A/N: Well, looks like I've got some 'splaining to do.
Boarder: Danke, comrade, danke. Oh, it will get oh so much better.
Madhatter577: No. He was aboard Foehammer's Pelican when she was shot down.
Lecter42: You are correct, sir. On both accounts. I may have typed 'Foehammer' when I meant 'Warhammer', who is her younger brother.
Capt.ShaneSchofield: I will.
HalosObsessed1010: And more will soon follow.
Warior: I already did…and don't worry about the self promotion. –Laughs- I don't mind…and thanks for the ads.
WilltheWatcher: Yes…they are in a bit of a tight spot, eh?
In other general news, my apologies for the delay. Writer's block again, but I have found my direction!
The Marines of Charlie Company
Book II
Aftermath
Chapter Two:
Contact
As the Pelican headed toward Harvest, David gave a short briefing to the troops holed up in the back. He told them of the situation and the plan that had just begun formulating in the back of his mind. While Warhammer was making contact with the Heretics, there was really nothing that all of them could do other than cross their fingers and pray that the ex-Covenant wouldn't just decide to vaporize them before they had a chance to do anything or give their intentions. Thankfully, that didn't happen and the passengers could feel the Pelican entering the atmosphere as David spoke.
"Okay, here's the plan. 'Takamee, 'Zamamee, Franklin and Jackson are with me. We're going to try and negotiate something with these Heretics. The rest of you stay here and await my orders. Once the away team is off the Pelican, Warhammer is going to circle in orbit around the facility until we can be sure that these guys are on the level, then either hightail it out of here, or come in for a landing."
Carson could see heads bobbing in nods as he finished speaking, then took a seat next to Lieutenant Jackson who was in the process of cleaning the Battle Rifle that was in pieces on his lap. For Marines, this was a bit of a past time while waiting for either orders or transport to a combat zone. Each man would have to learn how to disassemble, clean and reassemble a weapon quickly and without a second thought or mistake during basic training and did so to pass the time. David reached behind his head, opened the single cabinet where the few boxes of ammunition had been stored, extracted one of the boxes and fished through his pockets for empty magazines. He set the box of ammo beside him and began to slowly load the magazines one round at a time, which was a time consuming process but well worth it; in all actuality, David really preferred loading the magazines himself because he could be sure that a round or two wouldn't be loaded incorrectly and either cause an assault rifle to backfire or jam in the middle of a firefight.
After that process was completed, he stashed all five magazines in various pockets on his person and set the Assault Rifle there at his side. Jackson had apparently taken notice of the strange cylinder at his hip and asked David what it was. With a grin, the Marine Sergeant unclipped the small object and depressed the trigger located at the very center and startled several of the soldiers that had been asleep with a loud crackle as the blade activated. David could see the raw energy of the weapon as sparks danced between the two prongs of plasma and feel the heat that the weapon gave off. He offered it to the Lieutenant, who carefully accepted it from him and looked the blade over and really had the facial expression of a kid in a candy store before handing it back to David, who deactivated it with another depression of the handle and clipped it back on his belt.
Nobody was speaking, as David noticed, as the Heretic facility came closer and closer to them. Suddenly, a thought crossed the Sergeant's mind and he immediately made for the cockpit, opened the door and leaned inside. Warhammer looked like he was concentrating solely on flying, which was understandable; the instruments weren't working and a storm was flinging gasses in every possible direction and obscuring the view of whatever was out there almost entirely.
"Warhammer, I need you to run an atmospheric scan; I need you to make sure we can breathe this stuff."
"All right…it'll take a few minutes, though. Man, this would be so much easier with Cortana's help…" Warhammer muttered in response as he tapped a series of buttons in front of him. Tense minutes passed before the results came back positive; there was just enough oxygen in the atmosphere to make it breathable and nothing toxic out there. If there was, it wasn't in large enough amounts to do any damage. Just another thing to strike off the list of stuff that could possibly kill them out in the middle of nowhere.
Just as David turned to exit the cockpit, Warhammer called back to him that he could see the facility and it looked like a welcoming party had been sent out to either greet them or murder them before anyone had a chance to move. The Sergeant groaned outwardly and massaged his temples; a headache was developing rather quickly from the seemingly deteriorating situation. Now the fatigue was truly beginning to catch up to David; every inch of his body ached in more ways than he thought possible and his muscles were burning from the sheer amount of strain they had been put through as of late. Despite the pain, David had to continue onward and fight through it; he wasn't just going to sit around and let someone else do his work for him. Jackson was a capable leader from what Carson had seen, but David preferred to do things himself.
Another moment passed before he made his way back to the place beside the Lieutenant and sat down after retrieving his Assault Rifle. Jackson turned his head toward David and appeared to be looking him over, or so David thought. David's stomach lurched as the Pelican slowed to land at a site the Heretic forces had designated and, from what David could gather, there wasn't much communication occurring between the drop ship and the Heretics other than that one transmission…and a good many of them did not sound happy about having humans around, and David really couldn't blame them; a lot of the Marines didn't trust 'Takamee and his merry little band all that much either, so the feeling was most definitely mutual between the two sides.
"Lieutenant, do you have any experiences with diplomacy?"
"A bit. You know, soothing the ruffled feathers of a Captain or two here and there. Need me to talk to these guys for you, Sergeant?"
"Unfortunately, yes. I've not had too many experiences with this type of thing and, frankly, I don't feel like putting up with all the bull that's bound to go on."
"I can understand that, Sergeant. I'll see what I can do." The Lieutenant replied with a reassuring smile as the Pelican turned and began it's descent toward the ground. Every Marine readied their weapons, even though most of them wouldn't be going…just in case. The Pelican touched down and the away team clambered out, each and every move they made watched by a dozen Heretic Elites, all led by one enormously tall one, who 'Takamee apparently knew.
"'Icsa…"
David glanced between the two Elites tiredly with some questions in need of asking, but decided to let them go for now; questioning could possibly lead to trouble on account of him being nothing more than a mere human…that and he didn't want to possibly give off the image of being stupid. 'Takamee seemed to pick up on this and began to elaborate. The pair of them had once been a part of the same Special Forces unit assigned to hunting down and eliminating the Heretic units that had begun popping up all over the place. After a while, though, 'Isca began to see things from the Heretics' point of view and left the Special Forces unit they were assigned to…then abandoned the Covenant all together. He had tried to convince 'Takamee to go with him, but the latter would have nothing to do with it…until now.
The Sergeant took all of this information in and quietly signaled for the two other Marines to be ready for trouble, and they informed 'Zalamee…equally as quietly. 'Takamee and 'Isca both stepped forward, each equally cautious of the other, and shook hands…er…claws…or whatever counted for hands among their kind.
"What brings you here of all places, old friend, with these humans?" 'Isca queried.
"I have seen the light, 'Isca. You were right…the Prophets have blinded our brothers and fathers. These humans…they showed me the truth of what they are truly capable of and why the Prophets wish them destroyed. They are the key, 'Isca, to ending the Prophets' reign. Especially this one." 'Takamee pointed to David, who shifted a bit uncomfortably as 'Isca looked him over.
"What makes him so special? He is no demon."
"That is the beauty of it," 'Takamee replied, "The Prophets will not see such a human as a threat, yet he not only wields a Holy Blade with considerable skill, but also survived the Flood when so many others fell before their might."
'Isca seemed to smile…if that's what he was doing by clicking his upper mandibles. The Heretic leader turned without another word and waved for the small group to follow him, which they did without further question but not without some hesitation; after all, it could be a trap. David observed around them; wind howled in his ears and whipped against the bits of flesh that his uniform and armor left exposed (mainly his face and hands) on the upper levels, and below them was a twisting array of catwalks, maintenance ways and too many other walkways, highways and byways to count or even speculate on where they went to and came from. A few troops and researches could barely be seen, but were there going about whatever business they needed to attend to. Some were hefting large grey and green cylindrical canisters and others were escorting said canisters and armed to the teeth. David made a note to ask about those later.
Around them specifically, David heard Lieutenant Jackson strike up a conversation with one of the Heretics that was escorting them to their destination about their operations here and somesuch while 'Zalamee and Franklin remained quiet and watched for any signs of danger, though the Heretics seemed to be on the level and relatively friendly toward these outsiders. A good sign for them, at the very least. Not too much walking occurred before they arrived at their destination, which was a fairly vacant meeting room with some rather large chairs and a rectangular table in the center, all of which were grey…well against the Covenant grain of royal purple. Each member of the party took a seat, with 'Isca at the head of the table and 'Takamee at the other. The three humans sat together on the right side with 'Zalamee and the Heretics took the left.
For a few moments, no one spoke…until 'Isca piped up.
"So, how did these Humans get here?"
"To be honest, 'Isca, I'm not entirely sure."
It was Jackson's turn to speak. The Lieutenant went into the Fall of Reach, a battle that occurred only seven days ago but felt like years past, and what happened afterward in excruciating detail. After that was their battle on board the Pillar of Autumn (a ship that David sorely missed) and the…landings on Halo, for the lack of a better word. There was a pause for a moment or two as Jackson collected his thoughts and tried to pull together what seemed to be a blur and finished up the tale of their 'adventures' on Halo, with Franklin tossing his two cents in there every now and then. The whole thing seemed to entertain 'Isca and the heretics greatly, because they kept muttering to each other throughout, while David said nothing and was content with just sitting and watching; like he said before, diplomacy was not his strong point. Truthfully, he was more suited to squeezing a trigger than anything else.
After the story was finished, 'Isca nodded and seemed to look the three humans over and paused on David for a short while.
"You, Human. I have not heard you speak yet. Let me hear your story."
"I'm not a very good talker, 'Isca…besides, I'd rather not share my side of the story for personal reasons."
Thankfully, the Elite seemed to understand and turned his attention back to Lieutenant Jackson. The two of them quickly began speaking, each asking the other various questions about culture and all that nonsense, burning up time that could have been spent doing something useful…but that was the reason David was a soldier and not a politician; he preferred to cut through the BS and straight to the point because he got enough of the runaround from the pencil pushers at command. Another few minutes passed before they got to the point of the issue; how the Humans were getting off this rock and back to Earth.
"You are in luck, Humans." 'Isca said. "We have but one ship here in fairly decent order we can give you, but only if you can bring help back to us here. The Prophets will surely begin searching this system after Halo's destruction and we do not have the strength to fight them off. If you can reach your homeworld and acquire some assistance for us, we can aid you in your battle against the Prophets."
That was good news…things were finally starting to look up.