Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. This one is a shorter one, but it's kind of a filler anyway.
Oh yeah, that reminds me: I do not in any way, shape, or form own Halo or Legend of Korra. I mean, the wealth of owning both at the same time, can you imagine?
Anyway, on with the chapter:
I stumbled along the hallway, keeping the pistol leveled as I went. This place was nice, and I would have stopped to acknowledge that if I wasn't currently in combat mode. My situation couldn't have been much worse. I was wounded, in an unknown place surrounded by unknown people, wearing only about half of my BDU and having a pistol with a single mag in it. Training had situations like this, but nothing exactly on this scale.
Classifying the people in the room I had woken up in as enemies at this point wasn't something I could really do. They seemed to want to help, but the whole manipulation of water and fire thing really threw me off. I couldn't take chances, so putting distance between myself and them seemed like the logical step.
Accept for the fact that they had pretty much all my gear.
Crap.
Now I was going to have to go back and try to steal it out from under their noses. This wasn't exactly a problem per se. ODSTs, despite being trained to literally drop from the sky and make your day a living hell, are also trained in specialized warfare. Reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, or in this case; equipment retrieval. The problem was my current state of being at the moment. My ribs were slowing me down and I needed some form of treatment.
I had a medkit in my rucksack, but all it had was a can of biofoam. That wouldn't do any good, not while the skin remained unbroken. For a moment I briefly considered surrender and letting the girl who'd claimed to be a healer work on me, but I quickly brushed that off. I knew nothing about her, or her abilities, and I wasn't taking that chance. Besides, every single one of my drill sergeants, both alive and dead, would pound me into a small puddle of goo for even considering that option. Marines never surrender, and ODSTs take measures to ensure that if they're going to die, they'll take you and everything you love with them.
I quickly ducked into a side cubby along the hallway, watching as a small group of four men passed by in the hallway intersection up ahead. These guys weren't regular servants, they were more beefed up in appearance. They moved like they were former military, probably the security force of this place. Once they had passed, I continued on. I couldn't keep this up. Eventually someone was going to find me, and then I'd have a choice. I could either shoot them and slip away, or I could let them capture me.
Shooting someone was the last thing I wanted to do. It wasn't the fact that I couldn't do it, unlike some others in the Corps. Some troopers and marines hesitated when it came to killing humans, especially after fighting the Covenant for so long. Another thing that falls into the specialized warfare category is counter terror and counter contraband operations. That means fighting other humans, particularity the Insurrection. So could I shoot one of these people? Absolutely. However doing so would ruin any potential relationship I had with them from then on. If I shot someone, and then came to find out that they're my only way off world and back to the UNSC, I'd have royally screwed any chance I had.
"Hey, there he is!" came a male voice from behind me. I turned and saw two of the people who were in the room with me. One was the dark skinned girl who'd tried to get at me with the water, and the other was the tall guy with a red scarf and fire on his hands. I started to run, only to feel something wrap around my ankle and trip me up.
Landing was absolutely painful, but I didn't let that stop me as I started to push myself back to my feet. Looking down, I saw that the girl had bent a tendril of water toward me, turning it into ice and wrapping it around my ankle to stop me. Grabbing my pistol from the spot where it had fallen, I pressed the muzzle against the ice and squeezed the trigger.
The pistol discharged with a Phew, and the ice tendril shattered into a million pieces. In a flash, I was on my feet and running again. Although my ribs slowed me down, a fact made painfully aware to me when the guy wrapped his arm around my throat from behind, trying to get me into a choke hold. I grabbed his arm and turned against him, flipping him over my body and smashing him down into a small end table.
This took a lot out of me, as I fell against the opposite wall for support. He looked up at me with rage in his eyes as he started to get back up, his fist bursting into flames as he came. I didn't let him get any further as I pistol whipped him. The fire around his hand went out and he hit the floor like a sack of potatoes, out cold.
I didn't get to celebrate my little victory. As I went to turn to face the girl, a block of ice impacted with the side of my head. I fell to the floor again, dazed from the strike. As my vision began to clear, I saw her standing above me, until she drove her fist into my face, knocking me out cold.
"This is the only way to be sure he doesn't try to run off again," Korra said as they looked down at James. He was floating face up in the mansion's pool, encased in ice from the neck down. Mako was sitting on a lounge chair with an ice pack pressed against his forehead. James' strike hadn't done any major damage, but the firebender was gonna have a headache for a while.
"So what about frostbite?" Asami asked as she inspected the weapon that he had been carrying. The rest of his gear had been moved into the pool room as well, as the heiress was trying to figure out what each individual piece did.
"We'll worry about that later. Right now we need to find out what caused him to flip out like that and make sure it doesn't happen again," Mako answered.
"Are we sure he's not an Equalist? I mean the way he reacted is kind of the way an Equalist would react," Bolin pointed out.
"We've already stated that the armor is way too advanced to be Equalist in origin," Asami said as she sat the pistol down and slid the helmet on.
"And even if he was some super advanced Equalist, why wait until now to show up?" Mako asked.
"Besides, did you guys see the way he reacted? I mean really see? It was like he'd never seen bending before," Korra added. In the pool, James groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He glanced around, taking in his surroundings and situation with a puzzled expression. Puzzlement turned into a frown as he caught sight of the ice block encasing him.
"You know, this is colder then it looks," he said.
"Only way to be sure you don't go around bashing people's heads in," Korra replied.
"In my defense, he came after me." Korra rolled her eyes, while Mako glared at the floating trooper.
"So who are you?" The Avatar asked.
"James Durant, 1128..."
"Yeah yeah we know that part," Mako interrupted, "what she means is who do you work for, why are you here?"
"Is there a commanding officer I can talk to?" James asked.
"Sorry pal, I'm off duty. It's just us," Mako replied. The trooper laid his head back in the water and let it float.
"In that case you're out of luck. I don't talk to Innie grunts."
"What's an Innie?" Bolin asked. James sat his head up and looked at them.
"Seriously?"
"It's a valid question, what's an Innie?" Asami asked as she took the helmet off.
"As in the Insurrection? The United Rebel Front? Any of this ringing any bells?" All he got were shaking heads and blank stares. James laid his head back in the water again.
"Never heard of the UNSC, never heard of the Insurrection, who are you people? Wait, you're not with the Covenant somehow are you?" he asked, a hint of panic in his voice.
"Sorry, you're three for three in this case," Korra replied, and he visibly relaxed.
"You know I gotta ask, what's the Covenant?" Bolin asked. James remained silent for several moments, as if he was running something over in his mind.
"Tell you what, get me out of here, and we can exchange information for information," he finally said.
"Information for information?" Korra asked, doubt in her voice.
"Yeah, you guys clearly want information I have, and vice versa. It's a win win for everyone."
"Except for the people you knock out," Mako said with a hint of venom.
"Don't attack me, I won't attack you, simple as that." The group all looked at each other before Korra assumed a bending stance. She bent the block of ice out of the pool and sat it on the edge of the water. Then she melted the ice, leaving James huddle his fists near his core in an effort to get warm again.
As he stood there shivering, the trooper inspected his exposed midsection. The ugly color had reduced significantly, leaving only a few bruises on his ribs. He turned his body a few times, getting a feel for how much pain he had before he closed the bodysuit.
"I see you worked on my ribs while I was out," he said.
"You should be sore for a few days, but take it easy and you should be back to normal in no time," Korra said.
"Thank you."
"Right. Now, let's get down to it." James spent the better part of a few hours explaining everything he could think of. He gave a brief history of the UNSC and the Insurrection, well except for the parts he knew were classified anyway. They all had different reactions. Mako seemed impressed, Korra and Bolin looked like two kids who were being told a fascinating story, and Asami was focused on the technology.
Occasionally they would ask questions, and James would answer to the best of his ability. Sometimes the answer to a question was classified, and sometimes he simply didn't know the answer. Then, he got to the point where the Covenant came into the story, and their reactions did a one eighty. As James went on, explaining what he knew from personal experience and what he knew was available to the general public, the others in the room grew more and more horrified.
The concept of whole worlds being burned until their surface was glass, or a death toll that climbed further and further into the billions with each passing day was a concept that they almost couldn't grasp. Hell, James almost couldn't grasp it, and he'd been in the mud fighting, seeing it all for himself.
"Why would they do such a thing?" Korra finally asked in a horrified whisper.
"I don't know. All I know is that we were losing so bad that I'm sure we had lost," James answered. He gave them the details of his last mission, not the objective, just a run down of events from him being dropped all the way up until Asami hit him with her car.
"So, now what's the deal with the with the water and what not?" James asked. To say that he was curious would have been an understatement. Korra spent the better part of a half hour explaining concept behind bending, the nations, and a general run down of the events that had occurred over the past six months.
"Well, that answers my question on how I'm gonna get back," James said when she finished. Simple fact was, he was trapped here, plain and simple.
"We should go talk to Tenzin. He'll have an idea on what to do," Korra said.
"He's the Councilman guy, right?"
"Yeah, well he was. Now that President Raiko is in office Tenzin just sits around on Air Temple Island all day," Korra said. James looked around at the others before shrugging.
"Oh well, couldn't hurt to talk to him," he said.
Tenzin was starting to pace in the gazebo. Granted he knew that Korra was, by definition, a fully realized Avatar now. But that didn't stop him from worrying. It was getting on into early morning, and Korra had been gone for hours. This wasn't the first time she had spent the night somewhere else besides the island either. The worrying part was that she usually phoned by now to say where she was or what she was doing. He came to a halt as another realization dawned on him.
If he was like this with Korra, he shuttered to even think about what he would be like when his daughters reached their teens.
As he turned to begin another loop of his pacing, Tenzin noticed Korra walking up the steps toward him. In the gloom following her was a tall young man with buzzed black hair. At first, he thought it was Mako or Bolin, but another look quickly dismissed any possibility of it being any one of the two bending brothers.
"There you are, I was starting to get worried," he said, strolling up to Korra.
"Yeah, sorry about that. We've had some complications," she replied, rubbing the back of her head.
"I'm just happy you are safe. Who's your friend?"
"Oh, Tenzin this is James," Korra said.
"Hello, I am Tenzin," the airbending master greeted with a bow.
"Lance Corporal James Durant," James replied. His helmet was cradled under his arm, and he was wearing his full BDU again.
"A soldier?" Tenzin asked, looking back and forth between the two in confusion.
"We'd better go inside, we got a lot to talk about," Korra said. Despite it being almost four in the morning, Tenzin still had some tea made as they sat in a parlor room. James looked uncomfortable, almost comical as he sat on a couch in his armor while trying not to spill the cup of tea that was handed to him.
Korra and him took turns explaining the events of the night to Tenzin. Once that was done, James began to give the background and context he had given to the others. Tenzin, for his part, remained silent the entire time, speaking only to ask the rare question or two. Like the others, a look of horror came across his face as the ODST described the harshness of the Covenant and their campaign against mankind. By the time he had finished, almost another hour had passed.
"So you have no way of getting back?" Tenzin asked.
"As far as I know, no I don't. I also don't know if I'm the only one who wound up here," he replied.
"What do you mean?" Korra asked.
"From what I know, Slipspace is...tricky. I was apart of a much larger force of ODSTs that were being dropped into the city when the ship jumped. That's not including the thousands of Covenant that were on the streets at the time. It's possible there may have been others from both sides that wound up here as well."
"We'll worry about all that later. For now, dawn is almost upon us. We should get some sleep," Tenzin said as he stood up, "Korra, please escort our guest to the male dormitory."
"Thank you," James said, only to receive a very tired nod from the airbending master. Korra sat her cup to the side and motioned for him to follow her. The soldier sat his own cup down and followed her out of the room and out to a different building entirely. A dull purple was starting to form in the sky over the mountains to the east of the city, signifying the approach of dawn.
"Do you really think any of those Covenant things you were talking about could have wound up here?" she asked as they entered the male dormitory.
"I don't know. And honestly you had better pray they didn't," he replied. Korra looked a little pale, and James saw this. He gave her a grin of reassurance.
"You'll be alright," he said, "you got an ODST watching your back now."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," she said.
"Not a lot of people do."
Fleet of Unflinching Condemnation. Deep Space.
"Fleetmaster, we have intercepted some signals from a nearby system, they appear to be human in origin, some kind of distress beacon," a lesser ranked elite reported to his golden armored commander. The fleet, by comparison to others within the Covenant Navy, was a small one. It consisted of only about fifteen ships, three CAS Assault Carriers and twelve CCS class battle-cruisers.
"Send a probe to the system and investigate the source of these signals. Where do we stand on preparations for the fleet to rejoin with High Charity?" the Fleetmaster asked.
"We are almost ready. Fleetmaster, if the probe should find a human world, what are we to do?"
"That will be decided when the time comes," the Fleetmaster answered. The basic orders the fleet had received when they had first split off from the High Charity fleet in order to patrol this section of space were to explore and then return. However the orders of a High Prophet supersede any other order. And the Prophet of Truth's orders, which had stood since the day this war began, were as follows.
Attack and kill the humans wherever possible.
Which meant that if the probe located a human world in that system, the Fleetmaster would have no choice but to attack it with every ship in his command. The Fleetmaster's jaws separated a little as he grinned to himself. He was silently praying to the gods that the probe would come back with information about a human world. It had been so long since his fleet had gotten a chance to participate in the fighting.
Why should his brothers be the only ones basking in the glory of victory against the vile humans? What was stopping him from earning his own glory like them? The simple answer was the fact that his patrols never took him near human space. But today, it seemed his luck had changed.
Today, he may have found a new human world, and it was his alone to burn.
And that's a wrap. Some major foreshadowing going on in this chapter. Like I said before, new character, new plot, new everything. What do you think will happen? You know the drill, Drop a review, leave a PM, ask a question, let me know what you liked or didn't like, and I'll see you all next time.