Stranger In Their World
Chapter 6
Red Team
AN: Done it! Seven chapters in seven days. I've been pushing myself hard to get these chapters out so I'm taking a few days off. Expect new chapters to be posted around the weekend.
3rd August EDIT: While sticking in locations for each of the chapters, I remembered that Reach had MAC platforms like Earth does in Halo 2, so I named this one after Reach's largest (and as far as I know only) city New Alexandria.
28th January 2531
Orbital Defence Platform New Alexandria, orbiting Reach
I collapsed onto my bed in the Spartan's quarters, still frustrated at the events of the meeting with Ackerson one week ago. Yes, he had agreed to move the SPARTAN-III Program to Reach, but I hadn't expected us to have to concede so much in the way of MJOLNIR technology. We had intended to only give him about half of the necessary data on the armour, but the stubborn bastard had demanded three quarters. Halsey had almost stormed out of the meeting at that point, but I persuaded her to accept Ackerson's demands. I had read about how much of a bastard Ackerson was, but that hadn't prepared me for actually meeting him.
'Bastard,' I thought. 'I hope he dies the same way he did in the series.' If there's anyone who should be tortured and killed by the Covenant, it's Ackerson. 'Maybe he should even be taken over by the Flood!' Well, maybe that would be going too far. Not even the Covenant deserved that.
I lay there for a few hours, thinking about what was going to happen. Humanity's first encounter with the Flood. If the Spirit of Fire does make it back from that mission, how would this affect the time-line. Would the UNSC leaders decide that the military needed to know about the threat of the Flood? I really hoped not. It's only been six years since they learned of the existence of a number of alien races trying to kill us all. Learning of a parasitic organism that wants to absorb all life in the universe? That would be devastating to the soldier morale. Yes, the Flood wasn't exactly picky about what it infects but the fact that falling in battle against this thing would just add to the enemy's numbers wouldn't exactly be the easiest thing for them to learn. Watching your best friend die and the rise up against you would be something no-one should ever have to see.
Eventually, I was torn from my thoughts by the ringing of the ship's communication system. Someone was trying to get into contact with me. I walked over to the communication console. It was Doctor Halsey.
'What does she want?' I wondered as I accepted the call. 'I hope it's not to yell at me about the meeting with Ackerson. I explained to her why it was necessary to let him have the MJOLNIR data.'
She was angry, but it wasn't about the meeting.
"Where the hell are you?" she practically shouted over the connection. "Red Team is going to arrive soon to collect you. You need to be in your armour before they get here!"
I had forgotten. Today was the day I was due to be transferred to Red Team.
"Sorry, Doctor," I said. "I was distracted."
"Just get to the technicians," she snapped, and ended the connection. I sighed, and packed the few possessions I had. A spare uniform and some toiletries were tossed into a bag before I left my quarters, heading for the MJOLNIR storage room.
The MJOLNIR storage room was halfway across the ship. This gave me time to think about Halsey's reaction. I did not need to have her angry with me. She could easily report me to ONI and I would soon be nothing more than a memory. Hopefully, if our plan to safe the Spirit of Fire succeeds, she'd calm down.
As soon as I entered the room, I found the technicians leaning on the walls. If I had to guess, they had probably been waiting about an hour for me to arrive.
"Took your time, didn't you?" the lead technician sneered.
I glared at him. "Just get my armour on, I don't have time for your bullshit," I snapped.
"But you had enough time to take the long way." I did not like this guy. Hopefully I wouldn't ever see him again.
I cracked my knuckles loudly, and smiled as the tech's expression changed from one of contempt to fear. Another benefit of being a Spartan. It didn't take much to get annoying bastards like this guy to shut up.
I was running late so the technicians rushed putting my armour on. Normally assembling MJOLNIR took half an hour. Because I was late though, the technicians had it on me in about ten minutes. As soon as it was completed, I snatched my bag from the floor and rushed out of the room, running down the hallways towards the hangers. Five minutes later, I arrived. Halsey was there in the hanger, waiting to see me off. It looked like she had calmed down slightly since the call.
"You got here just in time," she said. "Red Team's Pelican is about to land."
I looked out of the shield door that prevented the air in the hanger from being sucked into the vast black expanse of space and saw the Pelican heading towards the ship. This was the last chance I would get to speak with Doctor Halsey until after returning from the Flood-infested Shield World, if I ever did.
"Doctor," I said. "If I don't return from this mission-"
"Don't worry too much about me. I'll be fine. You'll get back safely. I know it."
"You don't want to know if humanity survives the war?" I asked.
"No, knowing either way would not help. If humanity survives, then great. If not, then we'll make the Covenant regret the day they found humanity."
Her apparent lack of caring about humanity's fate concerned me. This was Doctor Catherine Halsey, the woman who, despite the SPARTAN-IIs being the strongest soldiers in the UNSC and the only thing that stood between humanity and extinction, always regretted starting the program. This apparent change of personality worried me. Before I could ask her about this, the Pelican landed and the troop bay opened up, revealing my new team-mates. Halsey turned to me and said, "Good luck," before turning and walking off out of the hanger. I sighed, picked up my bag and climbed into the Pelican.
"Good to see you again, 094," Jerome-092 said as I sat down in the troop bay.
"Likewise, sir," I responded. He hadn't changed. Still the by-the-books soldier that Spartans were expected to be. I really didn't like squad leaders like him. I preferred the ones who would take the time to become friends with the soldiers under their command. Of course, we were all Spartans. We had a bond greater than those of normal soldiers, but that was different to being friends.
Alice-130 gave a light smack to the side of his helmet. "Lighten up, boss," she chirped. "We got another Spartan!" That was one thing the Halo Wars never showed. The actual personalities of Red Team. Alice could be best described as the over-enthusiastic little sister. Not even the SPARTAN-II's intense training had been enough to batter it out of her. She'd was able to make anyone fighting alongside her cheerful, even if the battle was going to hell. That made her damn near impossible for her allies to hate. Fighting with her on your side was enough to keep anyone's morale from falling too far.
I smiled under my helmet. "Nice to see you too, Alice." Like I said, impossible to hate. I turned to the last member of the team, Douglas-042. "How's the war going for you, Dougie?" I could tell that he hated the nickname. This was mainly because I was the only one who used it. I still used it. It was still a fun hobby for me to annoy people. Douglas had a personality somewhere in between Jerome and Alice. He would take the time to joke around little during battles, but nowhere on the level of Alice.
He shrugged. "Could be better," he answered. "I heard that we're close to reclaiming Harvest, so that's got to be something to celebrate."
"Yes," Jerome said sarcastically. "Because retaking a practically destroyed planet is something to celebrate."
"It's got to be good for the civilian's morale though, right?" I asked.
"Yeah," Jerome said, "but it's the soldier's morale we need to keep up. If they lose that, we lose battles."
"You sound a bit angry, Jerome," I observed. "Anything happen?"
"You didn't hear?" Douglas asked. "Daisy died on Harvest not too long ago."
Daisy-023. Another Spartan down. She might have been the first now, because I had saved Sam from his death at Chi Ceti IV. I had found out that during training, Jerome had a possible romantic interest in her. Even with the implants the Spartans had that suppressed the hormones responsible for romantic interests, it would have hit Jerome hard.
We spent the rest of the flight in silence. What was there to say? A Spartan, a friend had died. It was hard for me to understand that. I had avoided getting too close to any of the Spartans, knowing that most of them would die had put me off any serious friendship with them. Eventually we arrived at the ship we would be stationed on, the UNSC Belfast. I knew that ship would be destroyed in the Battle of Arcadia. Thankfully Red Team would be fighting on the ground, and avoid destruction with the ship.
"Get to your quarters, then meet us on the bridge. The Captain wants to speak with the team," Jerome ordered.
I saluted. "Yes, sir." I said, and turned to walk away. I connected to the ship's network and downloaded the map of the ship to my HUD. On my way there I got many looks of awe from the crew. This early in the war, the existence of the SPARTAN-II Program hadn't been revealed to the majority of the UNSC military, so seeing a fully armoured Spartan was a frightening experience for most soldiers. I knew I'd get used to it eventually.
Once I arrived at my quarters, I tossed my bag containing my few possessions onto the bed and turned to head to the bridge to meet with the Captain. On my way to the bridge, I felt the now familiar shuddering of the ship that marked our entry into Slipspace. I arrived at the bridge just after the rest of Red Team, who had put their own bags in their own quarters. The Captain was a man who appeared to be in his early 50s. His dirty brown hair had some streaks of grey in it, no doubt cause by the war. My helmet's Friend or Foe tagging system identified him as Captain Gary Dixon.
He looked up as we entered the bridge. "Spartans," he muttered. "I'd heard some of the soldiers spreading rumours of some sort of super-soldiers, but I never really believed them." He spoke with a strong English accent, meaning he was either from England or a planet with a large population originally from there. He spoke a up letting us know that we were headed to Arcadia, before dismissing us.
Alice stretch and said, "Well, this is going to be a long journey. I'm off down to the cryo-bay. Anyone else interested?"
Jerome and Douglas decided they would head there for a quick cryo nap. I declined. "I've always hated cryo. I'll just stay out and get some extra training in."
Alice smiled and said, "Suit yourself." and the rest of the team turned to head to the cryo bay. I returned to my quarters and removed my armour. I was a lot easier to get the tech's to put it on or take it off, but I preferred doing it myself. I fell back onto my bed to take a quick rest.
This was going to be a long mission.
Expect any future chapters to be a bit longer as I'm starting to get into the events of the games.
Please review.
