Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end
Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise
[Clarification Article] So it was brought to my attention, that part of the last chapter may have been hard to follow, this is my clarification; The Illya that exists now, is just a fragment of her former self, and the data of what 'she' had put into William's head was lost, so she was looking for the things that would hold an AI in mechanical parts (all the things she listed), but what she was looking for wasn't what was implanted. Hope that clears it up a little bit.
Anyways back to the story.
Boots on the Ground
August 8th, 2550
In Orbit above Sargasso
Sargent William Goodwin
I slowly sat up on the double bed, rubbing my face with my right hand before stretching and looking around, the room was... Small to say the least, it was big enough for the bed, two bedside tables, the store closets, a small desk and chair, along with a small side room which held a shower, toilet and sink.
'Just cosy enough to make it worth it.' I thought to myself, hearing the quiet yawn from behind me, I looked at the side table, Illya's chip sat with a small note that read 'Remember to plug me in when you're done' I picked up the chip and rotated it in my fingers before plugging it in, with the cold flush flowing over me
'Good morning' Illya's voice said with a yawn
'Good morning' I responded, clambering to my feet and walking into the side room, looking into the mirror.
My hair was dishevelled, and matted down, A small scab sat in the centre of my forehead from where I fought the glass of my cryo-pod, I had grown a stubbly beard, and I decided that it had to go, with a few strokes of razor it was gone, next was fixing the hair, I spent a fair few minutes in the shower lost in thought, before thoroughly washing, after I was out I dried myself and did a quick pass through my hair with a comb, it wouldn't be too long before it would need a trimming to, I left the shower room and got dressed, I had nearly gotten fully dressed when I heard the sound of my company finally waking up, I glanced over to her, her hair was a mess, a total bird's nest, and I couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle, she stood up and got up close to me
"Don't make me wring you in, it's too early to be killin' don't cha think." Her native tongue slipping through the cracks
I straightened my collar "Indeed it is little Missy, Might want to hit the showers before the guys come find us" a smirk crossed my face as I turned around
She grabbed me by my ear pulling me down to her level "Right now the last thing I want is to be thinkin' about the others catchin' me after a right tousle, and YOU better not be thinkin' it'd be funny, or you'll be out the nearest airlock, got me?"
"Aye," I said without thinking, and she gave me a glare
"Now sit your arse down, and wait for a lady to get herself cleaned up, will you," she said walking into the side room before letting out an aggravated sigh 'I sound just like my Mother, and it's buggin' me"
"You know, I haven't heard you drop into that accent in years," I said laying back on the bed
Alexis's voice started to sound more 'normal' "well that's because I've spent so much time trying to rid myself of it, It's not the clearest of accents, and it tends to make people think I'm not as smart as I am, you know?"
"I guess that's why I dropped what little of one I had as well," I said leaning up on my hands
"What? sick of being asked where you igloo is?" she joked
I let out an audible sigh, and she laughed
"Now give me a few to crisp up, I have to clean up this rat's nest I'm calling hair"
"Aye, Ma'am, All the time in the world," I said laying back on my back looking up at the roof
"If only," she said over the sound of the now running water
-A handful of minutes later-
A knock at the door caught both of our attention, I stood up and went to answer it, stepping out into the hallway, and was met with Jack looking a little more happy than yesterday.
"Alexis should only be a few more minutes..."
"There's no rush, We don't have to be ready until 13 hundred." He responded before leaning against the wall "About yesterday~"
"No need to say anything, I may have acted out because of my ties to this place, I should have waited to press my questions," I said joining him against the wall
"It's not that, I was just so frayed after all of the goose chasing they made me do, I acted harshly, Maybe at the moment it made sense, but you're part of my team and I shouldn't snap on you for voicing your concern, If anything it was brave of you"
"If you say so," I said quietly as the door slid open, and Alexis joined us
"Gunny," she said with a 'tip of the hat'
"Welcome to the party, in the hangar by 13 hundred sound alright with you?" He said questioningly
"That gives us plenty of time to stop by the mess, and catch up with everyone" She responded with a nod
"Your team is with Dmitri and Anders, you can read the briefing with them after the mess" He stretched
"Aye sir" we both responded, before sharing a chuckle
"Dismissed" Jack waved us off, and we started towards the mess passing by Marines on their way... Somewhere, looked like they were in a hurry, but if we were to be starting today it made sense to not waste any time they had.
When we reached the mess it was fairly crowded, but it didn't take us too long to get our food and find a good seat, The meal was pretty good, hardy stew, starch, and fruit.
We didn't really talk during our short meal time, once we were done we headed up to the armory to get ourselves stocked, I took an MA5 and fixed the under-slung shotgun to it, put it and set of 11, 60 round extended clips into a bag, I wasn't being caught out without enough firepower, next was a DMR and 7 clips for it, the M6C/SOCOM was the last thing I bagged, alongside 11 clips for it. Looking at my haul I'd filled three ammo bags, and had my three weapons of choice ready.
Alexis had a similar train of thought, if we were to meet the enemy we better be ready to blow him away, With a Battle Rifle, Two SMGs and an M6C, and plenty of ammo for all of it.
The door opened and our heads looked over to the sound, and Anders walked in, he looked around for a moment before one of the requisition officers noticed him, waved him over and pulled up his rifle for him to inspect
"you changed it down to the .450, right?" He asked the req. officer
"Yeah, I changed out the scope like you asked and gave you the shorter 'tactical' barrel"
"good" he looked over toward us "I'm not running around with a large, heavy anti-material rifle for the next few weeks, Anyways this should be able to pop the shields on an Elite... if it comes to it"
"Might want to take it down to the range to zero it in, I didn't get to spend much time their myself"
"Will do" Anders said picking up the rifle, before looking back to the man "Ammo?"
"Right" the man bent over behind the desk, and rummaged around before pulling out an ammo bag the size of a small backpack, he handed it to Anders "Hope they fly true"
Anders nodded and took a step back as another familiar face showed up for his weapon, Dmitri took up the entire doorway with his large frame "Do you have her?" he asked
the second req officer got up from his seat and went into a room just beyond, and returned hefting the M247 in his arms, and he placed it on the counter in front of him
"Ah, Ain't she a beauty," he asked us
"Um, Staff that's not the same one as the one you had on Spiron?" I asked in return
He looked me in the face "Any machine gun in my hands is a beauty, and I give them nicknames, 'Sasha' is in the back" he lifted up the weapon and gave it a light kiss
"And this one is?" I looked puzzled
"Sasha" his face was expressionless
"I see?" I said taking a half step back
His face curled into a smile as he started to laugh "Don't worry, All of them are a Sasha, I don't know why, but they just are"
I nodded and shared in the laugh "Ok Staff, what you say goes"
"We should hit the range before its too late," Alexis said pulling on my arm, and I followed, the two requisition officers waved us off and Dmitri put his head into his hand leaning down onto the counter chatting with the pair.
"What an odd man," I said jokingly
"Mhm" Alexis nodded "wouldn't have him any other way through"
When we arrived at the range Anders was already dialling in his weapon, from the 'score' he was pretty damn close to having it combat ready, or he was taking his time enjoying the time he had to work with his weapon.
we soon joined the ranks of the range and tested out our weapons, the time flew by and before we knew it Anders stood behind us "Times up, we have to be in the hangar in about 15" and we quickly wrapped up and with a quick jaunt we were in the hangar
we met up with the rest of Carnage for a brief chat before we went our ways, and Dmitri, Anders, Alexis and I boarded our pelican, and soon a squad of Marines also piled in, the door closed as the pilots went over their pre-flight checklist
One of the Marines, A younger new guy looked around and saw us at the front of them and in an attempt to break the ice asked "So, any of you been here before?" the whole bay went quiet, If he could see my face he would have seen the angriest of daggers starring at him.
A collective "nope" came from the other Marines.
I looked at the other ODST sitting with me and then back "A few of us have"
he looked slightly concerned "I'm sorry if I made you think of a bad experience"
"War is hell, kid. Not everyone makes it out alive" Dmitri said before adding "and that's the end of it"
"Aye sir," he said, pulling his head in towards his shoulders, looking down to the deck-plates.
the ride to the surface was one in silence, and it remained quiet until we reached the landing pad, the creak of the door marked our official duty on the surface.
when we left the pelican we took a second to look around, the sky was mostly a faint blue, with a smear of light gray clouds, I slowly walked away from the group, down onto the gravel at the end of the base, it crunched under my feet, I took a look at the small stones, one caught my eye and a bent over to grab it, it fit into the palm of my hand and had a distinct blue colour to it, and I rolled it in my hand, I stood up and brought the stone with me, Alexis soon rushed towards me when she noticed I had left the group
"You alright?" she asked
I held out the stone and she looked at it "Part of me wonders if it is from here or if it is from home"
"Lapis isn't That rare," she said with a slight smile
"Could you hold on to this for me?" I said with a sincere face
She placed a hand on my shoulder "Ok, lover-boy, I'll keep it until you want it back" and I handed it to her, she rolled it in her hand, before putting it in a pouch on her waist
"let's get back to the group" I looked towards the fledgeling camp
We walked up the path to the base, and when we got to the ramp up Dmitri was at the top looking down at us "we have literally been here five minutes and you two ran off"
"It's my fault, sir, I-" I looked over my shoulder "It won't happen again," I said looking back at him
"Right, let's get to the command tent before we get our heads bitten off..." he said pivoting and walking off, we soon caught up and entered the command tent
"Glad for you to have joined us C2" A man bearing the rank of First Lieutenant, the silver bar adorning his collar.
"My apologies sir, these two got caught up in the sights," Dmitri said before standing at attention
"Right... anyways I am Lieutenant Avery Kursk of the 829th, and before it comes up, yes I know how useful you and your team are, but as much as I am technically in charge of you, you have your own important mission, so I won't keep you from it, the next group of hogs will be down in about ten minutes, you will get first pick on which one you'll need for said mission, but the brass says you only get one, since there are four of you..."
"it's going to be a tight squeeze" I pipe up
"Ah, yes, that would be one way of saying it," Kursk said before leaning on the table in front of him "let's hope this planet is as bare as they say it is, the covenant really got rid of any defendable locations on this part of the continent"
I looked at the floor 'a lot of people fought near here' I thought to myself
"You got something to say, Sargent?" Kursk said looking straight at me
"I know why that this part of the continent is glassed, the UNSC had a 'last stand' of sorts around here"
"that so? I'm not well versed in the battle that took place here, Know of any bases left?"
"No sir," I said turning my head back to the floor
Shortly after that a Corporal showed up "the next shipment just arrived sir" she said
"'kay, C2 go get your ride then get going, stock up on rations and ammo, don't forget that you can call us up if you need anything else"
Dmitri shook his hand "got it, Thanks" and he turned and lead us out to the shipment "I need a weeks work of rations for 4"
"A weeks worth?" the man said looking up from his datapad "alright"
"and a Hog" Dmitri continued
"Over to the far side, we have three available"
we walked over to the hogs, and Dmitri walked over to one of the ones with an LAAG "This one" he said to us, as we walked over he hooked two small 'gas' tanks of water to the rear "that should hold the reactor out for a while" before putting another two into the gunners well, alongside 4 extra box magazines for the big gun, soon a Marine walked over with a few small crates, which Dmitri also put in the gunners well.
"Why aren't you filling up the passenger seats well?" I asked
"because you have to be able to sit in there"
"I- wait what?!"
"we have our gunner, and I'd rather Anders on lookout, plus you're small enough to fit in the hole"
I grumbled before walking up to the passenger side and clambering in, sitting in the small foot hole, and when Anders got in he sat on the seat, with his legs to the one side to of me, I could hear the gun wind up
"nice," Alexis said from up top
the vehicle shook as Dmitri climbed in and he typed on the console in the middle before a small waypoint appeared on my visor, pointing to the north-east, and flashed 80K in small print, and the loud sound of the engine starting blared to life before quieting down to the quiet hum, and the motors revved up as we took off
-Meanwhile on the Millennium in orbit-
"Why do we have to sit up here, you'd think after Spiron we'd get a little more free time," A female said leaning back on her chair
"Don't like observing the Marines at work?" A man's voice returned
"It's not that I don't like it, it's just boring, I want to get back into the fight not sit in space watching a group of guys drive for an hour before looking for a... What are we even looking for?" she asked
"I don't have the clearance to know, but whatever it is, its important" the man responded
"Right," she said before taking a drink from a glass of water
"You two" A second man joined the pair "I need you suited up within the hour, I think we might have found it"
'A minor cliffhanger I see' I hear you saying
'it's a good way to make you want to come back for the next chapter' I say in return
Anyways, holy heck, almost 1,000 views! You know when I started this I thought this would only be read by a few people, but now just look just 13 chapters in and we are almost reaching quadruple digits, that averages out to about 77 people reading every chapter, which is quite humbling in my opinion.
In another note I'm taking creative liberty in changing Dmitri's weapon to the M247 GPMG from the M247H HMG, I hope that the way I worked it in made sense and flowed with his character, But running around with an 80 pound gun for a week without support would probably be a lot even for an ex-weightlifter
Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story, and let me know that people like what they are reading.
Also feel free to read the first chapter of the side story at: /s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle
Be sure to stop by next month for another chapter of Brothers In Arms
As Always,
Semper Fi
LoyalODST aka William