In his 8 years of in military service the 25 year old ODST named Jaison Helton had woken up in odd places before, under slabs of concrete, under destroyed vehicles, and in between the weapon's lockers in the armory. But waking up in only his underwear and strapped to a medical bed, yep this was a first.
Hearing a soft beep he turned his head to see a heart rate monitor beeping to the rhythm of his heartbeat, he could hear two voices from the other side of the door at the far side of the room, he couldn't make out that much of what was being said but he could hear certain words and phrases, "normally incompatible, absolutely not, union, maybe, neural implant." After about a minute of listening to the two talk he decided to finally speak up, "excuse me do you guys do room service?"
At the sound of his voice the chating on the other side of the door stopped before the door slid open reveling the two that had been talking, both a man and a woman both in their later years in life, the woman had her graying hair done back in a bun and was wearing a military officer's uniform similar to that of the UNSC but with minor differences, she carried herself with the pose of someone of career military, the man on the other hand was a bit more lax walking with his hands clasped behind his bake and a heavy slouch his face was covered by a thick beard . The woman was the first to speak, "I am colonel Marin of The Vanguard," she introduces herself, "and I want to know who the hell you are."
Jaison looked at the woman, he didn't know what this vanguard was but he didn't have to, the insurrection had many factions and names, he would just treat it like any other interrogation, name, rank, and serial number, "Jaison Helton, second lieutenant, 57428, UNSC."
"And how did you find yourself on our base?"
"Jaison Helton, Second Lieutenant, 57428, UNSC."
At this the man chuckles and places a hand on the colonel's shoulder, "why not let me try," he steps past her, "hello I am Dr. Rufus Weller, and I can assure you you are not in trouble or under interrogation."
"But he might..."
"He isn't, what ever his armor is it's definitely not union, too streamlined," dr. weller says interrupting the colonel before turning back to Jaison, "now listen, roughly 24 hours ago, a strange object appeared in what could only be described as a large explosion, said object was a large metal pod roughly the size of a car, and what do we find when we pry it open, but a unconscious young man armed to the teeth and in full armor the likes of which we've never seen before." The Dr. says as he paces the floor spastically moving his hands before coming to a stop, "and that young man was you, now please we just want to know you found yourself unconscious in that pod."
Jaison looks at the man, "you want me to talk?"
"That would be helpful yes," the Dr. says.
"Then give me some cloths and get me off this damn table."
Ten minutes later Jaison sat in a room with two chairs and a table he was in the under suit from his armor and handcuffed, he ran his hands through his high and tight haircut and down his face feeling the scar that ran down the side of his face and the soft stubble on his chin, the room had a single light and a window of one way glass that he would occasionally wave too. When the door finally opened both the Dr and the colonel entered the room the Dr. taking the seat across from him obviously taking the place of the negotiator/interrogator, "now that that is out of the way why don't we start with where your from."
Jaison nods, "I was born on a Gaia class colony platform just off the planet Jupiter."
Dr. Weller chuckles a bit, "all right we'll come back to that question later, and how about you tell us how you came to be in that pod."
Jaison sighs before retelling his story, he tells them how it was supposed to be a standard drop pod ramming into the hull of an unshielded covenant cruiser. He explained how the strident class heavy frigate had just finished tearing their shields to shreds and that he was on the cleanup crew, him and three other soldiers were going to be launched in specialized drop pods and punch through the hull before killing anything on board before capturing the commanding officer, when as he was about to hit the hull the cruiser decided to make a slip space jump tossing his pod around like a sock in the dryer causing him to be knocked unconscious when he his is head on the side of his pod. He explained what little he knew about slip space travel when asked and he explained the covenant though he didn't understand why as they should be common knowledge.
Dr. Weller and colonel Marin stared at Jaison with a mix of shock and confusion before the Dr. spoke up, "well then Caliban can you come in and bring the results of the cerebral scan that was being run," a few moments after he said that the door opened and a large robot stepped in and handed a data pad to the Dr, "well ether his memories are false or that was the truth."
"What, there is no way," the colonel all but shouted, "if what he's saying is true then he if from around 500 years in the future."
"488 to be exact yes,ether that or a alternate reality, which from how he described this slip space working both are entirely possible, that combined with his neural scans have convinced me that this man is telling the truth." the Dr. responds calmly only for Jaison to speak up, "what do you mean I'm from 488 years in the future?"
"Ah right, well Mr. Helton you are currently on earth in the year 2070, we have not come in contact with any alien race and we have barely even put people on mars," the dr. states causing Jaison's mouth to go agape, "and while I am completely for trying to help you find a way back, I have one proposition for you in return."
Jaison looks at him, "and what would that be?"
the Dr. adjusts his glasses, "oh just with a litter project i've been working on."
Two years later
Jaison put on his helmet as he stepped off the aircraft following after Dr Weller, Yazamin Madrani or Yaz as she preferred to be called following after him, with the robot caliban taking up the rear, Jaison takes a moment to look at the base, The Anvil it was called and it's name definitely fit it's look, he adjusted one of the many straps on his armor before continuing on, the whole group walking up to a female soldier, "Dr. Weller I presume welcome to the anvil, I'm Lieutenant worth, I've been assigned to y..."
"Yes Charmed Dr. Rufus Weller ESU, No Colonel?" The Dr interrupts her suddenly causing Jaison to chuckle silently.
"I'm sure she's looking forward to welcoming you. mater of fact, we have a briefing with her coming up. but as I said, I'll be..."
"Well there's no time like the present. Take me to your leader," Dr weller interrupts her again before elbowing caliban in the chest and uttering an, "I always wanted to say that," causing Jaison to snort.
"Ok then we'll just do the tour on the way, do you have any gear you'll need to stow?"
Oh, just a few things," as the Dr says this the aircraft they arrived in lifts off revealing the multiple trucks of equipment and causing the lieutenant's face to change into one of regret as they all pass by her.
As Jaison walks past he looks to her and depolarizes his helmet's visor so she could see his face, "don't worry lieutenant you get used to him."
A short tour later and they were nearing the briefing room as they walked through a hallway that held a memorial wall, as maranda types on a holographic interface, "Okay, I've added authorized areas to your maps. And that's my ID. You can use that to message me if you need anything. Up here is mission briefing, which should be about to start. Any questions?" She dismisses the interface before turning to the group.
"How are you?" The doctor asks.
"Excuse me?" She responds slightly confused.
"If you don't mind my asking, I'm very curious about the state of your battalion, what you've managed to do. It's one of the reasons we're here. We're a research team. Trying to come up to speed on how you fight, what works, what doesn't."
Maranda sighs, "What we've managed to do is hold a line. That's about it."
"You think your fighting a losing war,"Jaison who had removed his helmet a short while after entering the main base and was running his gloved fingers across the memorial wall speaks up before turning to face her, "but wars aren't won with soldiers alone."
"Your the shield what you need is a better sword," Yaz says next to him.
Maranda looks at the two with suspicion, "I don't think we've been introduced, maranda worth."
Yaz crosses her arms, "I've heard a lot about you."
"Ah cures my manors, this is mis. Madrani also a pilot, and mr Helton Special forces," Dr. Weller says getting in between the two and maranda. When a beep is heard, and a message appears above a door stating: "BRIEFING IN PROGRESS". Weller enthusiastically heads toward the room with Caliban following him, "right-o! In we go."
Maranda looks at Yaz, "So what do you fly? I didn't see any..." she starts to ask before she is interrupted by a beeping sound and the briefing starting Yaz pushes past maranda following after the dr. Jaison shrugs as he passes maranda as well.
At the front of the room the colonel walks in front of a podium and a map of the united states with red territory on the east appears behind the colonel as she starts to speak, telling the room that the mission, operation coyote it was cold, would be an Evac mission bringing refugees out of union control, she motions toward the back of the room and toward the four that stood there, "One last thing. We've got guests watching today, so be on your best behavior."
As the room looks at them Dr. Weller waves followed shortly by Caliban, the act causing Jaison to facepalm, "really doc."
Jaison could hear everything that was being said over the radio as he sat in the cargo bay of the drop ship, as the bombbay doors open he looks at the tube next to him where chase was held suspended in liquid, "hey ghost, you ready to let the cat out of the bag?"
Chase gives him a sideways glance before closing his eyes, "as ready as i'll ever be," he says before the lights on the implant in his head begins to glow signifying that he was initiating gen:lock jaison then heard chase's voice over coms, "let the good times roll, am I right," before his holon dropped onto the battlefield below.
With a sigh jaison lays down in the pod, "better watch his ass."
Gen:LOCK it was a strange feeling the first few times he had done it, the feeling of your mind leaving your body, he had only felt the cold feeling once before, and that was back when he was with the UNSC, when he let a smart AI use his greymatter for extra computing power, but even then that was different as it was only in the back of his head near his spine, this was his entire head like his brain was being dropped in a bucket of ice water, then the cold was gone and he opens his eyes and he was in his Holon the white and dark grey body armor designed with combat in mind. Looking down he drops from the drop ship removing the rifle from his back as he falls hitting the ground with a roll before landing in a kneeling stance rifle at the ready he turns to see chase take out a union spider mech as Yaz runs from the tree line into the other making an opening for the strider pilot who was lagging behind jaison fires two rounds into the spider mech as he speaks up, "TAKE THE SHOT!"
"Right," the strider pilot says as he gets his bearings and fires on the mech that Yaz was wrestling just as she gets out of the way the resulting explosion sending a spike of shrapnel through the gut of Yaz's holon which she removes without much trouble.
"All right, refugees are aboard, and we've got multiple new bogies inbound. ETA, two minutes. It's now or never folks,"a voice says over coms as the razor transport ships begin taking off, Jaison stays a second longer then the rest to make sure the make it out before he grabs the rope and is pulled into the drop ship.
Later in the debriefing room
Jaison stood with the dr and Yaz in the front of the room when Maranda and the other two strider pilots march through the doors Maranda being the first to speak, "who the hell was piloting those mechs?"
"That our cue," Jaison says quietly to Yaz as they head to the back of the room.
The Colonel places her hands on the podium, "Lieutenant, if you would please..."
"No way those were drones. What were those?" One of the other strider pilots, Leon, interrupts.
"Who was that?" Maranda once again asks.
The Colonel sighs running a hand over her face, "The Union ambush has certainly made this more awkward than it needed to be, but I think now would be a good time to welcome to the Vanguard the Experimental Science Unit." She motions toward Dr. Weller, "They'll be staying with us for a little while, so everyone be nice. And take a deep breath. This is going to take some explaining."
Leon and the other strider pilot Jodie take their seats, but Miranda remains standing as hologram of Chase in his flight suit flickers on stage to the shock of people in the room.
"What?" The voice comes from a mechanic near Jaison and Yaz.
"Hey, gang. What did I miss?" Chase asks with a nervous smile on his face, "what's wrong Y'all look like y'all seen a ghost?
The murmuring of the people fills the briefing room as Miranda sits down the Colonel still at the podium glares at Chase, "Really?"
Chase shrugs, "I was trying to, you know, lighten the mood."
"Smooth!" Jaison speaks up cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice so that those on the stage could hear.
As usual comment, critique tell me what you liked and what you didn't
Stay swifty my friends
Z-man out
