elites. You two ready?" Blade and Huntress made simultaneous answers as the phantom they were chasing came into view.
Falcon flew over it and the two black armored Spartans let go of their wings and dropped onto the hull. Moving to either side, they grabbed onto the edge and swung down into the interior of the drop ship, surprising the people inside. Taking advantage of the surprise, Blade took out his sword and slice two of the Spartans while Huntress pulled out her maulers and took out one of the Elites.
Finally regaining their composure, the remaining hostiles attacked with various weapons that were rather ill suited for combat inside a phantom. They were all easily disposed of when their leader finally came out of the cockpit holding a gun to an AI chip. "Shoulda known the Feds would've sent spec ops. Now, do us all a favor and leave or the chip gets it."
No one moved for what seemed like eternity. The standoff ended when an explosion shook the ship. Taking advantage of the distraction, Huntress threw a spike grenade at the leader's head while Blade made a run for the AI. As the leader fell, Blade grabbed the AI and armor locked as Huntress took cover behind him as well.
the grenade went off, finishing the leader and anyone caught by one of the spikes. "That was way to close." Commented Blade. "Whatever, it worked didn't it?" Further conversation was cut short by another explosion. Falcon flew up to the side as Huntress and Blade leaped out to catch the wing each. Flying away, a third explosion destroyed the phantom. Looking to where the explosions were coming from, Blade saw a heavy duty pelican from Halo 3.
"Ah crude." The pelican moved with a surprising agility and placed itself in front of the trio's banshee. "You have no idea how much trouble you are in." boomed a voice on their radios, "Return to base for debriefing."
One hour later, they were all in the New Mombasa Federation Defense HQ. Sitting outside the Defense council chambers were Huntress and Falcon. "What do you think they're talking about?" asked Huntress nervously. Falcon shrugged as the doors opened and Blade walked out. Falcon and Huntress ran to him.
"Blade! What did they talk about? How much trouble are we in?" asked both of them at once. Blade just shook his head. "A lot. For one, I'm being promoted to commander and given a platoon." Both Falcon and Huntress flinched. That was the one thing neither of them expected. "They're promoting you... for disobeying a direct order?" asked a baffled Falcon. "Not just me, all of us. Congratulations majors."
The more Blade talked, the more they were confused. "There's more. We're being transferred to Terminal Moraine's Alpha base." Realization dawned on the faces under their helmets. "And there's the catch." Confusion once again spread on Huntress's face. "Which Halo is that from?" she asked.
"It's a Halo Wars two on two map. It's also where the higher ups send the trouble makers and rookies to cool off." explained Falcon. "So they're sending us to where we can't cause trouble?" Blade nodded. "Great, so Blade's has a job he doesn't want, we're being sent to a map meant for large scale armies to pound each other. Any other good news you want to share?"
"Yeah, and this is good news, one of the members will be rookies, washouts and some vets like Falcon who aren't wanted." Falcon seemed to take offense to that. "Ok, so point is we're being assigned to their version of Star Wars Rogue Squadron?" complained Falcon. "Rogue Squadron?"
"Seriously? You don't know?" Huntress shook her head. "Whatever. How long will we be at Terminal?"
"Four to six months of guard duty, NPC killing and other Halo Wars related tasks."
"Hey, look at the bright side, it should a relatively quiet job." Huntress shook her head. "Famous last words Falcon.