As a certain blonde's eyes fluttered open to be met by the burning of recessed LED lights, she groaned loudly.
"Uuugh... I'm gonna be sick..." She moaned next, straightening up onto the bed ever-so-slowly. She blinked away the nausea and looked around, to see a few Marines checking on their pals that she'd seen there before. She shook her head to clear the nausea, before looking to her left to see food sat on the table. A standard-issue UNSC MRE had been opened and left there for her. Looked like some sort of veggies with meat, a sweet of some kind and a still-warm drink. Beside it, a yellow post-it note sat taped to the tray. It read something nice.
'Best I could do on short notice food run. It's the good stuff, though.'-Sgt. Reaver.
Adora smiled. The Sergeant was thoughtful.
She pulled the rotating table closer to her, pushing herself back into a position where she was leaned against the wall, before taking the plastic fork and knife and looking over the meal. Hearing footsteps as she started digging in with a smile, she turned to see a pair of Marine women passing by her bunk. One of them tossed her some sort of under-the-table candy, winking at her.
Adora blushed, laughing awkwardly as she watched the Marines pass, both of them continuing to talk about whatever as they passed. Okay, whatever that was, Adora didn't know. She started eating and, upon taking the first bite, was shocked to find the stuff actually tasting properly good. She began digging into the foodstuff with disregard toward anyone else who may have been watching.
"She's right over there. Second-to-last bed in the rear," She heard the faint voice of the doctor, turning to the door with a mouthful of food and shock strewn across her face as she saw Mermista and Perfuma entering, the latter of the two princesses smiling while Mermista seemed a bit shaken by all the stuff she was seeing. Still, she remained her usual, confident self as she strode into the room.
"Heheh..." Mermista actualy grinned, seeing Adora pigging out, before stating, "Damn, girl, slow down. You'll wind up the size of one of those bots the eggheads are opening up."
Adora swallowed whatever she'd managed to chew out of the food, yet again wearing the most awkward of smiles and faintest of blushes on her cheeks as she scratched the back of her neck. She stuttered, "M-Mermista! Perfuma! What're you girls doing over here?! Hahaha..." letting out a light, embarrassed chuckle. Perfuma sidestepped Mermista, giving the Water Princess a slight glare from behind her mask of kindness.
"Well, we heard you were visiting the base of our new human comrades and we wanted to check up on you. As friends do, y'know?" She offered, "How're you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a giant boar running full speed when I woke up... Now?" She shrugged, then said "Still a bit nauseated, but I'm gonna be alright, I think..."
"Doc drew blood, huh?" Mermista sat herself down at the foot of her bed, looking toward the tray of food sat on the bedside table. When Adora nodded, the girl stated, "Hope she didn't do any permanent damage... Don't know how normal folks do without blood, honestly."
"You seem... Awfully calm, Mermista. What's up?" Adora raised a brow. The mermaid princess shuddered as some vivid memories flashed before her eyes.
"I saw footage from the outpost raid the UNSC went on..." The girl shook her head, "Seriously, these guys and girls stacked bodies... It was freaking brutal. Perfuma may look all rainbows and sunshine, but she saw that too," She then motioned to the somewhat more refrained Nature Princess. Adora turned to her fellow blonde, to see her fiddling with one of her hair ornaments while giving that same stare that Mermista had.
Adora nodded understandingly to both of them, then said, "If you think seeing the footage was bad, I, Queen Angela, Glimmer and Bow were there during the aftermath... The place reeked of blood..."
"We really got the craziest bunch of Allies, haven't we...?" Mermista chuckled, her tone slightly dark.
"Yeah..." The two blondes both nodded. Adora then remembered and asked, "How did you two get over here? I thought you were looking over your Kingdoms and meeting UNSC Diplomats, y'know, to establish cordial relationships between the Rebellion and them... And whatnot..." looking between them. Mermista chuckled, jerking a thumb toward the left as a pilot walked into Medical, her helmet bearing a large shard of glass in the visor. She had auburn hair and emerald eyes and was wearing a scowl befitting of the tiny wound she had on her forehead.
"Merde, fils de putes m'ont presque arraché la tête...." She murmured in some foreign language, too, then turned to Doctor Keller, who was facing away from her as she tended to another patient, and pointed to the incision on her forehead, requesting, "'ello, mon amie... Can you check the wound? Make sure it's not going to get infected or something..." to which Amanda beamed when she turned. The pilot staggered, eyes wide and filled with fear, then said "Amanda Keller?!"
"Stella! Oh, my friend, it's so good to see you!" The German doctor caught her supposed friend in a bear hug, wrapping her arms tightly around the woman's neck. She pulled back, then looked her over and said, "You got a scratch on your forehead."
With a deadpan stare, Stella lifted her helmet and spoke with a hard voice, "Some bots of the enemy's shot at me. Shattered the cockpit on my Pelican before I swung by to land with the two Princesses visiting one of your patients, mon amie, so yes, I did get a lil' head scratch," before feeling her pilot's helmet snatched away from her. The woman looked over the glass piece that pierced her visor, scowling and narrowing her eyes at it.
"... A shard of glass this sharp shouldn't have technically broken through the up-armored pilot helmets you've been issued for this trip..." The woman offered, setting the thing aside on a table and picking up a disinfectant and some gauze. She leaned forward, tapping the head wound with the disinfectant-lade gauze, which caused a slight wince out of the pilot. The German doctor laughed, then jokingly berated, "Now, now, Flight Lieutenant Dupont, what's a little sting? You have more wine in your system than blood, anyway."
"You're one to speak, you beer-chugger," Stella grinned, crossing her arms to her chest and watching as the girl taped a bit of the gauze on her forehead. Amanda crossed her arms, raising her brow expectantly as she grinned, but Stella rebutted, "I'll thank you when you give me those Credits you owe... Now, excuse-moi. I have to go chat up the Princesses a bit..."
"Be my guest. You saw them, right?" Amanda asked, pointing to the trio of Princesses that were staring at the exchange.
Stella smirked, then nodded, arranging her pilot's uniform. She said to Amanda, "See if you can't fix the 'elmet, Amanda. I will need it for my CAS flight later tonight and I 'ate having to resync a new one... Takes too much out of the precious time that could be spent blasting away at the enemy with thirty-millimeter chainguns and missiles..." before patting her friend on the shoulder and stepping toward Adora's bed.
"Lieutenant," Perfuma smiled at the girl, "I'm happy to see your wound wasn't grave."
"Should see the other guy, Your Highness," The pilot smirked, then looked to Mermista and the two nodded at each-other. Finally, her hardy gaze locked onto Adora. She spoke, "So you're the She-Ra some of the people I've been hauling have been whispering about," Then she offered with a short laugh, "Thought you'd be taller, ma petite fille. Spartans never exaggerate, though..."
"Ehehe... Yeah..." Adora waved, "Hi. I'm Adora..." and she extended her hand.
"Bonjour, Adora. I'm Flight Lieutenant Stella Marie Dupont, UNSC Sixty-seventh Airlift wing off the UNSC Sheridan. I carry our Marines to and from one of the Big Boats up there..." She greeted the girl warmly, gripping the extended hand firmly, "If you ever feel like you wanna get your boots off the ground, or if you need air cover, I and most of my squadron are just a call away... Some of us also fly double duty as Longsword crews."
"Big triangle-shaped flying bombers," Mermista remarked, "Saw a couple of'em flying over Perfuma's kingdom when I went for a visit..."
"Must've been elements of the Hundred-fifth," Stella noted, "Some of them have been refitted for scout duty."
"Searching for more outposts to turn to dust?" Adora inquired, partly joking, partly scared. Stella grinned, nodding and thus confirming her slight bit of fear. Did any of the UNSC's people ever sleep? Seriously, it was like they were all high on some performance-enhancing drugs half the time. She winced, then asked, "So... There a reason outside courtesy you came to talk to us, Lieutenant?"
"Pff. Just Stella to you lot," She smirked, "As for why I came to meet you, I mostly wanted to see for myself what the mighty She-Ra may be. How do you turn into her anyway?"
"My sword," The girl remarked, feeling the sheath on her back and gasping, "Which is now gone... DOCTOR!" She then called out as her friends' hearts jumped.
"Ja?" The woman poked her head from behind the wall.
"Where's my sword?!" She asked, annoyed.
"We just finished a full examination of the thing, miss Adora... A very interesting and quite endearing little piece of technology, I must say... I was about to bring it back to you," The Doctor explained, "Figured it best to do it while you were out," She then spoke as she walked through the door, her voice growing ever more distant as she murmured something in her language. Stella rolled her eyes, arms crossed to her breastplate as she watched her friend stride back in with the blue-bladed, intricately-detailed sword with a golden, floral handguard and pommel.
Stella whistled, "That's a cool sword... A bit 'eavy, though, don't you think, Adora?" She looked to the blonde.
"Eh," The girl shrugged.
"I assure you, Stella, miss Adora has plenty of muscle... Despite her spindly looks..." Quipped the doctor, garnering a blush out of Adora as she presented the blade, hilt first, to the girl. Stella and the two Princesses inside chuckled at the quip, but Adora remained calm. She took it in hand just as the Doctor said, "Now... I know this may be asking too much out of a woman who is fresh out of getting an entire pint and a half worth of blood sucked out, but I do need you to transform so I can see the full effects of the blade... For one final check..."
"Cool. I wanna see you turn into She-Ra too, mon amie," Stella grinned, "Tout suite, if possible. I have a flight in half an hour that I have to take with me to a scout and destroy mission."
Adora looked to her two fellow Princesses for help, her heart somewhat racing.
Mermista shrugged, "Do as they say. Figure it'll be fun to see if She-Ra can do without some of her blood," Then she smirked.
"It would be a good opportunity to ensure you're ready and able for duty, I guess...?" Perfuma shrugged, smiling awkwardly. Adora bowed her head, letting out a sigh of defeat. She looked over the blade, then stood to her feet as slowly and gently as she could. Seeing that she wasn't nauseated or sick as she did so, the girl breathed another sigh, this time of relief, as the color in her face seemed to return.
She showed everyone to take a step back, which all of them did. Adora raised high the sword, striking her usual pose and calling out, "For the Honor of Grayskull!" only to be enveloped by a burning white light. As some seconds passed, the four girls in the room managed to open their eyes, the light having faded, revealing a seven-foot-tall woman clad in a militaristic, but fairly female white set of clothes with broad, gold shoulders, armored gold boots, a winged tiara made of gold, waving blonde hair and burning blue eyes.
While Amanda had immediately taken to typing data into her tablet, Stella grinned, "Bonjour, mademoisele She-Ra... Hot damn, the Spartans did not exaggerate. You're as tall as one of them!" She then laughed heartily, looking up at Adora from about mouth height. The blonde girl chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck as she sheathed the blade, locking it by some form of magnetism or magic to her belt.
"Yeah, well," She flexed her muscles, "What can I say?"
Stella rolled her eyes, chuckling, then said, "Alright, alright... You got what you wanted, Amanda?"
"Yes..." The doctor bared her teeth in an animalistic grin, "This puts things into perspective about your sword, my girl... Oh, it does so well! Thank you, you've given me and my comrades more than enough to work off of as far as theories go, not to mention the blood tests! I will see you when I'm out of my days-long research operation! Farewell, to you and to the ladies! Stella!" She looked to her Pilot friend, then ordered, "Please, lead them out! I have work to do!"
"Sure," Stella chuckled, "Allons-y, girls." and she watched Adora flip back to her normal form with a flash of light. The four-girl team left the place together, taking to the hallways, with Stella leading. The woman then explained, "Captain Rose has just come back from the discussions with Queen Angela. She requested that I report to her personally... And that you do, too, Adora."
"Gotcha... Something happened?" The blonde raised a brow.
"No, I don't think something happened per se," The woman shrugged as they took a right instead of exiting into the garage, entering a longer corridor before taking another right at the third intersection. They'd walked past several Marines and UNSC Navy personnel that had come to do some work downstairs, as well as a pair of the enigmatic ODSTs. Entering the command deck, a large room whose walls were lined with consoles, communication systems and chairs and whose center had a massive holographic table in the middle, similar to the one in Bright Moon's war room. It also showed arrayed troops, the deployment plans for the mass of the UNSC Forces and other important details.
At said table, discussing matters with a man clad in a Marine BDU and armor, just replacing the helmet with a peaked cap that had three stars on its forehead, Captain McKinnon pointed out areas currently owned by the Horde and a disposition of troops near one of the areas as ensigns and other staff continued their communications with the rest of the deploying units. She looked up from her little convo with the man, then smiled as she saw Adora, her friends and the Lieutenant.
"Ladies," She saluted.
"Captain," All four of them voiced.
"General, this is one of our fleet's best gunship pilots, Stella Dupont. Behind her are Princesses Adora, Mermista and Perfuma. The latter two represent the kingdoms of Salineas and Plumeria, sea and flower kingdoms respectively," The woman introduced all four currently in the room. The man before them was a grizzled old veteran, his sunken eyes tired, but aware and ready. He nodded to them respectfully, while the Captain went on to explain, "Ladies, this is General Heller, of the UNSC Tenth Marine Division. The man has some Twenty thousand Marines plus some thousand vehicles under his command alone."
"Sir," Adora saluted.
"Yo," Mermista waved, grinning.
"Hello, sir!" Perfuma beamed.
The General chuckled, then saluted back and said, "Three of the Princess Alliance. A pleasure, ladies. And good to see you still flying, Lieutenant."
Stella saluted, smirking, "Happy to still kick ass, sir. You 'ave a mission in the prep phase, right?"
"We do," The Captain smirked, "The Horde doesn't have AAA defenses that are mobile, far as we can tell. Means we have free reign in the air 'till they decide to either send out their own Air Force..."
"if they even have one," The General murmured, grinning.
"Or 'till they develop it," She continued, "So, that means raiding the enemy's supply lines, harassing freshly-installed Outposts, buzzing whatever we can find... You get the picture," She then explained. She pulled her hand back, wowing the three Etherians as the map seemed to close in on what she intended to lock it to. She pointed toward a narrow path in the mountains, then said "Short and sweet of it is, you've been briefed on it, Lieutenant. You know this is the path you're hitting."
"Mountain road, one side covered by the mountains while I can come from the valley," She smirked, "I like that plan, ma'am."
"Mind you, this is also an Intel Gathering op. After you're through blasting them apart, we'll need you to swing by another cliff-face and pick up a Spartan Fireteam that we sent in as scouts. Admiral wants us to have plenty of intel for when we do finally decide to go on the offensive against the Horde, but first? We have to blunt their attacks, sweep the rug from under them and just outright kill their momentum," The Captain remarked.
"So kill some trucks and fly in to get some of our boys and girls out," Stella nodded, "Sounds simple enough."
"You gonna need some backup?" Mermista offered, "I could do a little bit of a magic trick with water to stop them... Give you a clear shot."
"I'm good, Your Highness, but I appreciate it," She smirked while Adora and Perfuma stared, shocked, at Mermista, "Though, Adora may want to see how our air force runs..."
"Huh!?" The blonde gasped, looking to the woman before her. The Captain, General and her two compatriots didn't seem to oppose the idea, so, half an hour later, Adora was approaching one of the landing pads of the FOB. There, she caught a glimpse of a very strange variation of the Pelican drop ship. The gunmetal-green color was faded, its belly black from the fires of re-entry. Near the nose, there was a camera and sensor suite attached that could rotate almost 270 degrees across to give a full field of view. On its wings were strapped several missile pods and in the nose lay a Thirty-Millimeter gatling cannon, flanked on both sides by two painted shark jaws, as if the gun was coming out of them.
"Remind me again why I'm the one you chose to accompany you?" Adora whined.
"Hey, if the Spartans will require a hot extract, I'm sure they'll be glad to have She-Ra backing them up... And if not," Stella shrugged, smiling mischievously, "You get to see how the UNSC Air Force does things for a change instead of the footsloggers," and she walked up to her bird. She slid her helmet on her head, now fresh out of repair and greeted the second crewmate for this excursion. "Bonjour, Phillip."
"Ma'am." The man stood to his feet from the side of the bird. He was a youngster, perhaps nineteen or twenty years of age, with slicked-back black hair and average looks. The only thing distinguishing him from any other guy his age was the sleeve tattoos he wore on his arms and under his flight suit, as well as on the left side of his face, and his tan. Both of them resembled some kind of blue tribal tattoos, which contrasted heavily against his tanned skin. He nodded to Adora, then said "Take it this is our Plus One for the flight?"
"And the 'ot extract for the Spartans, provided they'll need it. Any other flight joining us today?" The woman replied, her voice charged with some sort of static from the microphone of her helmet.
Phillip nodded, "We'll be joining and escorting a Vulture Gunship heading for grid coord Delta Fourteen to provide cover for engineers as they set up pontoon bridges to the local villages right near the flower girl's kingdom. From there, we'll break off into the canyons," And he, too, slid his own helmet onto his head, as well as his armor, sans the sleeves and gauntlets. He looked to Adora, then said "Welcome aboard, ma'am. Spartans from REAPER spoke very highly of you."
"Heh. Thanks, Phillip... I'm not sure if I'm glad to be here yet, honestly..." She rubbed the back of her neck.
"Duly noted, ma'am," He stated as he climbed onto the bird's 'Blood Tray', the morbid name of the troop bay of the Pelican, as given to it by the troopers that rode these machines into battle. He extended his hand afterward, helping Adora climb inside, then he went to the cockpit. She looked over to see Perfuma and Mermista hitching a ride to Bright Moon on one of the Warthogs.
"You're deploying pretty fast," Adora remarked, approaching the front of the Pelican, to see the two crew members sat in their seats, each working to link systems to their helmets properly. The gunner-co-pilot gave a thumbs up to Lieutenant Dupont, who, in turn, looked to Adora and nodded.
"We get orders, miss Adora, we follow them. I'd hang on if you wanna stay in the cockpit," She offered, grinning behind her helmet. Adora gripped some safety railings as the woman flicked com channels and said, "Caledonia Air Traffic Control, this is Pelican Sierra Two-Five-Niner, requesting permission for takeoff and climb to Angels Five. We're joining a strike convoy of times three Gunship Pelicans and times one Vulture as slow-burn escort to grid coordinate Delta Fourteen before engaging in our own operation. How copy, over?"
The operational controller of the place, whose control 'tower' was in fact part of the underground command center of the base, replied calmly, "Copy, Sierra Two-Five-Niner. Takeoff and climb to Angels Five confirmed. Your route to join the flight of Gunships is as follows:Sierra, Tango, Foxtrot, Hotel. Maintain Angels five throughout the flight, enemy troops have been reported to be firing up at the active allied aircraft in the area."
"Don't I know it, Caledonia..." She sighed, then chuckled, "Thank you for the confirmation. Final checklist before takeoff, engines," already working to power on the machine as she ran through a series of buttons, levers and items, which Adora watched in awe. The Lieutenant moved with the fluidity and grace of a cat as she worked through the multitude of controls that needed to be turned on.
"Hot, set." Replied Phillip as he looked over the diagnostic screen to his immediate left.
"Gimbals."
"Clean. Set." The man replied again after two minutes of looking through the window, while Adora felt the aircraft rumble below her feet.
"Radar."
"Online. Set."
"Gun."
A mechanical whirr echoed outside. The man replied again, "Spun. Set."
"Missiles."
The man flicked on a switch on the ear of his helmet and thumbed something on his weapon stick, then stated, "Hot, hot, hot. Tracking systems online. Set."
"Alright, then, Phillip, Adora. Hang on... MASTER ARM ON. Engines hot, pushing to full throttle, Vertical," The woman spoke then, gently nudging a lever to her right forward until it locked into place and forward. The muffled roar of the aircraft's engines filtered through the heavily armored hold of the Pelican Gunship and Adora felt her stomach pitch down as the aircraft gently lifted off the ground.
Adora put herself on a third seat in-between the two crewmen of the bird, tightening a seatbelt around her body and gripping the seat. She felt herself pushed into the leather as the woman switched the engines to forward thrust. The Lieutenant laughed, stating, "And we're off..." As the sky, mountains and ground rushed around them. Adora felt the craft veer to the left, feeling herself pushed to the right by the centripetal force.
"Uuuugh!" Adora gagged, "We're going fast...!"
"About Mach Oh-point-Sixty five right now," Phillip replied, checking the radar screen, "Contacts at six clicks out, our immediate one o'clock. IFF tags them as the flight we're gonna be joining for our trip."
"Good," The Lieutenant stated, veering ever more slightly to the left to join the formation, giving Adora butterflies in her stomach due to the fear and deceleration. The aircraft pulled up to the left of the formation moments later, giving Adora a good view off their right side of the aircraft. The Vulture gunship was a menacing arrowhead-shaped VTOL-capable craft, lined with guns and missile pods and meant to level entire enemy companies, from the looks of it. Its two under-mount thirty-millimeter twin-link Gatling cannons were the testament to its firepower.
Beside the Vulture lay three more Pelican gunships of similar setup to the one Adora currently found herself on, each armed with smaller, more nimble tracking missiles and thirty-millimeter rotaries in the noses. Adora looked up as she heard voices echoing from the Lieutenant's helmet. The woman replied to said voices, "Roger, task force Talon. We are about to disengage and go on a hunt for enemy convoys down below... Safe flight."
Adora watched for several more minutes as they flew over the Whispering Woods, past them and into some other regions. Some minutes of flying later, they had reached the mountainside and, yet again, Adora felt the acceleration of the G-Forces pull at her as they turned left and dipped into one of the canyons below. She gagged a bit, then said a strained, "I seriously hope we'll be fine..." As she saw the narrowing canyon walls.
"We'll be fine, mon amie. Phillip, take a left at the next fork as we've passed into enemy territory. We should be ranging into the first convoy we're supposed to hose down on our way to the Spartans within minutes..." The woman ordered then. Adora gripped tightly to the harness of her chair, feeling as the aircraft bobbed, weaved and dodged and seeing what she was moving through, including narrow stone bridges she flew in-between.
She wanted to close her eyes, for one, but at the same time, wanted to see how badly they'd crash before they did. Maybe she'd get to do something as She-Ra when they did... She gazed around through the wide armored cockpit of the bird at the vistas they flew through. Beautiful as they were, Adora knew how deadly the mountains here could be. If she recalled correctly, the place was also home to Entrapta's castle.
"Coming up on the target," Phillip voiced.
"Gun spooled. Missiles ready," The Lieutenant smirked, "Allons-y, mon amis!"
Adora gasped, her thoughts racing out the back of her skull and being replaced with dread as she felt the Lieutenant brake harshly, before pulling up and bringing them into line. They emerged beside the dirt path utilized by the Horde's forces to supply their Front Line troops. Adora gasped as she saw the first convoy, about a dozen transports lined up neatly on the road and practically against the stone wall opposite where they were. They were so close, in fact, that Adora could see some of the crew freeze in their seats.
"Fire at will, Phillip!" The woman ordered harshly from behind her.
Wordlessly, Phillip squeezed the trigger on his joystick.
The gunship rumbled under Adora, a vibrating, muffled roar echoing outside as thirty millimeter depleted uranium rounds left the muzzle of the machine cannon. The man gently tilted his joystick, washing the first transport in the deluge of rounds while the Lieutenant fired unguided munitions. Chips of stone and shards of metal flew toward the gunship, sparking off the armored plate and the thicker, rebuilt glass of the cockpit as the weapon let loose.
To the two crew of the Pelican Gunship, the muffled, screeching roar of the thirty-mike-mike must've been a soothing, familiar noise. The roar of explosions and the sight of the detonations on the rock face must've been bog standard at this point for them. Hell, even the snapping lasers from the stun batons' tips that simply reflected off the glass must've been pedestrian.
To Adora, the roar of the guns was deafening. She watched with a combination of awe, horror and surprise as the gunner continued his sweep with the machine gun, all while the Lieutenant simply turned on the spit and fired missiles into whatever remained. The crews of the vehicles jumped out of them, some of them running, others tripping and falling over the edge, to their undoubted deaths.
She felt her throat hoarse as she watched the wanton slaughter perpetrated by two people safe in their flying metal box, with her as a mere passenger. Was she meant to be here, to be taught a lesson? She didn't know, even as she watched the Pelican veer off from the Convoy after leaving it and the mountain beside it thoroughly filled with holes and craters, only to move on to another, smaller convoy which it attacked in a sideswiping maneuver, effectively detonating the front and rear trucks in a single salvo of gatling fire before its tracking missiles broke rock, armor and bodies.
Robot lasers sparked from one of the bridges overhead and Adora watched as the bird spun about, agilely dodging the bursts of energy weapon fire despite its massive size. The Lieutenant was one hell of a pilot, Adora thought, even as she felt like she'd gone deaf. She heard the woman order Phillip to do something, though her voice was muffled as Adora stared on, her blue eyes wide.
It was something entirely different to be on the delivering end of a Gunship's payload of rounds and rockets, instead of watching from the safety of a ship's command post, thousands of kilometers above the world you were in. The girl watched as the bridge the platoon of War Droids firing at them was on collapsed under the weight of DU shells fired in a roaring burst. It only stopped when the bots were at the bottom of the valley.
The aircraft dipped down again, traversing on its axis toward the left, before Adora heard the gun again.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT
A continuous stream of hellfire and the missiles roaring off their wing-mounted racks played like a symphony of death and destruction that Adora had not partaken in before. Sure, she'd destroyed several hundred bots by this point and knocked out more than her fair share of Troopers belonging to the Horde's ranks, unwilling to kill'em more out of a misguided sense of sympathy for people who are as she was at one point:Stupid, believing the lies told by Hordak and his subordinates.
Still, she felt some pity for the poor souls whose transports were now getting raked with high-caliber munitions. The Gunner curled his left hand's fingers into an 'O' sign, which the Lieutenant took with a nod and replied, "Alright... Just one more convoy. Make it five total, then we go pick up the Spartans," The woman smirked, sweeping up high and firing two pairs of missiles into a Convoy's front, effectively paralyzing them on the spot for Phillip to give them one last wash with the gun.
"That's five convoys down..." Adora finally heard the woman's voice properly, "Are you okay, Adora?"
"Fine..." The girl's voice cracked, "Just... Wow..."
"Yeah," Stella snorted, then leaned back into her seat as she piloted them toward the RV point, several klicks away, before noting, "It's how I felt on my first run, too. The sensation of a thirty-mil firing under ya numbs your legs... And yer not sure if you want to continue or not, but," She smirked behind the mask, Adora could tell with how gleefully she said it, "You do anyway. And you never change professions after."
"Uh-huh..." Adora nodded, awkward, "I genuinely hope I never have to do this kind of stuff..."
"Well, if you're in luck, you just knock them out," The woman laughed, "We kill'em. The UNSC takes no prisoners..."
"No, I figured..." Adora waved at her to not go on, "I figured... I guess your war was really that bad..."
"It was... Adora, have you been aboard the Eternity?" The woman asked somewhat melancholically as she slowed the bird down. Adora saw them approaching a dead-end in the Valley, one where a small waterfall fed into and created an affluent to the river that flowed through between the sharp rocks, crevices and natural bridges of the place, its water teal, shimmering, beautiful and unstained.
"Yeah... Why?" The girl inquired, looking up to her.
"I guess Captain Val took you..." The woman smiled behind the helmet, her voice melancholic yet again, "You must've seen the Cryo, then, eh?" and she looked over to see a shy Adora nod. The Lieutenant sighed, sitting back down into her chair as she settled the bird into position, then stated, "You saw that little girl in one of the first pods, yes? I was one of the first to visit the bay before coming down here..."
"Yeah...?" Adora paused, her memories of the young girl coming back.
"... That's my sister..." The woman stated, taking her helmet off and looking over the console to Adora again, a smile on her face, "Lena Marguerite Dupont. Ma petit lapine... Little sister, mind ya..."
"... Oh..." Adora paused, her heart sinking.
"Mhm," The woman nodded, "Parents are gone. Died when our homeworld, Miridem, was glassed. I was twelve, she was barely a two year old toddler in my arms aboard the escape ship. We barely got out ourselves, the damn Covenant chased us..." And she looked back, watching as the Spartan fireteam appeared out of thin air, their SPI suits disengaging as they climbed aboard with spent ammo in their pouches and content smiles behind the visors. The rear hatch closed again, while Adora looked at the Lieutenant. She leaned forward, over the console, her gaze made of ice, "I vowed to her that she'd have a place to wake up to when I let her go into Cryo."
"... Lieutenant, I'm-" Adora started, but a raised hand stopped her.
"Before you question why so many of us fight like beasts, mon chéri, why we fight like the devil himself comes for us and why we kill with so little remorse, well... Think of us being put into this position by aliens similar to the bastards we're helping you fight, then transpose yourself in our place," She offered, a calm demeanor despite the stare she gave Adora, which the girl could only describe as a combination of chilling impassivity over murder and care for the girl before her, "I pray to good God up above that you never have to see what we saw. Feel what we felt. But, please, my friend... Do not question how we do things, even in your own mind."
"... I'll think about what you told me, Lieutenant..." Adora offered, her heart aching at the thought and her brain rerunning the images of the gun-runs...
"All I ask, mon amie." She gave Adora a more friendly smile before sitting herself back down at her console and strapping her helmet back on, "Now... Let us go home... Phillip. Ammo count..."
The flight back to the FOB was eerily silent.
For all those aboard...