Chapter 2: An Unknown world
Noble Six breathed gently; enjoying the rhythmic feeling of her breath as she lay on slightly damp grass. On some level, she knew what she was feeling made no sense, she'd been on Reach and given that it was in the process of being Glassed, there was no way it could be damp or have grass. But none of that mattered, it was relaxing to lay… wherever she was.
Sleepily she rolled over, and was rather rudely forced awake as she slid down a muddy hill. She opened her eyes just in time to bring her arms up to protect her head as she rolled.
Thoroughly dazed and now resting at the bottom of the hill, she realised something was wrong as she looked over her dirt covered arms. Her completely exposed dirt covered arms.
Where's my Mjolnir!?
I dunno.
Did somebody take it from me?
How is that even possible?
Shoving these thoughts out of her head, Six took time to figure out what she did have; the answer being 'Not much'. She was currently naked and covered in dirt. That alone would have been bad, but it got worse, something was wrong with her hair.
Noble Six hadn't seen her hair in years; it had been shaved when she arrived on Onyx and had stayed that way ever since, however she remembered it being a dark brown bob, not two inches long and lavender.
The Spartan was unnerved by this fact, and even more uneved as she stood up. Her muscle mass was gone, leaving her with fairly twiggy arms and more to the point; She was short. Six had previously stood a respectable seven foot tall, about the average for a Spartan. Currently she doubted she was even in the high range of five feet.
Deciding that she needed a proper look at what had happened to her, the Spartan set off; Wishing her new hair wasn't such a weird feeling on her head.
Eventually, after an unknown amount of time walking, she found a river. It was flowing too fast for her to process her reflection properly, but she knew if she kept walking she'd probably find a lake or civilization of some kind from which she could contact someone.
The plan made her feel better about her current situation; the temperature dropping did not. While it was useful in telling her it was probably going to get dark soon, it wasn't going to override the fact she was naked.
Six sped up her walking. She didn't want to risk running because the terrain was rough, and she had no way of helping herself if she tripped or got injured. Even so, it was clear that she had to move faster given she still hadn't encountered any signs of civilization.
The Spartan's day only got worse as the rain started. With her footing barely secure, Six was forced to slow down again. She wanted to keep moving, to keep powering on, but common sense/her training kicked in. She had no idea where she was, she was unarmed,and had no protection from the elements. The time spent walking in the dark wasn't worth being attacked by the wildlife or getting lost.
Looking around, the Spartan saw what she needed; a cluster of three fir trees growing close enough together that there was a sheltered area in the middle of them.
Crawling through the biggest gap she could find, the Spartan curled up in the middle of the trees; wishing she hadn't touched as many needles as she had.
They're just tree needles, I'll be fine.
You don't even know what planet you're on; for all you know they could induce agonizing pain.
Nothing so far has indicated that's the case.
It could be on a delay.
These unhelpful thoughts were what carried Six to sleep that night, mostly because if they didn't, Noble Team would come to mind, and those thoughts wouldn't help her achieve anything.
She woke up with the sun the next morning, crawling out from her shelter and cringing as the water built up cascaded down her as she left. The day was as grey as the one before, and she was shivering as she started to move, continuing to follow the river.
The Spartan wasn't optimistic about that day, the rain was still falling, and while she wasn't struggling for hydration, she was left painfully open to the elements. Assuming she managed to find shelter there was another issue, she had nothing to eat nor the tools to capture food. Her best bet was finding some kind of berries to eat; but even then, if she didn't recognise them she was risking poisoning herself. Deciding she wasn't starving yet, she kept trudging on.
That day was monotonous and dull, as she walked further and further, her bones and feet aching and begging for a break, but she ignored them. She was trained to push through scenarios like this, pain was an abstract, the mission was what mattered.
That being said, she didn't walk forever that day, because she found something that lifted her spirits enormously. An M6G Magnum was lying in the mud in front of her. She eagerly dropped to the ground and scooped the weapon into her hands. Looking around, she found a large tree that would serve as cover while she inspected the weapon.
She found six rounds in the magazin, not ideal, but it was better than none. All of the dirt that she could see seemed to be surface level, everything still moved properly and appeared to be in working order. Comforted by the weight of the handgun the Spartan set off, feeling much better for having a weapon at her side again… even if she really wished she also had a holster.
Six continued to walk for the rest of the day before spotting a cave not far from the river to rest in. It wasn't too deep, so the odds were good that there was nothing nasty hiding within. She slipped inside, and was happy to not only have a solid roof over her head, but to find a rucksack with the UNSC Eagle emblazoned on it.
The contents of the rucksack were in poor shape or broken outright, like they'd been flung against the wall at incredible speeds. In fact, the backpack itself was looking pretty beat-up, so maybe that theory wasn't that far off. A couple of items had survived whatever had happened though, namely a small combat knife, and far more importantly, standard-issue ration bars.
The ration bars weren't quite as nutrient-packed as their paratrooper and survivalist variants, but food was still food, even if it tasted like wood chips and salted dirt. Six wolfed down two of the disgusting brown blocks of processed mush, having never felt happier to have the vile things in her mouth. As she rested, she contemplated how weird this was. a backpack and a magnum just lying abandoned; no sign of a camp or even a dead body. Hell, as far as she could tell, there hadn't even been any footprints.
Something was going on, but Six didn't have the energy to care. She collapsed onto the cold rock and drifted off to sleep; her stomach gurgling like it did when she first had the rations. If anything, they sat worse in her gut then they did going in, but she ignored it, it wasn't gonna keep her happy, but she was at least eating again.
Day three started on breakfast, easily elevating it in comparison to the other days she'd been wandering. Yes the food was awful, but a full stomach of garbage was still better than an empty one.
The day itself consisted of more walking, until she found something interesting lying in the ground; bullet casings, Unlike any that the Spartan had seen before. While at first glance they looked like standard rifle round casings, the inside revealed something completely different. The propellant was… strange to say the least. Whatever it was, it was powdery, blue, and cold as hell. She experimentally inserted a small stick and watched with fascination as the end froze solid. It was even glowing, which in hindsight, was probably what had made the casings stand out amid the muddy soil.
Six carefully returned them to the ground and took a second to get a better look around the clearing she found herself in. A battle had obviously taken place here; the damage to the trees and the ground were enough evidence of that, but just like the bullet, everything looked slightly wrong.
There were grooves slashed into several trees, one had even been cut through completely. Six had seen similar damage at Covenant battles before; but this was wrong. There was no plasma burning, no bodies; no blood.
Maybe it was a training exercise?
Why would you clear up some equipment and not your bullet casings?
Maybe they had to leave in a hurry?
That would still leave bodies somewhere to be seen; this is weird.
Six looked around and eventually found four sets of footprints which left her even more confused. Three of the sets suggested boots, which made sense given the terrain, but the last set was sunk much deeper into the ground, with a small triangle up front and a tiny point behind them.
High heels, maybe they were escorting a VIP?
On foot? I don't buy it. If they were carrying enough firepower to cause all of this chaos, they would've needed transport of some kind… unless they were Jorge.…
Six fought to not think too hard about her dead comrade, and instead focused on the were going away from the battle. She could keep going by the river, or follow the human tracks. While it posed some risk, they must have been going somewhere, and they might even have a camp nearby.
Six made up her mind and followed the tracks, moving as fast as she dared, less the rain wash her trail away.
The Spartan was impressed, everything suggested the person wearing the high heels hadn't stopped to rest anywhere. Although she was yet to find anyone, and the trail was fading fast. As she ran to keep following it she heard something. Gunfire.
Six sped up even faster, they needed her help, something was wrong with her body right now, but she was still a Spartan and she was never going to run from anyone who needed help.
Six exploded out of the treeline and only just managed to stop before going over a cliff. She looked down at the battle, and immediately she went from worried to confused. Her head once again ignoring her training and tilting as she looked down in befuddlement.
The good news was the battle was against some kind of local Fauna that resembled an armour plated bear and not the Covenant… on the downside, it wasn't the UNSC fighting.
There were four people engaged in combat, and none of them looked dressed for it. As a Spartan, Six was used to a strict dress code, a full suit of armour, something these four seemed to have merely ignored.
One was reasonably dressed in black trousers and an orange vest, but his weapons were far less reasonable, made up of a pair of blades that were held by his arms, not swords, but something other man was wearing a green tunic that didn't match the trees, and sported a truly ludicrously-sized sword. Six was in pure shock; how the hell did he use that properly?
Then there were the two girls, and Six honestly wasn't sure which of the two was worse off. One was wearing flat boots, but didn't seem to carry a weapon at all; and the other was wearing high heels and was carrying a bright yellow mini gun that…
Six had to blink to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The whole minigun had just shrunk, compressed, into a small hand bag…
What… what did we just see?
Honestly, I don't know, and that scares me.
Six shook her head, these people were clearly mad. I mean, one of them was wearing fake ears on her head for goodness sake. Still, anyone was an improvement and they might lead her somewhere; so she'd watch them from a distance for now.
"Coco, someones watching us."
Coco looked at Fox in surprise before immediately moving closer to Velvet, holding Gianduja at the ready; hoping she was standing between the rabbit girl and whatever her teammate had just detected.
"Out here, why?" She sent back, her friend's Semblance was great for moments like this. It never looked like you were having a private conversation when you were telepathically sharing things with each other.
"I don't know, but they're hiding their presence really well; I almost couldn't detect them." He explained.
"I don't like this, what if they're hostile?" Yatsuhashi asked as his hand clutched around his sheathed sword.
"Then we fight them; Fox, you said someone right, so it's only one person watching us?" Coco asked;,scanning the horizon carefully. She couldn't see anything obvious, but that didn't mean much; the only reason Fox knew someone was around in the first place was because of his Semblance for Dust's sake.
"Correct."
"Then I think we'll have the edge over them. We're Team CFVY, we aren't going down to one mook." Coco said, projecting a strong air of confidence as she readied herself.
"Coco, Fox said they were hiding; what if we're only detecting a small part of someone who's hiding a large group or something?" Velvet asked, her hand reaching to the box mounted on the back of her belt. Coco gently took it before the girl could use their Teams ace in the hole and smiled at her.
"Come on, we're awesome, Fox aint gonna be fooled that easily. If he says it's one guy it's one guy." She said simply. Her heart fluttering slightly as Velvet smiled back at her, squeezing her hand gently.
"Still, we shouldn't head back to the village just yet, we could be leading a bandit scout to their doorstep." Yatsuhashi pointed out, letting go of his sword at last and looking his leader in the eye. Realising that he wanted an order out of her, Coco thought for a second before deciding.
"Okay Team, let's head back to camp. I don't know about you, but I've got some sausages with my name on them waiting for me." Coco proudly said, spinning on her heels and slinging her bag casually over her shoulder. The rest of her team followed suit; walking towards the tents they'd set up a few days ago.
She didn't need Fox's Telepathy to know her teammates were annoyed, the tents weren't comfortable to sleep in and with the Grimm cleared out, they'd all been hoping to head back to the village and sleep in actual beds again. But needs triumphed wants; they hadn't come out here to kill Grimm and then draw someone potentially worse to an innocent village
"Who's taking first watch tonight?" Velvet asked, gently wiping grease from her Sausages off her face with a napkin. The unspoken 'and keeping an eye out for our stalker' resonating with everyone.
"I'll do it. I don't think I'm going to sleep easily anyway." Yatsuhashi said as he moved to sit in the tree they'd designated for lookout.
"Good. Fox, you get the next shift so try and sleep while you can." Coco said simply. "Velvet you go next, I'll take the last shift."
The Group nodded. It made sense to put Fox and Velvet on watch overnight. Fox was unaffected by how dark it was, so he might as well go out when the others couldn't see, and Velvet's night vision would also grant her better sight than Coco would have.
Everyone moved to their tents. Fox into his and Coco and Velvet into theirs. As Coco went to zip out the sleeping bag she had a thought.
"Fox, any idea how far away our stalker is?"
"They're still nearby but further than earlier; they haven't moved for a while. Either they want to attack us while we're asleep, or they've also made camp."
"Got it." Coco said before turning to the rabbit next to her.
"Guess we're leaving the bag unzipped tonight then?" Velvet asked quietly, a small smile on her face as Coco nodded.
"Eyup. Anesidora's box within arm's reach?" Coco asked, wishing she could see in the low lighting. Velvet nodded.
"Yeah, should be easy to grab. How's Gianduja doing? you were having jamming issues when we fought that Grimm earlier."
"Come on Vel', of course she's fine." Coco said, shifting closer to the Fanus girl next to her. "I'd never let anything happen to you, especially not because of something as lame as a weapons malfunction."
Coco then wrapped her arms around the girl, pulling her closer. It was a chilly night after all and they needed to stay warm. Velvet smiled as her girlfriend pulled her close, snuggling up to the taller girl. A small part of her wondering how she was meant to get free when it was her time to be lookout, but the rest realising that it was a problem to deal with later.
