Faro Province, Velas III, Sagai System
2548
The sound of an engine being pressed to it's limits echoed through the narrow streets of the now abandoned city followed by sporadic shots of weapons fire and muffled yelling. At once the desolate streets came alive as a mongoose speed through them, a pair of ghosts hot on its tail. Upon the mongoose were two ODSTs, one drove focusing all his efforts on weaving through the roads filled with abandoned cars while the other ODST hung on for dear life on the back, a Covenant data pad in his hand.
"Bloody fuck mate can't you do anything about those ghosts?" The driver yelled, not taking his eyes from the road for a second.
"Well you know I'm kind of busy trying to do our damn mission." The other one replied, taping in a number of inputs pad, flinching every time a plasma bolt screamed by them.
"Then hurry up would ya? I'm not keen of having my ass on a Covenant grill tonight."
"Would you like a hand at magically decoding these Covenant glyphs Barbie? Oh right you're probably fucking illiterate."
"Piss off Marauder, just try to buy us a few seconds at least."
Adrian sighed, his squad was his family but sometimes even with family you just wanted to strangle them though he couldn't argue with Barbie, it was a miracle that they hadn't been hit yet and he wasn't looking to push his luck. Reaching behind him he pulled a M45 Tactical Shotgun off his back, focusing his aim on the nearest ghost he pulled the trigger but the shot went wide as Barbie was forced to pull a tight turn at the blocked road ahead of them.
"Keep it steady…" Adrian muttered; Barbie responded with a grunt. Adrian took aim once more, despite his one-handed aim swaying he focused and fired, the immense burst sent his arm jerking upward. His aim was true however as the pellets tore through the ghost's shell eviscerating the grunt piloting the vehicle. It swerved side to side before eventually nose-diving hard into the ground with a crash sending the grunt's corpse flying forward like a torpedo. The last got slowed down putting more distance between them and itself, clearly not looking to repeat what had happened to his comrade giving him time to finish deciphering this Covenant data. What they needed exactly from it he wasn't sure, but the mission was given directly from Vice Admiral Ferreira so there wasn't exactly room to question their mission. Though the thoughts shared among himself and his brothers was that ONI was involved in some-way. It was a bit odd because ONI had their own ODST's squads under them to undertake special missions, something he was frankly not envious of at all, but again its not like they had room to question.
So here they were – well two of them anyway – the others were waiting back at their evac point aboard the pelican. Taking a quick glance over his shoulder at the distanced ghost, he finished up the decryption of the covvie tech, their use of glyphs was practically incomprehensible to him but his ODST training gave him a purely technical understanding of them. As the data pad unlocked, he hooked it up to a black box they'd been given by Vice Admiral Ferreira, again likely ONI but that's beside the point.
Giving a firm bump to Barbie's back he spoke, "Alright we're good, get us the hell out of here."
"Finally, and here I thought you were supposed to be smart." Barbie jabbed; Adrian smirked before refocusing his attention on the final ghost. Bringing out the shotgun once more, he fired twice, both shots hitting their mark but only doing minor damage, not enough to destroy it. As he readied the final shot, the ghost grew some balls, speeding up and unleashing a torrent of plasma fire. Barbie maneuver to avoid most of but a single bolt with the grace of the Covvie God's hit his shotgun turning it into a molten metal stick. Dropping it with a swear, he looked around them as the road they were on opened up into a vast six-lane road, abandoned cars still littered the street but it was no longer a game of millisecond reactions to avoid death.
An idea sprung into his mind, "Barbie when we pass that white truck slam the breaks, I want us to ride side-by-side with the ghost."
"You absolute wombat, you're yearning for death never ceases to amaze." Despite his qualms he knew Barbie would do it as any other ODST would do for his brothers. As the white truck neared closer, Adrian braced himself for the inevitable whiplash. With a screeching of the tires he felt his whole-body lurch forward as the ghost passed them before snapping back as Barbie let his foot off the break and slammed on the gas. The grunt slowed down, confused at the turn of events making it even easier for them to pull up right beside it as they barreled down the wide street, Adrian slightly angled his body towards the ghost as they pulled up next to it. The grunt stared at them; its expression hidden behind its breathing mask but knowing grunts it was probably fear. Taking a deep breath, he jumped from the mongoose to the hood of the ghost, landing on it with a heavy grunt as he felt a bit of the wind knocked out of him. Looking up he saw the grunt frantically looking side to side, unsure of what to do now that a human had jumped on his craft, with one smooth motion Adrian grabbed onto the top of the ghost console and swung his body around the side of it with both his feet slamming into the grunt, sending it flying out of the driver seat. Quickly assuming control of the craft before it crashed, he looked towards Barbie sending him a thumbs up, the other man chuckled as he shook his head. They made good progress through the Covenant controlled city luckily avoiding any further conflict, they were almost to the city limits when a deep rumbling sound caught their attention. It was an unearthly sound, as if something was fundamentally broken in the machine, the tree line was visible in the distance and beyond that was their ticket out of there. Adrian boosted the ghost while Barbie once more pressed the mongoose to it's limits, the closer they grew to the tree line the louder the rumbling got. Just before they left the city limits an explosion rung out to the side, and the cause of the rumbling made itself known.
"Prowler on our three o'clock! We don't have the ordinance to take that beast on!" Barbie yelled as he stared at the encroaching brute vehicle.
"Lead it into the forest and try to lose it, if not we'll get Wolfe to lay down some heavy fire."
"Aye, will do."
The prowler burst threw the column of cars like a warm knife through butter, the sound of plasma fire filled the air and the brute on the turret let loose. His guttural growl sending shiver down Adrian and Barbie's spine. His ghost shook with every hit by the plasma bolts, looking around he could see electricity sparking from the exposed inner workings of his vehicle. Soon they made it into the forests surrounding the city, Adrian split left while Barbie went right with the hope they'd give up chase. No such luck existed for Adrian as he weaved through the trees, the sound of the Prowler's roaring engines not far behind. Grudgingly he had to hand it to the Brute pilot, such a large vehicle would be unwieldy for most but between the plasma fire cutting down trees and the ape's own disgustingly impressive navigation of the dense forest he was clearing the forest with ease. Over the comms he could hear Barbie laying out the plan to the others, grabbing a grenade from his hip he pulled the pin and tossed it behind him hoping to get a lucky shot. The grenade bounced off the ground, sending it skipping into the air before it exploded sending the shrapnel into the handful of Brutes on the Prowler. Though it only served to piss them off more, through the thick grouping of trees Adrian could see the Pelican in wait.
"I see the pelican from your five o'clock, get ready these ape fuckers are looking to roast my ass!" Adrian yelled as he broke from the tree line into the clearing. Ahead he could see his squad in position ready to blast whatever chased him. The clearing also meant that the Brutes had a clear shot on Adrian, he felt his ghost wobble underneath him as plasma bolts riddled it. The ghost's readout went dark as the power to it died; he slammed the console fruitlessly but braced himself for the inevitable crash. It spun out landing on one of its wings causing it to tumble out of control sending Adrian flying to the side. He rolled across the ground until he stopped on his back, looking up he could see the Prowler charging his way, sadistic grins planted upon the Brutes as they reveled in the thought of running him over.
"Please don't rush on my account guys…" Adrian muttered.
"Ah we feel you've got everything in hand." Wizard, their resident marksman, responded before letting loose a shot from his anti-material rifle. The bullet buried itself in the head of the Prowler pilot, his head exploding like a water balloon filled with red paint, the Brute's limp corpse slumped to the side causing the Prowler to sputter out as it swerved off to the side. The other brutes yelled in anger at the sight of their dead companion but never got the chance to act on their fury as Wolfe let loose a SPNKR missile causing the whole thing to go in an explosion of fire.
Adrian groaned standing up, "Cutting it close huh?"
"Well we thought about it but now you have a kick-ass story to tell, and without those cool stories you'd never get laid in the first place cause I mean you look the rugged handsomeness of me." Wolfe spoke with feigned arrogance as he tossed the SPNKR into the pelican.
"Hardy har you ass."
"He's got a point I mean you go up to some chick in a bar and say what, 'Heh yeah I'm a glorified computer nerd, that turn you on?'" Talos spoke up. "Meanwhile I say I'm a field medic and I got pussy and cock coming up to me from all over, people love medics, tech geeks … not so much.
"What the hell are you yapping on about? Like a couple of highschool girls gossiping in their god damn cliques, should I get you some nail polish while you're at it?" Gunnery Sergeant Thorn yelled.
"Well I think I chipped my nail gunny…" Barbie joked.
"Just get in the god damn pelican." He ordered as the squad hopped into the back of the pelican taking their seats, "Besides everyone knows leaders of highly decorated ODST squads score the most." The troop bay roared with laughter, as Adrian looked around he knew that he'd be willing to die for any of his brothers as they'd no doubt do the same for him. He'd lost his family on Kholo but now he'd found a new family, one with which he could get his revenge against the Covenant every chance he got.
…
…
…
Now as Adrian looked around the troop bay of the Orca he realized just how different his life here was. Every time he thought he was becoming used to his absurd situation, finally getting his thoughts under control, he'd have a memory of what his life used to be…of what was happening back home while he was here still struggling to find a way back. Sometimes the weight of what he was carrying felt like it would crush him, the thought that they might be dying or already dead was something that threatened to crush his soul. He should be there with them, fighting with them, laughing with them, dying with them, but instead he was stuck here… if fate existed it could be inexplicably cruel. Of course he'd tell himself there was nothing else he could do, only wait, but that doesn't make the feeling just disappear, it's more like shelving the issue only to reappear at a later point.
He was saved from his own self-crippling thoughts when the comms in the Orca crackled to life as Winston's voice filtered through the speakers, "Apologies everyone but I'm going to have to halt your return for now, it's not a dire emergency but your position over Georgia means it'll be easier reroute you then send a new team from Gibraltar."
"You can spare us the logistics Winston, what's going on?" Amari spoke up.
"Ah of course, well a couple days ago while you were still in Vladivostok, we sent Doctor Ziegler to Dadaab, Kenya, it's been a key relief camp for decades and she's been adamant in offering her services to help."
Adrian's eyebrows raised, Kenya was where this whole shitshow stared, he wasn't sure where Dadaab was but if possible, maybe he could head to the area outside New- no…just Mombasa. Granted his talk with Winston had really put in perspective how fucked the whole situation with Slipspace technology was, so there was no guarantee for anything, he just needed to check and see if any of his squadmates were there.
"Now as for why you're required, well the camp is far larger than anticipated and frankly it seems that those in-charge of the camp have been…remiss in their duties. While many are there to simply survive as best they can, there are some with more selfish goals in mind, there's already been reports of missing medicine, fights breaking out over rationing, and word of a group seizing power for their own illicit means. While I'm not asking us to intervene in these affairs, Doctor Ziegler needs for support than was initially given, hence your role will be to help keep the peace. Any questions?"
At the silent response Winston continued, "Now Amari, you'll be heading back to Gibraltar after dropping off the others, after our actions in Russia we had a wave of new recruits and we need some admission and discipline."
"Understood sir, Vickers you're in charge though I imagine it shouldn't be too strenuous." As the Winston's voice cut from the comms, Vickers gave a firm nod of his ahead. If Adrian couldn't get to Mombasa he'd still be able to ask around, see if there was any unusual activity going on while not detracting from his mission there of keeping the peace. With little to do for the remainder of the trip, Adrian turned towards gathering information about Dadaab. A quick conversation with Vickers told him that it was a refugee and relief camp established in the early nineties by the United Nations, who in turn also created Overwatch in response to the Omnic Crisis. However during the Crisis, funds were allocated away from foreign aid to the creation of Overwatch, and when the allegations came out of mismanagement, corruption, weapon trades, and more… well it was a huge hit to their reputation. So the money that was taken from foreign aid was never restored and now many of these UN camps have either handed the reigns over to local governments or in the case of Dadaab, have fallen into severe disrepair.
As the dropship pulled over the camp, the back hatch opened presenting Adrian with an ugly site, row upon row of white tents covering acres of open terrain. Equally intermingled with the tents were dilapidated concrete structures, some in worse repair than others, some just simply rubble on the ground. At his raised eyebrow Vickers elaborated that at some point a couple decades ago they had ruled to try to make it a more permanent location, so there were plans for a massive construction to be undertaken. However, it only made it about halfway before the Omnic Crisis hit, so now its resulted in look like a war-torn town instead of a relief camp. Adrian scoffed at the ineptitude of it all, these people were just trying to survive instead they kept getting dealt shit hand after shit hand. When the Orca landed, he could see Doctor Ziegler dressed in rolled up beige pants with a white button up shirt, her hair styled in its typical fashion, waiting for them as well as a few Overwatch soldiers standing around. A quick look around made it clear she'd at least been able to set up shop, a half-dozen gold and white tents surrounded them, while under those tents were several medical staff treating various patients. Walking out into the African sun, he could immediately feel the heat barring down upon his unprotected face, his helmet held loosely in his right hand. He could imagine the climate control in his armor shifting into overdrive to compensate for the searing heat, it was a luxury he never forgot to feel thankful for.
Doctor Zielger smiled as they began to walk off the craft, "Ah I hadn't expected you so soon!"
"Well we we're already back on our way from Russia, wasn't much a detour to head here." Amari spoke up, "You doing alright here Angela?"
Ziegler gave a half-hearted shrug in response, "It's been turbulent, but I hope that with some extra help things will calm down."
"I know that bringing in more soldiers isn't what you hope for but sometimes a firm hand has to be taken."
"I suppose so though it pains me to see it necessary."
Amari gave her a warm smile, "Well I'll have to cut this conversation short; I'm need back at Gibraltar but you'll have half a dozen of my best men led Vickers and Kasporov. They'll be available for whatever you need them for even if it falls outside their normal duties."
"I appreciate the help; I'll see you back at base Fareeha." Ziegler waved as Amari boarded the Orca, its bay door closing as it took off back into the sky. It'd probably be a couple days until another dropship returned with more supplies but until then…they were practically on their own.
He turned his eyes from the dropship to Ziegler when he heard Vickers's voice, "Where do you need us ma'am?"
She pondered on it for a brief second, "Hmm for now we're doing quite well but I liked to keep it that way. Just walk around I suppose, make sure nobody tries to steal from someone else, deter them from causing mischief."
He nodded, "Alright, we'll keep everything organized."
"One for thing though, please refrain from any severe action, we're here to help people but they won't trust us if we end up hurting more than we're helping. I apologize if this is slower than what you're used to but I don't expect this to be a very exciting assignment."
Vickers chuckled as did the rest of his squad, "Honestly? Our last assignment was plenty excitement enough for the week, we'll take the reprieve."
She smirked, "Don't try to sound to relieved or I'll give you something hard."
They chuckled as Vickers led the squad to patrol the tents, leaving Adrian alone with Angela, "Anything you need from me Doc?"
"Hmm not that I can think of, though you can tell me about your last mission. Seems to be exciting and frankly I could use some excitement that doesn't resolve around my medicine being stolen."
"Heh alright, so there I was completely surrounded by Talon, they had at least fifty guys-" As soon as he saw Ziegler wasn't buying into his tale of heroics he told her the real story, the tense city crawl, the assault on the warehouse, his encounter with Reaper and the Amari's encounter with Widowmaker before they managed to escape. When he finished, she had drawn a furrowed brow across her face, her mind deep in thought.
"They're stepping up again, for the past few months before your arrival they'd been oddly quiet, little to no activity from them but now it seems they're resurfacing." She mumbled to herself, before shaking it off, "That's a discussion for another time however, for now we have to focus on helping the people here."
They stood under one of the medical tents, staring out across the vast sea of white and gray, "On our way in here Vickers said something to me about this place looking more like a war-zone than a camp…and I gotta say I agree."
She nodded solemnly, "Its disheartening, many of the people here are refugees fleeing from war ravaging their own countries. Here they had hoped to find a better life but are now instead stuck with this crumbling attempt at humanitarian aid, most of which have nowhere else to go."
Adrian hesitated, unsure of how to approach the topic that Doctor Ziegler cared so much for, "Well… I suppose you can't get bogged down in all the what-ifs outside your power, you're here now striving for change…that means something right? Besides you managed to convince the big guy to go for this, shouldn't be much harder to get him to go for some public speeches or what not right?"
"I suppose so." She gave him a curious glance
"So use those times to talk about what's going on, encourage people to make a difference, even if they donate for purely selfish reasons it's still money going towards a good cause. Of course this is all outside what I know so maybe I'm just spitting out a bunch of naïve bullshit, but I think you should light a fire under there ass and see where that gets you."
He wiped his hand against his perspiring forehead, the sweat near-instantaneously soaking through his fiber glovers, turning towards Ziegler he saw that she was doubled over trying and failing to suppress some laughter.
"I know it may have been a stupid idea but laughing seems a bit cruel don't you think?"
"No please don't take it the wrong way!" She said as she continued to chuckle, "It's just that these lectures are always very stiff, prestigious events that while I'm always gracious to attend, have a certain air of pompous elitism. Just imaging you there with your matter-of-fact speech, telling to get off their arsch and actually do something just seems…perfect." Adrian still wasn't sure what exactly she was getting at but seeing her laugh so freely brought a grin to his face, "Besides you're very much a realistic pessimist, so hearing you say that something might be naïve was just a stark contrast. That aside I believe your right…if I want to see change here I need to strive for it beyond what I can do, be authoritative in what needs to be done."
"Sounds like a plan worth following, though you should really work on an assertive glare, I thin that'll really sell your plan if people are too scared to disagree." They laughed together at the thought but a commotion tore them from their idle chatter. Looking towards the source of the clamor it seemed a quarrel had broken out; Adrian handed his helmet to Ziegler as he walked over to the dispute.
"Please remember what I told the others, we're here to help so try to resolve it as peacefully as possible." She called out after him, keeping an eye on what was happening. In the time she'd known Mr. Kasporov she grown to like him quite a lot. Despite the horrors he'd lived through he'd remained surprisingly thoughtful, there was a light-hearted humor that she believed would've been extinguished in most. As far as she was concerned, time spent with him was time she considered well spent, in fact when she realized it would be Adrian coming here she felt a childish sense of anticipation. Despite this she had to constantly remind herself that Adrian had lived a life far removed from the relatively peaceful world she knew. The things he experienced had hardened him to being ruthlessly efficient, the scene of him executing those Talon agents in Peru still haunted her dreams on occasion. While she trusted him to follow her orders, there was still a tinge of doubt in the back of her mind worrying over what brutally extreme act Adrian would do to ensure the peace…to make an example of.
He walked over to the commotion, his black boots thudding against the cracked dry dirt, as people saw his approach they wisely moved out of his way giving Adrian a clear view of the scene in front of him. A grown man with dark skin was struggling to rip a box of supplies out of the hands of a scrawny lighter-skinned child, it was more than just medical attention they were giving out here, water, food, vitamins, all in neat little care-packages like the one the boy was holding. The adult though more like an overgrown maggot had already consumed his rations and wanted more or perhaps hoped to profit on selling an extra. It disgusted him, taking every ounce of willpower to not simply rip the man away and toss him to the ground, instead he approached cautiously from the side.
"Listen, you want more rations you can wait till they hand more out, but stealing from a kid's just fucked."
The adult turned to stare at Adrian incredulously, his eyes practically bulging from his head, his accent was thick but understandable, "Me stealing from the kid?! He stole MY rations; I'm trying to get back what's mine!"
Adrian blinked in surprise as the others gathered around nodded in support, well I guess that what I get for jumping to conclusions he thought to himself realizing he'd just made a complete ass of himself. "Listen kid if you really need these rations then we can work something out but stealing them is helping nobody." The kid stared blankly at him.
"He doesn't understand you, but I'll make sure he understands this!" The older man yelled as he raised his fist, ready to bring it down upon the kid's skull. Adrian caught the hand mid-air much to the surprise of both the kid and the man, "What the hell, this doesn't concern you! You want to keep the peace, then just back away and let justice take care of itself." Adrian's grip held firm but inside his thoughts were tumultuous, beating a kid was just pathetic but intervening more might only serve to cause a bigger shitshow. If his job was to keep the peace while also trying to get the people to trust them…then what the fuck was the right course of action.
"I can't let you just bludgeon a kid to death, just let him go and we'll get you a new ration pack."
"If we just let him go, he'll never learn, anytime he wants something he'll think he can just steal it because then the foreigners will intervene and it'll all be okay."
"Listen if the kid does it again, I'll leave it all up to you, justice at the hands of the offended, but for now just let him go." Adrian said with an exasperated sigh, if this is how all encounters would be then this posting would be far more involved than he thought. The man looked at Adrian before glaring at the kid before eventually letting go of the box, the kid fell backwards with a soft thud the ration box in hand. He wasted no time in shooting up and scurrying away as fast as his little feet would take him, the man cursed something under his breath before turning to Adrian, "Everyone's trying to survive, kindness for a kid stealing isn't something most of agree with. Be careful or you may find yourself with a target on your back."
Adrian bristled, "Is that a threat?"
"Just a warning." The man turned away getting back into the line leaving Adrian to wander back to Ziegler. His mind was racing with thoughts, everyone here was on a hair trigger – with fair reason – but the man was right to an extent, they'd be here for several days, maybe even a week. That's a lot of time for one wrong move to piss a lot of people off, himself and the others were here to ensure the safety of Docotr Ziegler and the Overwatch medical team, getting too involved outside of that would only lead to further complications. The ape had mentioned something about a power struggle from which one man has risen, so far it seems as though he's keeping to himself, but they'll have to be on cautious regardless.
"You handled that well Mr. Kasporov!" She beamed.
"Eh just doing what I was told, but I think were past the formalities don't you think? Mr. Kasporov just feels…uncomfortably formal."
"Alright Adrian, only if you follow suite."
"Sure thing Doc." He grinned, but his mind still combing over the worst-case scenarios of their situation.
"Something on your mind?"
"Just…this whole situation…it feels like were on a power keg ready to burst."
She nodded in understanding, "To parrot your words from earlier, I believe its best we simply focus on what we came here to do, if it doesn't involve us directly than its best we stay out of it. Sure we're helping but to these people we're also strangers coming in to their homes, the las thing we need to do is meddle in their personal affairs."
He nodded absent mindedly, this could turn into a complicated situation with a greater need for nuance than he possessed. Thinking to himself he chided himself for thinking it would be a simple assignment, it was anything but that.