tobiisagoodboy94 here. First, a big apology for beeing inactive for so long. Private problems and searching for a new place to live took some time. Problems are still not all solved, but I'll try my best to be faster next time. But enough private stuff, now have fun.


Halo

Colonial Wars

Chapter 6

Second time for fun on the Citadel

Marc and his team were recons, that's what they had trained and worked for, that's what they were supposed to do, so their current assignment felt like unjustified punishment. It had nothing to do with Liara, she was actually a very nice person, she mostly just followed them and didn't do or need much. She followed them to the Spirits training facilities and even participated on the shooting range, scoring good results with her pistol, which was nicknamed 'peashooter' by Häckin.

"Nice Liara, but still not even closely enough for a marksman badge." Mina teased Liara a little bit and the Asari decided to show her other abilities. She waved her hand, which started to emit a strange blue glow, at Mina and she suddenly stopped moving, frozen mid motion.

"This is called stasis, a biotic technique which makes it impossible for the target to move." She explained and then waved at Mina again, releasing her. Slightly dazed and a bit disorientated, the young woman needed a few moments before she replied

"Never do that again. Stasis tubes are worse enough." Liara just grinned at her and the remaining Recons decided that they had no desire to find out about the Asaris other biotic abilities, at least not as the target of those skills.

"Don't worry, I'll only use that to protect you guys. As long as you don't give me a reason to use it against you." For a moment the team was relieved, but Marc found something off setting about this.

"Protect us ? Where do you want to protect us ?" he asked and now Liara seemed a little bit flustered and she stuttered a little bit, as she replied.

"Well, you are supposed to protect me and you are combat unit, so I thought that we might get into combat, not that I want any combat, it's horrible." She realized that she should stop talking, since eight eyes were now looking at her and all of them were visibly confused.

"You are a civilian, a peashooter and biotics don't chance that. Our job is to keep you safe and to keep you company, as long as you are on board of a UNSC ship. I have no intention in brining you along, in case we have an actual recon or combat mission, Liara." Marc made his point clear, this was a point he would not give in, unless he was ordered by the Major or by Captain Cutter to do so.

"Of course, I understand, I'm sorry." Liara now mumbled and turned away heading for her quarter, while the team gave their leader a disapproving look.

"Really smooth lieutenant, we can be lucky if she leaves her room for the next six months." Daiki complained to Marc, as he and the others also packed their things together and left the shooting range.

"What was I supposed to say ?" Marc was puzzled by this, he had done nothing wrong and all he cared about was not having to drag a civilian through a combat zone.

Transition through the Relay went smooth, thankfully the Salarians had happily agreed to give the UNSC ships the upgrades necessary to use Relays, so the Spirits systems were not fried, as the small flotilla entered the Widow system. Well calling this place a system as a bit much, since there was nothing in it, except for the Citadel and the star.

Marcs team and Liara were on one of the training decks, as the human flotilla approached the massive space station, passing by the hundreds of warships protecting the station. Sadly for them, Spirit did not dock to the station, since even two dreadnought size docking spaces had not been enough for the ship, so any personal interested in going on "shore leave" had to use a Pelican. So, ten minutes later, Marc, his team and Liara were sitting in one of the dropships, which were now degraded to taxis.

The Asari was silent, her mood was still not good after Marcs lecture and she did not speak a word to the team and again, Marc earned some bad looks from his team, he would have to talk with her about this later. The ride to the station was quick, the Pelican was far faster and its flight far smoother than its clumsy looks would suggest.

The landing pad was already surrounded by journalists, as they left the ship, several cameras flashing and loud voices calling them. But they decided to ignore them and just made their way through the small crowd, earning several complaints from the reporters they pushed aside. Thankfully a few C-Sec officers were ready to stop the journalists, once they reached the security gate. Inside, the Marines expected problems, since they were completely armed, but the officers didn't seem to care, except for some mumbling about the 'primitiveness' of the weapons. Marcs experience with a battle rifle and turian body armor did say otherwise, but he would not start an argument over this. Still it seemed strange to them, that they would let thousands of soldiers roam the stations, with all of their weapons, somebody must had arranged this.

Once they were through, Marc had no idea what to do here, he had only been to a bar in the presidium, so what were they supposed to do here ?

For a few minutes, the small team stood in front of a map, which explained all the attractions and parts of the station and it was so much, that they had no idea what to do. So finally, after five minutes, Liara gave them some advice, breaking her silence.

" There are several bars in the Presidium. We could go there." The others agreed, since Marc had now remembered the Afterburn, which he remembered rather positively.

"I'm sorry Liara, if I sounded rude, but I'm a soldier and brining a civilian into a combat zone is simply out of question for me, this has nothing to do with you." Marc now apologized to Liara, as they entered the elevator, they were alone since the one before had only had room left for three.

"Don't worry. It's no problem, I was just a little bit surprised. Everything's alright." She smiled slightly at him and Marc returned the smile, before her smile turned into a grin and she said :

"Well, but paying me a drink is still necessary.". Both now started to laugh, still Liara was dead serious and they gained several, much saying looks from the rest of the team, once they left the elevator.

"Well, no Firepit, but still alright." Häckin commented, as they entered the Afterburn. The Firepit was the illegal bar some soldiers had opened in the Spirit of Fire, where they sold some really evil stuff, distilled out of fermented rations, the only positive side of this stuff was that it didn't make you blind and for some reason Marc was sure that Cutter was well aware of the pit.

The same bartender was still behind the counter of the Afterburn, but neither did he recognize Marc, nor did he seem to care much about seeing humans in his bar. Marc ordered five black beers for his group and it tasted as good and strong as he remembered it. In difference to last time, only a few people seemed to be surprised to see them, Marc had heard that Marines from the embassy came here sometimes.

"Humans normally don't drink black beer, you're the first human who ordered it in the last 4 years." The barkeeper asked, as Marc took another sip and then replied with grin.

"Well, I was one of them who ordered it back then." For a moment the Batarian looked at him, all of his four eyes open in surprise, then he started to laugh and reached out to pat Marc on the shoulder, saying

"You're that kiddo who accompanied Staff Sergeant Johnson back then, seems like you got promoted." Marc kept on smiling, while the others just looked at him in surprise.

"You never heard about this ? Staff Sergeant Johnson, the legend who broke the arm of a turian marine while arm-wrestling, won against an Asari Commando and scored a tie against a freaking Krogan. He's a legend here." The barkeeper explained loudly and several other guest started to mumble, while Marc became slightly uncomfortable, as all eyes now seemed to rest on him.

"Yeah, the Staff Sergeant is great, but sadly I haven't seen him since then." Marc mumbled, as the barkeeper gave him another drink, on the house this time.

Thankfully, there were no problems with alien soldiers this time, the few turian marines present simply ignored them and the other guest were civilians not really caring. Problems between humans and aliens had actually changed a lot, since Marcs last time on the Citadel. While Turians and Humans had had problems in the beginning, this had mostly changed, since turian and human marines actually came along very well, once they didn't point guns at each other. Salarians, as long as they were not STG, had never had any problems with humans, the new problematic relationship was that with the Asari. Many Asari leader blamed humanity for the changed political and economic climate, for the massive increase in military spending and the destruction of their 'peaceful era'.

Because of that, most Asari businesses and Hanar and Elcor were at least skeptical about humanity, thankfully this wasn't the case with Liara, at least she hadn't shown any disapproval of humans.

After some time, they left the bar again, heading for a café Liara had suggested, since they were all starving. Luckily, the Volus and UEG had established an exchange rate between Citadel and UN Credits, so their bank accounts were actually worth something.

"Human, let me tell you about our prothean lords." A Hanar preacher approached the group, as they were having lunch, but was ignored by everybody, they all knew religious preachers all too well.

"Let me tell you how our prothean lords will bring humanity back to the righteous path, away from their wars and into the embrace of peace." The 'jelly-fish' went on, now starting to unnerve the group, so Daiki replied.

"Please, miss," Liara had thankfully signaled him that he was talking to a she, " We are trying to have a peaceful meal and none of us is interested in your religion. Could you please try to convert somebody who is not busy ?" for a moment the Hanar looked at her, obviously surprised, before she turned away and after a few seconds started to rant about the mistakes and horrible end that would reach humanity, if they didn't change their ways.

"Are there many of these people here ?" Häckin asked after a few minutes and Liara shook her head in response " No, most people respect the culture and religion of other species, but there are always those who don't". Thankfully the Hanar stayed their only unwanted visitor, but only a few minutes later they got more company, but this time it was far more pleasant.

An ODST, in full armor and with a closed visor approached them, in a casual matter and it took them a moment to notice that the man was heading for them.

"Can we help you comrade ? Lost your unit, helljumper ?" Marc asked, but the soldier only laughed and then replied "No farm boy, just wanted to see what you and your squad are doing." His voice was slightly distorted by the helmet, but Marc still recognized his old friends voice.

"John, you god dam crazy asshole." Marc jumped up and slightly hugged his old friend, how directly teased in return "Bradley, you could have wrote me something if you missed me that much, I can feel you friend down there pocking me ." but Marc only laughed and replied with a short 'Fuck you' before he turned back his team and introduced Shepard.

"This is 2nd lieutenant John Shepard, an old friend from my academy days and the most infamous ladies man I ever knew." Shepard was clearly not happy about Marcs last word, but while the Recon knew that both Mina and Liara could take care of themselves, he just wanted to make sure.

"Nice to meet you John." Liara was the first to also greet Shepard and after a few more greetings, Marc could finally ask the question he was burning for.

"Did they station you in the embassy ? Or were you unlucky enough to end up in this little flotilla ?" Shepard only grinned about this question, as he sat down and answered.

"I'm stationed on the Hammerhead. Got two whole companies stationed on that monster, but I'm not the only one here. Jane got the command over one of the frigates and Lasky is a bridge officer on the Spirit." For a moment Marc was euphoric, having one of his old friends on the Spirit was great but then he started to wonder : Why hadn't he seen Lasky on the bridge ?

"But Lasky, that idiot got sick after a few days on the ship and is still sitting in the med bay, with diarrhea from hell." Yep, that explained everything. Marc had not been able to keep up with his friends, since he had come to Reach and started training. In the Recon training facilities, the trainees had no possibilities to use Mil-net or any other form of communication and during his time in 'purgatory', administrative cluster-fuck had prevented him from any communication outside the city.

All he had been able to do was sending a message back home to Harvest, after he had come to the Spirit, so he had had no idea where his friends had been stationed and what they were doing.

"It's been the same with me," Shepard said, after Marc had explained the situation and why they hadn't heard of each other " during ODST training communication with the outside world was very limited, but once I was done, Lasky gave me an upgrade about the situation. My sister is now a lieutenant-commander and has her own bucket and Sam and his wife are both stationed in an army garrison on Sigma Octanus." "Wife ?!" Marc nearly chocked on his drink after the news about Sam and May, he knew that they had stayed a couple after the academy, but he had never expected them to be this serious, considering they were both only 21.

"Yeah, married couples get a special treatment, so Sammie and his sweetheart wasted no time. They now happily live in their slightly larger cabin on Sigma Octanus and each of them commands a platoon." Shepard went on, while everybody laughed about Marc, who was still struggling to breath. Still, Marc was incredibly happy that Shepard was also in the flotilla, at least during shore leave like today he could be with his old friend, maybe they could even get Lasky with them, once he wasn't shitting out his soul anymore.

But, there was a little doubt in the back of his mind, something was strange here. This was supposed to be a prestigious deployment, a multi-species maneuver meant to improve cooperation between the Citadel and the UNSC, a way to increase humanities prestige. So why? Why did seem, like there were so many young and unexperienced soldiers present? Even Jane was just 30 and one of the youngest ship captain in history, why would they risk embarrassment through such young officers?

But for now Marc didn't really care about this, his mood was good and he wouldn't ruin it with these ideas. After a few more minutes, several of Shepards ODST comrades joined them, ODSTs and Marines were literally the only ones in the UNSC getting along, so the atmosphere was relaxed and the Recons were pretty annoyed, as they received a priority message from Cutter. They and Liara were supposed to come to C-Sec headquarter, some sort of important appointment they had to attend.

They excused themselves, but not before Shepard put Marc aside for a moment and asked "So Mina or Liara, which of them is your type buddy ? We still got to make a man out of you.". Marc was slightly annoyed by this, but he also knew his old friend "Not interested. And I was already a man before I went to the academy, but it ended with my car on fire."

They now left, the way to C-Sec was not that far away, but again it took a ride in the ridiculous slow elevators, hell a ride in freaking orbital elevator took only a little bit longer than these things. A few asari officer looked at them bewildered as they entered the large attic, where they were directly greeted by major Hennson, who was accompanied by two turians. Marc and his squad saluted the officer, who told them to relax and then introduced them to the Turians.

"Lieutenant, these are the Specters Nihlus Kryik and Spectre Garrus Vakarrian." Marc and his greeted the Turians, who seemed at least neutral towards the human soldiers.

"Now, that everybody is present, we can finally start." Nihlus now started, while the Recons and Liara were still confused about the situation. " By Captain Cutters recommendation, Specter Garrus Vakarian will accompany Recon team Sierra for the duration of the maneuvers, to deepen and improve relations between the Specters and the UNSC. During this time he will be under Captain Cutters command and will act as a member of Recon team Sierra, as a commanding officer, equal to 2nd lieutenant Bradley." Alright, now that was something that nearly caused Marc to protest, maneuver and cooperation was good and nice, but he was supposed to share command over three soldiers with that Turian ? Was he supposed to be an alien babysitter ? First Liara and now that Garrus. But he was able to hold that back and kept himself under control, only nodding and agreeing to what both Nihlus and Hennson had to say, he was too low in the food chain to argue.

Marc was not good at reading turian facial expressions, but he could tell that Garrus was not too happy about this situation, something that made him very sympathetic.

"Alright lieutenant, you might want to show the Spirit to our visitor, I still have something to discuss with the Specters, so you and your team are dismissed." Great, so much for his shore leave on the Citadel, but well order was order, so Marc and his team, now six people all in all, made their way to the nearest hangar bay, while Marc radioed in a taxi.

"You don't have to come back to Spirit with us, Liara. We'll only show our new friend his cabin, tell the Captain about it and take the next taxi back to the station." Marc offered to the Asari, but she only shock her head, she was supposed to accompany them and she was eager to find out as much as she could about humanity and its customs.

Garrus didn't talk much, just a few short answers to trivial questions, which didn't change when they entered there 'taxi'. This was dumb, they would now fly back to the Spirit, a trip which would take nearly an hour, then they would go to the captain and even though Cutter surely already knew about Vakarrian, they would introduce him. Then they would show him his quarter and then, then they would fly back to the Citadel, to enjoy what was left of their shore leave.

Garrus stayed silent while they entered the Spirit and only replied with a few words as the Captain greeted him, while Marc scanned the bridge for Lasky, but it seemed like he was still sick. Finally, Garrus broke his silence as they entered the turians new cabin, which was, seems like somebody wanted to make Marc go nuts, right next to Liaras cabin, which was directly next to Marcs.

Was somebody trying to set him up, to start fraternizing with the aliens ?

"Let me be honest to you, lieutenant." Garrus said, as he inspected the surely not turian-fitting bed "I'm a very new Specter, I'm still a trainee, to be honest. Councilor Tevos used her influence to send me here, it's supposed to be an insult against you, you come here for cooperation and we send the youngest Specter available." Well, seemed like the UNSC wasn't the only one sending their youngest to this maneuver.

"Thank you, Specter Vakarrian. Like you could guess, I'm also a rather young, just finished my training a few weeks ago, to be honest. Let's just try to do our jobs and not shoot the doctor by accident." Marc now offered his hand to the Turian, who took and showed what could count as a turian smile, before replying.

"I think we will get along, lieutenant. And please, it's Garrus, that will make things far easier."

"Well, then I am Marc for you. We still got a few hours until our taxi flies back to the Citadel. Want to do a few rounds on the shooting range ?" Now Garrus smiled, off that Marc was sure and the Turian replied

"Well, it won't be a problem to be better than you, considering how ancient your guns are." Alright, now it was on, Marc had to kick this Turians but, nobody would insult his beloved Ellie. Yes, Marc calls his battle rifle Ellie and the name of his pistol is Maggie.

The shooting range on the Spirit was about 150 meters long, so the targets were 100 meters away, normal human torsos, maximum point for hits on the heart and forehead.

Three hours and over one thousand rounds of ammo later, Marc had to admit defeat, close but it in the end he lost 25 to 28, well at least he wouldn't have to pay him a drink on the Spirit.

"Didn't you say something about returning to the Citadel ? This ship sure is immense but I wouldn't want to spend my shore leave here." Garrus asked, after they had finished cleaning their weapons and Marc agreed, as great as this ship was, shore leave was meant to be spend away from it.

"Yeah, but I'd like to pay a short visit to the med bay first, you'll find the way back to the hangar yourself, right ?" the Turian didn't seem to like this idea, but Marc didn't give him a chance to object, since he had already left the shooting range and was on his way.

"Great, still got no map of the ship on my Omni-tool, can't be that hard." Garrus mumbled, it was just one and half kilometers to the hangar, after all.

Marc on the other hand only needed five minutes to reach the med bay, thankfully Lasky didn't have anything contagious, so it was possible to visit him, even unannounced. "Ensign Thomas J. Lasky, are you faking sickness to avoid duty again ?" Lasky nearly got an hearth attack, he had had been half asleep and listening to music and as Marc hammered on his back from behind, hw threw his music player at Marc. The Marine dodged the projectile, which hit the wall behind him and shattered. "Well, must have been a really bad playlist Lasky, poor little thing.".

It took Lasky until now, to realize that it was actually Marc, who stood in front of him, but now he laughed and shook his friends hand, happily. "Shepard told me that you are on the Spirit, too. But I thought you were on that alien station for the next few days, already sick of sexy, blue alien chicks ?" Marc also grinned, of course, even after he had gotten a girlfriend back then, Lasky had always had had a "fascination" for Asari. "Yeah, I was on the Citadel, but I was send back to the Spirit to introduce one of our new passengers to the Captain. We now got a Turian and a Asari on board and me and my team are supposed to take care of them." Yes this sentence had the effect Marc had expected, now Lasky wanted to know every minor detail about Liara and even tried to talk down one of the nurses, to get out of the med bay, which failed.

"You got to get her to the bridge, once I'm out of here. I can't wait to see an actual, live Asari." Lasky now seemed a little bit desperate, like a school boy hoping to find his fathers porn collection.

"We both know that you already saw more than enough Asari 'videos', buddy. It was nice seeing you again, but I got to get back to the Citadel now. We got to get a drink in the Firepit later." Marc now left again, as a nurse handed Lasky the sorry remains of his music player, now it would get even more boring.

The detour had taken him an hour in total, so he was surprised that Garrus wasn't already waiting for him at the Pelican and the Crew chief had not seen the Turian either. In the end it took two hours and half a company of Marines to find Garrus, since asking Serina for help was out of question, she would sell them out to the Captain. When they found the Turian, he had already walked over six kilometers and was still nowhere near to the hangar.

"This stays between us and the others, right ?" Garrus asked, as their Pelican finally left for the Citadel again, but all Marc could do was shrugging his shoulders, a story like this always spread around the ship like a wildfire. It was already getting late, there were no days or nights on a ship or even on the Citadel, but Marc was already on his feet for over sixteen hours and it slowly started to show. Thankfully the ride to the Citadel was smooth, so he could take a short nap, but Garrus seemed slightly traumatized after that, commenting on the noises the human did in his sleep.

" Thank god that we Turians don't have noses like you or the Asari." Marc was still a little bit groggy, so he needed a moment to realize what the alien meant and to answer "Well, I may make horrible sounds in my sleep, but at least I look good, in difference to others present here."

Garrus laughed about this, yes by human standards Turians were not a sight to behold, not that the Turians thought different about humans, every species believed themselves to be the most attractive, well except for the Asari, for some reason everybody likes the Asari.

This time the landing pad on the Citadel was far more quiet, no reporter wanted to annoy them and Garrus Spectre rank made entering far more easy. They quickly made their way to the place, where they would meet the others, the rest of the teams and Liara were relaxing in the Presidium, not Garrus or Marcs favorite place on the Citadel, but well, could be worse. But, when they reached the place, they had to admit that it was rather peaceful, a slightly remote balcony with several benches and tables on it, no bar or café, just a place to relax.

"Lt, are you finally done introducing our new guest to the ship ? " Häcking greeted them, before Garrus introduced himself. "I would appreciate it, if we could drop formalities right from the start, we'll have to get along for the next few months, so I'm Garrus." Garrus was probably one of the only people who could sound formal, while he told people to not be formal, but the others ignored this little fact for now and greeted the Turian. The soldiers could decide if they wanted to stay in one of the C-Sec barracks during their shore leave, since constant traveling between the Spirit and the station was simply too expensive. So, after a few more hours of talking and relaxing, it was time to call it a day. Human soldiers had to use Asari quarters, which were, thanks to similarities between the two species, comfortable for them. The next few days were peaceful, thankfully, the higher ranks were still busy organizing the last parts of the planned maneuvers, so the soldiers could relax and enjoy the pleasures of the Citadel, some more than others. Marc and his team still mostly enjoyed the fact that they could eat something else than Moa, after one year of Moa diet, it had taken them weeks, until everything stopped tasting like these good dam birds.

"So, let me get that straight. ODSTs volunteer to get fired onto planets, in small metal cans and are proud of this fact ? Are you sure that these guys are not lobotomized during their first day of training ? No sentient being with any will to life would ever do something that stupid." Garrus asked, the idea of an ODST was still crazy to him and most other aliens they meet.

"Can't tell you for sure that you that they're not lobotomized, Shepard was never the brightest light bulb, so it's hard to notice if anything changed after his training." The others laughed about this comment, Lasky, who had finally stopped shitting waterfalls, was also with them and could agree that Shepards self-sustaining drive had never been this strong to begin with. Thankfully Lasky obsession with the Asari had lessened a little after he got to know Liara, although he still looked at her slightly strange from time to time. But he mostly behaved otherwise, so Liara only felt a little bit flattered by this, she was still very young by Asari standards and not used to getting this kind of attention. Sadly for them, this meeting was interrupted by a priority message from the ship, Cutter had ordered all personal back to the ship, it was time to start the maneuver.

"Well, couldn't last forever." Daiki said, as they made their way back to the landing pad, where a pelican was already waiting for them. It had been a nice time on the station, but this was not the reason they were here, most of them were soldiers and they would, for the next few months, do what soldiers did best, fight and kill, even if just simulated.

"Are you still sure that you want to accompany us, Liara ? Maneuvers are pretty boring, especially fleet maneuvers, nothing for an archaeologist like you." Marc offered to the young Asari, but she rejected the notion, she had volunteered for this after all.

"Oh, I think this is will be very interesting for me."

Chapter 6

End


Codex entry #1023948910

Military strength in comparison :

Over the last five years, the military balance of power within Citadel space has massively changed. First, with the appearance of humanity on the galactic stage, the previously existing balance of power has been destroyed, humanities massive amount of dreadnought sized warships has weakend the Treaty of Farix to the point where it is nearly useless.

Additionally, both the Turians and the Salarians have massively increased their military spending, constructing hundreds of new warships, while the Asari have ignored any calls for military build up in the last years.

Today, in the year 2531, the Asari Republics fleet is considered the weakest, even below that of the UNSC, they have not build any dreadnoughts in the last five years and have not kept pace with the massive improvements the other races have made to their ships.

The UNSC/UEG is considered the third largest military power today, its fleet slightly smaller than that of the Asari, but with many times more dreadnoughts and carriers.

The Salarian Union comes in second, having the second largest and by now most advanced fleet, but the large investments into upgrades and tech still slows their numerical build up.

The Turian Hierachy is the undisputed military superpower in Citadel space, their fleet is more than twice the size of the Salarians and their army has more manpower than all other three great powers combined. But, the Turians face one problem, their incredible build up has left their economy dangerously close to collapse and even with Volus support, many doubt how long the Turians could keep up their forces, without risking an economic breakdown.


Authors note:

Alright Chapter 6 done, finally stuff will start to get done next chapter. Yes until now mostly build up and character introduction, but the story will start to develope with the next chapters. Most important characters are in place and some more will join over the course of the story.

Again thanks for every review and every view.

tobiisagoodboy94 out.