Chapter Seven: Friend of an Enemy

After making the arduous climb back onto the ridge with the ropes, I immediately got into contact with my other battalion commander and former XO, Major Shawn Harris. Since the 8th Engineers were closest to the ruins, I figured he more than anyone needed to know what we'd just discovered down below on the beach – and be sure he was aware that his unit needed to be ready for anything. Harris took the information in stride, as I knew he would, and assured me that he'd take the necessary precautions. Satisfied with the response, I cut the connection, then quickly opened up a new channel – this time to our air commander.

"Talon, it's Cooper. How're the skies looking, Major?"

"Dark but clear, Colonel, although it's starting to brighten up a little now ahead of the sunrise," Willis replied. "I saw some firefights going on down there a while ago. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "For now, anyway. Things just…keep getting more and more interesting around here is all."

"Those new Promethean guys?"

"No. We found out the Storm are back. Looks like that larger force we fought and defeated here yesterday wasn't the last of them."

"Shit. So what now?"

I shrugged to myself, though I knew he couldn't see it. "We root out the rest."

"How did more even show up?"

Willis didn't know about the portals yet, and I still wasn't comfortable spreading the news to everyone, knowing what that might do to morale. "We're looking into it. Listen, Will, I don't have much time to chat. Just keep your eyes peeled up there and be ready to get called in if you're needed."

"Yes, ma'am," my husband responded, although I could tell from his tone that he was a little put out by my evasive answer. I felt bad about it, but the situation was what it was. Until the new UNSC ship came in and we all had to help the scientists get into the ruins to scope them out, I wasn't about to blow open the lid on everything before I needed to.

Sometimes being in charge sucked.

"Anything else, Colonel?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm going to need your brother for something on the mainland. Are you okay with that?"

"Depends what it is, Coop."

"Well, much as I'd like to avoid it, I need to go meet with Mayor Laraza about what we found here. Bring him up to speed on our new enemies and stuff. Matt used to be a reb and he knows his way around the city, so I'd like to have him back me up over there."

My husband sighed. "All right. As long as you have each other's six. And tell that Laraza bastard that if he tries hitting on my wife again, his next meeting's going to be with my fist."

I chuckled. "Will do, honey. Although if I don't come out riddled with bullets, I'll already consider that a success. He's alternately charming and homicidal so you never know what you're going to get."

"Just stay safe, Cooper."

"You, too, Talon. Cooper out."

Shortly after our talk, a Pelican landed nearby for me and Matthew to jog into. I would've loved to have brought Willis along, just to see the look on Laraza's face when my husband stared him down, but I knew that wasn't possible. Willis had his own command to attend to, so the job fell to one of his pilots instead.

I didn't realize he'd sent someone I knew until the back hatch opened up.

"Welcome aboard, Colonel," Captain Heat, Willis's best friend, said to me with a grin. "I know I'm not the man of your dreams, but I hope I can be a suitable replacement for this flight."

Matthew shot me a look, and I jokingly clamped my hands over his ears.

"Heat, this is my brother-in-law. Impressionable mind."

"Oh." Anyone else would've looked sheepish, but not Heat. He just stuck out his hand at the younger Hawk. "Captain Brandon Heat, kid. I'm your brother's wingman and his best buddy. I promise I'm not trying to steal his wife."

"Heat just likes to act like an idiot sometimes," I said to Willis's little brother as I released my hold on his head and moved to take a seat. "You just have to get used to it." Still, I held up my left hand and pointed to my wedding ring then as Matthew sat down beside me. "Visual aid, Brandon, in case you forget."

The captain laughed and turned back towards the cockpit. "It's okay, Cooper. I see it on Willis's finger all the time. I know you're off-limits."

Matthew and I sat in silence for a moment as we listened to the transport's engines spooling up. My brother-in-law still had a frown on his face.

"I don't like our pilot, Nat," he said to me petulantly.

I waved a dismissive hand at him. "He's been Willis's best friend since flight school. We've all known each other for a long time. He's a good guy. Helped us out with Gabriel a few times too in the past when we got in a bind."

"My nephew, you mean?"

"Yep, your oldest one."

The engines got louder and we finally lifted off. Heat's voice came flooding through the intercom in the troop bay soon after, no doubt trying to keep my mind occupied since he knew how nervous I got about flying. I was already trying my best not to fiddle with anything on my person, so as not to give away my anxious state of mind to Matt.

"So how're the kids, Natalie?"

"Doing good, last we heard," I replied. "They're staying with Willis's parents on Mars while we're gone." A small smile came to my face unbidden. "Did Will tell you we might be getting another pilot in the family soon?"

"One of your sons?"

"Our daughter," I answered.

Captain Heat chuckled. "Yup, already knew about that one. Willis would bring her by the airbase sometimes back on Earth, while they waited for you to get off-duty for the evening. Gabe and Liam would look around for a bit and lose interest, but not her. Liv got her little hands into everything and wanted to know what each part of the ship did."

My smile widened. "Sounds like her. She keeps drawing pictures of anything airborne at daycare with her piloting inside." I shrugged. "Olivia looks almost exactly like me but when it comes to that, she takes right after her dad. I don't know."

"You think Liam or Gabe might want to become a grunt like their mom?"

I snorted. "I hope not. If they do, I'll try to steer them down another path." I let out a sigh. "Don't get me wrong; I love being a Marine and if I had to do it all over again, I'd do it in a heartbeat, with no second thoughts. It's a part of me, in my blood. But it also comes with a lot of hardships I wouldn't want my kids to endure."

Heat's voice sobered when he spoke again. "You must miss the three of them a lot, huh?"

"More than you know, Heat."

"Willis does, too. He talks about them all the time. And you."

To keep the sudden hurt from engulfing me, I bumped shoulders with my brother-in-law. "See? You're getting to learn some about your niece and nephews." I leaned back against the bulkhead and closed my eyes then before he could reply. "Hopefully this'll be over soon, so we can all get back home and see them again."

When we touched down on mainland Khan near the city of Redwood Falls, it was a bittersweet moment. Part of me almost missed the place we'd called home for the past few months, since the terrain was so similar to my homeplanet of Mars, but another part hated being back to the scene of so much carnage and heartache. Outpost Columbia, where we'd originally been stationed, had been destroyed well before our departure for the island. I'd taken two sniper rounds through the back and nearly died here. And, most importantly, my own best friend had lost his life in the forest, yet another victim of the ex-Covenant.

Emotions bubbled up inside me for a moment, but I quickly swallowed them down. I kept a tight grip on my DMR's strap as it hung off my shoulder to steel myself, then stepped forward off the craft.

Turning to Heat, I said, "Hold here with the bird, Captain. We should be back in less than an hour. Seal it up tight in the meantime. You never know."

"Yes, ma'am," the seasoned pilot replied. "I'll just sit back and keep an ear on the radio chatter."

"Good idea." I glanced over at Willis's baby brother next. "Matt, get rid of the gun. Then see if you can tell me where this address is."

Matthew Hawk looked at me incredulously for a moment when I told him to ditch his MA5D, but he soon noticed from my expression that I was serious. It already seemed suspicious enough that I was bringing my DMR, but having been Laraza's target before, I wasn't about to part with my firearms. That, in his own quirky way, I knew the mayor would understand. Taking along an armed double he would not.

As soon as Matt set the assault rifle down in the Pelican's troop bay, I handed him the small scrap of paper with the address and we started off. He read it as I kept my eyes scanning ahead and around us for movement – any sign that this was an ambush or that we weren't really welcome in the city anymore.

I knew Major Oliver Hayden would've called me nuts for even taking the chance, especially with the twin bullet scars still visible on my left shoulder and chest. The one thing my late best friend and I hadn't always seen eye-to-eye on was how to handle the locals – namely the local rebels. Having fought them out here in the Outer Colonies shortly after the War ended, Hayden hadn't wanted anything to do with them. To him they were simply our enemies as much as the Storm, nothing more. To me, they were still people, and I'd tried my best during our time here to reach out and help broker a peace between us.

It had worked when we'd pooled our resources to defeat the Remnant forces here on the mainland, which would have certainly annihilated us had we tried to fight them separately. The moment that battle was over, however, Laraza had made it clear to me that the truce was void once we left for Qamar – and that while he wouldn't follow us to the island and attack us there, we'd better not come back. His tune seemed to have changed now given the urgent message I'd sent him about the meeting, but with him, you could never be sure.

"Um, Natalie?" Matthew asked beside me then. "You sure this is the right place?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well…it looks like you're meeting in a nightclub."

I frowned. "Great."

We got to the nightclub about twenty minutes later, amid curious and anxious stares at our presence. Thankfully, though, since it was still early morning, most of the streets were deserted, and no one tried to shoot at me. The club itself looked closed, too, probably having just shut down an hour or two ago for the night. I knocked on the door, then turned to face Matthew again.

"I want you to wait outside in case shit hits the fan in there, for whatever reason," I said to him in a low voice. I quickly pulled my sidearm from its holster on my hip and handed it to him. "Here. Hide this in your waistband. Anything happens to me, you hoof it back to the Pelican right away and hightail it out. Got it?"

My brother-in-law looked nervous, but he'd been through a few firefights by now. He gathered up his courage and nodded. "Got it, Nat."

"Good. I should be back soon."

The door opened then and Giovanna Torri, Laraza's assistant, ushered me inside. Her presence was typical and didn't send up any red flags, but I found myself gawking around like a tourist nonetheless. I tried to tell myself it was for my own safety, but really I'd just never seen a place like this before. It was much bigger than what I'd imagined for a small Outer Colony city, and some low music and a few of the gyrating colored lights remained on, despite it now being closed.

Seated at a table in the back on his own, Mayor Javier Laraza chuckled as I came into view.

"Have you never been inside of a club before, Major?" he asked. He made a subtle gesture to Torri, and the lights and sound suddenly stopped.

I snorted as I approached his table. "I was married and commissioned at twenty and had my first kid at twenty-three. And there was a war going on. I didn't have time to go sightseeing much outside the O-Club." I carefully sat down across from him. "Mostly just dive bars close to base. Nothing like this."

"Your loss then, I'm afraid. Drink?"

I noticed the impressive collection of liquor bottles behind the bar and couldn't help myself, regardless of the hour and location; the stock available on the Affair was pretty limited, and so too was the access while I was groundside. I nodded. "Sure, why not? Let's go with a scotch. I'll consider it my breakfast."

The mayor signaled to Torri again, then quirked an eyebrow at me. "You're not afraid I might poison you?"

"Nah. I don't think you'd dirty your hands yourself."

A corner of Laraza's lips curled upward at that as two small tumblers and a bottle of amber liquid arrived at the table. The mayor poured a few fingers for himself and a few for me, and we each took a sip before he spoke again.

Laraza gestured grandly at the place. "I see you appear to enjoy my establishment. You should come here with your husband one night, on the house…if I don't kill you first."

This time, instead of getting angry, I smirked as I downed another swallow of the alcohol. "Get in line. I'm sure the Storm want to beat you to it, and our new alien friends, too."

"Yes. You warned me of them in your message." He leaned forward in his seat. "You think I will let your Marines return to the mainland if you scare me with stories?"

"No stories, Mr. Laraza. I brought proof." I pulled out a small data chip from my breast pocket and set it on the table in front of him. "In there's all we got so far. Pictures, video, audio. Since I know you never went sniffing around on the island, I know you probably never even knew you had alien visitors – other alien visitors, I mean. But these guys are different. They're sentient AIs. Robots. And they pack an even bigger punch than the ex-Covies."

Laraza frowned, looking at the chip in his hand and no doubt digesting my words. "If what you say is true, what is it you want me to do about it?"

I took another drink and said, "I want us to extend the truce again, with the possibility of getting your men to help us out on the island if need be. It's quickly becoming a very sticky situation out there, and we might need the help. Or a staging area the Storm and our new buddies can't hit as easily. Basically, I want to know we won't get stabbed by you if we turn our backs for a minute while we deal with this."

The mayor gave me a tight-lipped smile. "You remember that I told you when you left the island that if you failed to contain the situation there, we'd attack again."

"I remember. That's why I wanted to show you that if you do, you'd be left to deal with this new problem on your own. Khan is still at risk, Mr. Laraza. And like it or not, once again, we're you're best line of defense."

His eyes flashed with anger then. "Why ask for our help when you have a new UNSC ship coming in in a few days, eh? You think I don't know what you government types are doing?" He shoved the chip back to my side of the table. "I know when I am being played, Major Cooper, and I do not care for it."

It was my turn to press now. "First of all, it's Lieutenant Colonel now, Mr. Laraza. Secondly, this is not a ploy. The Prometheans are out there. Watch the damn clips. Even we don't know what the hell they're capable of yet or where they're from, but you can bet your ass you don't want them a hop, skip, and a jump from your house. Or your precious club." I snorted again, utterly astounded that it had taken us Marines landing on this planet to find out all the shit that island was crawling with. Apparently the locals had sat back and done absolutely nothing this entire time, and now we were the ones left to deal with the mess. "Try cleaning up your fucking yard once in a while, Mayor. You'd be amazed at all the junk that's back there, ready to strike."

Laraza suddenly jumped up to his feet, chair clattering to the floor behind him, fire blazing in his eyes. For a moment I thought he was going to reach out and try to punch me. But then he took several deep breaths and regained control.

"Get out, Colonel. Now."

"No truce then, huh?" I said as I stood from the table. "After everything we've done for you? After everything I had to swallow?" I finally met his gaze. "You tried to kill me, Laraza. I didn't forget. But I know when to put my own personal crap aside and do what's best for my people. You should do the same."

Just before I left, I turned back and added, "Because if the Prometheans come in in force, none of us are safe."