Chapter XXV: Parenthesis
December 31, 2539 (UNSC Calendar)/Two years later
New Alexandria, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
You see, the city of New Alexandria was known primarily for two things, firstly, because it was home to FLEETCOM HQ, and second, because of its kick-ass night life, which included some of the best clubs in this side of the galaxy. Unfortunately, right now, I was having a less than perfect experience.
"Why won't you look at me when I talk to you?"
"I am looking at you," I complained.
"But you're not listening," she said exasperated.
That was true; I had been doing my best to ignore my girlfriend of four years. Don't get me wrong, I love her and all that crap, but lately, she's been really getting on my nerves.
"I don't understand what you're trying to tell me!" I told her.
"It's just that I feel like we've been drifting apart lately," she explained.
Oh boy, not this shit again.
"I feel like we have not been spending enough time together as a couple," she continued, "that we haven't been doing regular couple stuff. It feels like we barely talk to each other."
She had a point there, only one. We didn't do regular couple stuff because we weren't a regular couple. I was an ODST sergeant in command of a Spec. Ops. Team on board of an ONI frigate, which had some pretty secret shit going on. Layla, on the other hand, was now a Junior Lieutenant in charge of a large portion of the ship's electronics on board the same ship. Not only was she my technically my superior (that provided for some very interesting sex), we were both soldiers fighting a war against a collective of alien races hell-bent on exterminating the human race. We were anything but a regular couple, that's why we didn't do regular couple stuff, like going out on dates or anything like that. On her two other comments, we did spend as much time together as humanly possible. Whenever I wasn't groundside doing some special operation for ONI or frozen up in cryo, I did my best to spend time with my girlfriend. A large portion of that time was spent on conversation, so obviously, I did do my best given the current situation.
After explaining this to her, she seemed to calm down a little, despite having been freaking out moments ago, my argument was a good one, and she had to admit that, even to herself.
"Look," I told her, "I love you, and I do my best to please you, I even brought you to this place you wanted to come to."
She nodded. The place in question was a club that a friend of hers had told her about, it was supposed to be one of the best places in the city, so far, I hadn't been able to enjoy it because of the argument, but I was putting up a very convincing response to Layla's initial accusations, which meant that she would soon figure out she was exaggerating, then she would feel slightly guilty of making us go through this, I'd try to tell her it wasn't her fault, she would give me one of her dazzling smiles, and finally we'd go to hour hotel room for some otherworldly make-up sex. I scared myself when I realized I knew the routine.
"You're right, I'm sorry," she said, "the war must really be affecting me."
It was a legitimate excuse; I wasn't the only one who had lost friends in the past five years. Navy personnel had a pretty tough job as well, manning the Inconvenience for ship-to-ship combat was a pretty difficult and risky task.
"No, don't be sorry, I'll try to do better in the future," I told her, and it was true, I would try to do my best to keep Layla happy.
She smiled at me. That smile never failed to remind me why I fell in love with that woman. This time it also made me suspect that she also knew this routine, because it always went exactly the same and ended with her saying "I love make-up sex." It wasn't really something that I worried about, after all I loved make-up sex too.
A couple of hours later, close to dawn the countdown to year 2540 started. We were in synch with Earth's time, because that's the place where our calendar was based, no sense in making a different calendar for each colonized planet or moon.
We were two minutes away from a new decade when some drunk-ass guy had to come and ruin the fun. He started bugging Layla about being with me and not him and whatnot, standard douchebag behavior. Guys like that are the reason why all the other branches hated the Marines.
"Want me to punch him?" I asked.
"No, he'll go away."
When he didn't go away after ten seconds I asked again. "You sure, this might be your last chance."
"Don't seek confrontation," she told me, "just let him get bored."
"C'mon girl, why don't you open those legs a little," said the marine.
I didn't even ask Layla this time. I went right for the nose.
"Big mistake asshole!" I said as my fist broke the guy's nose. The rude marine was pushed two steps back, he was forced to use the bar counter as support, otherwise he would've fallen down. I could almost see Layla rolling her eyes behind me.
The marine got right back up and punched me right in the jaw. This time it was me who needed to use a table as support. The guy had a hell of a punch, I'll give him that. With my face to the table I was eye-to-eye with Layla.
"Good luck hon," she said as she stood up, walking a prudent distance away from the fight.
I turned to look at the marine, in this position I could've broken his knees with a well-placed kick, but I wanted to beat the guy up, not kill him. I turned, ducked under a right hook and responded with an uppercut, punching the guy backwards. He came back at me with a jab, I dodged it with relative ease, but fell right in his trap. His other hand hit me in the ribs. I stepped back before punching the guy on his left side with a left hook. That drove the air out of him and would've ended the fight. Just as I was about to do just that with another uppercut, just for showoff, I was twisted around and punched right in the jaw by another marine.
"Fuck," I mumbled as I was forced to hold on to a spectator for support. I threw a kick at this guy's stomach, he had sucker-punched me after all. The guy bent over and received another kick to the face.
The first marine was feeling somewhat better, because he punched me right above the eye, almost knocking me to the floor. I fell on two guys, two guys who happened to be friends of the drunkard that I was facing against.
"You show him Captain!" they called as they secured my arms.
Fuck damn it! In a fight with a superior officer.
I doubled over with a punch to the stomach. The marine captain smiled a little through his broken, bleeding nose and punched me again, this time in the chin.
"You'd better stop soon," I wheezed, "I'm warning you."
The three marines laughed and their captain punched me once more in the stomach, if he kept going like that, I'd have a hard time breathing in the next hour. I decided that I had had enough of this 'honorable bar-fight' and kicked the captain in front of me three times in quick succession. On his right thigh, forcing him to bend over sideways a little bit, then in his right ribs, forcing him farther down to that side. The last kick was comparable to what you would do to a rapist, kick him in the balls with all your might, only that this guy wasn't a rapist, so the kick went straight to his head, knocking him out. I twisted my right arm out of the marine's grip (with a little help from a foot-stomp) and elbowed the guy straight in the face, the other marine was too surprised to react, receiving a couple of punches to the forehead before he even released my arm.
I dusted myself off only to find myself facing no less than five angry-looking marines. I was about to start some crazy attack when a couple of bear arms gripped me from behind. A marine charged at me, only for him to be pushed backwards by a two-legged kick. I then bashed my head backwards at the guy holding me, hitting his nose. Just as I was about to receive a deadly looking punch from another marine, a familiar silhouette clotheslined him, knocking him out.
"Pavel! I didn't know you were here!" I said as I elbowed the guy behind me in the ribs.
"I'm always around when your ass needs covering!" he said merrily.
From that point on the fight escalated into a brawl, with me and Pavel facing off against numerous marines, I was lucky that I had the big guy on my side, not only because he provided a serious intimidating factor, but because he could also kick some serious ass. After almost a minute of fighting, I was knocked down to the floor for the first time since the fight started. This time I had a humbler baton to thank for that.
Thank you Sergeant Gabuka, thank you for using those batons on high intensity!
I turned to punch out a fat bouncer in the face, after that punch I'd have to either hide and wait out the brawl and the bouncer's anger, or escape the club. I caught sight of two other angry bouncers coming here to break up the fight.
"Time to go!" said Pavel.
"You said it," I replied while pushing away an angry marine.
Pavel made way through the crowd through the sheer use of body mass and some very well-placed shoving.
"Wait, where's Layla?"
"She'll have to show herself out."
Great, she'll be pissed at me for a year.
Pavel was suddenly tackled by two men as large as he was. They punched him a couple of times before zapping him with their batons.
"Go on without me!" he said, making some sort of action film impersonation, even through the pain and electricity flowing through his body.
"Never!" I said, joining Pavel's charade. I was beginning to really get into the brawl. I jumped at one of the man that was restraining Pavel with a bodyslam. I punched the guy on my friend and jumped away, thinking again. I decided that it wasn't smart to stay in the club when I realized Pavel was unconscious and his hands were already restrained behind his back.
Boy, they sure knocked him down fast.
I made myself through the club and jumped outside, Pavel would have to be bailed out of the police station later, by someone else that wasn't me preferably. I ran away from the club even after I exited.
"Happy New Year!" I could hear even through the walls. It seems like they were intent on having fun in there, even after the small altercation.
"And don't come back!" shouted one of the bouncers. I decided against going back and humbling him and kept walking away from the club after fixing my jacket. Layla was going to be pissed after this, she had been taking about this place forever. I hooded up as it started raining. In a way, it had been worth it, it had been a while since I last had a good-natured fight. Or had some sort of fun. I just hoped that the good times would last.
I gave myself a once over to see how I was doing, I would probably get a black eye, maybe some bruising to my jaw, which I could move freely, so it wasn't dislocated. My knuckles would hurt a lot after this, they were already red and bleeding slightly. I wasn't in terribly bad shape for a guy who had been in a fight against a larger group of marines. My eyebrow was bleeding, my stomach was hurting, I could barely breath, my jaws would start swelling soon, and my nose was bleeding. Not bad at all.
I heard tires screeching, but didn't give the noise a lot of thought, only seconds later I felt a prick on the back of my legs. It felt like a needle. My world started getting blurry and I hit the pavement face-first.