Legend:
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Chapter 9
AESIR
September 17, 2554
21:00 Hours, Earth Time
Ship: Midnight Enforcer; Chow Hall
ODST Spec Ops Unit, November Six, aka Nova Team
Status: On Standby Awaiting Orders
Location: Saturn's Orbit, Sol System
[Play Halo 3: ODST Overture on You Tube]
The chow hall is alive with a delicious aroma and chatter as the ODSTs of Nova Team, although somewhat worn from their most recent battles, reveled in their victory. The sound of their cheers and laughter easily drowned out the voices of the ONI personal stationed on the ship. All were gathered at one table: Staff Sergeant Kristen Chambers, Sergeant Jesus Moreno, Corporal Nickolus Holden, Lance Corporal Adam Gideon, and their Commander First Lieutenant Trent Miles.
They laugh vigorously as Holden continues his tale of how he manage to escape from captivity back at the prison, He continues a smile ever-present on his face, "I used my super slick acting skills and pretended to be unconscious, then when he turned he back, I grabbed hold of the some bitches grenades pins and yanked. Fella took off runnin and screamin, I've seen a fella run so fast sense I saw one of them grunts bounce a grenade off a wall and stick itself."
"Alright Holden it was a good story and all, but I'm going to have to call you out on your bullshit." Chambers said still laughing, "I saw that explosion! No way a couple grenades could set off a burst like that."
"Ah, but that explosion was only one of many." Holden began to explained.
"Forget the explosion." Moreno laughed pointing to Cpl. Holden, "Why are you wearing your combat gear companero?" While the other trooper were enjoying the little R&R that they had been given in their more comfortable black and gray sweatsuit attire with the ODST's insignia over the left breast, Holden decided to take it upon himself to come to the chow hall in the full set of ODST armor he had been issued from the ship's armory. "You look more moto than the other boot on the squad."
"Hey, can you blame a fella." Holden smiled, "After all I did just get my rank reinstated and the paychecks that come with it. That Director guy ain't so bad."
"Moto? Yeah right." Chamber interjected, "This coming from the guy who didn't even show up to his own promotion ceremony. You remember that don't you Sergeant?"
"Sergeant?" Holden said as he look to the other for some clue as to what she was talking about, only to find condescending eyes glaring at him.
"Don't even bother chica, he's hopeless." Moreno sighed.
"Woh, woh, woh, don't tell me you don't remember." Chambers exclaimed, she could see the unwavering bewildered look in his face, she sighed before beginning to explain, "Okay... remember back when you and Moreno were getting out at the end of the war?" Holden nods, "The UNSC decided to promote you both so you both could retire as Sergeants."
"You serious?" Holden shouted hoping out of his seat.
"The UNSC does stuff like that all the time." Lt. Miles explained, "Its mostly so some of their more decorated troopers have something else to brag about when they finally get to go back home. When you get out it's not like your rank means anything anymore so no one gives a shit."
"I think its starting to come back to me." Holden exclaimed, "But it's still a bit fuzzy."
"Probably because when they found you after the ceremony were passed out drunk in a puddle of your own fluids."Chambers began to chuckle, "Then when they tried to give you a formal counseling you flipped off everyone in the room and then stormed off. You're just lucky you didn't lose any rank, they probably wanted you outta their hair more than they wanted to court marshal you."
Suddenly a voice echoed over the ship's intercom, it was Lucy, "Lieutenant Miles, the Director would like to speak would like to speak to you now. Lieutenant Miles, the Director would like to speak would like to speak to you now." She kept repeating that same line over and over as if it were some kind of recording. The lieutenant knew she was intentionally trying to get under his skin possibly to get him to pick up the pace, or maybe as her own subtle attempt at payback for what he had said back on HAVOC.
He decided not to let it get to him as he began to move, "Don't wait up on for me." Lt. Miles smirked, walking towards his quarters, "I got some big kid officer like stuff to take care of."
As the lieutenant's left the room Holden's eyes fell upon the newly inducted rookie of Nova team Lcpl Gideon. Holden gave him a nod followed by a somewhat awkward, "Howdy fella?" upon getting nothing in response except an empty headed yet innocent shoulder shrug, Holden turn to Moreno and Chambers and whispered, "This kid is quieter than a church mouse." They could only nod in agreement.
In the Commander's Private Quarters
[Play Halo 3: ODST The Office of Naval Intelligence on You Tube]
"Lieutenant. Just got the report from Lucy." The Director exclaims over the two-way communication monitor located exclusively in Lt. Miles' private quarters "Not only did you successfully extract Cpl Holden but you also managed put an end to Dexen's... extracurricular activities, saving several young lives in the process. You should be proud."
"Cut the act!" the lieutenant stated aggressively, "You set us up and you had better have a damn good reason for it."
The Director frowns, "You have me at a lost lieutenant."
"Playing dumb huh? Well let me enlighten you. We were able to recover data from Dexen's database before we pulled out. Apparently he was able to hack into your systems and recover just about everything you had on Project Challenger. According to Lucy, Dexen didn't have to resources to get passed an O.N.I. cybernetic security system. So either you leaked him the information or you knew the information was taken and just refused to tell us about it."
"Very perceptive. But, how quickly we forget if it wasn't for a certain someone's divine intervention those lives that you saved would still be crying out somewhere in the vastness of space with no one to hear their cries."
"Son of a bitch. You knew... you knew what he was doing and you still worked with the bastard."
"If used properly Dexen's resources could have been invaluable to ensuring the survival of humanity. However, with the end of the Great War he began to grow overly confident, he began to act out against the interests of humanity in more ways than one, believing himself untouchable. He was mistaken."
"So you used me to clean up your mess.? the lieutenant paused, "To teach Dexen some kind of a lesson? Is that it?"
"If you must know Dexen's removal wasn't even important enough to be considered a secondary objective, that's why it was intentionally left it out of the mission briefing. Don't over think it lieutenant. It's true, I leaked the information, because I knew how how Dexen would react and I knew that you would retaliate, however, That's where my role ended.", The two shared a moment of silent before the Director continued, "Lets say I didn't intervene and you instead discovered Dexen's activities under some other circumstance, could you say with absolute certainty that you wouldn't have reacted the very same way."
"I don't know... Maybe... But, this isn't just some game where you move people around like chess pieces, your dealing with real people that have real lives. Just remember that, when the day comes that things don't go as planned."
"Indeed... I believe the time has come to discuss the real reason I contacted you."
"You mean it wasn't to say sorry?"
"Its Catherine Armin, we had been tracking her movements in the outer colonies, until she managed to give our men the slip, we continued our pursuits, but it seems as if she'd disappeared off the face of the galaxy. She's a clever one. Only recently have we been able to track her down, latest Intel conforms she been seen popping up on Earth of all places. Commander it looks like you're headed back to –"
In route to the Chow Hall
[Play Halo 3: ODST Deference for Darkness on You Tube]
"Hey Forge wait up." Chambers yells from across the way, she tried to move as casually as possible, she wanted to talk to him about what had happened on Havoc, however the questionable look on his face gave her pause. He turns to her,"Ah, the team's still in the mess hall downing a few drinks, you comin'?" she smiled trying to convince herself that was the real reason she had been searching for him.
He meets her gaze with a weak smile, "Sorry gonna have to take a rain check. Just got word from the top.", he stated "0400 tomorrow morning we're suppose to launch an operation to meet up with Armin." he starts to turn away before Chambers' voice grabs his attention yet again.
"Where we headed?" She says calling out to him, he continues walking as if he didn't hear her. She considered letting him go without reply, but her duties as Staff Non-commission Officer in-charges and her responsibility to her fellow troopers would not allow her to do so. "Commander." she said calmly, "We're risking our lives out there, same as you... We deserve to know."
He turned towards her, until he was partially facing her, he huffed before he finally speaking, "We're dropping into New Mombasa."
"New Mombasa?" Chamber said as her eyes grew wide, "What the hell is she doing there? I mean that's the last place I'd expect her to be."
"Don't know." Lt. Miles says turning his back to her, "Doesn't matter. All I care about now is getting Nova back up to full strength." He huffs before walking off, "Tell the Helljumpers to get some rest, we've got a busy day tomorrow Staff Sergeant."
Just then an all to familiar AI appeared on the external ports conveniently located beside the two troopers. "Forge..." Chambers starts, "No one blames you for what happened back in New Mombasa." the lieutenant partially turns his head to her and nods before walking off. Lucy eyes jump from trooper to trooper confident that she had missed a very significant part of the conversation, as her mind began to wonder what that could have been, a voice snatches her attention.
"Lucy?" Chambers asked startling the AI "What do you need?"
"Oh yes! Of course! Let's see here... I forwarded you all the official mission briefing for tomorrow's operation." Lucy started, "The only thing is, I was suppose to meet up with the Commander to see if there was any additional information he needed me to pass on to the rest of the team."
"I've got a feeling the Commander gonna be out for the rest of the night."
"What! How am I suppose to... He's making it very difficult to do the job that 'he' gave me."
"Don't sweat it. I'll take care of that" Chambers exclaimed reassuring her. "Lucy, would you mind telling me what you can about New Mombasa. Last I heard things weren't looking too hot down there."
Lucy smiles, "That's the understatement of the year."
"That bad huh?"
"Bad? Try Disastrous. The UNSC and AESIR have basically turned the city is a Warzone."
"AESIR I've heard of them, some terrorist group that's emerged after the end of the war. Supposedly They've been using the people's lingering fear of the Covenant to try and spread their agenda. But I thought they only had a foothold in the outer colonies."
Lucy nods, "That's partially true. While AESIR does use the people's fear of the Covenant to further it's goals, I'd hardly call it terrorism. That Organization, if you wanna call it that, offers aid: financial and otherwise, to the territories that were hit hardest during the Covenant offensive and all they ask for in return is for the populous to renounces all ties with the Unified Earth Government and the UNSC. Once the territory agrees they get access to the full array of benefits that comes from being under the protection of AESIR. From there all the organization has to do is say that it will protect its territories by any means necessary and they basically give themselves a reason to point their guns at everyone even the UNSC. As for why they're on Earth... New Mombasa was hit pretty hard, I can only assume that they wanna have a foothold on Earth sooner rather than later. But we all know the UNSC can't just let them do as they please so..."
Chambers looks out the window at the array of colors emitted by the giant golden sphere large enough to engulf the Earth a thousand times over. The massive ball orbited by many moons, and surrounded by splendid rings of icy bits and rolling boulders refracting the rays of the sun in just the right way to leave a person breathless. Sights like this were almost enough to make a person forget. "So, Earth is a battlefield again.
They share a moment of silence, before Lucy speaks, "New Mombasa has changed a lot sense the last time you were there, if you're not careful you could lose a lot more than just a trooper..."
Then is a long silence before Chambers finally responses in a tone that is neither loud or anger, however is somehow threatening, "Shut up."Chambers says in a somber tone, "You don't have the right to talk about the death of one of our comrades so casually."
Lucy reevaluate the situation, thinking that she must have offended the ODST in some way. She quickly apologizes, "I'm sorry Staff Sergeant Chambers, I meant no disrespect. I only meant..."
"Staff Sergeant Chambers!" Chambers burst into laughter, "Someone flip your formality switch on or something!" She steadily regains her composure as she continues to talk, "I don't want you're apology Lucy. The words of an someone who doesn't know what's it's like to lose a friend on the battlefield isn't worth a damn anyways... We're Orbital Drop Stock Troopers; we're suppose to be the best of the best, warriors, helljumpers. We know exactly what's on the line each time we plunge feet first into hell: our lives, our planet, our future. With all these fancy titles and all those important things on the line you'd think it'd make losing a trooper that much easier... It doesn't."
Lucy mimics Chamber as they both gaze dreamingly at the beauty of the planet below. "The trooper who died... What kind of person was he?"
"Lance Corporal Luke Katrina."Chambers smiles acknowledging Lucy attempt to gain some understanding,"An NCO's nightmare: overconfident and shallow; the first one to take the credit when things are looking up and the last to fess up when shit hits the fan."
"Okay... I'm assuming there's a 'but' somewhere at the end of all this."
"But..." Chambers smiles, "He was still an ODST. And, he could put em up with the best of em. A real Marine. This team; it has away of coming together when the situation really calls for it, we bring out the best of each other in a way that I've never experience before or sense. And when Katrina died, I don't know, I guess it kinda felt like he took part of that with him ya know." Chamber let out a weak chuckle, "Look at me rambling on like some old veteran going on about the good old days."
"So I take it, the Commander blames himself for losing such an important piece of the puzzle?"
"Heard that did ya? Ah Forge is just being an idiot! After we lost Lt. Hawkins back on Reach the team was in a tough spot. New Mombasa was just the final nail in the coffin."
"You don't believe it was his fault do you?"
"I know it wasn't his fault, because I was the one responsible for that operation. He gave me a suggestion and I went with it. But, at the end of the day it was my call to make." She paused, "Not too long after the team was extracted from Reach, we got orders to intercept the Covenant in Mazeras, a city to the northwest of New Mombasa."
"The Covenant were in Mazeras?"
Chambers nods, "The Covenant were dropping troops all over the place, probably have the UNSC looking through fox holes. Turns out we were pretty lucky, apparently right after we hit dirt a Covenant carrier jumped into slipspace while in orbit, the distortion created an EMP causing almost all the troopers that were suppose to take out that ship and reinforce the city to fall into the sea, from that point on we knew there would be no reinforcements.
"No pressure or anything."
"But it didn't matter, we had our orders. And with Hawkins gone, November Six needed a leader and according to the chain of command protocols of the UNSC the next in line was lil old Sergeant Chambers."
"Sounds like you had some pretty big boots to fill."
Chamber nods, "This all happened before those two got commissioned as officers, so I had the highest rank on the squad. But, on a battlefield rank doesn't mean anything if you can't keep your people alive. I know I talk a big game and all, but the fact of the matter is I'm a medic, I specialize in treatment not badassery . Most of Nova team has way more combat experience than I do. That's why when Nova was placed under my command I found myself heavily relying on the others, especially Forge." Chambers placed her back against the far wall staring helplessly at the star sprinkled blackness of space, shame ever-present in her eyes. Suddenly in Lucy voice Chambers hears a tone of tenderness and care, much like that of a loving mother.
"You want his forgiveness, don't you?"
"Forgive me?" Chambers thought for a moment, her face flustered, as she gently allowed her body to slide down the wall to the floor, Chambers raged, "Ah! I'd be satisfied if he would at least blame me! but I can't even get him to do that."
In the Commander's Private Quarters
Lt. Miles lay on the cold fabric of his bunk, a pair of chrome dog tags in his hand. The dim lighting of the room was soothing, however the storm of thoughts and emotions in his mind easily overpowered the peaceful atmosphere of the room. The lieutenant held out one of the tags up to his eye and read, "Katrina... What is she thinking? is Armin really working with AESIR?"
A/N: Hey guys I know its been awhile sense I've updated, Now I'm trying to stick to a once a month schedule. Maybe two if I'm really hyped about what's going on. I'd like to thank all of you that have followed up until now, you guys keep me going.