Chapter 11

Axel sat quietly in a Falcon with Peters sitting across from her. They had already reached the planet they were sent to, and were headed to the apparent anti-spartan town. The journey was quick, with no cryo-sleep necessary. The propellers of the Falcon buzzed loudly, and Axel decided better than to speak, knowing that she would have to yell about nothing important.

However, the view from so high up was quite astounding, with rolling lush hills and great pine forests. Well, they resembled pine trees, other than the odd bright purple hue that they had. There were also huge fields of odd crops that Axel didn't recognize, such what appeared to be bushes of vibrant and multi-colored berries, hedges that resembled cooking utensils, and even giant mushrooms that appeared to have lava-like substances seeping slowly from the tops.

Then, the beautiful flora turned into a majestic city, filled with giant skyscrapers, brilliant street lights, and giant roads. Thousands of busy people lined the streets, and from up above, they looked miniscule. As the Falcon flew overhead, Axel thought she could see a few heads turning toward the sky.

Suddenly, there was a loud static noise coming from both Peters' and Axel's radio, and a young woman's voice came on.

"Hey cadets! This is control, just a head's up, the covenant fleet will be approaching in a few hours, so you better convince that mayor to let us help fast," she urged. Just like that, the radio turned off, and once again, all that could be heard was the sound of the Falcon's propeller as it landed on the far edge of the marvelous city.

When it did finally land, Axel and Peters hauled themselves out of the vehicle and landed on the concrete ground with a thump.

"So...where is the mayor?" Axel asked, taking in the spectacular civilization that stood before her. Just then, the radio turned on again.

"Oh, yeah, sorry! I'm sending the coordinates now," the young woman replied in a perky voice. Suddenly, a small marker appeared on Axel's HUD, telling her and Peters where the mayor's office was. It was quite a few blocks away, and Axel groaned at the thought of walking all the way to the office.

"Why can't we grab a Hog or something and just drive there?" she asked.

"Well, one: there are two many people and we'd probably run some over in the process. Two: where are we going to get a Hog? and Three: We don't want the civilians to panic by driving through town on a jeep with a giant gun strapped to the back," Peters explained.

"And we're not going to cause them to panic by wearing battle armor?" Axel retorted.

"Let's just start walking rather than arguing, we're just wasting time," Peters replied. He began walking, and he didn't seem to care if Axel was following or not. Therefor, she followed slowly, grumbling in the the process.

As the pair walked through the middle of the road, Axel made an odd discovery that she hadn't noticed before.

"Hey Zeta?" she summoned the AI, who had been silent for most of the journey.

"Yeah?" Zeta responded quietly.

"Why isn't anyone driving anything? Why are they all walking?" Axel asked as she stared at the barren road. The civilians seemed to be sticking to the sidewalks, even though they didn't seem to be in any danger of getting run over.

"Well...the mayor isn't exactly the brightest. He spent everyone's money on building huge buildings, and now everyone is too broke to actually buy any transportation. Most of them just walk to work, and they can barely afford nice clothes anymore," Zeta explained, her voice almost a whisper.

"Why are you talking so quietly?" Peters suddenly asked the AI.

"Because everyone is staring at us and trying to hear what we're doing here," she answered, gesturing toward the civilians. As she mentioned it, Axel realized for the first time that people were indeed staring at the odd trio as they passed. Some even threw them dirty glances and disgraceful frowns.

"Wow, I guess the mayor has a lot of influence on these people," Peters whispered, as his voice had gone quiet as well.

"Just...keep walking, keep your heads down, and hope none of these townsfolk do anything stupid. They're just like the mayor. They have short tempers, and they really hate outsiders," Zeta instructed.

She quickly disappeared inside Axel's HUD, probably hoping that people would be less suspicious without a little green holographic person floating around. Axel thought about turning on her invisibility, but decided better of it. Too many people had already seen her, and too many people were staring at her. It would cause much alarm to have a huge spartan suddenly disappear in the middle of thousands of people.

Instead, Axel did as she was told and dipped her head. As she walked, she kept one hand on her Magnum, just in case. As she walked through the streets, she could feel the peoples' tension around her. A group of teenage ruffians suddenly encircled the spartans, walking with them.

"What you think you're doin' here? Spartans don't belong here!" one of them hissed, jabbing Peters in the shoulder with his finger.

"That's classified information that you shouldn't be concerned about. Now please, if you don't mind, we have places to be," Peters retorted calmly, pushing the teen's hand off of his shoulder lightly. Axel couldn't help but feel impressed at the cadet's response compared to when she had first met him.

The group, which seemed to consist of five boys in tattered clothes, frowned at Peters. Another boy jumped up behind Axel and flicked her helmet.

"You can't just come into our town like that and expect to leave us in the dark!" the boy, who had dyed his hair green, hissed, smiling mischievously. Quickly, a third boy went to snatch Axel's Magnum. However, she was faster, and snatched him by the wrist with her left hand. Her grip was tight, and as the boy squirmed, it grew tighter. The group of ruffians stared at her and the boy she was holding for a moment.

Then came a snap, and a squeal of pain. Axel dropped the teen's hand, and his face twisted in pain. The other four boys ran to him and quickly ushered him away. One turned his head toward Axel.

"Creep!" he growled, and the boys disappeared around a corner. Peters turned away from the group and looked at his companion without saying anything.

"Let's keep going," Axel whispered, continuing on toward the office building as if the incident hadn't happened.