OK 2ND CHAPTER HERE WE GO. SORRY IF I SCREWED THIS UP I'LL TRY TO MAKE THE NEXT CHAPTER BETTER. THIS WHOLE THING HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE TO WRITE FOR ME LATELY.
ALSO I APOLOGISE THAT THE PACING MAY FAIL OVERALL.
AND THIS IS MORE OR LESS A MIX OF BOTH A SERIOUS CHAPTER AND FILLER JUST TO LET YOU KNOW.
7TH SEPTEMBER 2557 (MILITARY CALENDER) - SYSTEM DETAILS: INFORMATION PENDING - TIME: CONFIRMED LATE AFTERNOON
We both moved further through the red forest, urging for our positions to by out of range from the beasts. I assumed the thing we fought back there had an impossibly wide sensing range, something we couldn't exactly have gotten caught with. One of those monsters were enough. A pack of them would be an instant death sentence.
After a few more minutes, there was a sudden crack that emerged from my foot, forcing me onto the ground. "Shit!" I cursed in pain. Seemed like my ankle just couldn't take the constant movement anymore since the crash. Thankfully, we seemed to have been far enough from those bastards, so no getting mauled to death any time soon. My new friend helped my up on a tree stump. "Thanks," I said to her, although she didn't say anything in response, possibly out of confusion due to the language barrier. I repeated my gratitude again, but this time in her native tongue, "Uh... Ezia."
She seemed to have reacted more, behind her mask I could tell she had an expression of approval. She took off my boot to examine the damage. Yep, my ankle was definitely twisted, damn it, this was going to be a large liability. There didn't seem to be a cast or any alternative around, actually there might have been but the methods were quite oblivious to us.
My friend unsheathed her sword, thinking she had already found an alternative. "Ol tehl," she ordered, about to amputate my leg.
I moved my leg out of the way. "Whoa whoa whoa! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?! Don't need you jabbing my leg off!" I shouted at her, before scoffing. There was no point in being formal at all with her, not like formality would help you survive an unknown environment. Damn it, medication here must have been really primitive. Judging by her blade, I assumed they might have focused more on armed forces instead of what's necessary for the people. Great, so now I was alarmed of not only hostile beasts, but whatever primitive intelligent species ruled this world. That reminded me, I pretty much just discovered a whole new alien society, one that the UNSC or any other galactic faction had probably no knowledge of. But at the time, my mind was more focused on rendezvousing with other survivors. I'd leave all the studying for the scientists.
She sheathed her sword. Although she may have looked quite stern, I could tell she was embarrassed behind her mask. As an apology, she offered a flask of sorts wrapped in some leather-like rag. Like the aching fatigued wreck I was since the crash, I downed the whole thing. It wasn't like the water we're provided before we go out to battle or something, it was more polluted. But it was refreshing nonetheless.
"Ezia," I said again, "Hey, I didn't catch your name?"
"Name?"
"How to explain... uhh..." I placed my hand to my chest, "I'm Alford. Al-ford."
"Keh Oga," she responded, putting emphasis on her last word. So that was her name, huh?
"Nice to meet you, Oga. Listen, have you seen any other UNSC survivors?" She still didn't understand. I had no clue why the hell I was speaking as if she did, maybe it was just nice to talk with someone, illusioning myself that their silence was a sign of being a good listener. I suddenly realised what I just said, and decided to take a more careful approach. "UNSC," I pointed to myself. Oga managed to understand what I'm talking about, assuming the UNSC was my 'clan' or 'tribe' or whatever people here referred factions as.
Unfortunately, she responded misinterpreting my question. She pointed to herself. "Eyhak." That must've been the name of her tribe.
I slowly replied, "Where. Other. UNSC?"
She gave me her cultural equivalent of a shrug.
"Shit. What about the Albany?" I then imitated a ship crashing from the sky in the most simplest way possible, although I looked childish when doing it.
Oga appeared to have been more responsive, she must've known something. Well, who wouldn't notice a large metal flaming object dropping from the fucking sky? She passed a long stick beneficial for my support, and I stood up. It was a struggle at firs tbut I managed to regain my balance. She placed the hide over her shoulder, and off we went deeper into the forest.
The forests looked more or less similar to the temperate areas back on Earth when I gave a closer observation, wide crimson streams trickling passed us as a mixture of bright flower hybrids sprung out on its borders, uncut pale grass scattered roughly all over the soil like a raging harmless infection. Rodents and small predators dispersing all about, continuing the cycle of life over and over, and all we did was observe.
It was still a bit of a struggle for my travelling ability given my twisted ankle, especially in the rougher terrains. Thankfully, my friend helped me through, but she couldn't save me from my constant tripping. It wasn't as dramatic as I'm describing this, but when your ankle is broken and you're trapped on an unknown planet with only a stranger you can't even communicate with as an ally, it's common to get frustrated and over-exaggerate.
Oga helped me up to higher ground, and we found ourselves to be at the top of a large rock-exclusive cliffside. It was like a half kilometre drop as I looked over. I may have gone to space, highest anyone'll ever go, but I almost pissed myself over this.
She gestured me to step back, worried that I'd plummet to my death. After that, she pointed to the distance. "Elbany," she generically mispronounced.
I glared to where she pointed, there seemed to be a communion of mountains multiple clicks away, surrounded by spanning acres of blood forest. I looked through the scope of my DMR in the most awkward position ever achieved in history. Zooming in, my eyes widened once I saw the speck of visible black smoke emerging from behind the large rocks that concealed its source. It could've been anything though, but my gut told me that this definitely was the Albany. I didn't think about it at the time, for once I had a clear objective, no more fumbling in the dark searching for even the slightest lead.
I chuckled with a bit of cheer. "Ezia, Oga," I said to my friend.
We didn't bother heading straight towards the wreckage. Oga had her own errands to run, particularly with the hide. The day was about to die off as the sun began to rest. The nocturnal predators began to awaken from their abysses of habitats. It was only a matter of time before both of us got into another man versus nature once more.
But my friend wasn't just blindly leading ourselves into a forest. Like I said, she had her own errands to run. We found ourselves near what appeared to have been a small village, about fifteen huts all structured next to a narrow river yet tightly enclosed by the crimson trees. Small fences keeping in domesticated animals, old wooden contraptions used for collecting and filtering the river water, a shrine right in the middle being a stone statue of a beast covered in whatever offered such as decorations, animal hides or just plain junk. At least to me it was junk. This must have been Oga's home. There weren't any banners or flags or whatever represented the 'Eyhak' tribe, they appeared to still be living in the Stone Age, or Chrome Age but with multiple backtracks.
I could tell my friend was happy behind her mask. But to me, I saw this as a rest stop. It's unfortunately how us marines were trained, even if i wasn't exactly open or acknowledged.
The people were all slumbering, except for a few armed tattooed men sitting around a fire, wearing clothing similar to Oga's. This was the first time I got a glimpse on my friend's people. Hell, they looked unusually similar to us humans. And the closest humanoid race to us were the Fringe, and they looked more related to the fishes than us. Their skin colour appeared to be a quite pale yellow, and their hair all a matching brown. I assumed these were their armed forces, although I expected those slightly more advanced. By advanced I mean something more than just wooden spears with chrome plated ends. Hell, they could've advanced a bit more with these metals, built better weapons, maybe even buildings for the people instead of the rotting machine by the river. But if this was how they'd spend the rest of their precious resources, then there's nothing I could do about this.
One of the men noticed us. "Oga! Otcidre jrefehn ère?!" He questioned furiously at my friend, but quiet enough to not wake everyone up. I assumed he was concerned more about my presence. They must have not been too friendly with many outsiders, and I did look pretty suspicious since my apparel and appearance was entirely alien to them. Despite my injury and roughed up armour, I still looked like a threat.
"Mekreh Alford filde," She loudly whispered in response before dumping the hide straight in front of them, "Gorack Jeje nyeh!"
Another of the men gestured for her to take her headwear off when she spoke, and she did, exposing her face. I took a good look at her, she was under twenty, her eyes like fool's gold yet they portrayed experience, and a large birthmark burned around her right eye as if it was rewarded.
They bickered on for a few more minutes, most likely arguing about me assuming by the fact they were throwing my surname around.
The argument finally ended, with the men going back to whatever their duty was by the fire. Oga gestured me to go into her hut, and let her deal with her errands. I gave her a nod and went inside. It wasn't exactly like what I've seen on a mission in Africa, the last tribes there still kept to their simple architecture. Here it was pretty advanced; a wooden workbench, a small storage area covered with crates, some rope and rock decorations on the straw walls, even the beds were similar to the ones in the less developed systems.
I sat down on one of them, before hearing a cry from below, I jumped back up to find a young boy about twelve emerging from the blanket. How the hell did I not notice him? He cant have been that small. Nevertheless, I was embarrased.
"Seh aigu?" He asked me, showing a bit of fear.
"Sorry, mate," I apologised attempting to calm him down, "Uhh, Keh Alford? Uh... I'm friends with Oga?" Once again, I spoke in English as if he would understand. I mean I had to have said something.
"Oga?" He questioned at the familiar name.
Before I could say anything else, the uttered name just came in. "Jeya, Kell," she greeted to the boy. I assumed 'Kell' was her brother or close relative? I honestly never got an answer, but it was most likely the sibling status.
"Oga, ikrei?" He pointed at me.
"Alford skalfa preh. Stoi etel 'Elbany'," she explained.
Yet again, I just observed another chat concerning me, not understanding a clue what they were saying. I sat down with my back resting on the wall, exhausted by the whole day. It felt like I was a child just watching their parents arguing about things they don't understand. They continued for a few more minutes, before coming to a conclusion.
There were no further verbal interactions from me nor them, I believed it was best in case we came into another dilemma included with this language barrier. Kell, however, became slightly more accepting of me despite only knowing each other for such little time. Oga just set out a large piece of stitched cloths and rags for me to sleep on, clearly wanting to deal with all of this in the morning. I felt the same way too, like I was just dumped into this whole situation.
I stared at the straw ceiling, awaiting for sleep to finally overcome me. The other two appeared to have went into their slumbering state quite quickly, their quiet snores said it all. But I usually kept active for about ten minutes, all lone with my thoughts as I stared off into space, or actually the ceiling. More than just questions swirled around in my head again, but since I actually was able to keep track of them, it was more frustrating than before.
I grabbed my helmet from the side, thinking I could fix the communications. This wasn't an attempt to establish communications, it was an attempt to dwell the nonexistent pain that plagued me in my head.
It was difficult to work with something like this without tools or an understanding of basic engineering, or physics in general to be honest.
"Come on you stupid piece of- gah!" I grunted. Oh fuck this. I carelessly threw my helmet to the side. Maybe tomorrow would have helped. I wasn't in the right state of mind for this, anyway.
My head reverted back to face the ceiling, and finally, the land of organic recharge consumed me like everyone else.
FINALLY! THIS CHAPTER HAD BEEN BUGGING ME FOR ALL OF MARCH! SORRY IF THIS SUCKED OR JUST DISAPPOINTING, BY THE WAY. NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE MORE MAJOR, I PROMISE.