Halo: Predator Lost Ch8. An alternate history, within an alternate history, within an alternate history Oh My.
"Spinal bruising in several areas, a minor concussion, hairline fractures in the fingers and knuckles, bruising across most of your body." The doctor checked off after examination." Did you pick a fight with a mob or something Lieutenant?"
Inside the infirmary, Colonel Stein was present as Lieutenant Mike Owen got patched up from the doc, his injures were minor and thanks to the current medical tech the LT will be fully healed in a week.
"hehehehe, No, that was me challenging Scythe to a fight and I lost, but to be fair I was able to gain his respect," Mike answered, his muscles now sore, doubting he'd be able to move much tomorrow.
"Scythe?" Stein asked with a raised eyebrow
"He's the other one, you can't miss him since he has a very different style when compared to Winter, in a way it would be like comparing a marine with a Spartan, sir." Mike replied almost forgetting military etiquette.
"I see, so what did you learn then?" Stein now had his arms crossed memorizing every detail the LT revealed.
"They aren't from around here sir, to put it bluntly after seeing the biography of a woman named Alexa Woods, they figured out that it wasn't just time they traveled but realities. For comparison, they showed us what she did in their own timeline and it turns out she married one who went by the name Scar.
They also showed that they used mankind to create black monsters of death for centuries but protocols changed after an outbreak."
After that, one inputted their own law into our database. So I decided to challenge one before things could get any weirder. The strength these Predators have is immense and I doubt Scythe was even using his full strength. Just an elbow strike was enough to send me against a wall and his bone from that punch of mine felt like hitting steel. Sarah then escorted them back to their ship and that was a few hours ago." Mike finished.
"Do they have the technology to traverse time and realities?" Stein asked with a critical eye. ONI had evaluated the Code, and quite frankly it made the species both an enemy and an ally.
"No sir, but if true then we have a big problem because as they said, they had studied our race for eons, hunted us for sport, used humanity for many things, and assuming their navigation systems were able to compensate for time and stellar drift. Well, I shouldn't have to say it." Mike nearly whispered the last part as it finally sank in.
Just on queue, Stein was informed, that Earth's navigation data had been accessed but the cartesian coordinates had been inputted manually through the datapad given to the Predators. Of course, that will confuse them some more since such a thing happened, then the system given would look like any other uninhabited star system.
Stein could practically feel the confusion on aliens' faces, but the fact is, they knew, which made making them allies even more imperative as that information can't be leaked to the Covenant. Though that does question whether or not their race even exists in this universe and if they do then in what format.
"sir?"
"Maintain Cole protocol on that datapad, for now, even if they know where Earth is, they don't need to know its current status."
"Yes sir." the technician signed off.
"Seems your new friends have already confirmed your suspicions, as they typed in Earth's exact location using a cartesian coordinate system. In the meantime get some rest, it's going to be an interesting week." With that Colonel Stein left.
Sarah right now was feeling very irritated. After escorting the alien giants back to their ship, the media crews swamped her like an army of flies after fresh poop. She answered the questions as best she could but they all blurred to the point she just wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and hide. Eventually, after the wolves were satisfied she went back home and tried to sleep. Sadly that was a luxury that wouldn't come.
Mike's offer either as a joke or not bothered her, first an Alien tries to hook her up with him, then the man himself acts like a neanderthal trying to prove he is ideal mating material. The man wasn't bad looking per se, average height, blond buzzcut, athletic build, and oh yea her superior officer. Granted romance between officers and enlisted are allowed but when the relationship goes south it makes things very awkward.
Besides, the man is constantly thinking and analyzing things like a spook despite not being one. Then until recently, she was a hyperactive astronomer, drafted into the UNSC looking at exploding stars and the like. Sighing in frustration Sarah decided to take a shower hoping everything turns out better in a few days.
Now having time to thoroughly look into the datapad Winter was both confused and having some fun at the same time. Unlike Scythe, Winter already knew navigation data was restricted but Scythe didn't know that. So out of curiosity, they typed in the coordinates for Earth. What they got were two things, one, a sign saying CP in effect, and two, the system it showed us had nothing in it.
"What the Pauk!" Scythe roared. Then just to be certain grabbed the other datapad and began inputting coordinates for one system after another. This went on for over an hour, Scythes mood continued to get worse as systems that held Yautja colonies were listed as either unexplored, uninhabited, or Glassed.
That last part though was only a few systems at random roughly six hundred light-years from Earth and greatly intrigued Scythe. Truth be told, those were supposed to be designated hunting planets or worlds with some minor form of sapient life but glassed indicate deliberate destruction by an outside force.
"Winter I'm beginning to wonder if our race even exists here and even if it does in one form or another we need to find a way to get back." Scythe stood and began pacing thinking of ways to get back but came up empty.
Winter who'd been looking into more historical data on a separate datapad given to them after the soldiers found out there were two of them. Was quite fascinated but being a realist had to settle for a sad answer.
"Scythe, our skill sets are in engineering, hunting, piloting, maintenance, weapons, and adapting. None of those fields have anything to do with theoretical physics and dimensional sciences. I've already looked into our database and all it has are unproven theories." Pausing for a moment, that Winter knew would piss Scythe off, despite being well collected, Scythe was taking this news and transition far worse than he was. "Scythe, we may have to accept the fact that the odds of getting back are zero." These words were not ones Scythe wanted to hear.
Snarling, with aggression, never felt before, Scythe while feeling the empathy from Winter despite a good job of hiding it. Didn't like the feeling of his heart being torn to shreds. "Spirit, Kal, Death, Wolf, Kima, Striker, Nova, Snow, Scar, and many of our fellow Yautja are either mourning us or writing us off and yet. You sit here acting as though never seeing them again doesn't affect you." Fists clenched,
"What do you want me to say, that there is hope for getting back, the theories say the number of realities is infinite. While jumping from one reality to the next would be fun, odds are we will never make it back, and yes I'm just as depressed as you are but it's not like we can go kill something and running will only make us seem scarier since the humans now know that we know where their homeworld is." Winter said barely keeping his voice from yelling.
That is when a memory came up, Javalin once told Scythe that C'ntlip was an excellent way of blowing off anger. Since Winter gave the oomans the only bottle on the ship, a new form of cultural exchange was needed.
"I need a drink, have fun in their history robot." Scythe then left the craft to the nearest soldier on duty, before Winter could even make a reply.
Upon seeing the Alien come out without its mask on, the soldiers wondered what it needed. "I require intoxicants, which of you is worthy enough to challenge me in drinking said poison." The voice, dear lord that voice could wake the dead or give nightmares with how guttural it sounded. Scythe took pleasure in seeing the distinct shudder some oomans showed.
"Uh sir, if he's referring to alcohol then isn't this that one Specialist and LTs Job?" A private asked.
The Captain in charge here couldn't help but smile."Sargent take first and second squad here, one to watch the other to drink, and if any of the residents want to join in why the heck not. Scythe is it? I know how you feel but I'm stuck here so enjoy and try not to kill anyone."
Following the Sargent to a nearby pub which read as Frontier booze. The local civilians were again enthralled and upon entering many gawked at the ugly and very large alien surrounded by soldiers.
"Listen up everyone, this will be on the UNSC's tab and our new friend here wants a challenge, place your bets people let's see who gets drunk under the table first!" Yelled the Sargent.
Already several big men and one scantly clad woman lined up. "Hey, barkeep get us all the Bacardi you got!" With that said most of the contestants changed their minds, save four people, the woman, some man who wore a green tie and shirt, and two large marines.
Pouring the booze into five glasses, everyone watch amazed as Scythe didn't waste a second and somehow poured the entire glass down his throat like a shot glass.
With a smile on her face, the woman followed suit as did the rest.
hmm, not quite to the same level as C'ntlip but surprisingly good. Scythe waved for a refill and this went on for a while.
"We better gi've it a est, Honey," said the businessman before passing out drunk on the table.
"Never!" Were the last words from the woman before smashing onto the desk. The Marines likewise passed out,
The barkeep at this point gave an entire bottle to Scythe. This is when things truly became interesting. Using just his mandibles Scythe jugged the entire bottle as one would water.
"Does this thing even have a liver?" a random person asked.
"it already drank enough alcohol to kill three people, wait, make that four". someone said upon seeing another full bottle drained.
Scythe lost count of how much, but the buzz was finally getting to him but not enough. This time two fingers were held and two bottles were given and thus like a college party, the Predator took both bottles at once and drained their contents into his gullet.
Finally, after doing this three more times, Scythe let out a colossal belch, which sounded like a demon waking the dead, and the smell was more akin to a rotting corpse or several. The barkeep who was at ground zero passed out while other nearby drunks puked a bit.
Now with a proper buzz, Scythe unsteadily walked out. The first squad followed while the second grabbed their fellow drunk marines.
"Thanks for the fun but before I go, who are those two." The Sargent point to the scantly clad woman and businessman.
"Those two held the record for drinking everyone in the colony under the table or stalemating them. The man on the left is Rock and the insane woman on the right is his wife Revy." Answered a patron
"huh, so that's the dynamic duo of drinking I've heard rumors about. Good night fellas."
Back at the spaceport, the Captain had the biggest grin he ever had, so much so his muscles were straining.
Since the media tracked every inch these aliens moved, it came as no surprise that everyone watched an Alien drink enough booze to kill ten men and still be standing. let alone walking albeit with some trouble but nobody wanted to touch him in case some reflex caused issues.
That is until the robot-looking one came out and tried talking to its friend but even the clicks and growls sounded weird. Until the drunk one tried to throw a punch but missed entirely. This continued for a few minutes before the drunk one's fist hit the side of a warthog with a loud bang. Taking advantage of the pain, the other one then pulls the long dreds of his friend causing him to trip and fall backward onto the tarmac finally passing out.
"So, want to try Bacardi." the Sargent offered a bottle of the stuff bought from the bar to Winter.
Taking the bottle the predator analyzed it briefly before an idea hit him. Going back and grabbing a torch from the shuttle, Winter began heating the bottle to the point of near-boiling
" Guess he likes it warm?" said a private,
The company was skeptical as to what the armored alien was doing. Then out of seemingly nowhere an ancient M1911 was pulled out and cocked.
This immediately caused all, soldiers, to raise their weapons at the creature. Well, accept the gun on the warthog which was jammed from the other one's punch.
"Stand down!" the Captain yelled, "he isn't going to shoot us." The predator nodded its head toward the officer before grabbing the bottle and throwing it high into the air. With pinpoint accuracy, a single 45acp bullet impacted and caused the bottle of Bacardi to explode spectacularly over the unfenced-off area of the tarmac.
After that, he picked up his friend and carried him into the shuttle.
"So, one likes to drink and the other one likes to shoot it, literally." Stated a private.
"Someone get that warthog to the depot for repairs, frak, the media is going to have a heyday with this one." Wiping his face with his hands the Captain began writing his report to the Colonel along with the bill for the damaged warthog and drinking contest. Still, something had changed, over ten years of war thus far and the mannerisms were easy to spot on nonhumans. Something had these aliens spooked and depressed, hence the usual routine for relieving stress.
Placing Scythe onto the lower bunk, Winter couldn't help but snicker. Now you know why I don't drink intoxicants, still, at least we both got to have some fun in our own way, Winter thought to himself. After that he then proceeded to meditate, figuring Scythe will feel better by the next day.
Kudos to Robert C for the ideas. Though I intend to use more of them in the next chapter. After that, expect a time skip of a few days.
Now as for the cameo, I hope anyone who reads the manga or watches the anime understands it. Don't expect those two again though.
That said, I didn't know Bacardi was real booze until I looked it up.
Also yes I did that. In various fics it's depicted how humans would react to Yautja booze but not the other way around, in this case, I did both.
The drinking part in Mass effect 2 was hilarious
As always please review, it greatly helps to keep writer's block away. Thank you.