AN: I'm baaaaaaaack! Sorry about that... circumstances beyond my control, and a girl. It's a long story. Ahem. I understand that this is easily the shortest chapter I've posted on this story... and I apologize. But the reason it's so short is that I wrote a little bit of sexual content. Yes! I was vulgar enough to write it, but too old-fashioned to post it for the world to see. Eipok, no it isn't, don't even ask! . If you want it, O powerful and wise 1nt3rn3ts, message me. This chapter's so short because I edited the lemon out. Enjoy, and sorry for the lateness. More to come, and I hope to get back to the speed of updating that I had way back when.
"Ow! Shit," Jack growled at the pair of tweezers digging in his left cheek.
"Don't complain. You refused painkillers," Li said as he yanked out another gold-orange shard, eliciting another growl. It dropped in the glass with a clink.
"Don't want to walk around for an hour afterward slurring like an idiot and biting my tongue and not feeling it," The least powerful pain medication aboard Commonwealth was a local anesthetic that touched skin and numbed the area. Jack had unpleasant memories from the dentist.
"Well, then, stop being a baby. If you hadn't gotten your visor shattered-"
"Are you telling me that I should have avoided a knee to the face? Excellent advice,"
Li frowned. "You alright?"
"I'm fantastic. I'm alright. Fine,"
"You gave three responses to one question, and each one was worse than the last," Li mercilessly dug into the cheek, and pulled out a razor-sharp grain of sand.
"Then don't bother to ask two more questions. I've answered you in advance," Jack groaned and raised a tissue, to stem the new blood trickling down. "I should get a nurse to do this,"
"Nurses don't have Spartan eyesight or dexterity," Li grinned. "And besides, with you getting so serious with Sheila, you shouldn't have anything to do with Navy nurses,"
That made Jack chuckle, which might not have been wise, considering that it jostled the tweezers searching around in his wounds.
"Ow! Dammit!"
"Hold still, you big baby,"
"Well, the Waterloo's back under UNSC control," Jorge pulled up a chair and sat down next to the bunk. "Out of close to four hundred hostages, only a dozen or so bit it,"
"Only a dozen?" Jack was lightly scratching his stitches, staring at the bunk above him. "Is that what we call success?"
"Yes," Jorge said forcefully. "That's, what? Three percent? A damn sight better than it would have been under regular circumstances,"
Jack said nothing, but raised an eyebrow.
"They would have boarded with ODSTs. Unaugmented, of course. And they would have failed, at least on the lives saved scale. ONI projections have been shared-they estimate close to eighty percent hostage casualties. They would have gone anyway,"
"I'm trying to not believe you," Jack muttered.
"They would have. They would've had to-if it's a choice between four hundred squids or thousands of civvies, the choice would have been obvious. You know the Innies, Jack. You would've given them a UNSC Cruiser? With God knows how many missiles and MAC rounds? Pelicans, longsword fighters, shortsword bombers, nukes? It would have been a massacre on Covenant scale,"
"Maybe. What if the ODST's screwed up?" Jack asked.
"They would have shot it down, squids and all," Jorge said calmly. "That's what service means-if you die to save civilians… then there's no better way to go out. That applied to the hostages as well as us,"
Jack shivered. It wasn't just the thought of himself almost dying-it was the terrible foreshadowing. He knew how Jorge would die-almost thirty years from now, sacrificing himself to save the planet they were in orbit over. Or so he would think. A massive Covenant fleet would arrive seconds afterwards, and Jorge's sacrifice would be in vain. Jack took a deep breath.
"I almost died," He stated. It was a simple, bare statement.
"Yeah," Jorge said sympathetically.
"That Innie had me dead to rights. I could… fuck, I could almost see the bullet all the way down the barrel, ready to slice into my eye and flatten against the back of my skull,"
"That's what courage is," Jorge said. "Running into hell, sprinting, with a smile and some good jokes. Ready for it. In training, we all went through near-death experiences like that. At least, we thought we had. None of us bought the farm, then. But we had reactions similar to yours,"
"How did you deal with it?" Jack looked at him.
"Be square. Be honest. Have the affairs in order. Be completely certain that after your ticket gets punched, that the people you care about will carry on. Make sure nothing goes unsaid. Think about the end-accept that someday, somehow, all of us die. But consider the luck of people in our line of work-that we don't have to get old and wrinkled and incontinent. We get to die with our boots on, in the field, like men. We get to die for others, with honor. Am I making any sense?" Jorge sounded a little embarrassed.
"A little," Jack admitted.
"Good. Debriefing's in an hour. We asked them to give you some time. Until then, I think Sheila would appreciate a chat, as well,"
Sheila was sitting in the observation deck, looking at space and wringing her hands. She looked so small and thin, almost emaciated, hunched in the chair. Her midnight hair was almost touching her shoulders, just slightly curly at the ends. She seemed so vulnerable there, out of the bulky MJOLNIR armor. Jack would have had some difficulty reconciling this fragile teenage girl with the ballsy, vulgar leader he'd just fought and killed with, a few months ago. He knew better, now. Under that soft, beautiful outer shell, the emotion and laughter, was a solid titanium core. He loved and respected every inch of her.
"Hey," Jack murmured. She turned to him, and Jack saw the dark eyes under her new bangs widen. She smiled suddenly, jumped up, and hugged him fiercely. Jack embraced her as well, and for a moment the black void he'd narrowly avoided, retreated. The emptiness of death, just beyond his fingertips ever since that second, receded. It was replaced by the warmth and honesty of Sheila's presence.
He withdrew slightly, kissed her forehead. Then an inch lower, and then the end of her button nose. Then he kissed her lips, and everything around them seemed to fade and melt away.
"I love you," Jack whispered to her.
"You too," She murmured back. "You had me scared for a second,"
"Me, too. I was scared of losing you,"
He kissed her again, with the ease of practice.
"Well, Spartans, you'll be glad to know that the Waterloo is fully back under old management. Although the leadership did not survive, we've gleaned several important things from the lower ranks, as well as the bodies," Dr. Halsey pushed her glasses up her nose.
"You reported that the Insurrectionists at the Waterloo's bridge were different. Faster, stronger, things like that. Autopsies have verified this. These commandoes were not augmented, so put that thought out of your heads. They seemed mostly normal, until blood analysis came back.
"We didn't like the results. They had several chemical compounds in their blood. Synthetic adrenaline, for one. I'll spare you the boring details, but suffice it to say that these men were chemically tapping into reserves of strength and speed usually reserved for extreme need. This is dangerous, naturally. The human body only uses them in life-threatening instances, and never for longer than a few minutes. They tapped into these reserves, it is estimated, for up to an hour before the Waterloo was boarded. At a microscopic scale, these men were tearing themselves apart. They would have died within the hour, we believe,"
"Interestingly enough, only one of the insurgents at the bridge was not given this chemical cocktail. We've identified him as one Colonel Johanson. Formerly of Section Three. Johanson was one of five officers thought killed in a raid several years ago," Dr. Halsey smiled. "Well, it seems the Insurrectionists were very confident in the raid. On Johanson's body was a PDA containing treasure troves of intelligence. Not the least of which is the locations of dozens of cells across UNSC space. As soon as you're recovered and your armor is repaired, Gold Team will be sent against them, as will two other Spartans Teams pulled from the front,"