Troop deployment, bog-standard patrols and the arrival of reinforcements from the Inner Colonies, followed by some diplomats from Earth outlined how the next few days developed on Miridem. Running a patrol in the mountains north of the capital, Sergeant Reaver and his platoon, one of veterans now mixed in with fresh recruits arriving from Reach, was on a dirt road travelling up-slope, watching over the city from aboard their Warthogs. About six vehicles, plus an air cover of three Hornet gunship squads blanketed the snowy mountainside in search of Covenant stragglers.
The Sergeant, riding shotgun as an ancient Earth song blared from the Warthog's radio, looked up at the massive world-ship's silhouette in the blue sky. Craftworld Ilroh'ynn orbited high above the planet's surface. The twinkling stars around it were its massive escorting fleet and the UNSC Battlegroup that had arrived to reinforce their battered fleet. High above, at the top of the blue dome, the sun hanged like a lamp, burning bright and reflecting off the snow on the ground.
"Jesus fuck..." Murmured the Marine in the driver's seat, sneaking a peek at the Craftworld every so often, "It's like a small moon in the shape of a Charlie ship."
"And it's hauling tens of millions of Eldar, many of them civilians." Observed the gunner, one of the new arrivals, smirking, "Ain't this a lucky break for us, holy shit..." and looking back at the Rocket 'Hog behind them. Its gunner was scanning the sky for any trace of Covvie aircraft, but the sky had been theirs for the better part of two days right now. Most of the gunships the Covvies had were either wreckage scattered in the mountains or an orbiting debris field right now.
A Hornet from 5th Sq. flew in low, buzzing the convoy of 'Hogs. The Sergeant rolled his eyes, pulling the radio microphone off the 'Hog's dashboard and speaking "Okay, 5-2, I get giving us an airshow, but that's a bit of a low flight." before looking at the snowed-on pines around them, a grin on his face. The radio crackled, before the connection with the aircraft established.
"Sorry, Sarge. Just tryin'a give you boys a good line of sight on my bird." The pilot laughed heartily, her accent thick. She was off one of the newly-arrived UNSC ships and a new recruit herself, but from what Reaver had heard of her, she had a knack for the job of being a pilot. Apparently she had at least a single mission under her belt as CAS for a larger force, so that was something.
Sarge laughed back, then asked "You got a callsign, pilot? Better than just to call you 5-2 half the fuckin' time."
"Sir. Boys over on the Berlin call me Foe Hammer." She answered jovially as she banked left.
"Well, Foe Hammer, keep us updated. See any Covvies, blast first, radio later." The Sergeant quipped. If anything, that nickname alone was enough for him to like her. The accent was a fun addition, honestly. He'd gotten tired of hearing German accents all the bloody time. He looked back to Weiss, who was riding shotgun on the second vic behind them. She gave a quick salute to the boss, before turning back to reading her magazine.
A chuckle from the pilot, "Roger that, Sarge. Foe Hammer out." and the radio line cut. Mike leaned back into his seat, pulling up his MA5B and looking it over. He flipped up the irons and looked down them, before putting them back down and setting the rifle down between his legs again, barrel pointed at the sky instead of at the floor. The road was getting somewhat steep, but it didn't bother them none. 'Hogs could take it.
"Hey, Sarge." The driver looked to him with one eye, the other still kept on the road.
Reaver looked to him and asked "What's up, Hitchcock?"
"You think the elves mean well?" He asked as they veered slightly to the right, onto a narrowing road.
Reaver sighed. "Let me answer your question with a question, Jack. Did they shoot at us?"
"Uhm... No?" The driver returned.
"Did they try to fuck us over?"
"... No..."
"Did they help us on our jobs, both of getting civvies outta the line of fire and kicking Covvie ass?"
"Yeah."
"Then, there you have it." Reaver finished, "Listen, I know there's this whole vibe for us with aliens right now, but these people are humanoid, they almost look like us sans the whole sharp, pointy ears thing and they've dropped in here after the Covvie bastards shot at them to both get some payback and to help us. Enemy of my enemy and all that. Now, if they start trying to screw with us? Oh, you bet we're dumping them."
"And what if they won't screw with us, Sarge?" The hopeful gunner of the vic asked, looking at his Sergeant.
The Sergeant smiled, "Well, then this may be the start of one very beautiful, very long friendship between us and them. Maybe with tech-sharing and a common goal of kicking the Covvies' asses all the way back to the shithole they crawled out of, with express delivery." And that got some laughs out of the two members aboard his vic. Two aircraft banked right, toward a grid coordinate near the top of the mountain.
Foe Hammer pinged the convoy and when Mike picked up the radio, the woman started "5-3 and 5-4 just called out something on the top of the mountain. Prep for anything bad, sarge." only to hear assault rifles and guns cocking. She laughed, cutting the link before joining her boys in a wedge formation fly-by over the target. The Sergeant looked back to the other hogs and, with two hand signals, got them all prepped and ready.
Reaching the top of the mountain, the convoy fanned out onto what looked like a broadened rock platform, training their guns at the rest of the ascending road while the drivers and the passengers disembarked. Two troop hogs were also part of the formation, alongside another gun 'Hog bearing a Gauss cannon. The Sergeant rallied his squadmates and they moved forward, taking cover by the rock face leading up to the top.
He cued his mic, then spoke "Foe Hammer, did you ID the targets?"
"Doesn't look like Covvies, Sarge, but they're by some kind of structure that's not manmade..." The pilot responded. He hummed as he heard the echo of music playing, then advanced with his team. Moving at a snail's pace up the steep dirt slope, the team finally arrived at the top, only to be met by the sight of an Eldar unit. Two tall, spindly machines turned toward them, training heavy weapons and swords upon the UNSC Marines. The Sergeant held his hand up, showing his team to lower their rifles.
Two Eldar clad in robes and with highly-decorated 'wings' played an instrument not unlike the brass ones they had in their bands. However, it seemed to carve at a strange material, resembling a very rough ball of bone. The ethereal music seemed to resonate with the material that resembled Eldar armor, shaping it into a massive structure. The Eldar machines seemed to ease, planting their swords into the rocky, snow covered ground as another Eldar in a robe appeared, a staff in his hand and a black mask on his face.
"... I thought we asked not to be disturbed." The Eldar between the two massive war machines spoke calmly.
"Sorry, we... Clearly didn't get the memo." Reaver said, setting the safety on his rifle and slinging it onto his back, "What the hell are you doing all the way out here, though? Most of your troops are in the city with ours."
"We have been tasked by the Farseer herself with building a Webway nexus onto this planet, to allow for our travel between this planet and others when the need arises. I believe she has already talked with your leaders concerning this situation." The Eldar spoke as the structure seemed to gain its form, shaping into prongs and a massive central structure that shimmered with energy. The Spiritseer looked to the men sat at the device, both turning back to him and staring with what seemed like surprise behind their movements. He nodded, then looked back.
"Huh..." Reaver looked to his concerned team, a hint of suspicion in his mind, before radioing in, "Command, this is Mike Recon. We just encountered an Eldar... What I'll assume is an engineer unit constructing something on the ground. Did the Farseer get permission for her folks to build stuff out here?"
A moment of tense silence passed, before the Radio whirred and the General's voice echoed, "Affirmative, Sergeant. The Farseer personally asked that we allow them the ability to build one of those 'Webway' gates here. Hope you ain't botherin' them too much."
He smiled "No, sir. Just wanted to clarify." before looking to the Eldar and saying, "Sorry for the scare... I'm Sergeant Mike Reaver."
"Ah, yes, the Farseer mentioned you and your unit." The Eldar nodded, "I am Idrarys, the Spiritseer of the Third Cohort. A pleasure to meet you, Sergeant."
"Spiritseers? What do you folks do?" Hitchcock started, slinging his own rifle onto his back.
Idrarys simply nodded to the man, then motioned to the giant warmachines beside him. He looked to one and the gem in the center of his staff lit a bright blue, psychic energy coursing through it. The machine he stared at rose to its feet, the strange gem in its forehead shimmering with blue light. The skeletal frame shimmered and a rough, hard, almost impassive multitude of voices, more leaning to the male side, said at the same time "The Wraithlords greet you, Human..."
"... Is..." Reaver looked to the Spiritseer, "Is... It alive?"
"It contains the soulstone of my brother." Idrarys answered, "Yes... It is alive, in a manner of speaking."
"The Craftworld calls us to serve in death, as we did in life..." The other spoke, its voices more feminine.
"... Right..." Reaver seemed almost horrified, as did many of his men, "We'll... Just head back to base. Leave you to yours, Spiritseer." and he turned to leave. The other soldiers nodded to the Eldar 'Seer and his soldiers before following their CO. As they rode back to their base, the Sergeant seemed to have frozen into place, deep in thought. Using your own dead's soulstones as weapons in massive war machines? He could take the whole 'Infinity Circuit' thing that Faen had explained a few days ago. He could even take the idea that the Eldar could not properly die out of fear of this 'god' swallowing them. He didn't know why he felt it so wrong to use those Soulstones as weapons...
He'd have to talk to Faen later. The rest of the ride back to the base was a quiet one, as they moved down the mountainside and down a highway toward the center of town. They caught glimpses of the SeaBees doing work on the buildings, repairing plasma damage as best they could, while medical units from the fleet up above were caring for the almost ten thousand wounded. The base had to divvy up the people they had inside.
The team passed by the Sinoviet and TRAXUS buildings on their little tour de force back to base. High above, Eldar fighters flew security alongside UNSC Longswords. The slick designs of the Eldar craft resembled simple sea animals, like fish or stingrays, yet ther were loaded with the same weapons as their ground troops, such as shuriken launchers and Melta weaponry to bust tanks... Or really heavily-armored enemy aircraft.
Civilians were now marching back into the city, with workers helping take apart the rubble and the SeaBees right behind them, turning the useless scrap into useful materiel for reconstruction. Not missing from among them were a few Eldar civilians of different crafts, also having offered themselves to help, though they were few in number, since the Eldar were still skeptical of working with humans. A sentiment clearly shared by some of the humans around as they avoided the Eldar. Some of the men and women among then turned, waving to the Marine convoy. The Marines saluted their allies and their own Civvies as they passed by.
The Hornet patrols were also returning toward the FOB's aerodrome, to land, refuel and stand by for any further orders. Thank God, the sector would finally quiet down and they would probably be transferred to another planet, just in case. That, or back aboard the UNSC Fleet, for reassignment. ATC must've been busy, though, directing all those units on station.
Two Pelicans landed in the plaza to their right, with more medical teams exiting to assist in the clinic there. A massive Eldar drop-ship of some kind followed them in, landing right behind them. It looked like a massive, angry predatory bird, but the 'chicks', those exiting the belly of the aircraft, were Eldar females, probably healers, going by the lack of armament.
Entering the base, whose courtyard was now occupied by Eldar hovertanks and UNSC vehicles all the same, instead of a mass of civvies, the convoy halted and disembarked, with the Sergeant taking off his helmet and watching the skies. Hovering farther away from the city, near an anchorage of some kind by the mountains, a single UNSC ship, slim, narrow and covered in stealth coating, sat.
"Huh. A Prowler." Murmured Weiss, slinging her rifle onto her back, "Looks like ONI took an interest in our friends."
"That can't be good..." Murmured Reaver. He looked to her and said "C'mon. Let's go report in with the general. Maybe he'll give us a Lieutenant or something, finally, so I don't have to keep doing this."
Weiss chuckled, "Maybe."
Inside, the two entered the CP, to find the general engaged in a conversation with the admiral commanding the battlegroup up above. The man turned to face the newly-arrived Marines, who both promptly snapped to attention and saluted their two officers, both of whom saluted back. The admiral turned to his groundpounder counterpart and gave a quick salute and a smile, before his hologram vanished.
The General looked up and spoke "So, you met the Eldar workers out there."
"Sir." The two nodded.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" The Sergeant raised a brow.
Koller nodded, "Go ahead."
"Sir, the Spiritseer we med was accompanied by four of his compatriots. Two of them seemed to be builders, while the other two were... I don't even know." The Sergeant started, feeling a slight chill as he remembered them, "They called themselves Wraithlords. Big, mean-looking mechs with swords and armor made outta the same material as their foot soldiers' own... Though they felt off."
"How so?" Koller raised a brow.
"They had the soulstones of dead Eldar in them, sir." Mike noted, "Like... I get the need for the stuff where they come from, but I thought they'd just keep'em around until that evil god or whatever is defeated, so they can release them. Never would I have thought they'd also be using their loved ones' souls as weapons. It's... Kind of creepy, to be honest."
The General sighed, "I get what you mean, Sergeant, but, well... This is the new normal for now. Can't help that."
"Sir..." Nodded Reaver, sighing, "One more thing... There's an ONI ship docked not far from here."
"Ah, yeah, that..." Koller chuckled sadly, "Yes, ONI sent forth their own... Reps... To talk to and learn about the Eldar."
"Here's to hoping they won't try to abduct the poor fuckers..." Murmured Weiss sarcastically, crossing her arms. With a look from the general, the girl stowed it. Koller walked up to a com console and took out a file, before walking past the holo-table and handing it to Reaver. The Marine started reading the file, before humming and nodding. He showed to Weiss the transfer papers. Lima-9, along with the entire Battalion, now rearmed and reinforced, would be moved aboard the UNSC Peak Conditions, one of their Valiant-class Super-heavies, then mobilized for the closest theater of operations within the week.
"Guess the War ain't sleepin' in now that the Eldar arrived..." Reaver sighed, folding the transfer order and pocketing it. Koller nodded.
"You'll also be getting a new Lieutenant. She's kind of green, but I trust she'll manage with you as her 2iC, won't she?" Koller raised a brow. Reaver nodded, slight contempt visible in his eyes, despite his impassivity. A Marine vet usually disliked someone green being thrown onto their platoon as active commander, especially since they've been running with it for as long as they have. That went double for the Marines around him.
Alas, no more, no less, that was what had to be done to ensure unit cohesion. Thank fuck they still had officers to recruit from, what with this shitshow of a war. The General dismissed them with a nod, turning back to reconstruction and coordination efforts. A few radios, extras in case the others broke down, probably, seemed to be missing from the tables.
The Sergeant chuckled as the two were dismissed. He waved Weiss over to the bunks to tell the others about the transfer orders, before leaving. Exiting the main building, he went up to one of the higher landing pads and sat himself down at the edge, finally able to be alone with his thoughts. The sun began to set as he stared out at the city. The flames started by the Covenant attack had been extinguished, but the people, those of them that survived, remained.
In the night sky, far away, he could see a 'meteor shower'. The remnants of the space battle up above had always de-orbited and crashed during the night for the past few days. Tonight was a lightshow unlike any other, though, as bigger chunks or even halves of the Covenant's fleet began landing, while the remnants of the UNSC ships in orbit followed them in, all of them landing in the sea about 30 kilometers north of the city. The mountain in the south now shined an eerie white light as the Eldar's own structures were being built up.
"The General thought I might find you here." He heard a familiar voice. With a grin on his face, he turned to greet Faen.
"Hey, Farseer." He nodded, "Yeah, I come here to clear my head after the day's tribulations."
She sighed, then nodded, "Understandable. Our stay here has been an... Experience."
"Heh." he snorted, "Ran into the ONI spooks?"
"Yes. And I thought Doctor Halsey was inquisitive about us." She approached the man's side, staring out at the night sky as the burning wrecks of enemy and allied ships alike fell from their days-long decaying orbit. She hummed, crossing her arms to her chest, before looking down at the city as a few more Eldar arrived to assist. Then, she gazed at the mountains, where their structures began to grow.
"You delivered us some hope, you know?" Michael Reaver said, staring at the city as it rebuilt.
"Huh?" The Farseer turned her gaze to him, surprised.
He looked back to her again, smiling this time, although it was faint. He nodded, "Humanity... We've been on the backfoot since 2525 over Harvest. Every inch of ground up to now was burned and turned to glass... Every planet we lost was stripped of all life. Every battle group that faced the Covenant barely made it out alive, if any ever did. Until now, we've been throwing men and ships we can ill-afford at the problem with the hope of stalling them to find a solution... I had a feeling that, after Miridem, we would be completely screwed..."
Gazing forward again, at the hundred dots and the Craftworld high above, he continued "And then, when shit really started to hit the fan, when the Covenant was about to burn another world... Another place that belonged to man and kill everyone on it, you folks appeared out of the void and we were lucky enough that the Covenant popped off the first shot..."
"Yes, well..." Faen sighed, "Things would've been much more different had mankind shot first... Or had we not intervened."
"Thanks."
"Huh!?" She looked with utter disbelief. He smirked.
"Thanks, Faen. To you and your people... Maybe, with your help, we'll have some fucking chance in this war." He sighed, "Maybe we'll push the bastards back, retake my home... And then nuke theirs to hell, just to make'em see how it feels."
"Revenge..." Faen sighed deeply, staring forth, "It seems humans are not so different, no matter their galaxy or universe." And she actually smiled. For the first time since the Sergeant knew her, Faen wore an actual smile on her face as she spoke, "Well, it pays to have some familiarity with your species, after all. We have worked together, even in our realm."
"You have to tell me about us in your universe, Faen." The Sergeant grinned and the woman rolled her eyes. He was trying to get a rise out of her with that. She chuckled, knowing not to fall for the bait again. The man looked more rough than last she'd seen him, a slight bout of facial hair growing unevenly across his face. He looked as tired as she felt, so there was that.
"Oh, I'm getting reassigned by the way. We're gonna mobilize with a new Battle Group as part of its contingent." He smirked. She raised a brow at that. Huh, she forgot human postings usually involved mobility between their fleets and planets, so... With a quippy tone, he said "Maybe your folks'll let bits of your Fleet follow along, Faen. It'd be nice to have counters to the Covvies."
With an annoyed sigh, the woman said "Perhaps. Why, do you need someone to keep you out of the line of fire?"
He chuckled, then took a thinker's pose in jest. He shook his head, then said "Nah, Imma need someone with a psychic arm like yours to throw 'nades. You and I make a pretty good team, Faen."
"So, yes, someone needs to keep you out of the line of fire." She shot back. With a half-faked sigh, she said "Very well, if you humans are so clumsy as to need us to watch your backs... We shall see what happens."
He chuckled, "Knew you liked me."
Her shoulders sagged, looking to him.
"What? It's just a joke!" He laughed. Impassive, the girl turned and walked away, while he started again "Faen? Faen!? Faen, where're ya going!? The Covvie debris are just about to hit the water again! Faen! Faaaeeeeen~!" He pestered her on and on and on and... Ugh... She could handle this, she was mature enough not to fall for a Mon'Keigh's stupid jokes and-
"Faeeeen~!" He mocked, noticing it was finally getting to her
"I SWEAR TO KHAINE, IF YOU DO NOT STOP, I WILL SEND YOU TO THE STRATOSPHERE WITHOUT A STARFIGHTER, YOU BARELY-SENTIENT GUNG-HO LUNATIC!"
"Pfft." He chuckled, "Too easy."
For the love of Isha, this man was gonna be the death of her, wasn't he?
Down below, Weiss and her Banshee friend stared on, both shaking their heads in disbelief at the antics of their commanding officers. Weiss sighed, then shrugged and said "Wanna go get something to drink?" and the Banshee stood, thinking, for a moment. She shrugged, then showed Weiss to lead the way. Mankind and the Eldar's alliance was about to become fairly interesting.