Fort Liberty, Gilgamesh

August 6, 2558

Nearly twelve hours had passed since the crew had gotten up at the crack of dawn to bring Meredith Adrian. During the Ballista's return to colony Gilgamesh, Leah Roush had called for a charter dropship to head down to the surface. An associate had arrived to conduct the retrieval and judging from both of their body language gave away that the representative and Meredith had never crossed paths before. He had introduced himself as William Byrde and had a heavily reserved persona, but thanked Trip for saving Meredith anyway.

She was obviously grateful, giving Aegis a generous kiss on the cheek before being guided to an ambulance summoned by her escort. Before Byrde had the chance to shut the door, she stopped him, looking over at the commander. He knew the look on her face and what was about to follow.

"The other night, I remembered something during our first conversation."

Aegis stopped and looked back at her, his expression wasn't overly friendly or pleased all of a sudden.

"I had asked if you were the navy, but you responded with something like heading a mercenary group. What was that all about?" He saw Byrde lean out to hear his response.

Aegis at first had no idea how to respond, so he simply blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I lied."

She definitely did not take the revelation well; crossing her arms over her chest and didn't need to say anything to demand his explanation.

Aegis actually smiled for the first time since their interaction at the infirmary. "Yeah, you heard right. I don't think you would trust me if I told you that I was the captain of a titanium hauling freighter with the minimum rescue equipment that we had."

"So then how did you find her in space?" Byrde's tone was evident with accusation.

"I suppose it was just luck. We had our radar being fixed and I guess it worked when we detected the wreck." Both Meredith and Byrde nodded, however likely not entirely convinced. Aegis was certain that neither of them were what he thought of them to be.

"Then I guess I should ask you to thank your techs." Meredith had the paramedics set her inside the ambulance to go back to wherever they had come from.

Aegis, Vasili and two of the sangheili that they selected earlier were on their own for transportation around the massive city of Fort Liberty. Rather than rent a car or find a train, they strolled towards the downtown area where Drew Rayson had reserved four beds in a hotel under one of the fraud front companies that the Blades often masqueraded. From then on it became a waiting game for a call that didn't come soon enough. The sangheili bided their time between the hotel's giant fitness center and meditating on the beds while Vasili went out to tour the city. He had returned to the room still seeing Aegis walking back and forth in the room as if a programmed drone, just like when he had left.

"So are you sure that your coughing earlier was from the hit on the head you gave yourself?"

Trip scoffed, "That was from the blackened deer that we had, not from stress."

"If you say so." Vasili rolled his eyes, before going back to tweak on his sidearm. It was just a habit of his to clean his weapons. More than once had he been undercover and in an intense predicament with his weapon less than good condition.

Aegis stood and went to the window, the curtains were drawn so with a flick of his hands filled the room with dim light. Dark clouds began to cover the city and within a few minutes later, fat drops of rain began to sprinkle down on the window. A memory came drifting back to his head, specifically when he had seen all the dead inside the shipping box.

He was only eight or nine at that time and they had been coming back from his uncle and cousin's house in the nearby city of Faris and were on the highway back to his home city of Mykonos. His dad was driving, his mom was riding shotgun and he of course was in the back with an oversized seatbelt on top of his chest. She had shouted a warning to him seconds after he had applied the brake, sending the car to a skidding halt. Immediately she had turned back to check on how he was in the back, fortunately unharmed. The sudden stopping of the car wasn't enough to activate his seatbelt's electronic safety locks, but his mother acted as if he had been thrown out of the car.

Traffic had inched forward following the braking drama. Trip had been squirming to see outside the low part of the window. He had seen it for the first time when he was by an MLX 2530 sports car. The newest version was among the slickest looking vehicles on the road and was highly coveted, being nearly two point six million credits. To this day, he had vowed to drive one of those cars when he retired from the Blades.

"So you know what color you're getting?"

"Bronze." Trip answered automatically, before realizing that he had been telling the story out loud. He let out an embarrassed moan, burying his hands into his face. The tale seemed to pique the interest of the sangheili warriors, because they had halted their meditation and sat upright with Vasili to listen. As much as he wanted this particular memory to stay buried, the subconscious was telling him to finish and not leave the other three hanging.

"So after what seemed like forever, we had found the accident site. A smaller car had caused one of the semi trailer trucks to swerve and crash. The trailer had somehow disconnected and lay on its side. There was a police hornet over the site and only one cruiser. The single officer was the only one there helping with the victims of the crash. There were what, maybe sixty concealed smuggled people inside when the container had toppled. The officer had already locked away the truck driver inside his car and was back to helping the wounded with the help of some of the better off smuggled. Anyway, we soon picked up speed and left the accident behind."

Vasili's expression hardened. Like Aegis, he had also been on track of smuggling during his days at ONI.

"Nobody in the car spoke for a while, and then mom had begun sobbing. My dad kept his eyes on the road, but he had spoken softly enough to show that even he was shaken from the scene. I don't think that after what he had been through, nothing had broke much.

"Trip, no matter whom or what anyone tells you, there is evil in this galaxy. The only thing it needs to win is for good people to not do anything.

"It would be years later before I lost my father and I had talked with my mother about that day again. She had explained that the Jovian moons were a hotspot for people smuggling. She told me that the driver was convicted for all of them and then executed."

"So when you saw all those bodies."

"I was right back in that car." He finished, lapsing the room into silence.

"So what did your father do before you lost him?" One of the sangheili asked.

"Staff Sergeant in the UNSC Marines. Killed in the Battle of New Harmony by a group of wraiths that hit his convoy. Before that, he believed that nothing was more evil in the universe than the Covenant."

Before Vasili or the sangheili could respond, Trip's comlink vibrated and buzzed. Wordlessly he picked it up and said his name into the line.

"Hey commander, it's Sofia."

"Hey, what's up?"

"After another autopsy of one of the Caucasian smuggled, I think I may have a lead on where they had started their journey. They originated right from a town called Sabtro near Victoria's largest city, Kirup. Another thing I found was a bit of a paper journal that somehow managed to avoid destruction when we had boarded."

"So are you able to get a glimpse at where the smugglers are? How does this connect to the pirates?"

"I'm unclear on how the smugglers and pirates relate to one another. The diary is written by an eastern European man named Vladan. He was traveling with a brother and several blood relatives. All of them were handled by a smuggler recruiter named Andres, who by Vladan's counts had a South American origin. They were all promised to pay this Andres back once they reached their destination at Reach or somewhere starting with an R."

"Anything else?"

"Nada. He talked about bringing his family along, but not until he got sustainable conditions."

"So maybe if we can't backtrack the pirates or smugglers, maybe we can get a hold on the cargo." Aegis motioned to Vasili when he said this. The other Spartan already knew what the commander had in mind.

"I'll call you back later. Get Tyler to hail me once he's got anything on our mystery ship." He cut the connection.

"Victoria? When I saw this people smuggling, I knew something was coming."

The colony of Victoria was another world that was plagued by separatism, black market and things the UNSC definitely did not appreciate. It was one of the loosest controlled and many terrorism acts committed against the UNSC governors were rivaling the destruction at Mamore and Venezia, also Insurrection controlled worlds.

"Can you try it?"

Vasili shook his head, "Since the coup in 2540 after the colony's partial glassing? Probably not. I barely managed to escape the clutches of their police. All of my names have been on their red alert watch lists and I can name two generals who are after my head and wouldn't be happier if I set foot on Victorian soil again."

"So no?"

"Well, I suppose so. I have a final ID that indicates that I live on Sigma Octanus and my occupation as a street maintenance worker. That'll be all I need to get in, but I'll have to scrap the ID once I've passed through and assume a new identity to become one of them again. I'll get my courier to meet me here and then I'll catch the flight at the spaceport to Kirup."

"Sofia reported that the origin was from Sabtro, so you'll need to make your way over there once you've landed."

"Sabtro is home of one of the generals after me." Suvorov countered.

"Or we can try our other options."

"No." Vasili's eyes gleamed like dull fire from the storm outside, which had now turned to heavy rain. "We need answers and will waste time unless Tyler finds our ship and the pirate base. If I have to go, this is the time to do so."

Trip extended his hand out to the other Spartan. Vasili looked a little confused, and then shook it.

"All right. Make it happen."

"Yes commander." Vasili turned, gathering his things and leaving the room. As the door shut, Trip had a dreaded feeling that he may not see one of his best friends ever again.

"How about we go for some dinner?" He asked the two sangheili, but got no response. Looking up, he saw them completely still sitting up with eyes closed. Both had been back to meditating since Sofia had called.


Maybe if Vasili can get to Victoria, he may find some answers! But there's a reason why he escaped when he was undercover in the first place!

Thanks for reading and reviewing, you all give my writing purpose!