Southern hemisphere of an unknown planet, airspace of an unknown nation
October 3rd, 1232 Standard Time, 2552
The pre-mission quiet was something that Fairfire had learned to savor. She'd been forced to learn that once you touched down on the ground, there was no guarantee you would be going home anytime soon, or at all. And while she was hopeful that the Commander's altered strategy might change their fortunes, she couldn't ignore her worries. Still, even despite the risk of death and the risk of losing all of your friends, she wouldn't give up life as a Helljumper for anything.
Bodyguard duty was something that ODSTs weren't exactly trained for, but that didn't mean Fairfire was insulted that she and her squad had been handed such a duty. If there was a risk to Commander Miller's life once they touched down, it would be her team's job to kill the threat and get the Commander out of harm's way. But ideally, all that she and her squad would have to do would be stand around and look pretty while the Commander made first contact.
Commander Miller, or Richard, as Ben called him, was still something of an enigma to her. Ben had said something about him having a past with ONI, which was rarely a good thing, but that didn't mean that Fairfire didn't trust him.
If the Spartan thinks he's capable, he probably is. Fairfire thought. Although she'd never bought into the excitement around the Spartans, Ben's opinions and experiences would certainly be worth consulting.
Ultimately, time would judge if he was a capable commanding officer. The first thing he had done right was to take extra precautions. The comforting weight of the M90A Shotgun cradled in her arms reminded her that they weren't running light equipment this time. She'd been caught off-guard by those dickheads with the energy shields once, next time, she would be ready.
She had also been able to see some of the satellite images of the city where they were going to land, and realized it was very reminiscent of her home colony, Emerald Cove. That brought a multitude of conflicting emotions, on the one hand, it reminded her of home, and her time there had been mostly pleasant. On the other hand, her home had probably been turned to glass after it was abandoned early in the war.
The silence was interrupted when the pilot, a woman with the callsign of "Fireball" spoke over the radio. "Sir, we're about a minute out of the airspace. I'm seeing some strange radio-waves, over."
"Ignore them, proceed with the landing. Make sure not to land in anyone's path." Richard responded with his earpiece.
"Can't Sir, the airport is a lot busier than recon suggested." Fireball said. "If we attempt a landing, we'd risk a collision, especially if they can't see us on Radar."
"Damnit, standby." Richard replied. "I'm coming up to the cockpit, we'll need to find a new landing site."
"Aye, sir." Fireball said as she awaited the arrival of the Commander.
Of course, even in the air we get stuck in traffic. typical. Fairfire thought. Well, at least we're not getting shot at.
While Commander Richard discussed their next course of action with the pilots, the cabin was left mostly silent, save for the steady hum of the Pelican's engines. It was interrupted when he returned only around two minutes later, followed by the feeling of the vessel moving again.
"We've picked a good-sized field in front of a large residential building.." Richard briefed. "We'll just have to explain our difficulties once we land."
"We're landing in someone's front lawn?" Fairfire asked, a bit incredulous.
"Forgive me for my caution, but that is very different from what we had initially planned." Curie said, her voice rich with concern.
"That may be true Curie, but our plan assumed their airstrip would be clear for us to land without causing them any issues, and that is not the case." Richard said.
"We're still making first contact in what might be someone's flower garden." Fairfire pointed out.
"There's no obstructions, we can safely land with room to spare." Richard explained. "It seems like it was intended to be flat and empty, save the occasional palm tree."
"Could be a golf course." Nathan suggested.
"What the hell is golf?" Yu asked.
"It's an old sport where you hit balls with sticks and try to get them into holes." Nathan explained. "They played it a bunch on Charleston IV."
"I thought that was Lacrosse?" Yu asked.
"I've never heard of that." Nathan said, now sharing her confusion.
"Both of you, shut up and get your heads screwed on straight." Fairfire ordered, to which they silently complied.
Only a minute or two later, the intercom of the Pelican chirped, signaling that it was being activated, before Fireball's voice came through the comm. "Making our final approach now. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary just yet."
Here we go… Fairfire thought.
Even though she'd already checked a dozen times over, she confirmed that her weapons were saftied and would not fire without her express intent. She noticed some of her squadmates do the same, and judging by the silence alone, she could tell that her squad was feeling more than a little nervous.
"Keep it nice and smooth everyone, all things go well, we won't even have to do anything too dangerous this time around." Fairfire said, hoping to offer them a bit of reassurance. "Still, heads on a swivel, these people could try something."
Her squadmates all gave her some kind of response, ranging from a "Yes Sergeant" or a simple, silent nod. A moment later, Fairfire felt the telltale lurch of the Pelican making contact with the ground after a slow and controlled descent.
"This is it, let's get this done professionally and efficiently." Richard said before turning on his radio. "Fireball, pop the hatch."
The rear hatch to the Pelican opened, with Ben and Fairfire being the first out the door, followed by the rest of the squad.
Richard's description had been accurate, the landing site they had selected consisted of grass and concrete walkways, which was surprisingly flat. Going through the center was a large paved road leading towards a large and ornate wooden building.
Whoever lives there has got to be important. Fairfire thought before realizing that Richard had probably selected this position to land with that exact thought in mind. Well, at least they'll notice our arrival.
At the other end of the road appeared to be some sort of small shopping district, occupied by what had to be the strangest group of civilians Fairfire had ever seen. At a glance, they appeared mostly normal, but a closer inspection revealed that most of the people had some sort of animalistic feature. Not like any sort of malformity or damage to their bodies, but actual additional features, such as ears and tails of different animals. They moved in such a convincing manner, that for a moment, Fairfire was genuinely wondering if they were actually real.
I know that some planets back home have strange fashion trends, but this is a whole new level. Fairfire thought. Impressive that they move so lifelike, I wonder how they do that?
All of them watched the newly arrived soldiers with a great variety of expressions, namely fear, curiosity, and distrust. It wasn't a mystery as to why, from what little she knew, apparently first contact with the Covenant had gone much the same way.
Hopefully we won't end up repeating history. Fairfire thought. "What are our orders Sir?"
"Hold here for now, let's give whoever is in charge some time to think before they decide on how to respond to our arrival." Richard answered.
For a full, agonizing minute, the ODSTs stood beside their Pelican with Richard. The civilians on the street didn't stick around to stare, most of them would either move along with what they were doing, or made a concentrated effort to leave. Throughout all of it, Richard didn't seem in the least bit fazed, as if everything was happening exactly how he had predicted it.
Fairfire was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of a slamming door, originating from the large house up the road. Turning her head she saw one of the two giant doors to the house had been opened and a trio of men had emerged. Two of them wore seemingly ceremonial outfits of some kind, and carried heavy-looking spears. Using the magnification on her Visor, Fairfire could also make out that both of them had very unusual-looking sidearms on their hips.
Bodyguards. She noted, although actually judging their capabilities would be very difficult. Did they carry the same discrete shields as the men from the other continent had? She couldn't gauge how much of a threat they would be in a fight.
The other was a bearded man wearing a large coat with what appeared to be some armored plates. His whole outfit consisted of a large amount of purple and silver accents, but his most defining feature was his size. The man was very tall and extremely muscular, being almost similar in disposition to Ben, but without any of the armor.
The trio approached the Pelican and Fairfire's team, visibly concerned, but without a shred of fear. Richard stepped forwards to meet them, accompanied by Ben and Fairfire. The two parties both stopped around the same time, leaving only a couple of meters distance between them.
Richard opened his mouth to speak, but the man with the purple coat spoke first.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" The man asked, his tone betraying no malice but still carrying the weight of vague intimidation.
Richard responded immediately. "My name is Commander Richard Miller of the UNSC. My intentions are to establish peaceful communications with the Leader of this… Settlement."
Fairfire noted the exchange in glances between the coated man's two bodyguards, but he did not seem at all fazed by Richard's words. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that organization. Tell me, what are your intentions once you meet our Chieftain?"
Chieftain? Fairfire noted. The only two things that she had ever associated the word "Chief" with were either Brute Chieftains or Navy ranks, so it was not what she had expected these people to call their leader. It could just be a ceremonial title, or maybe they really do have a Chiefdom.
She also noted how rather than answering any of Richard's questions, the large man had replied with his own. Clearly, this man held some position of authority, or at least had some kind of diplomatic experience.
Defying her expectations, Richard actually answered completely truthfully. "My intentions are to establish diplomatic contact with the governmental body of this state, and to obtain more knowledge as to where exactly we are."
Huh, maybe Richard does have the makings of a politician. Fairfire thought, noticing just how dry and formal his voice had become.
The bearded man folded his arms and stared at Richard, as if trying to decide whether his claims could be trusted. He also spared a quick glance at Ben, and didn't visibly react when Ben stared back through his golden visor.
It makes sense, he's pretty clearly the most armed. Fairfire thought.
Finally, the man spoke again, this time with noticeably less suspicion. "My name is Ghira Belladonna, Chieftain of Menagerie."
Of all the places we could land at, we pick their Leader's driveway. At least it's better than the minefield. Fairfire thought, amused at the strange turn of events.
Richard seemed visibly relieved at how Ghira had offered the slightest break in the tension, although whether Richard was acting or not, she honestly couldn't tell. "I see. I apologize for our unannounced arrival, we attempted to contact you with our Dropship's communications equipment, but it appears that whatever systems you use here are incompatible with ours."
Ghira nodded faintly. "That's not unexpected, I'm afraid our CCTS Relay has been down for some time."
There was a momentary pause after Ghira spoke, and Fairfire could spot a familiar emotion amid his very expressive face, resentment.
Sabotage maybe, evidence of infighting? Fairfire speculated. But what does CCTS stand for?
"I'm sorry to hear that, I imagine that would have been a much easier way for us to have met." Richard said. "But now that we're both here, I'd like to discuss a few things with you, if you wouldn't mind."
"I wouldn't mind at all." Ghira answered. "That being said, I do need to know more about you and your organization before I let you go any further. It is my duty to ensure the safety of my people."
"Very Well." Richard said. "Myself and the crew of my ship are part of an Interstellar Agency called the 'United Nations Space Command'. We represent the scientific, exploratory, and military interests of the Unified Earth Government."
In the brief period of silence that followed, Fairfire tried to gauge exactly how Ghira and his guards would respond to the revelation. The foreign soldiers on the northern continent had not believed them to truly be from another planet, would the Chieftain of this other nation?
It was harder than Fairfire expected to gauge Ghira's reaction. Even with such an expressive face, he did an impressive job at concealing his true thoughts. Still, his eyes momentarily glanced past them, staring directly at their parked Pelican, a giveaway that he was evaluating the legitimacy of Richard's claim.
Richard must have also sensed Ghira's internal conflict, as he continued his explanation. "Our civilization consists of hundreds of different planets, but your planet is clearly not one of them. As such, we are a bit... confused, as to how or why exactly there is a human settlement here."
"Human?" Ghira asked, seemingly taken aback by Richard's statement. He quickly replaced the look of confusion on his face with one of stoicism.
Was there something weird about that statement? Fairfire thought. Perhaps Richard had committed some kind of social blunder?
Despite his reaction, Ghira seemed to at the very least be considering what Richard was saying. "Nevermind that, I believe we have much to discuss. Would you care to come inside?"
"Of course." Richard replied with a nod, before turning to Fairfire. "Staff Sergeant, you and Ben will accompany me inside, the rest of your team will stay and guard the Dropship."
"Sir, yes Sir." She replied. She relayed her orders to the rest of the squad over TEAMCOM and followed closely behind Richard.
While they walked, Fairfire noticed that Ghira was subtly examining her and Ben, specifically, their weapons.
"You've certainly come heavily armed…" Ghira observed aloud.
"Our first attempt at a landing did not go as well as we had hoped." Richard admitted. "We were attacked by a human paramilitary force. I insisted that we bring heavier weapons in order to better defend ourselves, but seeing as you haven't attempted to murder us, I would say that perhaps I was a bit paranoid."
Fairfire was fairly surprised to hear Richard's answer, she had expected him to be the kind of man that took pride from paranoia, and not one who spoke so bluntly and honestly. Then again, he could just be putting on an act.
"A paramilitary force?" Ghira asked. "Where did you land? I could help you find out who they are."
For a moment it looked like Richard wasn't going to answer, but he must have decided the risk was worth it. "On the northernmost continent of this planet, outside of what we think was a small mining town. The soldiers we encountered operated heavy armor and energy shields."
"Sir, if I may?" Ben interjected, to which Richard gave him a silent nod. "I… remember, that they had an insignia on their shoulder pads, a twelve-pointed snowflake."
Curie definitely told him that. Fairfire immediately noticed, but Ben had been careful to conceal her presence. That's probably a good idea, just in case something does go wrong here…
Ghira's two guards looked at each other silently, some unseen understanding passing between them. Ghira meanwhile, just shook his head sadly. "I understand. You must have landed somewhere in Mantle, and I'm afraid I'm already familiar with the organization that you ran into."
When they reached the door to the house, the two guards opened the path for them. As she entered Fairfire found herself in a very nice front hallway, with a very apparent nature-themed aesthetic.
Looks just like home... Fairfire felt as she felt a chill go down her spine, which she quickly banished.
"Who are they?" Richard asked.
"I believe you encountered the…" Ghira began, but he trailed off as soon as he noticed a woman approaching them from down the hallway. She wore a black and white dress and some admittedly impressive jewelry. Sticking out of her long black hair was a pair of large cat ears.
Again with the animal parts, and one of those guards had a rabbit's tail, surely I'm not the only one who's seeing this? Fairfire said, wiping her visor clean just to reinforce her confidence in what she was seeing, and yet, the strange headdress remained.
"Is everything okay Dear?" The woman asked. "Who are these people?"
Her voice carried a sense of slight fear, which Fairfire couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards. No doubt she and Ben had something of an intimidating appearance, what with their heavy weapons and armor. To help her feel a little more at ease, Fairfire depolarized her visor, but the gesture didn't seem to be noticed by anyone.
"Everything is perfectly okay. Commander Miller, this is my wife Kali." Ghira said, gesturing towards the woman. "Kali, this is Commander Miller. He and his men are from..."
Richard sensed the difficulty that Ghira was having finding the right words and interjected with his own explanation. "We're from the United Nations Space Command, the space agency of the Unified Earth Government."
Kali's expression of utter bewilderment was one that Fairfire found it difficult not to relate with. "...What do you mean?"
There was an awkward pause before Ghira answered. "They're... from another planet."
Kali looked at Richard, Fairfire, and Ben once more, now with a sense of curiosity, rather than concern. She still looked a little bit scared, but frankly, Fairfire didn't blame her. Fairfire shot her a friendly smile, which seemed to offer her a bit of reassurance. There was also an undeniable sense of doubt that radiated off of her, but for the moment, she kept those to herself.
"I see." Kali said. She nervously scratched the cat ears on her head, and Fairfire could've sworn they twitched just before she did so. "Well, don't let me interrupt you, I'm sure you're here on very important business, right?"
"Nothing unpleasant, you don't need to worry about us." Richard answered. "And thank you, ma'am."
Kali silently nodded and went a different way from where Ghira was leading the small party of soldiers. He led them through the house until they reached a large library-like room where everyone took a seat except Ben, whom Ghira gave a wary glance.
"I don't mean to be rude, but the armor is a bit... heavy." Ben explained.
"I see." Ghira said, shifting his gaze over to Richard. "Now, tell me what you're doing here, and what you want from Menagerie."
Simple and direct, I can respect that. Fairfire thought, it seemed like Ghira had his head screwed on right.
Richard raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Menagerie? Is that what this planet is called?"
"No, Menagerie is the name of the Faunus nation, the planet is called Remnant." Ghira answered. "I must insist you answer my question."
Richard nodded. "Our vessel arrived in this region of space by accident several weeks ago, our intentions were to search this planet for materials to create certain spare parts that we require, but as soon as we reached orbit, we realized that your planet was inhabited. As such, we attempted to land and establish first contact with a human settlement, but the people my away team met instigated a fight."
"Which brings us to now." Ghira said with a frown. "What is it that you want from us?"
Fairfire didn't even realize that Richard had dodged the question until Ghira pointed it out.
Richard scowled. "I was getting there, I need information about this planet, who lives here, and where. My men were placed into a combat situation for no good reason, and I'd like to know who's responsible, and why. In the future we can worry about properly establishing diplomatic relations, but right now, the safety of my crew and the people of this planet is my priority."
Ghira remained perfectly silent for a good ten seconds as he clearly muddled over how to respond. He had a very good poker-face, which wasn't surprising for a politician, but it made it hard for Fairfire to tell if he was believing any of what Richard was saying, at least, until he finally answered. "Is that all?"
Richard nodded. "That's all right now. Once I have a little more information to work with, then we can start worrying about figuring out what we can do for your civilization."
Ghira seemed to be somewhat satisfied with Richard's answer. "Alright, I can help you. But first, I need your assurances that you're not going to start any unnecessary conflicts."
"I can assure you Chieftain, a war is the last thing that we want." Richard said, his voice polite, but very firm.
Ghira turned his attention to Ben. "You mentioned earlier that the men you fought had an insignia, what was it?"
Ben silently looked to Richard for permission to answer, which he silently gave with a nod. "It was a twelve-pointed snowflake, one painted on each shoulder, and one more on the breastplate. I assumed it was some kind of regimental marker."
Ghira shook his head sadly. "I have no way of validating what you say, but if that is true, you were attacked by the Schnee Dust Company."
Ghira went on to explain that the Schnee Dust Company, or SDC, was a megacorporation based out of a nation called the Kingdom of Atlas. Apparently, they mined some kind of material called "Dust", the primary source of power used on Remnant for just about everything from weapons to electricity.
"I see, and you believe that employees of this company are the people who attacked my men?" Richard asked. It was evident that he was struggling to digest all of this new information, so Fairfire double-checked her helmet camera, and ensured that it was recording everything that was happening.
Might be a little privacy-breaching, but hey, if it means we don't have to go killing anyone, I'll do it. Fairfire thought.
"I'm not sure if that matches up." Ben chimed in, his voice doubtful even through the speaker in his helmet. "The people we engaged were very obviously soldiers, they had their own standardized armor and rifles, and seemed to understand basic squad tactics, they even had energy shields. What would miners need with that kind of hardware?"
"The SDC employs their own private security force to deal with the actions of certain... radical elements of society." Ghira answered. "The Kingdom of Atlas largely lets them operate independently."
"On that note, do you have a map, or something that we could take with us?" Richard asked.
Ghira nodded. One moment, I'll see what I can find."
Twenty Credits says he pulls out one of those old paper maps that they used on sailboats. Fairfire jokingly thought, looking at the massive bookshelves around her. Paperback books were still fairly common back home, but she had never seen so many in one place.
"That would be greatly appreciated." Richard gratefully nodded. "As you can guess, we're a bit starved for any kind of information we can get. We can see a lot of things from orbit, but borders aren't one of them."
Ghira held true to his word, pulling out a rather stylized map of the world complete with borders and landmarks. "Here, I hope this can help answer some of your questions."
Called it. Fairfire thought smugly.
He handed it to Richard, who gave the map a quick examination, before handing it off to Ben, probably so that Curie could get a better look at it. "Thank you, but if I might ask… why haven't you settled the rest of this land?"
"What do you mean?" Ghira asked, he actually seemed to be a bit taken aback by the question.
"Once we reached a steady orbit over Remnant, we noticed that most of the planet is ripe with fertile land and abundant resources, yet it remains totally uninhabited. We couldn't find any kind of hazard that would prevent you from exploiting them." Richard elaborated.
Ghira seemed almost confused by what Richard was saying. "Here on Menagerie the main factor limiting our expansion is the desert, but the Grimm play a large part in our lack of expansion as well."
"Grimm?" Richard asked.
"Do you not have Grimm where you come from?"
"I'm afraid we don't, what is a Grimm?" Richard asked.
Ghira took a deep breath, obviously a bit envious. "Grimm are monsters, in the most literal sense of the word."
"Monsters?" Richard asked, after a moment's hesitation.
Maybe that's what those weird bear things were during our first landing. Fairfire thought.
"Yes, monsters." Ghira said. "Most of them resemble animals of some kind or horrible versions of them. They attack any sort of Human or Faunus life or anything they build."
Yeah, definitely those. Fairfire thought. "That sounds like what we encountered during our first landing."
Again Richard took a minute to think before responding. "Hostile wildlife is something we're well accustomed to. But even on unusually dangerous colonies, we've never encountered something as violent as what you're describing."
"Grimm are quite different from any other animal." Ghira clarified. "They don't eat, drink, or seemingly even sleep. They hunt only for sport, and they're everywhere."
"Hmm, maybe we can help with that." Richard offered.
Ghira gave a morbid laugh. "I wish it was that simple. Even the most professional and massive armies, led by the best Huntsmen Remnant has ever seen haven't been able to push them back."
Huntsmen? Fairfire thought, noticing the odd choice of words. Well, I guess they are fighting wild animals.
"Well, maybe it's time to change tactics." Richard said. "We'll have our own look, but first, we need to sort out our current issue with the SDC."
"Of course." Ghira said. "I'm afraid I can't offer much more information than that, at least, nothing concrete."
"Your assistance is appreciated." Richard replied. "We'll do our best to stop any more conflicts from breaking out."
"That's good to hear." Ghira said. "Were there any other questions you had that I might be able to help with?"
Even though Fairfire knew that she was supposed to remain silent, there was one overarching question that had been haunting her ever since she had set foot on Menagerie.
"Sir, may I? I'll keep it simple." Fairfire interjected.
"I don't see why not, go ahead Staff Sergeant." Richard said.
"The animal ears and tails and such, what's going on there?" Fairfire asked, trying to be polite. "I get it's probably an odd question, but I just wanted to know if it was some kind of cultural thing."
Ghira was uncomfortably silent as he carefully examined Richard, Ben, and Fairfire once again, seemingly looking for something, but not finding it. "Do you... not have Faunus where you come from?"
"That's something I meant to ask about, you said that word earlier, Faunus." Richard commented. "What does that mean?"
Ghira grimaced before holding up his hand with his palm facing towards himself, before extending a set of claws.
"Woah." Fairfire said, more than a little surprised. Ben tensed up a bit before realizing the man meant no harm by the action.
"Faunus are like humans, but they have a feature from an animal. A good example is cat ears, or in my case a set of claws... and some extra hair on the wrist." Ghira explained.
Suddenly, it made a lot more sense as to why Ghira had been taken aback when Richard referred to Menagerie as a human settlement. Then again, they sure do look and act like humans, how different can they really be?
After the initial surprise wore off, Fairfire realized that it probably wasn't polite to be silently staring. "...Yeah, we don't have anything like that."
"A shame too, I can think of more than a few situations in which retractable claws would be useful." Ben added.
"They have their downsides." Ghira said as he retracted the claws back into his fingers. "Faunus are looked down upon and mistreated by a good portion of humanity, and it's caused plenty of problems... for all of us."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Richard said. "We've had our own experiences with discrimination causing problems where we come from, all throughout history. It hasn't been relevant for a few centuries, but believe me when I say that we had to learn how to make an equal society the hard way."
Ghira shook his head. "That's certainly disappointing, I was hoping that with only one species in your civilization, you wouldn't have had to deal with that. Although, I'm certainly glad to hear it's less of a problem for you nowadays."
"I wish I could say that we didn't have our own problems." Richard said. "On that note, I did promise to explain what the UNSC is, and in order to do that, you'll need to know some background information. I'll try to keep it concise, but I will be trying to explain the entire history of modern humanity. so please, give me some leniency."
Ghira's eyebrows peeked up in interest. "Go right ahead, I'm listening."
"If you have questions, just stop me and ask." Richard offered.
Author's Notes: As of posting this, I'm still rewriting the whole of First Contact with Menagerie, as I was very unhappy with the original draft. This is the first chapter of the rewrite, and I'll soon be bringing the next few chapters after this up to speed.