Welcome back! The waterfall of updates has staggered a bit because of exams this week and a general feeling of tiredness. I made it a bit longer than usual, just cause I can. Since this is taking place some 50 years after Halo, I have taken the liberty to upgrade the William of Orange and other tech a bit, and with a bit I mean a lot.
Thank you to everyone that favorited/followed/reviewed and I hope you enjoy!
P.S. don't forget you can still submit OC's and other ideas and things to the Phantom Rain, the more stuff I have to write about, the faster chapters will come. This may sound contradicting, but just go with it.
~Chapter 5~
Andrew was processing what the AI had just told him. Ed had downloaded the entirety of the ship's database before it had been blown up by a Nabooian- as had Edward told him the planet was named, Naboo.- fighter that had simply flown into the hangar and bown up the main reactor from within. What moron would design a ship to have its reactor directly attached to the main hangar? The idea was just retarded. The UNSC had seen much war, the insurrection, the Great War, the Flood and they were still fighting some Covenant remnant forces. And after around ninety years of continuous war, you learn how to design a good ship. His Marathon II-class heavy cruiser was a perfect example.
It was a true technological marvel, using the energy of a compressed red dwarf, it could go without refuelling for millennia. Top of the line energy shields and hard light emitters with a new kind of compressed titanium hull dotted with point-defence laser turrets, it took a hell of a lot of firepower to take his baby down. And that were just the defensive capabilities, the offensive were something else entirely. A miniaturised and modernised version of the energy projector first used on the Infinity, dual MAC cannons, able to fire 600 ton slugs across space at a quarter of the speed of light, fifty Reaper missile pods and two dozen Heavy Onagers and hard light turrets and two plasma torpedo tubes.
But to the point, he had just found out that this planet was part of a galaxy spanning government called; The Galactic Republic. A government that had done nothing for the people on this planet. He had also found out that this planet had a queen, he found it strange that an advanced civilisation was still bound by a monarchy, but from the reports he read, the queens and kings had always been good to the people so he decided to drop that from his thoughts.
The next thing however, made him frown and pull his hand through his short brown hair. There was an order of peace-keeping warrior monks in this galaxy called the Jedi. They were supposed to have mystical powers such as telekinesis and used an a type of energy sword that was called a lightsaber. They are apparently very skilled in the art of war, for people that were supposed to keep the peace that was. The next thing reminded him of the SPARTAN II program, they took in children and trained them from a young age. He saved the file under [read later] and went on to the next file.
Before he could continue however, he was interrupted by the green AI. "Sir, I have the casualty report and ODST are returning to the Orange. Marines are securing the city and we have gotten a request from the queen to meet both you and shipmistress Mantakrea."
"Send the casualty report to my tacpad and let someone tell the queen that I will meet her as soon as I can." He yawned and rubbed his bright blue eyes.
"Sir, when is the last time you slept?" Edward asked, a bit concerned with his captain's health.
"Not since we got into this galaxy." He said tiredly.
"Captain, I strongly advise you to get rested before entering any diplomatic talks." Edward saw that his captain was about to deny the fact that he was tired and decided to cut him off before he could. "Sir, I am hooked up to the ship and body scans show reduced brain activity and efficiency and all other signs of exhaustion. I can run the ship while you rest a couple of hours and then you can go right back to irresponsible behaviour, sir."
"Fine," he sighed, "Lieutenant O'Malley has the bridge."
"I have the bridge." His XO replied.
"Ed, I think I'll go to the hangar. I want some first-hand reports from the ODST and assess the damage Gamma has done."
The AI chuckled, "Alright sir, I'll walk with you then." A small drone came out of the holo pedestal, projecting a green hardlight figure the 18th century English gentleman that Edward had chosen as his avatar.
"Shouldn't you be monitoring the ship?" Andrew jested.
"I am, you are aware I have the ability to be at several places at the same time right old chap?"
The doors parted in front of the duo and they made their way over to the hangar, "Don't call me old Ed, I'm only 35." Andrew grumbled.
"You are to me, sir. I am only just two years old."
"That explains a lot." The young captain muttered under his breath, but loud enough for Edward to hear who sent him a glare.
They kept in a comfortable silence, only broken by Edward's cane clacking against the titanium floor, until they reached the hangar the ODST would arrive at where a pair of marine guards were exchanging stories about something and hadn't noticed the two.
The first one was telling his excitedly, "So, the insurrectionists were attacking our base right. We were being overrun and out of nowhere this Spartan shows up and starts attacking the fuckers. We knew we couldn't really help so we just watched the SPARTAN absolutely kick the shit out of the innies, I kinda felt sorry for them. Eventually he ripped one of their men's skull out when he was out of ammo and started to beat the guy and his friends to death with it."
"Dude, how's that even physically possible?" the second one said with amazed confusion.
"Yeah, that's what we thought too. In fact, the guy who he was beating to death with it was screaming that the whole time."
Andrew coughed to get their attention and when they saw who it was they immediately saluted. "At ease, gentlemen." He said with a smile and continued on through the door into the hangar.
"That was an interesting story." The AI chuckled.
"Yes and strangely I don't think it is exaggerated all that much."
Gus held on to the sleeping child in his arms while the pelican rocked from exiting the atmosphere. She had fallen asleep after the doctors at the LZ had taken a look at her and told him that she was alright, only a bit bruised and starved. She hadn't let go of him since and against his better judgement he decided to take her aboard the William of Orange.
Emma kicked the body of a deactivated droid and looked at Miranda. "What did you want to do with this piece of junk gain Songbird?"
"Make it our own private Gamma butler." She replied.
"And how are you going to do that?" Emma asked, her British accent clearly noticeable.
"You do know that I am our combat mechanic an hacker, right? And besides, we always have Squidward, I bet he'll help me." Miranda said confidently.
"Yes I am aware of that." The marksman said annoyed.
"I think Emma is right, this does not seem like it is a well thought out plan." One of the Sangheili brothers, M'tar 'Vadum, nephew to Rtas 'Vadum and brother to Grul 'Vadum and also the more rational of the two.
"I think it is a good idea." His brother said, just to contradict him.
"You just said that because I said it is a bad idea."
"Yes, yes I did."
His brother sighed and dropped the topic while Gus, who's helmet had folded back into his armour, revealing a young face with jet black hair and a light stubble, rolled his steel-grey eyes. Damn it, I need to stop doing that.
Ratha stirred in his arms. "Guys, can you please be a little quieter?" he said in a hushed voice.
"Hey rookie, how did you find our new Gamma member anyway?" Miranda asked with an amused smile on her lips.
"She was hiding in an alley and showed up on the motion tracker, she was all starved so we gave her some of my field rations, told me that her parents died so we took her to the LZ." Villain, who had kept quiet the entire time they had been in the pelican, spoke up, "Did Turtle tell you that she's your responsibility?"
"Yes he did sarge, and if anything happens it's on me."
"Good, as long as you remember that. So what are you going to do with her when we leave, assuming captain Hallsson lets her stay of course." The squad leader said.
Gus let out a long sigh "To be honest sarge, I have no idea. I can't just send her back, she has nowhere to go. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to that."
"We are approaching zhe hangar, le capitain is waiting zhere for us to give a report. ETA one minute." Louis called out from the cockpit.
Andrew watched as the pelican containing Gamma landed on the deck in front of him. Their mission had gone as expected, perfectly while leaving a couple of house blocks worth of damage.
The hatch opened and gamma exited, Gunnery Sergeant Washington first, then the 'Vadum brothers, Emma Metford fourth, Miranda while carrying a deactivated droid fifth, Louis Gerard sixth and finally Gus Swanson, who was carrying a small sleeping human girl in his arms.
He pinched his nose and said with a stern but not unkind voice, "Private Swanson, would you please explain why you are carrying a that child and on my ship none the less?"
"She's an orphan, sir. I took her aboard because- well I really don't know why, sir, but she has nowhere to go and-"
"It's alright private, she can stay as long as is needed. Remember you have responsibility, though."
A smile appeared on his face, "Aye sir, I've been remembered of it three times already."
The captain chuckled and behind him a, engineer dropped a crate full off steel tubes that clattered over the floor, waking up the petite girl. Hallsson sent an annoyed look at the engineers direction before turning his attention to the girl again.
Her eyes went wide and filled with panic, she screamed and in instinct stretched out her hand, sending Andrew and Edward's avatar flying. Gus dropped her out of shock and all of gamma aimed their guns at her. She landed on her feet and looked around in bewilderment until she recognised Gus and started crying.
She hugged him tightly and if he wouldn't have been wearing his combat gear, he would have guessed his shirt would have been soaked in tears. He hesitated for a couple seconds but hugged her back, making her calm down a bit. "Sssh, calm down, they won't hurt you. What was that?"
"I- I don't know, it just happened. I'm sorry." Ratha said, still sobbing and buried her face into his stomach again.
They could hear a loud groan and saw Hallsson being helped up by Washington. "Fucking hell, hitting my head once a day is enough for me. He looked at Ratha an Gus, "We'll handle this tomorrow, I need to sleep on this.
Hope you enjoyed, I will now write 8 words to get this chapter to exactly 2000 words. Teaparty, urinal, pink rabbit, Pharaoh of the Netherlands.