"Director Jun sir!" the Spartans snapped to attention
"Wait he's the director of SPARTAN Ops?" Naofumi asked
"I am, most notable SPARTAN IVs which these four are"
"Oh yeah" Naofumi said
"Shame I was about to see you about becoming one when you disappeared" Jun said
"So what have you been up to Jun?" Kelly asked
"Scouting" Jun said "Especially what those three other heroes have been up to" he said deploying a holo map
"This ought to be good" Naofumi said
"To the north, the bow hero has quelled a number of rebellions, I've sent Fireteams Scarlet, Anubis and Spectre to scout these villages to make sure we can use them as hubs or even convert a few into FOBs" Jun said
"FOBs?" Raphtalia asked
"Forward operating bases, kind of like a camp or outpost" Jun explained
"That might be a good idea, that way we can get a better foothold in the area, but we need more ships" Naofumi said
"Yeah" Kelly agreed
"Anyway close by the spear hero helped with a famine, only its gone out of control" Jun said
"How badly" Naofumi said as Jun zoomed in on the map showing that nearly everywhere was covered in vines
"And Moronyasu strikes again, where did he even...THAT MORON!" he snarled
"Naofumi?" Buck asked concerned
"That seed must have come from the alchemist's fortress where we got the gems" Naofumi said
"Oh great" Mickey moaned
"Thank fully we have access to something pretty much perfect for handling weeds" Dutch said
"What?" Naofumi asked confused
"Allow me to introduce to you to the M7057 flamethrower" Dutch said
"a flame thrower?" Raphtalia asked
"I'm glad you asked little lady" Dutch smirked as he walked away from the group and bit "Now the range of the M7057 is around 13 meters or 44 feet for those who grew up in imperial measurements" he said blasting a stream of fire into the air slightly
"Plus we probably have herbicides on the ship" Mickey said
"I'll get a case brought down" Romeo said
"Okay" Buck said "Roll out"
After stopping in Lute village picking up a delivery of herbicide to the location they were going Jun sat in the back with Naofumi who was doing crafting
"I must say Naofumi, I'm surprise you are still helping people" Jun said
"why's that?" Naofumi asked
"I don't know, you seem to be a caring person; given what I've read of you helping the Demihuman girl, who was young and had a weaken immune system on the verge of death nursed back to health and is now treating her like a daughter or little sister while she is growing more amorous of you
"Amorous, wait are you saying Raphtalia is in love with me?" Naofumi asked shocked
"Maybe" Jun said "It's clear she has some feelings for you"
"I guess" Naofumi said
"MASTER NAOFUMI!" Raphtalia shouted gaining his attention "We're getting close" she said
"What the?" Mickey asked
"Look at all those vines" Bernie gasped
"Still think we have enough fuel?" Romeo questioned
"I hope so" Dutch gulped
Once they got to the village the ODSTs got to unloading while Bernie when to check on several of the villagers who were sick
"What's the prognosis?" Naofumi asked
"Not good as you can see" Bernie frowned as she noticed the patient was covered in small vines, "a Plant like parasite maybe, possibly from the fruit"
"Do you have any medicine?" Naofumi asked the leader of the village and gave him a vial, just by holding onto it the vial in his hand glowed a pleasant shade of green, he looked at Bernie who shrugged when his vision was filled with new information "It seems I enhanced it" he said giving it to the patient making the vines disappear
"wow, that shield of yours is amazing" Bernie said as the pair helped some more
"That moron, I'm going to plant my boot so far up his ass he can tie the shoelaces with his teeth" Naofumi growled before Bernie place a calming hand on his shoulder
"Easy honey" she said
"Hey Naofumi, you better come look at this" Romeo called
"What is it?" Naofumi said as he gathered with the rest of his team to see a bizzare sight, namely a MARINE being held up side down by the plant
"I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON YOU LEAFY DRONGO, I'VE HAD SALADS TOUGHER THEN YOU MATE!" the marine shouted shocking the group
"Chips?!" Naofumi exclaimed
"What the heck?" Mickey asked
"Private Dubbo, what are you doing up there?" Kelly asked
"Chewing the fat" Chip shouted as "WHAT DO YOU THINK!"
"How did you even get up there?'" Bernie asked
"Who gives a toss, GET ME DOWN!" Chips snapped
"Okay" Filo said running in
"FILO!" Raphtalia groaned charging in
"Those two" Naofumi growled
"Cover the girls" Kelly ordered as they pulled out their weapons and shot at the plant
"Quit holding me back" Filo shouted
"Holding you back" Raphtalia snapped
"Yeah!" Filo snapped
"NOT THE TIME YOU TWO!" Bernie shouted slicing a vine away from her with her knife
"Bernie!" Kelly warned blasting the vine apart with Oathkeeper
"Thanks Kelly" Bernie sighed
"HELLO MATES I'M STILL UP HRE!"
"I'll get you down" Raphtalia said as she jumped off Filo's back with a sword in hand getting to Chips' height. Only to have vines wrap around her so she was facing the ground "AAH!" she blushes holding her skirt down while Filo let out a small laugh "FILO! Did you just laugh?"
"no" Filo said
"Filo" Bernie warned
"What?" Filo said
On the other side of the village ODSTs were using the flamethrowers to hold back the vines
"It seems to be working" Dutch shouted
"KEEP IT UP" Buck called out
"YES SIR!" they all cried out as the kept the heat on the plants
"Anyone running low on ammo?" Buck asked
"I'm nearly bingo" Romeo said using the flamethrower to bash a plant monster
"Pop a grenade" Buck suggested throwing on to Romeo.
"You got it" Romeo smirked before pressing the button and shoving it into the gullet of a plant monster. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he shouted as the monsters blew up
"More warning next time" Buck said
"RAPHTALIA!" Naofumi said throwing a bottle of the herbicide to her "Pour it on the eye" he said pointing to a large eye
"You got it master Naofumi" Raphtalia said trying to get the cork undone
"CRIKEY LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING!" Chips shouted as he fired his magnum at the eye before Raphtalia poured the herbicide on it, making it melt away
"YES!" she shouted only for the eye to come back and tightened them around her
"Great, it can regenerate" Naofumi said before he looked at a bottle
"What are you thinking of?" Kelly asked blasting some more veins
"I noticed I can enhance the effectiveness of the potions so if I use the same skill on this as I did that" Naofumi said as the bottle suddenly gave off a green light, walking over to it whiel the vines that grabbed him were destroyed. "Drink up" he said pouring the boosted herbicide over its roots, making them bubble up and explode
"Struth mate" Chips said as the plants wilted "Oh bugger" he said as he was dropped helmet first "never doing that again
"What are you doing out here Private?" Kelly asked as Bernie checked him over
"I was following the bloke who gave them the seed, you know the one compensating for something with his groupies and giant spear" Chips said
"Motoyasu" Naofumi glared before he started to gather up materials for his shield
"Yeah him" Chips said
"Report" Kelly said
"It seems like he's is being manipulated by the redhead with him, also there have been reports of group of scouts being attacked by the king's men" Chips said
"What" Naofumi hissed
"Damn" Kelly said
"It's not going to be too long until blood is spilt and a war breaks out" Bernie said
"Good" Naofumi said as he stormed off, his shield now looking like a flower
"Shit" Kelly said
"That is not good" Lord Hood said
"No its not" Kelly said
"So what should we do" Lasky asked
"I don't know, do you know if Osiris is with the Queen?" Lord Hood said
"Negative" Lasky sighed
"That is not good, between that and the Chief missing" Hood sighed
"Anyway Iwatani has modified the fruits so that way they can be grown without turning back into those monster" Kelly said
"Very well, please tell me you have some of the originals" Hood replied
"I do, and both types are on board the Infinity with Bernie" Kelly nodded
"Now what about this Filolial Queen?" Lasky asked
"Turns out they're created by being close to the Cardinal heroes sir, since Naofumi is the only one with a Filolial" Kelly said
"I see, so should we try the Filolial meat experiment?" Lasky asked
"You may as well, because I know the Infinity has a limited supply of Moa meat left, if you can replicate it using Filolial meat" Kelly said
"Very well" Lord Hood said
"How did Filo react to the suggestion" Lasky asked
FLASHBACK THE DAY BEFORE LEAVING THE VILLAGE
The next day as they team was preparing to venture out of the village with some baskets of those fruits and seed while Kelly would take Jun and Bernie back to the Infinity to study some of the seeds; Romeo looked at the nearby Filolia stable
"I was hoping we would be able to use the Filolials to replace Moa meat" Romeo said earning a headslap from Mickey as he pointed back to Filo who was happily being hooked up to teh w the wagon with the cargo in it. Romeo frowned "so, she's an ultra rare variant or something"
"Dude how would like it if someone wanted to cook your race?" Dutch said picking leaves out of his flamethrower
"Oh yeah, SORRY FILO!" Romeo called back
"It's okay, I'm curious myself" she said making everyone freeze
"Come again?" Kelly asked
"I was wondering what Filolial would taste like" Filo stated
"I'm sorry what?" Naofumi asked
"Filo, are you saying you would eat your own kind?" Raphtalia asked
"Maybe" Filo said making everyone give her weird looks "What?"
"Ah nothing" Kelly said
PRESENT
"I see, anyway" Lord Hood said as a technician ran up to them
"Sir new SPARTAN Beacon!" the tech said
"Where?" Lord Hood asked
"This area sir, there appears to be increased thermal activity" the technician said as he brought a map of the area
"Hot springs?" Kelly said making some of the female staff members excited
"Yeah the beacon is in the area" the tech said
"Okay then" Kelly said
"Spartan Kelly take a small group with you to investigate" Lord Hood said
"Yes sir" she smirked as she walked off
"Pelican incoming" Naofumi said as he watched it approach camp
"Kelly's back already?" Buck asked
"Must be missing my charm" Chips said
"I wonder what's up" Naofumi said as the Pelican touched down and the back opened up revealing Kelly, Bernie and a couple of other women
"SHEILAS!" Chips said
"Calm down" Buck said
"So why a group of all women?" Dutch asked
"The area has thermal activity" Kelly said
"Meaning?" Mickey asked
"it's a hot spring town" Naofumi said
"AWESOME!" the Shield Team said cheering
"Men" Kelly said
"There is also a Spartan Beacon in the area" Bernie said
"Spartan Beacon?" Raphtalia asked
"A way to keep track of our elite soldiers" Kelly said
"Interesting" Raphtalia said
"So you think a Spartan is around here" Buck said
"I do" Kelly said
"O wow so spacious" Raphtalia said as she walked into the baths where most of the UNSC women were
"Oh Raphtalia, there you are" Bernie said smiling as she waved to the girl she had started to see as a daughter
"Yeah, sorry my hair took awhile" Raphtalia said blushing.
"No worries chica" a woman with tan skin said
"Like you don't have that worried Caramen" Bernie said
"Caramen?" Raphtalia asked.
"My name is Carmen Vega, and my love of caramel caused they to put the two things together" she laughed leaning back
"Oh" Raphtalia said
"Yep, and you're Raphtalia, nice ink by the way" Carmen smiled
"Thanks" Raphtalia said
"Always good to have more women in the ODST!" another woman said smiling "I'm Gretchen" she said
"You've met her husband Taylor" Carmen said
"Taylor?" Raphtalia said
"You may know him as Dutch" another woman said, Raphtalia noticed that she had similar facial features to Naofumi "I'm Kiyoko, me and Naofumi came from the same country on Earth in case you're curious why we look alike" she said
"Oh sorry I didn't mean to" Raphtalia started
"it's okay" Kiyoko said
"YOU OKAY DOWN THERE BABE!" Dutch shouted
"SURE AM, JUST BONDING WITH THE GIRLS!" Gretchen called up as they could here Raphtalia squeal
"Where are you touching"
"Oh boy" Noafumi tiredly said
"You alright?" Buck asked
"Just a tired cliché" Naofumi said
"Hey, do you think the chief is okay?" Mickey asked
"I think he would, after all he's taken on half the galaxy and just walked away with some scratches" Bucks aid smiling
"Heck he probably is walking around trying to make sure things go right for us" Dutch said
"Or he coudl be in a dungeon somewhere" Naofumi sighed
"Maybe this beacon is his" Buck said
Later that night Raphtalia was sneaking out of the resort trying to find a mineral called Latium, which will help her be closer to Naofumi, now she was careful to
"Sneaking out?" Kelly asked spooking Raphtalia who blushed upon being caught "Why?"
"I'm looking for something
"Latium right" Kelly said
"How did?"
"I heard the same thing as you kid, look I know you may see Naofumi as more then what he sees you as, acting like a father or brother figure rather than your lover, but the reason he doesn't is that he's fallen in love with Bernie" Kelly stated as the pair head off, with Kelly grabbing a hiding Filo, "Ever since Naofumi's been in the ODST he's been in love with Bernie. They met after Noafumi took his first needle round to the gut, so she stayed by his side day and night until he was ready for the next drop" Kelly explain
"Oh" the two girls stated
"Now just before he doesn't think of you as potential lovers, doesn't mean he doesn't love, and in fact I know Bernie loves you too. She's always been a sort of a mother hen" she laughed before a snorting was heard making the trio look and see a massive pig like creature
"Is that?" Raphtalia asked
"Yeah a silver boar!" Kelly said grabbing her shotgun "And he I left my helmet in the room" she sneered as the boar charged.
"FILO!" Raphtalia shouted as the boar charged at her making her switch to her bird mode, grabbing Raphtalia with her beck while jumping over it
"YOU TWO OKAY?" Kelly said as she attempted to slash at it with her knives, but its tusks blocked them, allowing Raphtalia to use her sword for an attempt to take a chunk out of its back when that weird blurry golden image flashed in her mind, forcing her to stop in confusion, giving the boar time to charge at her. Acting quickly Filo grabbed Raphtalia and jumped again
"You okay?" Filo asked
"Yeah, sorry" She said
"Stay focused" Kelly said as the beast charged at them, all three of them got ready to attack when it feel over and skidded to a stop with its tusk nearly impaling Filo, who looked at it before tapping it with her finger.
"Everyone alright down there?" a voice said as figure walked up to them
"Cut a little closer next time hey Linda?" Kelly smiled
"Sorry" a woman said wearing the same armour as Kelly, only her helmet looked like it had eyes on it "So what are you doing here?" Linda asked
MEANWHILE
While Shield team was at the Hot Springs, Fireteam Osiris had reached a steampunk looking castle
"This is it, with this our objective is complete" Locke said
"So this is where the queen is?" Tanaka asked
"Hope so" Vale said
"We have been waiting for you" a voice said behind them making the trio aim their weapons at a woman in a cloak "Queen Mirellia has been expecting you"
"And you are?" Locke asked
"Her shadow, shall we?" she asked leading them to the queen.
G'day Guys Grizz here Now it needs to be said that one of the most awesomest NPC's of Halo is now joining the crew, everyone Halo player's favourite Aussie Chips Dubbo! thank you for the reviewer that suggested I add him and here he is, also the whole stuff with teh girls going out to find the things to make Naofumi love him was dropped because he has Bernie who he is in love with and who loves him back, so expect some fireworks around her meeting Bitch! Plus I'm enjoying the Bernie acting as a mother to Filo and Raphtalia and the girls introduce in here will be back in later chapters
So until next time I'll catch you on the flipside