UNSC Ballista

New Alexandria, Reach

August 24, 2558

Trip Aegis settled into his comfort chair in his cabin, much to his delight. Sipping at the drink that he had bought at Fort Liberty's spaceport, he smiled, feeling the taste coming back to him. It was the first time in nearly three weeks when he could finally relax.

When the Ballista left Flint, the Anije was true to his word, only a little bit further down her next voyage when she easily caught up, nearly out the place where some of the slaves onboard called the Beach of Death. They passed her stern a couple of miles away before locking on to her engines and sending the monstrous vessel to her grave on the mountain side after the emptying of two torpedoes.

Once she was out of the equation, Aegis contacted the Misrata rescue teams. He had jumped through a dozen points of origin during his broadcast, informing the operator that there was a significant amount of stranded souls at the given location of the camp. After the operator didn't seem quite concerned about the rescue, even after he explained about all the refugees from Victoria or wherever, he said there was a stored fortune of illegally mined gold, which seemed to get more of a favorable reaction.

Ballista had then journeyed back to one of Misrata's repair station where they turned Weld's mercenaries over to the authorities and conducted some repairs to both the ship and crew.

Aegis phoned Adamant about their past caper, saying that now some intel might be able to be scavenged on the higher tiers of the Covenant criminal empires. He also informed Koyara, his original client about the halt of Fel's empire, saying that the malevolent threat was now over and gave instructions for their final payment, which was conducted twelve hours later. He held back on telling him about the shipment of gold, which the Blades kept the largest container of as a bonus.

It was only a day later when he had gotten a call from Adamant who was informed by the first rescue team that had arrived on site. Adamant gave Aegis some intresting information about one of the teams had found a man hiding inside the control room when the main camp was raided. He gave his name as Ryan Weld. Weld had barricaded himself inside the top floor with a plasma rifle and enough food and water to survive for a month. He was now staying at a hotel in downtown Misrata.

Although he wanted to finish the business himself, Trip thought that Vasili would need it more to rest his troubled heart. Taking his best friend Conan Pyra, they had headed back to Flint as the Ballista resumed her voyage to Reach for her repairs. They arrived in New Alexandria's spaceport two days later with the name of Emile Renaud.

"So what happened?" Trip asked as they piled into the pelican that he had flown to pick them up.

"Oh it was simple really." Conan grinned like a little kid about to get his favorite toy. "When we broke into his room all decked out in our MJOLNIR armor, he swore that the UNSC had finally come for him. We gave the bastard assurance that we wouldn't if he told us everything we wanted to know. It was funny cause he didn't even know that Vasili was a prisoner not two days ago."

"There wasn't enough room to house all the smuggled in what available room they had outside Misrata, so they kept the slaves in the warehouses with supplies until they figured out what to do with them." Vasili was now smiling, obviously done his work well. "After Weld gave me his name, Conan and I took him to one of the warehouses where the slaves were staying at. We explained to them who Weld was and told them that we was responsible along with Fel for running the mines and then left saying that he was all theirs."

"By the time we were at the door, his screaming had stopped." Pyra added for the last part.

After they explained what Renaud fit into the scheme, Trip and Vaal Talam took a trip to Verona Beach to arrange a "meeting" with him. That had gone just as he had expected.

Renaud now held the record of being the fastest to break down in front of the Blades. It was obvious he had never seen an energy sword before. Vaal had held the white hot blade a mere four inches from Renaud's throat as the latter agreed to buy back all the containers that Aegis had shipped with him to New Corsica. Half of the trusts had gone to all the miners and the rest to the community. He then would sell his bank and then retire to the slums of Caineopolis on Gilgamesh, where he would give the rest of his life to charity.

Trip was satisfied with that and Vaal agreed not to slice the greedy bastard's head off.

There was a soft knock on his door that had roused him out of his thoughts. He had nothing to hide and was aware of nearly the entire crew on leave to Reach save for Drew and a couple of his technicians maintaining some last minute fixes. Striding over to the side, he unlocked the door and swung it open.

"Hi Captain! Remember me?" Meredith Adrian's hair was in a style that he subconsciously regarded as one of the most attractive on women. Her eyes flickered with the glow of the new fireplace that he had installed before taking on the mission. She wore a jacket over a casual loose deep purple blouse with the top low enough to catch his attention. Her lips had been brushed with pink gloss in a bright smile and he couldn't determine what emanated from it, but it was a very sweet scent.

"I thought I would never see you again." Aegis finally managed to get out, when the Ballista had docked for her repairs; she had left without even a goodbye.

"Aren't you going to let me in?"

"Of course." He shut the door, pouring a pair of shots from his bottle, careful to sit opposite her in his leather chairs.

"You know, I had seen you as the loyal captain with all of your shipmates with their utmost loyalty. I concurred that you had a girl in every possible port and convinced myself that I didn't want to be another bother. I had decided to go home and spare myself a broken heart for falling for the wrong man."

Aegis said nothing in response, but something shifted in the back of his soul. Meredith didn't know what, but it was something that he may have wanted to stay buried.

"Drew had called me when I was nearly about to leave back home. He had said that since my absence, you've just been even more distant and an introvert than ever before. He had the thought that you liked me and I liked you, so I just happened to come back with my hopes all up. My previous assumptions were dismissed when he scoffed at you having a girl in every port. In fact, the entire time he's known you; there wasn't once where he was aware that you've been on a date."

Trip opened his mouth to talk, but in an instant, Meredith placed one of her soft, gentle hands on his lips. She shifted a little bit, now a little on his side.

"Drew also said that you were widowed, well not even wedded yet. He said that your fiancée was killed by a drunk driver. According to him, you only have one picture of her on your personal datapad and rarely discuss about it save for one night years ago. Just remember Trip," She shrugged out of her jacket, draping it over the chair. Aegis could now see that her dress was strapless. "Sam thing what you told me back on Flint. You only get the bigger reward if you take the bigger risk."

"Drew is the only one who knew that I was ever going to be married." Trip softly said, "Yes, she was killed in a car by a drunk driver, but I never told him that she was the drunk. It was six years ago, sometime before I started the Strike Blades. I had a dream of her, myself retired from ONI, two or three kids and we'd have a suburban house in somewhere quiet where the weather and people were just perfect. She had been to rehab multiple times and I only knew it once by the time I was engaged." He rose from his chair and retrieved his datapad from his desk. Unlocking the screen it showed the background picture. Meredith peered onto the small handheld device.

There was a younger Trip Aegis in his UNSC uniform with three other similarly dressed men in Marine outfits. To his left, was a woman that he had his arm around. She could have been the same age as him or slightly younger, but anyone who had a look at the couple's only picture already knew that they were destined to marry. She wore a blue dress that was complimentary to her blue eyes and golden blonde hair. He had proposed to her on dinner that night, which she had accepted to, in tears. They would only be together before nine months, when she was taken from him just weeks before Reach had fallen.

"She's beautiful." Meredith whispered.

Trip nodded, "I guess it never really stuck with her. I still recall the night when I was awakened by a knock at four in the morning. She had gone with her friends somewhere, no doubt to the bar. When I saw the police outside my apartment door, I knew what had happened."

"I'm sorry." She placed a hand on the back of his head. "You still carry a torch."

"And the anger."

"You can't keep blaming yourself. Listen Trip, I've only got a week's leave from the CNRD and Drew says that you'll be onto your next job soon, within the next couple of days. I'm not saying that you should drop everything you're doing and marry me. Hell, I'm not even asking for you to love me. What I'm asking you to do is for you to stop taking the blame of everything bad and getting down because you believe that it's your fault. Start letting yourself enjoy some of the good."

"You're not leaving until I start right?"

"When was the last time you ever had an intimate moment with a woman?"

The question sent a stirring jolt through him. He couldn't bring himself to respond and had his hands on the back of her head, entwined in her hair before finally whispering. "I don't know."

"Don't you think it's about time?" She asked, before putting her lips to his.

Aegis used his arms to easily lift her from their seat, all while deepening the kiss that they were sharing. He crossed the room until they reached his large king sized bed. His heart was beating quickly when he collapsed into the mattress with Meredith on top of him.

"It was never about time." He smiled against her soft skin. "It was waiting for the right person. I do have to warn you, it's been quite a while."

She gave a lustful laugh as she guided his hands to her dress at the top. "It'll be okay."

Now it is time to close the cover to the second chapter in the Blades Trilogy. It's been quite an amazing time writing to all of you.

I honestly have no idea what I will be doing next. Suggestions will be appreciated for a possible new series or maybe a continuation of the Blades' stories.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose. Don't forget that.