A/N: I'm back, bitches! Muse had kicked me in the teeth for a long time and also I was wholly absorbed in roleplaying, but I have finally crafted a new chapter! This one is a bit longer to make up for my semi-hiatus c':
I hope y'all enjoy!
In-system above Capella, Alpha Aurigae system, June 2nd, 2553
"So, what was that about us being the greatest heroes of the galaxy and deserving some R&R?" Emile questioned, scraping his knife along another edge of his armour. Putting scratches on the MJOLNIR himself was probably his favourite pastime, aside from spilling Covenant blood.
"Hey, when the galaxy needs our help, we go save it. Then we have some R&R when they don't need us." Artemis retorted with a shake of her head.
"She's right, you know." Jorge pointed out, to which Emile rolled his eyes; though the others couldn't see it, his head also rolled with the motion and they knew.
NOBLE Team were currently sitting in the troop bay of a D77-TC dropship – more commonly known as a "Pelican" – and waiting to be deployed to the surface of Capella, an Outer Colony in the Alpha Aurigae system that had recently come under attack by the Covenant – or, more rather, the Covenant that still upheld the original ideals, and now went under the name of the Storm Covenant. The biggest branch of it did anyway; there were other, smaller Covenant-ideal factions, going under their own names, but the major problem was the Storm Covenant, because they were the strongest in number and arsenal, and were the ones most desperately trying to reform the Covenant.
Apparently they'd been the only UNSC forces close enough to hear about – and attend to – the matter. Which was good for them – meant that ONI wasn't about and there were less chances of them being found out and sent to who-knows-where, or retired. Or worse.
"Nah, man, you think I didn't know that already? I was just heckling her about what she'd said to me the other week. Because I can." the assault specialist rebutted, admiring his handiwork briefly before sliding the kukri back into its sheath on his shoulder pauldron.
The aforementioned SPARTAN scoffed, wagging her head. "It was conjecture. Besides, how was I supposed to know that we were gonna go into battle not long after I said that? I'm not fucking psychic if that's what you're thinkin'."
"Enough," Carter barked sternly, his electric blue eyes sharp and piercing daggers into the pair of bickering soldiers.
"You scared, Commander?" Emile sounded more teasing than taunting, his own green eyes gleaming with amusement.
"No. I just can't think with the constant - ... chatter. Too hard to hear my own damn thoughts. I'm working on the best plan of attack here, and you two aren't helping matters. That sort of thing can be discussed on the way back to the Stalwart. Which means you can zip it." When the assault specialist opened his mouth to argue, the leader narrowed his eyes, and added, "That's an order."
Emile huffed in annoyance and set his jaw, glancing away, and Artemis rolled her eyes, slipping her Grenadier UA helmet over her head. She had to bite her tongue to keep from telling him that he talked too much; she wanted to have the last word in, but she wasn't planning on getting in trouble. Thus, she kept quiet and tapped a rhythm on her knee instead. Better to distract herself than to cause the team any issues that weren't supposed to arise right before a battle.
However, she did open up the text system on her HUD, and shot off a message to the Warrant Officer once he put his own EVA [C] helmet on.
A: You do talk too much.
E: I hate you.
A: Naw, no way you could. You like my knife skills too much.
E: I'll give you that one.
Artemis snickered quietly as Emile conceded defeat, and she glanced at Kat seated beside her, who, as ever, was calm and composed, doing who-knows-what with her personal data pad. "Penny for your thoughts, Sister?" she queried, nudging the blue-armoured SPARTAN in the side of her armour.
"Hm?" Bright blue eyes glanced over to her in questioning, the cryptanalyst swiping a lock of dark chocolate brown hair out of her eyes. "Oh, I'm just tapping into the satellite feeds to see what we've got ahead of us. So far it's fairly quiet, which is surprising, since most of the time, the Covenant are nothing but loud."
"Weird. Maybe whoever's running this particular faction is doing things differently. I mean it is one of them hinge-heads, right? That's what you found out, isn't it?"
"One of the more troublesome Elites, yes. Very high-ranking, if the chatter I've heard is correct, and very dangerous."
"Why can't all the noodles be good guys?" Artemis muttered, and she swore black and blue she heard Emile huff a laugh.
E: Nice one, kid.
A: I take pride in my work. And I learned from the best.
E: I'm impressed. You know how to give credit where it's due.
C: I told you to be quiet.
E: DUDE! Don't spy on the text channel just to tell me off. Not cool.
C: Don't care. You were given an order: zip it, which means no talking through the text channel either.
The lone wolf and assault specialist shared a discreet glance – even though both wore their helmets, she knew he was looking at her – and switched to a different text channel to continue their conversation. Yeah, they were going behind their leader's back. But neither cared at this point in time – they wanted to relax away the pre-mission jitters, and this was how they were going about it.
E: Ugh. Pain in my ass.
A: Careful. He'll kick your ass for that.
C: I can still see what you're saying.
E: GAH! What the hell! We switched channels.
C: Muahahahaha.
"The fuck?" the assault specialist exclaimed aloud, shaking his head in disbelief. "Did you seriously just ... you typed an evil laugh? What the hell?!"
Artemis heard quiet huffs of laughter from Jun and Jorge, who were quite evidently amusing themselves by listening to the conversation, and reading over the text channel. For them, this was too good. The lone wolf had to admit...this wasn't what she'd ever expected when she'd been assigned to NOBLE Team. Sure, she hadn't known what to expect, but certainly not...this. This looseness...the casual manner with which they all interacted with one another...the banter, merciless teasing, and bad jokes.
It felt like home.
"You damn right I just did that." Carter folded his arms across his chest, looking rather proud of his little trick. Almost immediately Artemis understood what he was getting at – he wanted to startle Emile into being quiet.
What a smartass.
"I – you – evil laugh – cannot compute!" The assault specialist threw his arms up in frustration, shaking his head again. He said nothing more – and thus it was that Carter's neat trick had worked.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Emile muttered a good twenty minutes later, when their Pelican was in position above their designated drop point – some seventy-five feet in the air – and the SPARTANs rose, prepping to jump out of the tail once the ramp opened.
"Don't we all?" Artemis murmured in agreement, bumping her shoulder against his. The pair of them was disturbed about having to make the jump. Sure, the rest of the team were with them, and the dropship wasn't on fire, and all that, but...that didn't make either of them any less nervous. Not really, anyway. Trauma did that to a person – even a hardened soldier like a SPARTAN-III.
"Nobody's crashing any dropships this time. Just jump and head to the NAV point. Nothing we haven't done numerous times before." the Commander stated firmly, glancing at both younger SPARTANs before diving out the tail once it was open.
Kat and Jun calmly followed without fuss; Jorge stopped just before the edge, hesitating. "I really don't know if I should be doing this."
"Don't think any of us should be "doing this". But as the sayin' goes: what you gotta do, you gotta do." Emile stepped to the edge, balancing with his arms out in a T-pose, and allowed himself to fall. Even though that wasn't the correct way to go about jumping out of a dropship, he gave zero fucks about things like that and did it his own way.
"He's right, y'know. You're not the only one nervous about this, big guy." Artemis stated sympathetically, patting Jorge on the chestplate. "Sometimes, though, you just have to do things that you don't think you can. Man up ... or, no...Spartan up and jump. It's not so bad once you're in freefall. Kinda fun." She bit back a grin, and added, "Try not to scream with fear on the way down, 'cause the others will give you flak if you do."
"Here goes nothing?" Jorge stated, but it came out as more of a question, and Artemis couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her, before giving him an encouraging nod.
"Go kick ass. I'll be right behind you." she assured him, and he heaved a sigh, nodding to himself, and plunged out of the rear of the dropship to join those probably already on the ground.
Poor guy she sympathized mentally, rolling her shoulders before leaping out into the sky.
Six armoured figures dropped out of the sky, and some of the Marines cheered upon recognizing the newcomers as Spartans. Living legends walked among them; they had a chance, now, to turn the tides to their favour.
Safe to say, until the Spartans had showed up, things weren't going very well. The Storm Covenant was wiping the floor with the Marines; already, the numbers of the humans had dwindled down to half the amount they had started with. It didn't help that morale wasn't very high; they hadn't had much hope to start with, and them losing so many of their men didn't help in that regard. Good men had paid the price, and the Covie bastards were closing in on their destination – a heavily populated city, which had not been able to be evacuated before the aliens had arrived; they couldn't leave now, either, because of the amount of vessels in-system. The fact that the Spartans' Pelican had made it in atmosphere undetected was a lucky break.
The morale on the aliens' side changed to drop down rapidly the moment they spotted the contingent of demons. Some of the lesser-ranked Grunts threw up their stubby arms and panicked; a few of the Minor Elites grew frustrated; even the couple of Jackals that were there became upset over the fact that, once again, their comrades were breaking ranks and fleeing.
That was all the better for the UNSC forces.
Noble rallied the troops around them, gave them new orders – Carter was the highest-ranked out of everyone remaining – and sent them into the fray with a fresh boost of morale. The Spartans charged right in alongside the Marines, protecting them from the Elites that strafed and dodged most of their attacks, while the Marines took on the Grunts and Jackals. The tides were finally changing to humanity's favour.
Artemis dropped a hinge-head with a burst of rounds from her MA37, before rolling to one side to avoid an overcharged plasma bolt from a Grunt that would have drained her shields. Kat took the little bastard down with a pinpoint headshot from her M6G, and turned to the Lieutenant to say something, when a pain-filled scream filled the COMM, causing both Spartans to jerk in surprise.
The steady chattering of Etilka stopped, and Jorge turned to his fellows in confusion. "What the hell was that?"
"Emile. I'd recognize that voice anywhere." Artemis breathed. It sounded like he was in bad trouble. She loaded a fresh clip into her rifle, and as she did, she gestured at Jorge and Kat to stay there. "I'll see what he's up to. If the Commander asks, just tell him." Without expecting a response, she turned on her heel and ran off, activating her Sprint Module to get there faster.
"Kid's gonna get herself in trouble." the Chief Warrant Officer rumbled with a shake of his head, backing up a few paces as Etilka spooled up before spraying the remaining Grunts with 12.7mm rounds. The bastards that were closest wound up torn to pieces; some of them tripped over their fallen comrades and were also taken down, while the rest tried to flee. Of course, the ones that absconded were picked off by Kat, and soon none of the stubby-limbed creatures were left.
Kat's visor depolarized, and she looked to the older Spartan with a smirk. "She's always been a handful. But, that's the way she gets things done. I've never met a Spartan as efficient as her, even if it means she gets in trouble." She pilfered a few plasma grenades, pocketing them into her armour, and continued talking. "She just wants to do the right thing. Always has, right from the very first. In fact, that's how we became friends. She saw I was in trouble and kicked three boys' asses to help me out. She was so small back then, but she had an attitude, and she had heart."
"Die, you bastard!" Emile growled in frustration, punching the squid-lip in the chest. Damn if the creature didn't laugh at him in its native tongue, before hauling him into the air by the backplate of his armour. The assault specialist wasn't happy. His right arm hurt like hell after the alien had yanked his shoulder from his socket before all but crushing it, and he could scarcely feel his fingers. And now, he thought he was going to die. What a fun way to go.
Until the other hinge-heads around him started dropping like flies, neat holes punched in the backs of their heads, or in their throats. Somebody was taking them out neatly with a DMR. Somebody in steel and teal armour, who was stabbing the unaware squid-lip that held him hostage in the back with her Energy Sword.
The Warrant Officer dropped to the ground the moment his assailant did, clutching his arm and gritting his teeth as he swallowed back a wave of pain. His rescuer helped him to his feet, shot the squid-lip point blank in the head, and walked with him back to where the rest of the team were regrouping after the last remaining Covies had been killed.
"What happened?" Carter questioned, glancing over his shoulder as he directed the Marines into the back of the Pelican the Spartans had arrived in. The dropship would come back for them later – the Marines had lost their dropship when the Covenant shot it out of the sky.
"Damn alligator yanked my arm out of its socket before just about crushing my shoulder into dust." Emile muttered, irritation bleeding into his tone. "The bastard caught me by surprise. I was trying to cut down another one except it kept dancing out of reach." He grunted and seated himself on a rock, clutching his damaged arm as best he could without causing himself more pain, and looked up towards the sky. "Thanks for savin' my ass, Eltee."
Artemis snorted at the nickname, deftly spinning her combat knife in her fingers. "That's what family's for, uh? But you're welcome regardless."
Half a day later, they were back at home base – well, if one could call a UNSC frigate sitting on a plateau on a planet previously attacked by the Covenant home base – and Emile was resting up with his damaged arm in a sling after it had been fixed up by the medics aboard the Stalwart Dawn.
Artemis was resting with the Warrant Officer, keeping him entertained by showing off what few knife skills she had. He was impressed, and improved her technique by giving her pointers on where she could do better, and what she was doing wrong. It was a good bonding session. The Spartans felt themselves drawing closer to one another, which was nice – the Lieutenant didn't exactly think she would get along well with someone the likes of Emile, but she was. It helped that they had an affinity for knives as a thing in common.
Until their good mood was dashed by Carter interrupting with the kind of patient expression that betrayed the fact that he was going to have to deliver bad news – in private. Emile waved away her apology, but that didn't stop the pang of guilt Artemis felt, as well as the hot flush and prickling skin that she always got whenever she knew she was about to hear something that really wasn't good at all. She just... sensed it coming. She followed the Commander out of the room, fidgeting her hands behind her back, silent, observing the apprehension bleeding from the other Spartan's posture and general attitude in the way he walked.
Her fellow gestured for her to sit on the couch when they reached what they had deemed the Spartans' lounge area of the frigate. The Lieutenant perched on the edge, hands clutching at the material of the furniture in nervousness. She fought back a wave of no bad this is going to be bad you will not like this and looked up at the Commander with a questioning gaze.
"Six... Artemis." The older Spartan's gaze drifted elsewhere, and he rubbed his jawline in thought. "I don't really know how to break this to you, but..." He blew out a whoosh of air, electric blue eyes locking onto her sea-coloured orbs. "You're not going to like it. As much as you have to hear it."
The redhead felt a spot of discomfort uncurling in her stomach, and she clenched her hands into fists, holding his gaze. Just be brave. You're a Spartan and one of the best. It's nothing you can't handle. As much as Carter seems to be uncomfortable telling you this. She lifted her chin in a faint nod, forcing herself to relax. To brace herself for whatever her Commander – teammate and friend – had to tell her. She knew it was about her, that much was for damn sure. Else why would he have told her away from the others?
"Kat was going through your files again... and... well." Carter cleared his throat, shifted, and plunged on, "You know of Spartan-117 – the Master Chief – don't you?"
The Lieutenant nodded again, pressing her lips into a line. Of course she knew of him – who among their kind didn't? He'd done a lot for the galaxy, with and without his fellows of Blue Team. But what did this have to do with her? It didn't add up.
The older Spartan licked his lips and shook his head. "You're... you're a clone of him, Artemis. The Office of Naval Intelligence took his DNA, his blood, mixed it in with a bit of other DNA, and made you. There were apparently a few others before you, but they failed. When they made you, ONI found you to be the most perfectly viable candidate. They wanted someone to take out the Master Chief if he ever went rogue and replace him, or replace him if he died, and, well... they made you."
Artemis' blood turned to ice. She froze, her teammate's words ringing in her ears, her head reeling. She felt like she was going to pass out; her vision went blurry, though her eyes were focused on a spot in the distance somewhere beyond Carter. She wasn't even wholly aware of the other Spartan calling her name, gently shaking her by the shoulders and trying to grab her attention. She was just... completely oblivious to it all. She felt numb. Hot and cold all at once. How could it be real?
Something snapped her out of it, and she blinked, shuddered, and locked eyes with Carter once more. "...How?" she breathed out, "...I'm... I'm not real... I can't believe..."
"Hey. Don't say that." Carter's expression was fierce. "You're one of us. You are and always will be. You've damn well earned your place alongside us. And damn if that doesn't make you real. Because you are to all of us. To Kat, who looks at you like you're her little sister. To Jorge, who is honoured to fight alongside you and call you kin. To Emile, who looks up to you, and who admires your fierceness in combat. To Jun, who is impressed by your skills of stealth, and finds your stories of sneaking around and taking out entire groups of rebels to be some of the best and most entertaining he's ever heard. And to me. You saved my life, kid. I thought I was a goner but you stayed and waited on a hunch. You didn't let me down. That's what makes you real. You've got a good heart, Artemis. And yeah, you had a hard time with ONI. But we won't let that happen again – all of us will protect one another. I promise you this."
The redhead's eyes burned, and she tore her gaze away. "You say that, and yet you know what I am. A copy. A fake." Her voice shook and was taut with emotions. "You know that I've killed innocent people because ONI wanted no witnesses. You know that I'm a monster."
"That's bullshit if ever I heard it." the Commander barked out, and his features contorted into a frown. "Those thoughts in your head? That's just what ONI did to you. You saved all our lives when you could have continued to fight for humanity. You nearly died yourself after fighting so long and hard to keep the rest of us safe. If that doesn't make you anything but a monster, then call me a liar because that's about the damn most human thing I've ever seen a Spartan do. None of us have been able to run back and save our fellows. But you did. Because you care about us."
Artemis trembled and still she kept her gaze elsewhere. She heard the honesty in her tone, heard the fierce defensiveness, and yet she just couldn't bring herself to believe him. How could she? He'd read her file – all of it – and he knew what she had done. Who she had killed. He knew that she was only a copy – and of a missing-in-action legend at that. How could she even think she could amount to anything? Her brother, the man she was based off... he had set the bar so high. How could anyone come even close to doing what he had done? And yet...
"I'm scared," she whispered, "That I'm not going to be good enough. And I... I fear failing people. That's always been my greatest failure. That's half of why I was terrified of losing you guys; that's why I fought so hard to save you all. Because ONI beat that into me from day one: do not fail or you will pay the price."
"Geez, kid... And I mean... no amount of sorry is going to fix that many years' worth of damage. But... for what it is worth, I am sorry." Carter sounded apologetic about it, genuinely so. Artemis lurched to her feet and wrapped him in a bear hug, grateful; the Commander made some squeak in surprise, but he was more than agreeable about encasing her in a hug in response. Because dammit they were family and family always hugs.