As night fell on their little strip of land, the Chief had been quick to gather the first set of supplies and currently the most important. The medical packs were going to have to be moved bit by bit back to their little home. Thankfully, there was two of them able to carry things. And as they moved up the hill with a stack of a dozen meds and MREs each, an audible gasp escaped Sara's mouth. Chief stopped, turning to her and raising a brow. Her gaze was affixed on the remnants of the Dawn.
She took two more steps forward, mouth agape, before she asked "You came here in that?"
"Crashed, but yes." John shrugged. "C'mon." And he continued walking. For all it was worth, she had good enough eyesight to spot a crashed Frigate in a mountain's side. The girl continued to follow him, before both entered the cave John had elected as his current base of operations. He set the medicine and MREs down in a corner. Sara followed suit, putting her own haul in the same spot. She looked around the place and rubbed her shoulders, shuddering.
"No fire pit?" She asked, raising a brow. She took a seat on one of the rocks
"Didn't have time or need from one." Chief mused. "Just arrived today."
"Makes sense. I'll go chop trees down, ready the fire pit." She said, standing up. "If that's okay with you?"
Chief simply nodded to her, watching her leave, before Cortana jumped back in and said "Hey, don't you think she's acting a tad familiar?" as she continued parsing through the data she could find. He shrugged in answer, to which his partner sighed. The woman was ex-military. Must've gone to SERE School too, considering she seemed to know survival techniques.
He had to admit she was an interesting one. John did sense a tiny amount of kinship with the woman. Every soldier, no matter the side, has a kinship with the others. Probably from the amount of blood they all saw spilled... He answered to her "A bit... But that's to be expected. She's former military after all." in a deadpan. Cortana hummed, then answered "Fair point, but still... She feels a bit more familiar than that."
"Hmm..." John wondered... He watched her come inside with several pieces of wood that had been perfectly cut. A small holo-computer on her right hand flashed, then vanished. She'd been pretty quick. She took a knee, then started assembling the fire pit from some loose stones and the wood itself, as well as some leafs she'd collected. She tossed them inside, thumbed one of them until it was smoking, then tossed it inside. Sparks came out of her right hand when she flicked her thumb on the dried leaf... Odd.
"That some kind of special device on your right hand?" He raised a brow. She looked to him, eyes wide... And nodded.
"It's a multi-purpose holo-tool... You don't have one?" She asked. John shook his head, just as the fire started proper... She raised a brow, sitting down beside the fire pit, then said "Need an explanation for it, I assume... A multi-purpose holo-tool is a device that allows the wearer to engage in multiple activities meant to aid in survival on a rim world like this one... It can help start fires, it can help with building by becoming a sort of 3-Dimensional printer that takes the material you have at hand and helps you build with it and it can usually help with basic crafting of components, though I'd recommend we do so with a machining table if we ever do get the power necessary for it... Speaking of, the MPHT also acts as a computer with petabytes-worth of blueprints and data... Again, to help with survival. It's also linked to the cerebral cortex."
John hummed, then looked as the woman brought up the tool itself. A blue-hued gauntlet of light enveloped her right hand fully, like a glove, right down to the carbon jumpsuit. She flicked through several settings, including the fire-starting one, before asking "Wait... How come you don't have one?"
"I'm not from around here..." Chief spoke, only assuming that was the truth since he wasn't sure himself.
Reyner raised a brow at the Spartan, then hummed. "That makes sense. Your armor is not any familiar design... Where are you from, then?"
He looked to her and didn't answer. The woman easily understood what that silence meant. She nodded, then continued her work. She looked over some of the wood they had left, then turned her head to the front of the cave, before offering "I can use it to build a cover for the mouth of the cave. A wooden wall and door." and standing up. "It'd help seal off the cave from the elements, keep the warmth inside."
"Okay." He nodded "If I can help with anything..."
"Thank you for the offer, Chief, but the M-Fit should do the job quick. I'm an engineer." She smiled. "Neural link helps."
"Figured..." He nodded. She stepped off to start building the little fortification, while the Chief looked on. "So, a three-dimensional pocket tool and 3D Printer." He noted as he watched her start building. He added "One that still requires some physical effort."
"It's an interesting design, I'll admit." Cortana spoke softly. "Think we can get one?"
"Probably..." The Chief mulled over the effects of the item as he saw them firsthand. The wooden walls, resembling those of a cabin, with planks and everything, formed and assembled as the woman moved hand and head to assemble them proper. Two walls were built up within 5 minutes, with an opening in the center. The woman used the remaining wood with the device to build what looked like a small double door that would slide open.
She turned to him, then gave him a thumbs up... He nodded back to her, approvingly.
"Heh. She's pretty handy with that thing." Cortana mused, smiling.
John stayed silent, watching the woman return to her seat. She leaned forward, toward the fire, extending both her hands to feel its warmth. The new weapon she'd acquired from that Bion lay on the floor beside her. The charged plasma weapons that this 'Federation' used were an odd set, resembling a combination of human and Covenant weapons.
"We should start searching for more supplies tomorrow." John said. Sara agreed with a light nod.
She added "We should also start digging... We may want to expand and build upon our little home here." before looking outward, to the door "Add to that we need to go check on the crash site of your ship."
"True, but first... How would one go about getting an MPHT?" The Spartan asked, leaning forward. She hummed, then checked her little utility belt, before pulling out a chip and tossing it to the Chief. She pointed at her right hand, then tapped her wrist... The Spartan hesitated for a second, before putting it onto his wrist. The device, as small as it was, slid through the cracks in his armor, through the carbon undersuit and linked to the skin... He felt a static shock course through his right hand and arm, before it reached and linked into his brain. The Neural Net flashed before his eyes... And he looked to his arm...
The tool appeared, a larger gauntlet wrapped around his armor. He looked to the woman, who simply smiled and said "I had one extra. Combat engineer requirements are that we carry a replacement just in case the right arm needs bionic enhancement after severe damage." with, once again, a sad look. Chief nodded, thanking her wordlessly as he started getting used to the appliance now attached to his arm.
"I'll teach you to use it in the morning..." The soldier girl yawned, before leaning onto the floor and turning away from the fire. "Good night, Chief."
"Good night..." he nodded to the girl.
Cortana chuckled "Oh, my god this tool is amazing... It's got basic amenity blueprints, work station blueprints, bed blueprints... And it adapts to and recommends the material we have most of! That's amazing! This is highly-advanced technology! Oh, it even has a..." The ecstatic AI's voice dropped considerably... "A calendar and clock... 5500..." And John's eyes went wide.
"... We can't have slept for that long." John murmured. "Check again..."
"... It's what it's saying, John. 5500... No month though." She spoke. "I'll pull up recommended blueprints while I keep parsing through the Data... When we have the material, I'd suggest we do upgrade our base to a more livable... Underground hut, I guess? And John...?"
"Hmm...?" The Spartan narrowed his lips, raising a brow as he still was processing what had just been revealed to them...
He had been right.
They weren't home anymore...
"I'd suggest helping with gathering resources. We can find our things easily..." She offered her own two-cents. If, honestly, the AI had to put it out there, she knew that surviving with whomever they would find was the only way of making it alive in this crazy new world. And that included gathering more resources for their would-be quest of escaping here.
"... Will do. You keep me informed about what you can find out..."
"Aye aye, Chief."
He shifted his position, leaning slightly back, to try and catch a wink of sleep himself. His mind was working on figuring out a plan as he slowly drifted off to the realm of dreams. His survival and that of Cortana depended on him being able to work cohesively with Sara and whomever else may come. His abilities to build would also be tested, as would the crafting skill of the Spartan. He'd need to hunt, gather, grow, build and craft...
He needed more people aside from him and Sara. And he needed to trust that this girl would cooperate with him on their endeavor. So far, she seemed privy to doing so. He'd hope that won't change too soon... And so, with his mind still processing events, he fell into a dreamless sleep, arms crossed as the fire crackled on... His wake-up had been gentle. His eyes opened slowly as he scanned their surroundings. The cave was now dark, but his enhanced eyes adapted to it rather quickly. He looked to the burned-out remains of the fire, then past it... Sara was not here.
He stood up, then walked toward the door, sliding it open to the sides... Sunlight streamed inside, brightly lighting the rocks of the cave. He saw her below, utilizing the holo-tool to chop down several more trees. To her right, there was a small hut, also embedded within the side of the mountain, a few steps from their main cave entry... A storage shed with a corrugated steel roof.
He walked down to join her, powering on the Holo-Tool in woodcutting form. He watched how she worked the device, by moving the tool slowly in a straight line, like a chainsaw. The small hardlight points that made contact with the tree's trunk dug into it without leaving much of a mess. She had to maintain the invisible beam steady as not to make a mistake... And it was showing. She was sweating a bit.
As she made the final, deep cut, the tree fell to the left, with a loud thunder echoing as it landed on the floor. She moved toward it, then started disassembling the tree itself into small logs and planks. The Spartan moved to another tree, following what she did... The first incision went well, with the Spartan maintaining a straight line as he cut into the tree's trunk...
Slowly, the Spartan's first cut turned as good as they came for first-triers. The trunk collapsed to the left...
"Nice work." The girl complimented as she walked beside him, crossing her arms. "A pretty clean cut for a first try, but mind you, you can do better."
"Thanks." He nodded as he watched her go into refining the wood into a proper resource for use. She picked up a stack of it, the motioned to the rest of it on the floor. The Chief took the stack of wood and hauled it with her toward the shed. He hummed as they entered the unlit place, only to see... An empty UNSC box now filled with unprocessed wood? He looked to her, then raised a brow.
She walked out, then pointed to one of the steeper rock faces and explained "I found the box there... It was empty." before turning to him and asking "Is the UNSC your faction? The ones you served?"
"Serve." He corrected, only adding a nod... She hummed.
"Got it. You'll have to tell me about them after we talk about the Federation, 'kay?" She asked calmly. "If... That's okay with you."
John nodded again. She sighed in relief, then smiled "Okay... Think wooden floors are gonna be fine for now?"
"For the cave?"
"Yeah. I'm gonna mine and level out the place a bit more. Build flooring and walls... Also add an extra section to mine out for when we need it." She answered, walking toward the cave. She was more active today... Probably was tired yesterday after travelling for too long. And the fighting. She looked to him, then spoke "I... May need a bit of help doing the finishing work on it, though, if you don't mind."
... John calmly answered "Tell me what I need to do."
Her smile grew again. She walked on, adding "Well, I'll need you to work on the superstructure and the overhead roof, to make sure the damn thing doesn't collapse in on us with all the rock. I'm gonna make it a 100 square meter room so we're able to move about and install basic necessities, like a table, chairs, simple beds and basic production equipment like a fueled stove, a butchering table and a research table. Speaking of, how much does your armor weigh?"
"... A few tonnes with me in it." Chief returned, raising a brow.
"Ah. So I'm gonna need to make a cot and a chair out of steel if I find any around... Going by the fact we're near the mountainside, it should be easy to acquire through mining, but..." She bit her lower lip, tapping her chin as they entered the room. "I'm also gonna need to make a wood-burning generator to power at least a simple lamp for our room and a few metal wires to conduct the electricity going from it."
She looked to the staring Spartan, then rubbed the back of her neck and said "Sorry, engineer mode kicked in... I'll get to work."
Chief nodded. "I'll build the walls and supports, then."
"I got the calculus for that at the ready, Chief." Cortana jumped in again. The two humans and their (unknown to Sara) AI Companion walked inside... Sara's tool powered on in digger mode and before Chief knew it, she was already mining out a pretty sizable area. John started working on building the walls utilizing the tool. It was a pretty easy assembly process, but he did have to go get the materials every now and again. A few hours of mining and building had passed and John soon saw Sara going on to work on the finishing touches, including installing the wood-fired generator outside the mouth of the cave and lining one of the walls with wires.
If the room were to be calculated by blocks instead of square kilometers now, it would be a 15x15 room, big and wide. And able to fit all the necessities. John looked over to the northern wall, the one facing where the Dawn would be, to see it lined with four different tables. A wooden butcher's table with a few tools made of pieces of the Dawn, including a meat cleaver that was made out of a small chunk of sharpened Titanium-A , resided on the left-most section of the wall. Following it, a metal stove with a door below for inserting firewood resided. After that, there was a table with different instruments from the Dawn's medical equipment that survived, for research and finally, a table with two chairs, one of steel and one of wood... Just in case.
In the far back of the room, near the door that lead to the as-of-yet unmined area of the mountain they would build their base in, there were the two cots, standing opposite sides and in mirrored positions. John's cot was on his right and it was, again, made of pretty resistant steel, while Sara's was made of wood. There were basic pillows of straws and some tarp. Not exactly comfy. But they'd do the job...
He watched Sara emerge from the mine, with more Steel to add to the pile. Her Holo-Tool shut off as she entered. With a smile, she said "Well, I got plenty of steel for when we may need it. Right now, I think we need to secure a meal source, but we don't have seeds to plant for food. Wanna go hunting?"
"I saw some fruit plants out in the wild." John suggested. "We could get the seeds to grow them from the fruit."
"Oooh, sweet! What didja see?" She asked, excited.
"I think they were strawberries and cherries of some kind."
"Perfect! Those'll do." She nodded. "We can go hunting and gathering then. I'm gonna need the backup in case we meet some bigger creature."
"Got it." John said, standing up and drawing his weapon. The girl went out to the shack to dump all of the raw steel in the stockpile, before walking back to join the Chief. She shut off the makeshift generator, a wood-burning stove that ran, pouring what little electricity it could into a series of wires from the ship through into the the wood wall and into a socket that powered their only light source, a lamp.
She drew her pistol, then looked over it. It was in rough shape, but operable... The Plasma Rifle was in a better state.
John's rifle, meanwhile, was operable too. And in starkly better state than the girl's handgun. The two nodded to each-other, then walked into the forest. "So..." The woman started as they strolled into the forest. "... How are your people?"
"Okay, I hope..." John mused, looking around and watching as the sun started to set for the night. He knew what she meant, but he had to pay attention for any food they could hunt. She turned her gaze back forward, watching for any prey. The Chief was somewhat talkative, but evasive. She wondered if he was in the same situation as her, but chose to squelch that thought for now... He wouldn't have been aboard a 'UNSC' ship if that was the case.
The Spartan raised his hand in a balled fist, showing a stop. The girl immediately snapped to action, taking a knee and readying her rifle. John knelt too, leaning forward as to hide himself best. The seven-foot-tall titan-whose height Sara had just now noticed-looked forward at a pack of tall, four-legged animals covered in cream-colored fur eating away at the grass. Seven of them per total. He looked to Sara, then motioned toward a tree on the right. She nodded, crouch-running as quietly as she could toward the thick-trunk tree and taking cover.
John moved to a tree with a thicker trunk, before raising his rifle and three fingers on his left hand. Sara shouldered the plasma weapon, aiming toward the herd of mammals and placing her finger on the trigger. One finger dropped and the girl tensed, slowing her breathing. The second dropped and she picked her target, aiming for the head to damage as little as possible of the creature. And the third dropped... Two shots, one a crack, one a screech, echoed in the valley, reverberating across from all directions...
Two of the creatures lay dead, one missing its head and part of its fur and the other was bleeding from the gunshot to the head. Their pack had scattered as the Spartan and his soldier companion approached. Sara nodded, then said "Crack shot..." as she wrapped the creatures' legs and picked one up. John took it from her hand and picked up the other one too.
"You pick the fruits, I'll carry these." He ordered. The girl snapped a quick salute and went ahead to forage... And with full pockets, the duet went back home, an hour's walk, as night began to set. Entering the room, the Spartan put the furry quadrupedal creatures near the chopping board, before going to the table and sitting himself down on his own chair. It creaked and groaned as the weight of the Spartan pressed down on it, before finally, the noises subsided...
He looked to the girl, to see her starting work on skinning the animals and noticed on her hip a very intricate kukri knife in a metal sheet. The weapon seemed fairly futuristic, at least grip-wise. But it was still the knife of the Gurkha. The Spartan watched the woman's steady hands as she cut into the skin, separated it from the meat, removed the internal organs and finally separating the parts with thicker meat content from the husk. She quickly disposed of the unusable remains, tossing them outside, before looking over the meat.
Chief watched her carefully move to preparing the meat in a dented pot that had water, tossing it inside and going to grab wood. She lit the stove with the wood upon coming back, keeping a steady supply of burn wood to her left as she worked on the food. She stirred in the pot. Every move she made was perfectly executed, from using some spice leafs that she'd identified and taken with them after foraging for fruit to stirring the pot as the meat boiled inside.
They'd recovered a slew of things after foraging and hunting, among which metal... And, luckily for them, enough wood to make bowls. The Spartan stared up at the barrack's roof made of rock, supported by wooden girders, before finally looking down to see a bowl of soup with chunks of meat in it. She sat herself down, then exhaled and said "All done." with a proud smile on her face. "I'm gonna smoke the rest of the meat so it lasts longer. Take it to the shed too."
"Good plan. Will keep us fed for a few days." He answered, leaning forward.
"Hey, she cooked a meal for you..." Cortana quipped, then whispered "To be fair, I kinda wanted to be first to do that, but..."
Ignoring Cortana's last remark, he leaned forward, turning only to see how the woman ate. She had a pair of single-use utensils. A spoon/fork combo and a knife, of course... She slid a similar single-use cutlery pack to him, then explained "Bought these off of a trader. There's a colony at the bottom of the valley if you feel like going for a day-long walk down there, to visit... I've been keeping them safe from any 'forced colonization' attempts the Fed Peacekeepers may've aimed at them for about a year now."
"Sure. Maybe at some point... And good work on that. They're more angry at you than they are at them." The Spartan quipped and his survival buddy snorted.
"Yeah, guess you're right. It's no surprise the Feds hate me so much though..." She said absentmindedly, before taking a spoonful of stew. "You gonna eat, Chief?" She asked, pointing with her spork at his food... He nodded, leaned forward, lifted his helmet and took his first taste of the food... For all it was worth, she was a decent cook. And she somehow had managed to recreate the taste of the soup from Reach... How odd.
He gave her a nod of approval and she simply smiled again, looking at what little she could see of the man's tired, sunken face...
The pale skin under the armor...
A single lock of brown hair escaping through the side of the helmet...
And if she looked hard enough, she could trace long scars borne from doing battle for years, to a pair of sunken, deep azure eyes...
But she couldn't see all of the features of his face. Which was irritating...
Chief was a mystery... One she now wanted and was committed to solve.