The Last Spartan - Halo 2
Jorge, Alice, Douglas, and Jerome sat around some mess hall tables in their deck officer uniforms. The party had faded, and they were the only ones who remained. The four sat there for an untold amount of time, just conversing. All with young, worn and scared faces. Even Jorge, who clearly was the eldest of the group who had the greatest amount of hair, and the wisest tone, had that of a young boy in his perplexity. They laughed, they smiled, and most importantly, as a group they were human again.
The perplexion on their faces was that of happiness, something an SII rarely if at all sees.
But, all good things came to an end, as the party slowed and Christmas came to a close, so did the aroma. Soldiers, men and women returned to the mess hall for the usual gatherings, and the four Spartans too were about to leave.
Yet before they could, Spartan Wilson came straight through the mess hall door, easily two heads above the common marine. In shining grey spartan armor, holding his helmet (which seems to be a version of the Scout variant), and it's blue visor, he seemed ready for something. As he approached the three Spartan II's, Jorge rolled his eyes, mumbling to himself, "here we go again," (which made Douglas chuckle).
"Spartans," he said, holding out his hand, "these ear pieces will keep you guys miked, and the AI active."
The Red Team looked at each other, and Jerome asked, "AI?"
"Yes, you will be briefed by it," he nodded, "good luck," before turning around and walking out of the mess hall again.
"Damn what's his problem, so snappy," said Douglas.
They each put in their selected earpieces, which looked quite strange even for them. Jorge heard a slight beep in his ear, before a quick response from William.
"Don't mind him Douglas. Spartan William was even a Spartan before you were in age. He just likes to get on the point."
Alice chuckled, and Jerome seemed a little unphased (probably because he's had an AI in his head before). But Douglas was like a kid on Christmas morning, "woah, this is kinda cool!"
"Indeed, I am 'cool'."
Shaking his head, Jerome turned the conversation, "we were told you had a mission for us?"
"Yes, Spartan. If you head to the hangar, there is a single D91-TC pelican waiting for your arrival."
Without further questioning, the four stood up from their mess hall chairs, and passed through the small crowd of marines in front (which by the way, was not even up to their chests). As they passed, Jerome spoke, "So what's with the deck officer uniform? They said we wouldn't need our armor?"
"Precisely Spartan Jerome. The Republic's Chancellor has specifically requested the Red Team attend the treaty in their senate building."
"Oh how flattering," said Douglas.
"Red Team?" Jorge questioned, "I'm not with them, why me?"
"Considering you are the only SII still alive and registered to this day, having you in a fireteam was the logical option, I requested it myself."
"Welcome to the club," Alice slapped Jorge on the back.
But, like a kid realizing he is on the same dodgeball team as his friends, Jorge glanced at Douglas, which he did the same thing at the same time, both chuckling.
It didn't take long to reach the hangar. Turn after turn down the metallic hallways, passed groups of marines stuttering seeing the Sierra nameplates on their chests.
They reached the wide open hangar, and like what William said, a pelican was waiting for them. A squad of ODST lounging about on the crates stood up immediately also seeing the Spartans, ceasing their mutterings. Following out of the belly of the pelican, was another officer, he seemed to be in a darker officer uniform, and was just barely shorter than the SII, which surprised them a little.
As the group approached this tall man in blacks he shook Jerome before speaking, "I am Spartan Laken, representing ONI on this diplomatic assignment."
"ONI has Spartans?" Douglas laughed.
"Yes and no, it's not an official title, but it's more of an affiliation," he returned the giggle, "if you come onboard, we can get going."
As the four got on (the weight of their bodies rocking the pelican a bit), the ODST filed in behind.
"And may I ask where we are going?" said Jerome.
Sitting down on the strange folding chairs, the door to the pelican shut with a vacuum puff.
"A planet called Coruscant, it's their homeworld, we are going to discuss diplomatic relations with them."
"We? We are Spartans," Jorge shook his head, "politics are going to be the death of me."
"Not you, me. Leave the talking to me and Admiral Lasky. General Kenobi personally requested the Red Team, along with Jorge. And their Chancellor is anxious to meet you."
The engine began to rev on the pelican as two of the ODST moved to the front of them and moved to the front bridge of the pelican, giving strange looks to the super soldiers. Nevertheless, Jorge continued the conversation, "so are we going to be allies with them?"
"Looks like it," Laken shook his head, "Banished have been trading and dealing with these Separatists for months, and going along with their Republic is going to be interesting."
"Right…"
"Ahem," William flickered from their speakers, "what about the Swords?"
"Ah yes, the Swords of Sanghelios will be there too, I think the Arbiter himself might even show."
As the pelican took off, going out of the hangar into the void of space, Jorge grunted, "elites."
Douglas jolted, "what are split-jaws gonna be doing there?!"
Laken held up both his hands as Douglas cooled a bit, "the Swords of Sanghelios have been allied with us for almost seventy years. They, yes, are mostly elites, but if it wasn't for them we would not have won the war against the Covenant all those years ago."
"Wait… we won?" said Jerome.
"Yes, we did, and these elites are the reason for it."
"Why would the elites betray the Covenant," asked Alice.
"Well," Laken ruffled his hand through his hair, "the elites were becoming skeptical of the Covenant religion. They started to ironically respect us humans in combat, and their prophets were starting to not like them. They had the elites slaughtered by brutes, which backfired heavily. We won the war with their help. The elites are the reason the Covenant does not exist anymore."
"Hm," Douglas laughed, "Damn gators… that's interesting."
"Anyway, don't shoot them the moment you see them, please?"
Jorge looked away, Alice shrugged, Jerome nodded his head, and Douglas scoffed, "noted."
It did not take long for their ship to reach this planet's atmosphere. The Spartans, and the ODST were all glaring out their own window of the pelican.
"It looks like a city, an entire city," said one of the ODST.
Going through the clouds, and the skyline of a busy city rippled and flew for miles. Skyscrapers and buildings of all shapes and sizes scattered for an entire planet size area. The sun reflected off their glass windows and unique infrastructure. Ships of all designs and sizes were flewing in corresponding lanes, through dozens of entry ways. Almost like… traffic.
Just then, they could hear on the pilots front intercom, "unidentified vessel, you are in restricted air space, vacate the area immediately."
The pilot grabbed the front speaker, speaking aloud, "this is UNSC pelican Gamma-three-four-seven, I have UNSC representatives aboard requesting permission to land."
A static moment of stillness, and everyone like Deja Vu held their breath. But, it no longer remained as the clone over the com said, "request received and approved, Docking bay eleven is open, General Kenobi is awaiting your arrival."
The Clones - Star Wars the Clone Wars
The pelican would sit down on the said landing bay, letting out the loud metal thud. The high pitch engine would also die down as it turned off. The back door opened, extending a ramp-ish. The Spartans hopped out one by one, following with the ODST. The sun was bright on their backs and reflecting off the dropship behind them. And at the far side of the pad, was General Kenobi, Commander Cody, a woman dressed nicely in what seemingly is diplomatic clothing.
Blue soldiers wearing similar armor to that of a clone, except with a mane going down the top of their heads, and with a blue robe slightly covering their shoulders.
Spartan Laken took the lead, handshaking Kenobi when they both approached.
"Welcome to Coruscant, the senators are eager to meet you," said Kenobi.
Laken nodded, "glad to be here general, I assume everyone else is here too?"
"Yes, they are talking with the Chancellor as we speak," and he gestured to the woman on his left, "this is Senator Amidala, she is here with you on behalf of the senate."
Giving a gentleman's handshake to her, she spoke, "I would also like to welcome you, not very often we have treaties on a large scale like this."
"Pleasure is all mine," he turned to Jorge, "I assume you have already met?"
S052 nodded, "Yea, we have."
"We have?" She looked a little confused.
"Oh my bad," he chuckled, "it's me, Jorge, looks a little different."
She was astonished, "without your armor you're nearly unrecognizable!"
"Yea, I get that."
General Kenobi began to walk down the pad, "if you follow me, the other representatives are waiting for you."
"Thank you general," said Laken.
As they followed, the ODST could not help but glare at the clone soldier to the right of the Jedi. Sure, all three were human, but the clone in particular had their attention. He was a soldier, as were they, which made them wonder, 'what is their training?' 'How elite are they?' 'And are we truly going to be allies with them?'
All thoughts stirred up in the moment by their linear minds. Even so, reaching the end, towards the large entrance to this building, the sliding doors opened for them. Red hallways decorated with metal designs showcased in front of them. Walking through and to the right, Kenobi led the way, with the Spartans following.
The senator seemed the most joyous, waving and motioning around, "the senate building has seen some new renovations in the past few generations, representing the Republic which we stand for."
"So then I assume these Separatists are trying to remove themselves from the Republic?" asked Jorge.
"Yes, well, not peacefully. Negotiations are hardly successful, and always end in violence."
"Yea, rebels do that a lot," he sighed.
Turning the corner, the group of people passed by some strange humanoids warring similar robes as the senators. They were in bright colors, and smiled widely seeing the group of UNSC representatives.
Kenobi gestured to the right again to another door. It slid open, letting out another puff of air. The light of day shined through the window on the far side of the room. As the group entered, the SII were caught immediately off-guard.
An elite, standing in salking heights and stature, a darker green armor, he bore a dark cape that slightly draped to his knees. He was clearly younger, with fiery red eyes ready for the coming treaty. He too had a sword the Spartans noticed, but more of a normal design.
As such, the Spartans were stunned, even in the fact they were told they were friendly. But, standing in the center was Admiral Lasky, which he stepped forward gesturing to Spartan Laken.
"Ah Spartans," he said, "glad you could make it."
The young sage elite veered his head with a mangled sniff then followed with a deep tone, "I have not seen a Spartan of this magnitude since…"
"When you killed the last one," exclaimed Douglas.
"Hm, I do understand your predicament, and this is startling to you and your comrades… us being here."
Laken stepped in, trying to diffuse the situation, "alright guys, let's just separate, the meeting is about to be adjourned."
Jorge took a deep breath taking a step into this strange platform. The rest of the Red Team followed, with Laken next to him. Strangely, this strange circular disc was clipped into the wall, and the view ahead was stunning. Similar platform discs like their own, except scattered hundreds high and hundreds wide. This chasm of podiums in perfect alignment had creatures, humanoids, and races of all types, shapes and sizes, a true Republic.
As such, the faint blue light descended from above at the top of this great gathering. Voices from all tones were abrupt and loudly around from all stands. A clone, or soldier at least in similar blue armor and mane stood upon the discs control panel. He glanced over his shoulder to see all five Spartans there, and nodded once. This strange saucer unclipped itself from the pedestal, hovering out into the open of the auditorium, into the chasm. In the center of the room, a larger pillar with a man standing in the center. He wore red robes, and looked very important. Next to him seemed to be some sort of advisor, long gold horns and a blue body holding a staff.
As the five Spartans were sort of exposed in front of the whole chasm, the entire valley of representatives went silent. When this happened, the man in the center spoke with a hand raised, and a very friendly tone, "I welcome you here friends, I am Chancellor Palpatine, head of the senate."
The voice echoed around for the rest of the senate building to hear, and with the acoustics, it was quite well.
A long pole extended from the discs floor, coming up to the lower part of their chests. Laken stepped forward, seeing this was a microphone, and spoke, "thank you for the offering Chancellor. I am Spartan Laken, Representative of ONI, the main intelligence branch of the UNSC."
(His voice rippled a bit too).
"And, are the others with you I assume?"
At this time, two more saucers detached coming alongside the Spartans floating with a slight hum. Admiral Lasky was in one, with two ODST at his side (who tried to keep emotionless, but the sheer awestruckingness of the chasm around gave off an interesting vibe).
The other, with the sage elite from earlier, but he was not on the microphone. Another was, except this one was gold, glistening a bit from the light. His skin was darker, and his armor was much more advanced in the aristocracy. His helmet curved a bit, and on his waist was the hilt of an energy sword, but the handle had intricate designs that no normal one should have… this Sangheili was a leader.
Lasky turned to the elites then back to the Chancellor who was a good two hundred feet away. He spoke, giving a polite gesture, "I am Admiral Lasky, here representing the UNSC military and her colonies."
The elite, the gold one, did a slight bow with his head, "I am Supreme Commander Vadam, Arbiter of the Swords of Sanghelios."
Seeing that they were introduced, the chancellor folded his hands together in front, "welcome again to Coruscant, this treaty means more to us than you think."
"The pleasure is all mine Chancellor," said Lasky.
"Indeed…" he turned and looked to the mass of senators around him, "do you mind explaining to the senate your proposal of a treaty?"
The Admiral looked down for a moment, then back to the large sum of senators, "I would go farther than just a simple treaty… the Banished, an enemy of ours, has been in contact, trading, and negotiating with these 'separatists', for months."
A burst from the gathering came about so loudly that Lasky actually had to stop speaking for a moment. They were all arguing, shouting aloud in annoyance, not from Lasky himself, but from his acclaimed statement. The blaring continued for another moment, until the Chancellor stuck up his arm, which caused the arena to come to a halt. As such, one of the discs detached, floating forward out into the open, taking the scene,
"This is an outrage!" The humanoid had bright red eyes, green scaly skin, and a wide larger hat in black robes. There were three of them, and based upon the one who was speaking, he clearly seemed the most important, "do you have evidence for such accusations!"
"The chair does not recognize the Techno Union," said the Chancellor, with a slight frown.
With the crowd somewhat quieted down, Lasky spoke, "we do," then turned to the blue clone with a green glowing metal chip in his hand.
The light on the chip faded the moment the clone brought the line even near the pedestal controls in front. As the light faded, this soldier stood amazed and a little confused, but to even stranger him more was the voice coming from it.
"This discs mainframe reminds me of the digital panel on the Cavalry," said the AI Matthew.
"Can you still display the message?"
"Yea, I can, it's just a little interesting of a setting."
Then, a red holographic display appeared between two characters. Pretty large-scaled, it was enough for the entire senate to see.
The first creature one could easily tell was a Jiralhanae, a brute. He was in dark armor Banished jaded, with a scared old and tan face. As such, his armor has strange, nostalgic and almost recognizable markings. He was talking to another, who the UNSC did not assimilate.
This thing, or more precisely robot, was lighter in color. With strange trapezoidal shaped ear looking things, and a long almost dragon like neck. He was in a dark robe, and a little hunched over as he spoke. And when he did, there was a slight raspiness in his throat (one that a smoker might have).
"The reconstruction of droid factories on Geonosis with your designs will make this new army unstoppable! You can expect your artifact to come to you very soon."
"No, the pleasure is all mine," the brute said in his too old and raspy voice (although not as degraded as the other), "this alliance has become most attractive to our benefits."
When the hologram turned off, the loudest outcry from the senators came, so loud no one could hear themselves think. Even so, the Chancellor raised his hands quickly, and the crowd grew still once again, maybe it took a little longer than usual.
But, it barely did anything, and the blue secretary with his gold horns lifted his staff, slamming it to the ground a few times. This created a loud boom from each pound that rippled through and over all their voices, even over the mass of thousands of senators, a stunning feat indeed.
"Silence! The Chancellor speaks!" he said.
When they finally were silent, the Chancellor spoke aloud to the crowd around him, "General Grievous having this closed information is very… startling… may I ask where you found it?"
Lasky nodded before turning to the Spartans with a waving gesture, "Spartan Red Team recovered this off the Banished data drives on one of their own battleships."
"So, what do you propose?" He raised an eyebrow.
"An alliance. They have one, and we mutually have the same advisories. Added, fighting a war on two fronts for your Republic would be… less than ideal. And the same goes for us. An alliance would be most beneficial. For both of us."
The gathering now roared not out of anger or discontent, but of approval. As such, the Chancellor spoke since it was quite enough for him to do so.
"I believe it would be. We shall cast the voting ballots in a moment, but first, what says ONI and the Swords of Sanghelios?"
The disc floated forward, and the massive Sangheili spoke aloud to the crowd, "As Arbiter of this Order, I have seen first hand Atriox's destruction with the Banished. Crushing entire worlds and using Forerunner artifacts for his gain. If we can halt the violence, halt the Banished, an alliance would be truefold."
Laken nodded next to the elite in his own register, "Militaristically, economically, and politically, this is a very good option, ONI is in agreement."
"We are as well," said the Arbiter.
The Chancellor turned once again to Admiral Lasky, which in turn the Fleet Admiral nodded and smiled, "the UNSC backs this notion."
Chapter 19 is here yeeee!
After all this time, negotiations have finally started. Not too much to say, OH AND I HOPE YALL ARE HAVING A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND MERRY HALLOWEEN GUYYYS!! I know I said I wouldn't post til after Christmas, but like, I was on a four hour train ride, with nothing to do except write lmao. SO HERE IS YOUR CHRISTMAS GIFT EARLY!!! GEONOSIS HERE WE COME!!!
I hope y'all are having a fun time so far, cause I am! Anywho, not too much going on here, just writing and living up. Halo Infinite was good, a few issues on the multiplayer of course, but the campaign was MUCH better than five. But oh well, you guys knew that anyway. ONTO COMMENTS!
First COMMENT SHOUT OUT ONCE AGAIN GOES TO THE LEGENDARY DRAGON LORD SYED !!!!
I mean, I was being sarcastic lmao. It's Faber, and there will be much more of his interference I see in the StarWars Wars universe that has yet to come…
NR 7663 - hah well, I respond to ALL comments if I can or if there is a question involved for the most part. Oh yea, now that the UNSC and Republic are starting an alliance, the full interactions WILL be in full swing in the next chapters !!!!
zanzara - yea, all of these were just overall ideas, more or less. But, I think I will see where my mind wanders with these nerdy thoughts in the next updates. But, hope you are having a good Christmas man!
Mandalore the Survior - yea, I do have a few ideas in mind, but I think for that they would have to be more trusting with their own governments to start off, but I would think so. Thanks for the links dude! I love them ;)
Once again, all your comments mean a lot to me, and feedback is much welcomed. I hope y'all had a good Christmas, and I will see y'all in the next one,
Until I accidentally see a R34 of The Weapon on a Discord general chat, or the world ends, or I see Jesus in the back of an F150 with a nerf gun (which I saw that last week, I'm not kidding it was kinda funny haha), I will say as always, stay safe, stay healthy,
~NoXXiMillioN