Mother of all Warriors
07:32 Hours, Earth Time
AESIR Main Facility
ODST Spec Ops Unit, November Six, aka Nova Team
Personnel: Commanding Officer Trent Miles
Location: New Mombasa, Southern Kenya
[Play The Truth Unravels - Two Steps From Hell on YouTube]
"A Spartan?" Holden says taking a step back.
"No Way!" Monero whispers under his breath. "The original Spartan program happened over half a century ago, you'd be ancient."
"Cryonics." Lt. Miles explained plainly. "Allows people to sleep through long periods of time without suffering the effects of aging. It's used on a small scale for regular soldiers, but I've never seen it taken to this extreme."
"In the case of Spartans." Sergei added, "It's used to artificially extend our youth so that we can fight for longer. Those programs aren't cheap after all, imagine losing all your candidates to father time before they could even make it to the battlefield." Her eyes move to Armin, "Regardless, I'll be taking the Fragment of the Superintendent from you now."
Armin's hands fly up taking aim at the warlord once again, with a shaky voice the only words that could escape her lips were, "You knew?"
"Of course my little kitty cat." Sergei chuckled, "We've been tracking your movement very closely since you first arrived."Armin was silent, Sergei took this as an insult. "I let you have full rein of my facility, despite the fact that you delivered zero results. Why do you think I would do that?" Armin took a step back, "The director recommended you to me, and though I knew there was foul play going on, my desire to see one of you overruled my judgment. I could only resolve to accept his offer while watching you closely; Maybe then I'd learn his true intentions."
"Hold on." Lt. Miles started, "The Director told me he had no idea of Armin's whereabouts until locating her on Earth."
"I see." Sergei said looking down, "He used me to find you. Make sense, when the elites told you that you had recovered the fragment and yet refused to give it to me I figured you were working alone. Needless to say, my desire to wait and see what you would do given the elites a rather negative opinion of you."
The trooper stood there frozen for a bit until the lieutenant broke the silence. "What does all this mean? You talk like you know us, but I've never seen you a day in my life." the trooper nodded in agreement.
Lady Sergei looked down at the troopers below she couldn't help but smile at the strong capable warriors that they'd become. "Know you? No. I haven't the faintest idea who you are lieutenant. But, I can answer your other question but only under one circumstance."
"Being what exactly?"
"Beat me in a sparring match, you can use any means at your disposal to stop or incapacitate, but obviously if you kill me I won't be able to tell you anything."
"But you can still kill us?"Armin yelled, "No shot!"
"Is that the fear of losing or the fear of death I hear in your voice kitty cat" Sergei teased.
Armin gritted her teeth.
Suddenly another chuck of debris fall from the ceiling echoing over the sound of battle outside. Lt. Miles looks at the falling debris and then back at Lady Sergei, "Is this really the time for this?"
"Steel is forged through fire and so too are soldiers tempered in the crucible of battle. For people like you and I what better inferno could we ask for?"
"She's full of it!" Armin interjected, "Forge the bounty on her says wanted dead or alive. We got her surrounded just give the order."
Lt. Miles was taken aback. The fact of the matter was that Armin was not officially a member of the UNSC and thus did not have to follow his orders. The fact that she was asking for the order meant that she wasn't sure and wanted to see if they were on the same page. Before Lt. Miles had a chance to reply Lady Sergei chimed in.
"Are you really that afraid of losing any more of your friends." Lady Sergei chimed in, "I guess that tough girl thing was all an act after all."
[Play Follow our Brothers Halo 3 on YouTube]
Armin lets out a scream as she pulls the trigger of her SMG only to realize that she hadn't reloaded since her last burst. The gun clicks only for nothing to come out of the barrel, but that sound signified the beginning of the bout. In what seemed like a flash The Spartan-1's muscles tensed as she approached the ODSTs with their weapons at the ready. "Shit." was all Armin had time to say before Sergei was on top of her. Suddenly Armin is impacted from an unexpected direction, Holden had push her out of the Spartan's path and took the brunt of the impact himself stopping her in her tracks. Holden fires his plasma repeater into her shields just enough to drop them before feeling compelled to abandon his weapon and grapple with her.
"Impressive..." Lady Sergei smiled, "I can't budge you an inch. You always did say you'd be bigger and stronger than me someday. However..." She delivers a swift kick to his knee causing him to lose his balance before playing him into a chokehold using his body as a shield against Monero's stealthy assault. "A Warrior isn't defined by only their strength!"
"Damn," Monero whispered under his breath as he began to move to realize he had been found out.
"Always waiting for the perfect shot, Monero." in one motion she executed a blood choke on Holden rendering him unconscious, spun, and threw his unconscious body at on to Monero. If the perfect shot won't come to you, sometimes you have to go to it. I knew you'd run. Just as the hum of her shield signified they were beginning to recharge, the load click of fresh magazines being loaded into SMGs fills the room.
"Damn it." Armin's muzzle flashes fill the room, "What the hell are you?" In a blur of motion, The Spartan expertly dodged her shots, using her enhanced agility to move in and out of their line of fire. She grabbed Armin by the arm and used her momentum to throw her over her shoulder, causing her to drop her weapons and sending her crashing to the ground into some debris. Armin still on the ground reaches out and grabs the grip of one of her weapons only to realize that the slide of the weapon had been completely removed.
"No special analysis, no tricks up my sleeves." Lady Sergei explained, "A hothead will only ever be one thing on the battlefield... A liability"
"You Bitch." was all she had time to say before passing out.
Lady Sergei turns her attention to Lt. Miles. "It seems that the quality of UNSC officers has slipped even further than I suspected. Is it some kind of policy I'm not aware of to let your Troopers get massacred while you watch?"
"Massacred?" Lt. Miles interjected, " By my count, I have three troopers still breathing. You weren't aiming to I knew you wouldn't."
"My my chivalry is so dead, watching a lady reveal her hand like that."
"Not attacking to kill, and knowing how we fight..." the lieutenant paused, " What exactly are you to us?"
"tsk tsk."Lady Sergei wagged her finger, "I already told you the conditions required for me to tell you everything, and yet still you give up the advantage of your greater numbers in hopes that I'd answer your redundant question. The only advantage that you had." As she end that sentence she rushed at him at a breakneck speed.
[Play An Erisian Autumn on YouTube]
Just then the lieutenant ignited his energy saber causing Lady Sergei to take a step back as a blue hue can be seen faintly thru the blackness of his helmet, "No, not my only advantage. and that question wasn't my only reason for waiting, I don't know why by I feel compelled to show you how much I've grown!"
Why did I just say that? The thought echoed in the lieutenant's head.
"Is that?" Lady Sergei caught herself before she said too much as she gazed into the hue of his eyes, "I see, it appears I was right on the money when I suggested you were one of the Director's secret projects. Now I see, he believed you could end me. Well, don't keep me waiting big boy, show me how much you've grown."
The sky was cloudy and gray as the morning sun pushed its way thru the cracks in the ceiling of the building, and the ground shook beneath his feet as the battle raged on. In one swift movement, Lady Sergei had kicked up the plasma repeater Holden had abandoned before. The ODST felt a sense of familiarity as he looked upon his opponent, but he couldn't place it, as if he has seen all of this before in a distant memory.
Lady Sergei fired her repeater, but the young ODST was ready. He dodged the shots with ease, darting towards the Spartan with great speed. The Spartan swung her rifle like a club, but, the lieutenant predicted that. He sliced her weapon in half with a swift strike of his energy saber, leaving the Spartan unarmed.
Lady Sergei was taken aback, she knew that the God's eye gave a person the ability to process data faster, effectively making it so that from their point of view their enemies were moving in slow motion, but to witness it in person was an entirely different experience. "Very good. you are different... but different doesn't mean better." The ability to predict her movement by itself would have already made this a difficult fight, but armed with an energy sword that could do severe damage if it hit the right spot made him a serious threat. Sergei's facial expression changed she knew that the only way she could beat him was by using deadly force.
The Spartan, quickly recovering, closed the distance between them and engaged the ODST in hand-to-hand combat being careful to avoid his energy sword. She knew even if he could predict her movement that didn't necessarily mean he had the physical speed and strength needed to keep up with her in close combat. Just from the way he absorbed the blow of her first strike, it was clear to her that he was also skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but Sergei's superior strength and enhanced abilities made it a tough fight. The lieutenant fought with all his might, using his speed and agility to dodge and counter her attacks. The Spartan laid into him with precision and power, her strikes were heavy and relentless.
Their fight was intense and grueling, both fighters were evenly matched, and neither could gain an advantage over the other. They fought for what felt like hours, exchanging blows, and neither one seemed to be able to gain the upper hand. The ODST's ability to predict his opponent's movements helped him to evade some of the Spartan's critical strikes, but it was not enough. The Spartan's superior strength and enhanced abilities made it difficult for the ODST to land a decisive blow.
One by one the members of Nova began to regain consciousness. Witnessing this exchange of blows they were unsure if they should even intervene. It wasn't as desperate and savage as watching two soldiers trying to kill each other, it was more like watching a master teaching her student his final lesson.
[Play Halo 4 Atonement on Youtube]
Suddenly the fighting comes to a pause as the spartan and ODSTare forced to distance themselves from each other. Only then did Lady Sergei's expression change to a smile. After realizing that the lieutenant had held her off long enough for his fellow troopers to awaken, she had to acknowledge that in a real combat scenario that would mean her defeat whether it was her own action in choosing to spare them or not. Acknowledging her defeat she rushed toward Lt. Miles, there was still one more thing she wanted to do. Finally seeing an opening the body moved without thinking as he did they say. As he approached, he notice her fighting stance soften as if she no longer desired to fight, but it was too late he plunged his energy saber deep into her chest impaling her. She coughs as blood makes its way out of the corner of her mouth. Lt. Miles looked into her eyes only now noticing that she left herself wide open to reach for and remove his helmet. She gazed lovingly upon his face as the tears began to well up. She uttered a single word.
"James."