SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ
Fate Continuum
Act V
"Metropolis"
Chapter VI
"Nightstalker"
H.D. 10:45 P.M. October 20th, 2552
K'an sat in silence as he stared attentively through the scope of his sniper rifle. Even in spite of the fact he had been at this game for at least an hour now, he was firm in his craft. This would soon pay off, as the head of a panicking Brute looked from behind an abandoned truck in the distance. With little effort, K'an snapped the reticle to the now visible head and immediately send a thunderous round from the rifle through the eye socket of the Brute. Such a hit was an instant fatality that left the Ape careening onto his back only to twitch for a moment before ceasing all movement. With a grim smile of, K'an looked over to the ground next to him for a contractor marker. With it in hand, he leaned over slightly to put four more marks to an existing group of tally marks of his kills, adding to a total of 37 downed prey. He sighed contently and once again took the rifle in his grasp to wait for more. It shouldn't be long for the next patrol.
After K'an had acquired his current rifle, he had poked around to find that the trio of Marines were gathering to find a large crate filled to the brackets of ammunition for it. He had taken the crate and the weapon with him to find a place they would be of use. It didn't take him long to find a decent size courtyard that was overlooked by a medium sized building to the Northwest. Granted it was quite a challenge for him to find a way to the roof of said building; it was a far greater challenge given the fact that the only way up was a ladder built into the side of the alleyway behind the building. Fighting the weight of the ordinance and the fact that Sangheili legs really didn't 'do' ladders, he would find a favorable trade off. There was construction of some sort underway on the roof, leaving an array of poles and tarps and bricks for him to craft a decent marksman's nest. And so he took a small chunk of time and some of his ingenuity to craft up a small shelter with a rain-fly to keep the rain off of him and also keep him shielded from any aircraft passing above.
The setup had worked quite well so far. He had built the rain-fly angled forward with the front lowest so it would leave the smallest opening and give additional cover in the constant streaks of water sliding to the ground below. The rest of the makeshift shelter was pretty much a simplistic tent to block him from view from the open side as he had set it up in the corner of a wall section. The view point was wide and open too. There was about three city blocks of space before him to cover, and from what he had seen, the only way to the ladder to his spot was down the courtyard he watched. It kept him dry and comfortable despite the constant raining. It was perfect.
The Covenant patrols had kept him somewhat entertained. It had been a bit before he had seen the first ones straggling down the road after he had gotten settled. But once he had downed a few of them, the patrols had started to become increasingly frequent. Probably because he was causing the area to become a bit heated with fighting. Regardless of how many would show up, he planned to eliminate each and every single thing the Covenant would feed him. He was also on the lookout for more Humans. He could not do much for them. But if he could catch a wanderer and protect them till morning then he would. He had only seen two, and they were that pair that had taken Dorothy and Jim out of the city. Interestingly enough that they would still be around the city. K'an figured it most likely their birthplace or something. Why else would anyone stick around willingly? Either way, whatever the reason was, it was unknown to him; but his night was about to become a lot more interesting.
After his last kill, K'an was greeted with a sparse period where no one passed through the streets below him. Though, interestingly enough, the next soul to travel the path where many Covenant had met their end was a Human; more specifically an ODST. From what K'an could tell by the Trooper's figure through the scope it was a she. She entered view from the southeast and seemed rushed, yet very cautious of her surroundings. Her movement seemed panicked and tedious as if she was being followed and worn out; she would move forward several meters before stopping quite briefly to check behind her. Soon it was obvious why as a large pack of Brutes, most of which were somewhat cloaked Stalkers, followed in her path. She was being hunted.
K'an hummed and tensed his grip on the rifle. "Alright, K'an. Let's get to work." He spoke softly to himself as he tried to assess the threat of the pack.
Quickly he counted about nine Brutes and saw that they were swiftly gaining ground on the Trooper. As they drew closer, She took cover behind a parked car on the side of the courtyard. The pack then slowed to a near halt in formation to try to taunt her out from her cover. The Trooper clearly was afraid as she looked frantically for another spot to move to. She didn't get all that much time to move before a cloaked Stalker that had passed K'an's gaze snuck up around her side to grab her fiercely by the arm. Her SMG was thrashed from her grip as the Stalker lifted her violently, and she tried to counter swiftly by drawing her knife with her free hand to swipe at the Brute's belly. The Ape simply responded by backhanding her knife away.
Having enough time to sight himself in, K'an sent a round clean through the back of the Brute's neck, severing his spine from his head with ease. The Stalker fell like a stone, dropping the Trooper, as the rest of the pack flinched at the sound of the large caliber rifle echoing through the area. The Brutes quickly saw where the shots were coming from as K'an sent another round through the face of another one of the Stalkers, leaving seven still alive. As they began to take cover together and helplessly fire their vastly outranked Spikers and Plasma rifles, the Trooper had recovered herself enough to relocate herself into a more offensive position. She took their distractedness to her advantage to swiftly toss a grenade down the road at them. The explosive was unseen by the majority of them. The one that attempted to shout out to the rest of them received a well-placed round through the middle of his neck. The grenade went off and killed two of the Brutes and left one toppling over with a limp pair of legs. K'an killed the crippled one off with the last round of the magazine.
K'an quickly reloaded and pulled back the bolt to ready the weapon. When he returned to the view of his scope, he found that the Trooper had become reacquainted with her submachine gun and was firing rapid bursts at the remaining three Brutes. The rest of the pack was taken by an ease of cross fire of small arms fire and the thunderous booms of a sniper rifle. Soon the area was silent, leaving only the slight ringing of the previous combat that would only be replaced by the sounds of rain and distant thunder.
With the rush of combat fading, K'an watched the Trooper to make sure she was unhurt. She stood still for a moment, clearly unharmed and thinking. Eventually she lifted her submachine gun towards K'an's direction. She then began flicking a flashlight attached to it several times at different intervals. It took him a moment to come to the realization that she was using Morse code to tell him 'thank you.'
His mind succumbed to a slight flurry of deeply stored memories from decades before as his mind quickly seemed to become reacquainted with the long unused language. Slowly but surely, he took one of the work lights he had just in case with him to sluggishly reply with 'You are welcome.' It took quite a bit, but it was most likely well enough.
'Need help.' She replied. 'Can I come up?'
K'an cursed under his breath. This bitch wanted to have a full conversation through means he hardly knew. 'No. Go away. Do not blow my cover.' He huffed. "Enough of this…" 'Good bye.'
He set his rifle down and stood up from his makeshift seat. He took a few moments from the sniping post to relieve himself behind the wall of his shelter. Before he was able to return to his seat just moments later, he heard the clattering of someone beginning to climb up the ladder. This annoyed him greatly, and with a quick peek over the side of the roof, he discovered that the Trooper was climbing up to join him against his instructions.
"Are you fucking kidding me? I can't take a fucking piss without someone acting stupid around me. Unacceptable." He huffed in anger as he returned to his shelter to claim his sniper rifle. "This is why women belong in the kitchen!"
He took hold of his rifle and turned to see her climb over the lip of the roof. As she did, her boots kicked and disturbed a small collection of cans and glass bottles that K'an had set up to alert him in the event of him falling asleep. Seeing her made his heartbeat jump; unlike Dorothy and Jim, she was a heavily trained combatant. He would not underestimate this Human for he had seen what the ODSTs were capable of. He took aim at her chest with the rifle against his shoulder and slowly stepped from the blind of the shelter.
"Oh, shit." She gasped as she swiftly half drew her submachine gun from her hip, but seeing the clear disadvantage stopped her as she froze mid draw.
"I told you to move on, Human." He spoke coldly in English to her.
"What are you doing?" She asked, forcing a calm demeanor.
K'an glanced down at her partially drawn weapon. "Drop it."
"Who are you? Identify yourself!" She demanded quite bravely.
"Drop. The. Weapon." K'an spoke very sternly.
She stayed frozen for a moment as if she was not going to do anything before ducking swiftly to the left. K'an almost fired off a round, but instead tracked her swift movement. Luckily, she had only moved to her left slightly and just enough to raise her submachine gun to him against her shoulder. This Human clearly had some stones. It was making K'an a bit nervous.
Despite this clash of interests, K'an did his best to control his breathing and calmness. "Do you understand what I am pointing at you?"
She just stared back at him silently through her visor.
"This is a .50 caliber sniper rifle. Against your tiny SMG." K'an argued logically with her. "I have shields, what have you?"
"I'm not backing down till you do." She spat fiercely at him after a moment of silence. "Identify yourself. You're Covie, but you are shooting at Covies. Explain."
She is making demands? Tricky bitch. "You are not negotiating anything, Human." K'an demanded in return.
Again she responded frozen with silence, clearly testing K'an's nerves.
"Drop the fucking weapon!" K'an shouted at the top of his lungs.
Such a vulgar outburst shook her for a bit of loop. She flinched ever so slightly before sighing in defeat. She slowly leaned down to set the submachine gun on the ground at her feet, carefully setting the barrel away from him as well.
"Thank you." K'an continued his cold glare at her. "You may also set it, your knife, and your pistol on the ground… And providing you slide them to me, I will allow you to relax." K'an panted nervously. "I am not playing games, Human. I do not wish the death of anyone who has failed to do anything to me first, but I will not risk my life on an unknown such as you."
With clear distaste, the Trooper set down all of her weapons and slid them a meter or so from her. She was tedious and careful as she kept her gaze matched with K'an as if she was watching for any moment to snap up and change the situation in her favor. Once she had slid her things gently enough away from her she stood up with her hands slightly raised.
"Now…" K'an inhaled slowly to calm his nerves a bit. "Take five steps away from your gear."
She complied rigidly. "Fuck you, Squid. Who are you?" She asked coldly as she moved from the weapons.
K'an ignored her question and went over to the weapons. Carefully, without moving his weapon off of her, he took them all and set them on a block next to his shelter. "Now…" He began as he got closer to her, lowering his rifle slightly. "I need your word that you will not attempt to harm me, Human. For if you do not, this all will not end well for you" His voice was very stern; this was somewhat intentional to further mask his nervousness
"I am not giving you shit, Squid."
K'an grunted in distaste. "That is not even an appropriate term... We look nothing like Squid!" He argued. "It would be as if I referred to you as a gorilla. Would you like that?"
"Fine…" She sounded quite upset. "Hinge head."
"That is Mr. Hinge Head to you, Human." K'an shot back. If this Human was going to give him attitude, he would fire it right back at her.
"Har har har."
K'an shook his head and looked over her for a moment to see if she had any more weapons.
"What are you going to do then, Mister Hinge Head? Now that you have me as your prisoner?" She asked with her hands still up in front of her.
"I am not sure… I hadn't planned on this." K'an looked down at his rifle as he sighed. "I suppose I should bind your hands and legs together until I figure out what to do with you.
"Be careful. I might enjoy that." She retorted.
K'an felt his mandibles twitch in shock. He was experiencing something he almost never went through; having nothing to say in response to another. It was clearly a tactic she was throwing at him, and it was working greatly. "I… think…" He stammered over himself. He then huffed angrily, embarrassed more than anything. "Gods! You Humans are fucking disgusting. All of you! Perverted in ideology and in mind!"
"Then give me my stuff back and I will be on my way."
"Fuck no." K'an leveled his weapon yet again to her. "Try that shit with me again, bitch."
"Fine. Just give me your stupid cuffs or whatever."
K'an jerked slightly. "Do you think I have cuffs? I don't even have rope to spare."
She lowered her hands slightly and her head tilted slightly. "Then what the fuck were you going to tie me up with?"
"I don't know!" K'an snorted. "Like I said. I hadn't planned on you being up here."
It seemed she finally gave in with a heavy sigh. "You know what? You saved my life. I guess that is enough to promise that I won't hurt you or whatever." She lowered her hands fully. "Even though I don't know why and that concerns me."
"See?" K'an lowered his weapon. "Was all of that so hard?"
She sighed.
"Either way… your first question: I am surviving." K'an explained. "The second: My name is K'an Retmaree. Special Operations Major and Marksman of the Covenant Military. And for your last concern?" K'an smirked and shook his head slightly. "I saved you because I am a pacifist."
"Pacifist? How does that work?" She crossed her arm.
"All of the killing I have done tonight has been self-defense."
"You have a big fucking gun though." She pointed out obviously. "So again, how does that work?"
K'an scoffed slightly. "Listen. I am a pacifist with a bad temper. Just because I have a 'big fucking gun' doesn't change anything. It simply means that I can self-defend more efficiently."
"Wow…" She shook her head.
"What?"
"I am just thinking about when I get back to the UNSC. I will have a lot of good tales to tell them."
"I bet." K'an shrugged.
"Especially about the time I met the dumbest Elite in the universe."
"Ha."
There was a brief moment of silence between the two.
"What now, Mr. Hinge head?"
"I do not really know. I will probably just go back to what I was doing and wait for you too leave." K'an shrugged.
"Well… You're the first person that's not tried to kill me yet since I've dropped so I think we should probably stick together. Two trigger fingers are better than one."
"I care not, though it might would be nice to have some company." K'an admitted. "Either way. Maybe wait for one of my brethren to come alone... or more Covenant to cross my sights."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Very well. Pull up a bucket and let's get out of the rain. That is what is important." He turned and led her to the small shelter.
"Right. I hate the rain too." She commented as she followed him cautiously.
"Speaking of importance:" K'an started as he sat back down in his seat. "Who the fuck are you?"
She had reclaimed her weapons and flipped the bucket over next to the wall besides the entrance to the shelter to sit on. "My name is Sarah. Sarah Miles." She sighed. "I am a Gunnery Sergeant in the 145th ODST division." She answered.
"Ah, so you and I have the same role essentially." K'an noted.
"Pretty much I guess…" She shrugged. "You don't know me well enough for me to give you the rest of my story." She chuckled. "You'd have to buy me dinner first."
K'an chuckled. "Take me to the nearest currency exchange and I will arrange that."
"Keep up with jokes and I will have to shoot you."
"Fine, jokes aside. I have survival bars and water. That is about as romantic of a meal I can make." K'an chuckled. "I could possibly arrange my spent bullet casings in a shape of a heart or something..."
She chuckled ever so slightly. "You are trying too hard." She shook her head. "If we get out of this and neither of us are killed off we can talk about it over some drinks… if you're still around by then."
"Oh, please don't tease me." K'an turned around to face her at the mention of alcohol. "In situations like this, I long for a drink."
"Me too…" She admitted quietly before looking back up to him. "Do your people make booze?"
"Yes… We are the best of all of the Covenant species."
"I see… I imagine it would be all very strong too."
"Of course." K'an smiled.
"Have you tried any of ours?" Sarah pondered.
"I have snagged one or two in the past. I like taking souvenirs home with me. It's like being a tourist but you get shot at."
"Heh"
"What about you… Do you collect things of ours? I know some of your kind do."
"I have once or twice… Only because I found cool looking things."
"Not too many though?" K'an tilted his head curious.
"Well… No offense but we haven't invaded any of your worlds. The market of cool Covenant stuff is kinda limited to just pick up because of that."
"Well… that is a good point." K'an sighed. He did feel sorry for the Humans.
Sarah shifted as if she was nervous. "Sorry… that was deeper than I intended." She looked away towards the latter. "Is there something useful I could be doing?"
"It would be an amazing if you could just watch out for anyone trying to get up onto this roof." K'an answered. "We just need to stay vigilant until the morning. I planning on moving or leaving the city then."
"Sounds like a plan then. Let's get to it."
