Eve of Fate
Chapter 8: A Soft Moment
Rations never did have any real taste.
Cortana wolfed down a small spoonful of the artificially flavoured protein ration, a near relic from the war. The Covenant was lenient enough to let the humans grow or process food for the others, which was lucky, since the rations were now. The rations included almost all sorts of foods, even processed or simulated fruits and vegetables.
Finishing the last of her rations pack, Cortana waited before she swallowed, pushing the remains of her food around her mouth, trying to discern what it was supposed to taste like. She was able to detect the taste of something that vaguely resembled spaghetti, but she also seemed to have tasted oriental rice as well. The artificial flavouring could be spotty at times.
Either that, or it was the problem with having been put into a human body – having no previous senses, she was now left to her own to develop them. It was something that a toddler was supposed to do, which secretly infuriated her because her mind was far too fast and far too complex to be simply trying to find a taste.
"How's the rations pack?" Connor asked.
"Same as ever – varying degrees of suck" Cortana replied.
Stacker chuckled as he dipped his spoon into his ration.
"It isn't too bad – you've got all the essential stuff in here, its healthy enough to keep soldiers going, and the flavour isn't all too bad," Stacker explained almost wholeheartedly. "This Swedish Meatball is pretty good."
Cortana looked at Stacker, her smile slowly turning to a laugh.
"Except, that isn't Swedish Meatball."
A look of shock began to spread across Stackers face. The old man looked from the box of rations to Cortana and again as he contemplated her words.
"So what the hell have I been eating the whole time?"
"You don't want to know" Connor stepped in, his face turning to a worried half smile.
As Stacker and Connor began talking about what the ration was supposed to be, Cortana couldn't help but admire the moment. It was times like this that she wished would happen more – Stacker being a normal person, not trying to be caught up in the affairs of the resistance, and Connor not being he harsh cynic.
As Connor told Stacker what the rations was supposed to taste like, with Stacker suddenly turning green from the mention of it, Cortana couldn't help but see them as her family.
One of the room doors then opened, and out of it walked the fully bearded former soldier, Rhineland. He looked around in curiosity, noticing the sickened Stacker and the smiling Connor.
Cortana had noticed that Rhineland changed a bit over the course of the last few days. He no longer drank, and appeared outside more often, mainly to talk to Stacker, and he was starting to generally show more character and livelihood than before.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Nothing," Stacker replied, quietly. He then offered out his box of rations.
"Rations?"
Rhineland shrugged his shoulders, picked it up and began eating.
"Can you guess the flavour?" Stacker asked, now slightly amused.
"Sure, durian flavoured mix," Rhineland said, while eating the package. "I love this stuff."
The entire living room was quiet as they watched a satisfied Rhineland chow down on the pack of rations, enjoying every bit of it.
"I hate you" Stacker said in defeat.
A moment later, as Connor cleaned up the boxes of rations, there was a knock at the door. Cortana got up and answered it. Since there wasn't a method of seeing who was outside, Cortana opened the door a slight bit and peeked around.
The person at the door was quite tall, taller than Cortana by several inches. He had a small, thin and lanky build, with a tight leather jacket on him. His bleached blond hair was cut short and most of it was hidden beneath a ridiculous cap, which left his haughty sneering grin and unwashed face in plain sight.
"Evenin' luv. How're you doin' tonight?" Jericho sneered.
"Jericho," Cortana sighed. "For the last time, I'm not going to your club and I'm not interested in going."
Among the battered remains left from after the war, there were the occasional few who found an advantage to living as opportunists under the Covenant rule – Jericho was one of them. He owned a club, the Vanilla Hopper, and enough money and resources to do whatever he pleased. Because of that, he lived higher than the majority of the human survivors and even made occasional deals with the Covenant to further his own agenda. This made him even more dangerous, and worse, he was a relentless playboy – and his eyes were firmly set on Cortana.
Jericho scoffed, lightly beating the door with the side of his hand, mainly for emphasis.
"That's always your excuse. Come on Cathy, you'll love it there. Better there than in his crappy apartment."
"Can't you understand?" Cortana said. "I am not going, and that is final, so you can stop asking me."
Cortana then tried to close the door. Suddenly, Jericho pushed back, and threw Cortana to the ground. Everybody in the living room looked on in shock as Jericho strode into the living room and picked up Cortana by the wrist.
"Let her go!" Connor yelled, his voice filled with anger.
"Or else what, kid?" Jericho sneered. "You're gonna kick my ass?"
"Let go of her," Stacker said, trying to keep his voice calm. "She said no, so the very least you can do is respect her decision."
Jericho cocked his neck towards Stacker, his sneer intensifying.
"Well, it ain't her decision now – I'm trying to give her a better life, away from his dump, so you can go and dig your own grave, gramps. Besides, maybe you can just respect my decision to give her something better than this."
Rhineland set aside his box of rations and stood up, his stance more threatening then Stacker.
"Let go of Cathy, now," Rhineland threatened. "Yes, I am going to beat your ass out of here if you don't."
Jericho then pulled out a pistol, aiming for Rhineland's chest. Rhineland backed off for a bit, but remained on the alert.
"Are you going to kick my ass now?" Jericho taunted. "Go back to eating your goop. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take Cathy to where she really belongs."
Cortana struggled and fought, but his grip was far too strong to break. Then, something appeared at the door. This one stood more than a full head over Jericho, and was easily larger as well, and carried a rifle and a satchel loaded with ammunition.
Jericho dropped Cortana the moment he saw the figure that was the Master Chief.
"What the-? Holy hell!"
He raised his pistol at the Master Chief, but his hands were visibly shaking.
"Don't get any closer or I'll blow your brains out you freak!"
The Master Chief then reached out and pulled the pistol from Jericho's hands, breaking his fingers in the process. As Jericho screamed in pain, Rhineland ran up to Jericho and sent a fist straight into his face, sending him into unconsciousness.
For a moment, everybody was quiet as they tried to comprehend what happened. The Master Chief broke the silence.
"Is everybody alright?"
Everybody nodded. The Maser Chief then helped Cortana to her feet.
"Thanks" she said, her voice barely a whisper.
"No problem. What do we do about him?" he asked.
"Throw him into one of the empty apartments," Stacker said. "I'll show you."
As the Master Chief carried the unconscious form of Jericho out of the apartment, Connor helped Cortana up to her feet. She massaged her wrist – Jericho's grip was quite strong. Seconds later, the Master Chief walked back in, unloading the pistol Jericho was using. Looking at clip, the Master Chief visibly shook his head.
"He was trying to scare you guys with blanks" the Spartan explained, showing the clip to the others.
Connor picked it up and scoffed, throwing it against the floor a second later.
"What kind of person does that?" Connor said in fury.
"If somebody can't fight us head on, it would be better for them if they did so by bluffing," Rhineland said, drawing back of years of experience. "In this case, he would have done so – there's no way we could have known that pistol was actually loaded, and he would have taken Cathy."
As Rhineland explained that, Connor looked away in worry, as though imagining if that actually happened. Cortana thought about what just happened – was Jericho really that stupid? In truth, he was, but to try and pluck her from her apartment to go with him, and to do so with a weapon, only loaded with blanks?
It made no sense, but for the moment, all she knew was that had the Master Chief not showed up, Jericho would have succeeded in kidnapping her.
"Well, thanks, Chief" Stacker said. Rhineland did so as well.
"How long are you staying here for?" Connor asked the Spartan, not thanking him. Connor appeared uncomfortable with the presence of the Master Chief, in spite of him helping.
"Not long, I'll be going shortly. I came in with a Banshee, landed it a few blocks away and got here on foot to check on everybody" the Master Chief replied simply.
"A Banshee?" Cortana asked. "What happened?"
Stacker stepped forward, eager to ask some questions.
"Does it have anything to do with that ship that just went down earlier?"
The Master Chief nodded.
"I was the one who took it down."
"Nice" Rhineland complimented.
Stacker said nothing, but instead stared at the Spartan in shock. Cortana tried to imagine how he had did it – taking a Covenant ship down? With the exception of a magnetic acceleration cannon, or that stunt the Master Chief had done with a Covenant bomb, there was no other way to do it, especially for just one soldier.
"How did you do that?" she asked, curious to know how.
It was only scant hours following midnight, several hours after the Master Chief had arrived.
Cortana crawled out of bed. She was unable to sleep, especially when she thought about how the Master Chief was able to have taken down the ship.
Disabling the shields, setting a new course, and then destroying the coolant pumps? It was almost as good as what she could have done, if he had put her inside the network and let her wreak havoc.
Cortana wasn't jealous, but she had to admit, she didn't consider that. In all her intellect, she wasn't able to improvise the same way the Master Chief had done so.
Her mind then slipped to the Master Chief himself. What went through his mind now? Was he still taking into consideration that it was now thirty-five years after the war he was supposed to fight? Or did he only see this as but another complication to something he would win at?
For a moment, Cortana imagined the Master Chief sitting underground in a dark tunnel, cleaning and loading his rifle as groups of ragtag resistance fighters walked by him. Cortana thought whether he wore his helmet or not – what does he look like underneath? Did he even age, after the unexplained jump between thirty-five years?
She played around with the thought, remember how handsome he appeared as the first time she looked into his career service vitae and at that picture of him receiving yet another medal – a strong, chiseled and rugged face, short brown hair, and those curious, yet sharp and intuitive brown eyes that seemed to belong to the six year old child he used to be.
It then hit Cortana – she was thinking about the Master Chief. It wasn't just mild thinking, but playful thinking.
Did she like the Spartan? No, 'like' was the improper word. Cortana tried to think of the right word, but there was nothing she could think of that was in between 'like' and 'love.'
Did she love the Spartan then? Cortana buried the thought quickly. It wasn't possible. But could it be?
Cortana furiously tried to drop all her thoughts about the Master Chief, but every often, the image of him kept appearing in her mind.
Outside, she heard something. Quietly opening the door, she watched the Master Chief clean out his weapons. The Spartan sat cross-legged on the floor with his Battle Rifle, cleaning off what appeared to be the remains of coolant staining the weapon before picking up and examining a plasma grenade. Clips of ammunition, as well as grenades and shotgun shells were laid out in front of him as he checked his weapons.
Cortana then spotted the handle of an energy sword amongst his weapons as well. She tried to imagine how the Master Chief was able to claim that one, but she knew that he probably had some way of doing it.
She thought about leaving her room to go and talk to him. Part of her wanted to simply talk to him. She wanted to know more about him, and perhaps even get to know him better. Her heart fluttered for a bit at the thought of it.
Looking around the room, Cortana tried to find her pants. She remembered the last time she did so, walking out in nothing but a sweater and a pair of underwear. If she were to do this now, at least she would have a degree of decency to do it with some pants on.
Another door then opened, and somebody else came out. Cortana was disappointed inside that she wouldn't be able to talk to the Master Chief tonight.
"Hey Chief. What've you got there?"
Cortana recognized the voice – it was Rhineland. What was he doing up? She watched and listened on, hoping to learn more.
"A Battle Rifle with a 40mm grenade launcher, ammunition, and an energy sword."
Rhineland whistled after the Spartan sounded off on all his equipment. He sat down somewhere near the Master Chief and picked up the energy sword.
"Are you going to activate it?" the Master Chief asked.
Rhineland set it back down and shook his head.
"Nah, I don't have a clue how it even works. How did you even get it? Last I heard, these things self extinguish when you kill the split-lip using it."
"The Elite gave it to me before it died – something having to do with being a warrior."
Rhineland chuckled as he heard that.
"No kidding? That one didn't seem too bad then. I guess some of the Covies are lightening up."
Rhineland picked up the Battle Rifle and shouldered it, looking through the scope and aiming at the wall. He then set it back down on the floor.
"It's been more than thirty years since I last used one of these things."
"You were a Helljumper, right?" the Master Chief asked. "Stacker mentioned you once were."
Rhineland nodded sadly.
"Yeah, I was. Sergeant Darryl Rhineland, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, 405th Drop Jet Division" he said, recalling his experiences from the war.
"What happened to you?" the Master Chief asked.
Rhineland was hesitant to explain, but he slowly began to say what happened. Cortana listened closely, now being able to learn about the once unknown Rhineland.
"I was in Baghdad, part of a rescue team that was supposed to cover the retreat of marines and civilians from the area. The Covenant was advancing every hour, so we had to get them out of there. My Pelican was shot down, and we fell into an area hot with recent Covenant activity.
"We lost three guys and our pilots on impact, and I broke my leg. The Covies were coming onto us fast, so we took cover inside a building. The others hid me away in a corner and told me to cover their flank while we waited for when somebody would get us.
"I covered them with my sniper rifle, but just as I was about to take out an Elite, my rifle jammed."
Cortana listened on in shock, her mouth open, as she comprehended what happened to Rhineland.
"That Elite took out my squad. It was only a few seconds later that a Warthog from the evacuation convoy came by and managed to find me."
"Was that why you sniper rifle was still jammed from before?" the Master Chief asked.
"Yeah."
Rhineland then reached into his pocket and pulled out a bullet.
"It was in my rifle's chamber for thirty-five years, and it was the sole reason why my friends died that day."
"What are you going to do with it?" the Master Chief asked.
Rhineland shrugged before putting it away.
"As a sniper, I was taught not to waste ammunition, and I'm not going to waste even this one. It may have killed my team, but I can hope that it too can do something now."
"Can you still shoot? You'd be of great assistance for the resistance."
Rhineland shook his head, but it appeared to be only partially agreeing with what he felt for the moment.
"I'm not sure. Killing Covies won't bring my friends back, and I've already lost enough. But the truth is, part of me wants to fight – I want to do something right, but I'm not sure if getting back into the fray would be it."
"If you're not going to join, I'll respect that. A war isn't a place for a soldier wounded by it. But if you do join, then I'll look forward to fighting alongside you."
"Thanks. I'll think about it."
As Rhineland got up, Cortana realized that she never knew about that, and only then began to know of just how injured Rhineland was now. Part of her wept for his loss, and the fact that he felt he had contributed to it. She also admired him, especially how he was able to give up his habit and decide that he wanted to do something with his life.
Resting against the wall, she wrapped her small arms around herself, trying to warm herself up. As the night wind crept in through the cracks and holes in the wall, she shivered as the cold air washed against her skin.
"Hey, Chief, I have a question - why did you come back here?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why did you come all the way back here? If it's to check up on us, you came quite a long way for almost nothing. Besides, wouldn't going straight back to base be easier and less risky to do?"
Cortana realized that it made sense. Why did the Master Chief do that? He knew the risks, but why did he decide to go ahead with it? Was there more to him coming here?
"I'm not sure, but I do have one possible answer."
"Well, come on – tell me."
Cortana listened closely as the Master Chief finally spoke after almost an eternity.
"It was her."
Cortana heart skipped a beat when she heard that.
"Cathy?" Rhineland replied, shocked.
"For the last few nights, she's been on my mind. Every time I sleep, she's there. It occurred to me when I was on the Covenant ship. I missed her, and I just felt like I needed to see her again. Its – strange, almost; I can feel something, but I'm not sure what."
Back in her room, Cortana was shocked beyond all matter. The Master Chief was thinking about her. Sinking to the floor, she smiled as a tear rolled down her face. She liked him, he liked her…it seemed too close to perfect.
"I know what it is – love," Rhineland replied. "There's nothing wrong with having feelings for anybody – it just means that you have something to fight for."
"What do you mean? I fight for humanity."
"There's a little train of thought that my Sergeant explained to me that he used so he wouldn't be stressed out with the war. Instead of thinking that he was holding the entire world on his shoulders, he thought about fighting to protect his wife instead. Saving the entire world was too much for him – but fighting to save his wife? He always said it was more manageable.
"In this case, you can fight to protect Cathy."
Cortana's heart fluttered again and again as she listened. It was unbelievable.
"Wait, I hear something."
Cortana heard the shift in his voice. He was now serious and cautious now, his mind set on his duty as a soldier.
Suddenly, he yelled.
"Get down!"
As Cortana heard that, there was a loud explosion. Her ceiling then fell onto her, fragments of wood and piles of dust covered her small body. Within moments, Cortana blacked out.
End Note: This chapter I didn't do much, but I added a bit. I put a bit more into the opening scene with the idiot Jericho. About him, I had a few good ideas for his character that I never ended up doing in the older draft. Here, I got around to it. Personally, I still never came around to using any good ideas, so at best, Jericho is just a pervert idiot out for Cortana.
Yippee...
Other changes I made were mainly the intro, introducing Rhineland into the chapter a little differently, and then having abit of an offbeat humourous moment. Oh, and about the food stuff - I don't know about anybody reading this, but personally, I hate durian fruit. If you don't know what it is, it's a huge fruit the same size as a watermelon that is spiky on its outer surface and when cracked opened, it hells like rotting crap and tastes even worse. I don't know if its possible to even make a durian flavoured food ration mix (I pray to god that it isn't possible), but I added it, especially after having a plate full of the fruit in my refrigerator (oh yeah, if you ever have any in your fridge and you open the door, don't breath using your nose - that stuff smells horrid...).
I kept the chapter mostly the same because it accomplished what I had wanted - I wanted to make a soft moment (hence the chapter name) where the Master Chief takes a moment to think about what he's feeling towards Cortana. I'll admit, part of me always wanted to do a Master Chief/Cortana romance. The potential relationship development for it is simply delicious and cute in its own way.