Hello, again!
I want to thank everyone who has read this story and/or favorited, followed, and reviewed the story so far. Without you all, this wouldn't be happening. Thanks, Tormount, Pannthour, SuperSaiyin4Vegeta, Annnooonnn, Blackburn, Spockify, Demosthenes2211, Duffman3005, and Jetsmillion for reviewing the last chapter.
Annnooonnn: I am up to date on both Shingeki no Kyojin and Shingeki no Kyojin: Before the Fall. I also saw the Subaru commercial, which was interesting.
SuperSaiyin4Vegeta: Your well worded explanation for NCO's was the only reason I changed the characters rank. As for the armor, its alluded to in the prologue that that was stolen from the Sabre program launch and testing range. For your final point, I never said it was a full set of armor, just spare pieces.
Pannthour: I agree with Hanji over Hange.
Again I thank everyone who reviewed. I apologize for not responding to everyone's review but, I'm still trying to keep the other notes short for now.
So here it is Chapter 3: Two Humanities
[Unknown Date]/2552
Early Afternoon, Unknown Planet
In Confrontation with local human population outside of UNSC Civilian Vessel Mary Celeste
Inside Captain Schmitt's Helmet, one minute and forty-two seconds had passed since the riders had entered visible range of the UNSC survivors, and now, one of the riders had dismounted. She began, with arms in a position of harmlessness, to slowly moving her way in front of her fellow horsemen, before stopping a healthy distance away from the survivors. And said in a accented German,
"Hello. My name is Hanji Joe. Nice weather we're having..." She paused, "Do you understand my language?"
The Captain, who upon learning that a confrontation was inevitable, never expected in a million years that that would be the way the deliberations would open up between their two groups. But, at the very least, it did mean that they were just as ill prepared as the Captain was for such a deliberation. The Captain was a foot soldier after all, and unlike Ship captains who would have an inkling of an idea of how to begin negotiations with a new civilization or species, the ODST Captain only had his experience of dealing with outer colonists and insurrection informants to go off of.
The Captain then responded, without lowering his weapon, "Yes, most of us understand your language." He paused, deciding to ignore the question about the weather, he continued, "Who do you represent, Hanji Joe?"
The woman gasped, and looked visibly taken aback by the fact that they, well at least Schmitt, Benjamin, and the Spartan, even though she didn't know that specifically, understood German. "I... I'm a member of the Survey Corps, and.." she gestured energetically towards the group behind her "We represent all of humanity."
"You have to be shitting me." Schmitt could hear Benjamin whisper in English next to him. "Where the hell did we land?"
Schmitt could only agree with Benjamin. Just where the hell did the Mary Celeste crash land?
Almost immediately his mind quickly sank into jaded thoughts about far-flung science fiction explanations to explain this situation.
'Maybe we landed in some alternative dimension bullshit. No, no, no that's too easy, no, we landed in the far-flung future where apes, no, Titan's rule the world. Or, just maybe this is some sort of alien zoo in a twisted version of the Renaissance era with Giants...'
Whatever it was, the Captain doubted he'd get any of those answers from these people... and the Dot fragment would be useless to find answers. Even if she was a fully restored, this would be way out of her operation's matrix ability to understand...
If he ever wanted answers on why this was going on, he'd need to get back to UNSC space. Just one more reason to get this ship fixed and off the planet...
That was when the women, Hanji, asked the four survivors her own questions. "Who are you people, who do you represent and why are you here? And what do you call that thing behind you that you came in on?" Hanji pointed at the Mary Celeste.
The Captain sighed, things could have been worse. "Um..." He stumbled to think of a way to explain to this woman and her company what his group of ragtag survivors were, "We're UNSC personnel." At least most of us are... the Captain stole a side glance at Benjamin. "To be more specific, we're citizens of the Unified Earth Government, which the UNSC is the military branch of..."
Damnit. That was not the way he wanted to put that. He could already here murmurs in their ranks about the reason military men would be sent to their planet. Now they were going to think that his group of survivors was some sort of advanced recon group to take over this planet...
The Captain bite his lip for a moment. There was no easy way to explanation why they were here... and it wasn't like he really had the ability to bluff about the survivors' situation, the condition of the ship was right there. So he just went into it, "Look, I'm not going to screw around with you here. We're in a rough situation..."
"From where we come from, humanity is protected by us, the UNSC, and we, as well as the human race, are being pushed to the verge of extinction by a conglomerate of alien species known as the Covenant. I know you may think you protect all of humanity, but humanity covers far more than just this planet." He paused, gauging the reaction of the other group to this information. Hanji seemed to be eating up these facts, and her blond haired superior, if the ODST had to guess, also seemed accepting of this information. But the rest seemed to be either confused by his confession or downright disbelieving of it.
The Captain begrudgingly continued, "The Covenant that we fight sees the human race as nothing more than a scourge on the galactic stage and want nothing more than to remove any trace of human existence. They even burn planets into glass to expunge all traces of humanity." He motioned with his free hand to the survivors "We ourselves narrowly missed being glassed on one of their most recently found planets." Schmitt refused to go into more detail about the importance of that planet as he continued. "And in our narrow escape, we ended up… here."
Now the Captain decided to play his hand on the Survey Corps. "From what we've gathered since we landed on this planet, it looks like you're in a losing war against those giants, I mean Titan's, correct?" He didn't wait for a response, since he had just devised a plan that might get his survivors off of this planet, though, in all likelihood he could probably be court-martialed for this; "I suggest a deal."
He hoped that this other group would accept it; after all, two of their members had been saved by the Captain's survivors already. "You get us supplies to fix our ship, so that we can go back to fighting to save humanity on the galactic scale... and my men and I will work with you and your group against this Titan menace. It's a win-win after all, I mean, we help you save your humanity from those abominations, and you help us get back to saving our humanity."
If they didn't accept his deal, well, he still had the Spartan and the ship guns as a backup.
Survey Corp
Outside of Crash-site
For Ervin Smith, the situation before him had shifted rather rapidly. First, his men stumble upon a group of otherworldly humans with weapons at the ready, then they start spitting information about an alien empire attempting to expunge humanity from existence, and now they were offering their own assistance on the Titan's. Of course they wanted compensation for their assistance, but, in many ways this is everything he could have hoped for. The only problem was, where they offering assistance because they were in a bad situation, or were they like some of his men were whispering, just biding their time to attack humanity...
But, Ervin had to think impartially about their offer. Even if they plotted against humanity, they could still be a useful ally against the Titans in the short-run, then, if they posed a large enough threat against humanity within the walls they could and would be dealt with. "You say, you can offer us assistance. What makes you think you would be an asset to us?"
The black armored man turned his attention to Ervin. It was still mildly disconcerting to Ervin that he couldn't see the individual face beneath the helmet and that the man hadn't bothered to formerly introduce himself. "As you saw earlier, when one of our men saved two of your soldiers' lives, our weapons are more than capable of killing one of those Titans in a single blow. And unlike your people, we can do the killing from outside of the titans reach, much less casualties if they can't reach you. But that weapon isn't the only tool at our disposal that could decimate those monsters; you've only seen a taste of what we have to offer."
That statement was cryptic, but he did offer at least one reasonable point, they could fight the titans at a greater range then any in the Survey Corps. However, Ervin would still need to know more if he was going to accept this deal. "What type of materials would you need to repair your vessel?" murmurs of discontent could be heard from a few of the Survey Corp members.
"Copper, steel, and titanium, to name a few of the more necessary materials. If you don't have all the types of materials we need... we might be able to work around it. Our engineers are good at what they do. They can make it work."
Ervin again, thought about the deal. Copper and steel were possible to get and give to these people, but Titanium... it might be a bit more of a problem since Ervin had never heard of such a metal. Then again, it might just be a different name for a metal they already used. He'd need to probe the black armored man for more information on this titanium in the future, but for now, it seemed for the most part, that the Survey Corp could hold up their end of the deal if things panned out.
That was when Levi quietly offered his own opinion in the form of a question "Are you sure about taking them up on their offer?"
However, before Ervin could respond to Levi, Oruo in an attempt of bravado moved to pull out his swords, as a sign of aversion to this situation, as he muttered his agreement with Levi over trusting these interlopers.
But, before Levi or Ervin could tell Oruo to sheath his swords, Oruo was violently thrown to the ground and disarmed by a distortion of light that faintly looked like a suit of blue and silver metal. Then, after a moment, the shimmer disappeared as a giant of a man in a heavy looking suit of armor revealed itself restraining Oruo.
Everyone was still, as they took in what they only thought was impossible. That thing had just appeared out of thin air.
Then, the man in the black suit of armor, that seemed to be the leader of the UNSC solders, called out to the large being that was holding down Oruo, "Stand down Lieutenant, I think you made your point."
And with that, the blue giant, the Lieutenant, released Oruo as he stood up and moved towards his UNSC brethren. All the while, the rest of the Survey Corps members, besides Ervin and Hanji, held their hands hesitantly over their blades; ready to unsheathe and strike the giant if need be.
When the Lieutenant reached his UNSC brethren, the black armored individual elaborated about him. "The Lieutenant, here. Is a Spartan. I begrudgingly admit; they are the best of the best where we come from. There's no other soldier you would rather want to fight besides you than a Spartan... And no greater enemy to face than that of a Spartan's wrath. If you doubted our ability to help you before, I doubt you can refute it now."
This didn't sit very well with Ervin. Yes, they proved that they had several tricks up their sleeves that would make them an invaluable asset against the Titans, but at the same time, they proved their ability to compromise the Survey Corps security... That Spartan had managed to slip behind their ranks undetected until he needed to strike at one of his subordinates, what would have stopped him from doing that to an individual of power in the Survey Corps, or if they were brought into the walls a government representative or the king.
But the Spartan hadn't attacked him, nor did he injure Oruo when he made an aggressive move near the Spartans men. All he did was disarm Oruo and return to his rank when called...
"Commander!" A member of Ervin's squad called for his attention. As Ervin turned to see what required his attention he was subsequently redirected by the soldiers hand to look at the sky behind him.
A red flare could be seen in the distance behind the town.
That was not good. Red flares were only used when something went wrong or could go very wrong, very soon. He needed to get back to the rest of the Survey Corp... But this situation was also extremely pressing. If he didn't forge this alliance now, then it might never happen. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for humanity, but would the potential rewards for working together be enough to outweigh any potential consequences...
It was a gamble either way.
Ervin returned his gaze back to the black armored soldier, who now had his gun resting in a much less aggressive stance. "If we agree to your terms, how long would it take you and your men to be ready for action?"
Without a pause the armored being replied, "We can be combat ready in twenty minutes… if our terms are agreed upon." It seemed that a red flare was a universal sign, for Ervin was almost positive the armored being understood the position Ervin now found himself in.
Ervin blinked. He was out of time, and would need to take a blind leap of faith on this one. What could be gained from using these people was far too great to just throw aside out of suspicion. They would need to be watched closely, but the deal would be struck.
"We agree to your terms. We will assist you in gaining the materials necessary to rebuild your vessel in exchange for your service in assisting us to protect humanity against the Titan threat."
"Then we have a deal." The armored individual lowered his weapon even more.
"Yes." Ervin could hear Levi sigh in disagreement to the deal, but there was no real choice. What could be gained was far greater than what could be lost. If things didn't change against the Titans, humanity would be lost regardless. "We will need your men to be readied as quickly as possible, for a threat has arisen." He turned to see the flare still in the sky behind him. "I will be leaving a squad to lead you back to our camp, but the rest of us need to leave now."
The armored individual didn't seem surprised by this statement. "Understood, but..." he fished in a pocket of his armor and took out a silver piece of metal. "Take this," he tossed it at the feet of Ervin's horse, "it a tracking beacon. If we get separated from your men, it will allow us to find you again."
Ervin didn't know what to make of this object, but regardless, as a sign of good faith he passed it to a member of his squad that would be returning to the main Survey Corp group with him and called to Levi. "Levi, your squad will be staying to supervise and escort these UNSC people." He then dropped his voice down to a whisper in hopes of preventing the other group from hearing. "Keep a close eye on the Spartan, and if they appear to be a threat, do what is necessary."
Levi never took his eyes off of the other group, and specifically the Spartan, as he replied "Understood, Commander."
With that Ervin made ready to leave with the rest of the expedition force save for Levi's squad when Hanji made herself known.
"Ervin, you must allow me to stay. Just think of what I can learn about these people if I can watch them prepare for battle against the Titans!" Ever since that Spartan had made itself know, Hanji had went from quite interested in learning about these UNSC people to itching to pull apart and learn every last detail about them, and specifically that Spartan. She was shaking and practically salivating as she pleaded to Ervin and sporadically stole glances at the giant individual.
Rather than argue with Hanji at a time like this, Ervin agreed that she could stay, but her squad would be leaving with Ervin.
With that taken care of, Ervin and the nine other Survey Corp members left to assist the greater Survey force with whatever issue it found itself in...
As Ervin turned to look upon the crash site one last time before moving out of visual range he noticed something new. Three objects on the crashed vessel seemed to have been orienting themselves to keep Ervin's group in its sights...Huh, just how many tricks do they have up their sleeves.
As Noble Six listened to what he had every right to believe where the leaders of the Survey Corps discuss the UNSC personnel and how they were to be put down if they caused trouble. Six couldn't help but feel that this thought was mutual. If they attempted to harm him or anyone else that survived Reach, they would die at his hands. But this brought about another thought. Just, why did this situation go down the way it did.
As Commander Ervin, who's name and rank was exposed thanks to his helmets ability to amplify quite noise from a relatively large area, left with some of his men in the direction of the Red flare. Benjamin turned to the Captain and in English spoke his mind.
"Well, that could have gone a hell of a lot better. Now we're at the mercy of these people..." he paused before continuing, "How do we even know they'll keep up their end of the bargain?"
The Captain, sizing up the remaining Survey Corps members, replied "We don't."
"Great."
"I don't like it anymore then you do, but we don't really have a choice. I mean, it doesn't look like we can negotiate to those Titans, and to be honest, I don't know how long we can last against those things before they either overwhelm us, or more likely, we run out of ammo..." The Captain paused, to take a glance at the people and the Spartan under his command. "This is our best bet to get this ship operational and resources to restock on ammo... Besides, if worst comes to worst, we all know how to kill a man, those Titans on the other hand, they're still somewhat a mystery in that regard."
Benjamin, to the Spartan's trained eye, seemed to have paled ever so slightly at the Captains last sentence, sighed and conceded to the Captain. "Shit... your right, we really don't have a choice."
"What are your thoughts, Six?" The Captain decided to pull in the thoughts of the only other member of the group who could understand the deliberations with the locals.
"They're just as unhappy about the situation as us. Their leader even made a quite statement that paralleled yours, Sir. If we act out of line," the Spartan set a waypoint on Levi, "that individual has been given right to kill us. They even made a special note of killing me first."
Captain Schmitt let out a soft laugh at that. "Good luck with that. Anything else Lieutenant?"
"We should keep up our guard around them, and, as you already made a point of saying, we shouldn't trust them any more then we had too."
With that, the Captain refocused on the remaining Survey Corps members, their babysitters to say the least. Across most of their faces were looks of distrust, or, as the case of the short black haired man on a horse, a look of absolute boredom. However, that Hanji woman was practically drooling and jumping with joy as she looked at the UNSC weapons, vessel, and Spartan from a distance. She practically had the words 'ONI Scientist' plastered in glowing, bold red lettering across her face. Note to self, don't let her get anywhere near the ship, gear... or Spartan.
The Captain sighed. "Six, you keep an eye on our guests while I explain our situation to those two." With that the Captain turned to the two marines that didn't understand German and began to explain the agreement with them, as he and the rest of the group moved to the back of the ship and the loading bay.
As the Spartan turned to give his full attention to the Survey Corps members he couldn't help but feel that this day, like so many others in the last few weeks since Reach fell, was going to last far longer than anyone would have ever wanted.
It wouldn't be a Noble mission if it were easy.
That voice...It was Carter's voice... Six shook his head ever so slightly, Carter was right then, and he is still right now. A Noble mission would never be an easy mission. Six would have to fortify himself, mind and body, for the next day, week, or year that it took for this mission to be accomplished and the survivors safely brought back home.
-End Chapter-
That's the end of chapter 3!
Hope you enjoyed it, since it was the hardest chapter for me to write so far. Next chapter we see how this shaky allience works pans out between the two groups.
Again, I want to thank my two friends, DeadzManWalking for helping me out by beta testing this chapter.
And again, thanks everyone for reading and have a wonderful day!
Please if you are inclined, leave a constructive review or PM me if needed.
Interesting Note: Its interesting how both universes use the concept of overcoming individual humanity to save humanity to save humanity at large but how both universes use this concept differently. For Shingeki no Kyojin their is an emphasis on forgoing your humanity to save humanity, while in Halo their is a underlying emphasis on the need to be human, if only a little bit. There are several examples of this in Halo's external fiction, and Halo Legends, but this all culminates in Lasky's response to Master Chief at the end of Halo 4. Lasky:"You say that like soldiers and humanity are two different things. Soldiers aren't machines. We're just people."