Chapter XII: New and Old Aquaintances

August 22, 2534 (UNSC Calendar)/

UNSC Incovnenience, Slipspace

The first noise that reached my ears when I climbed out of the pelican that transported me from the UNSC Truthfull to the Inconvenience was not a noise I was familiar with. It sounded like someone was scraping the floor with something soft. I also heard a different noise, it sounded like someone was repeatedly hitting the same floor with a pointy instrument.

I had been flown to a large dry-dock in space. The kind that builds frigates and cruisers. I had stayed there for a full day before a small corvette had picked me up. The corvette had flown me at sub-light speed to the edge of the system. From there I had hopped on the lone pelican this ship posessed and was transported to the my new home. The pelican simply docked instead of landing on a hangar bay. The pilot motioned for me to leave her ship. I complied, carrying over my back all my personal belongings in a duffelbag. The bag was only filled up halfway.

I walked out of the small room containing the double doors, the air seals. The noise I had heard at first got stronger, the scraping was soon joined by the sound of human voices. Before I left the small walkway leading to the docking port and into a larger hallway a woman in rollerblades flew by. I was stunned. Behind her was a guy dressed in marine fatigues. He also had rollerblades on.

"No way in hell you'll beat me," he called out as he sped up.

Way to breach protocol. I thought to myself as I shrugged. I jumped to the wall before a huge dog almost ran me over. It barked a couple of times and chased after the racing marines.

So that was the clacking noise.

I turned to the opposite direction the two marines in rollerblades had been going on before a soldier turned the corner.

"You the new guy?" he asked me.

"I guess," I answered, a little bit confused by the way he looked. He didn't look weird by normal standards, but he was sporting a scruffy beard and his hair was quite a little longer than regulations allowed. He was also wearing jeans and a t-shirt that proclaimed that Rock n' Roll lived on.

He motioned for me to follow him. Halfway to my destination, which I assumed was either the bridge or the ground forces leader's office, the ship shook. It had made a slipspace jump. It hadn't warned us over the PA, another breach of protocol. This was beginning to look like a weird place. Weirder than ONI secret proyects weird.

I finally arrived at the bridge. There were two men there in addition to the pilot.

"Dismissed," said one of the men to the guy that had accompanied me.

Said man was wearing full battle armor, except the helmet, that one he had under his left arm. His armor wasn't standard armor, his chest plate was one of those old pre-war pieces. It was flatter than the new ones and a lot thicker. The only reason that I saw for him to have it was that he had fought in Harvest. The rest of his armor was not standard either. He was wearing ODST armored boots, although they were painted the same brown as his armor. He had thigh armor on one thigh only and his shoulder protectors were of unknown origin to me. They were curved ractangles that covered part of his neck. They looked slightly oversized. His helmet was standard Army issue.

The man himself was built like a fricking bull. Not as large as Gabuka, but his back was wider and his legs looked like tree-trunks.

His strong appearance was countered by a face that looked like that of a loving, caring granfather. In another situation, he could've been an old man accompanying his grandkids trick or treating.

The other man was a lot less imposing, slightly taller than the armored soldier and obviously thiner. He had a stoic face and some sort of expression that made him look like he came from some sort of royalty. He was dressed in standard Navy fatigues. His insignia made him a captain. The other man had no insignia.

"Hello," he said as he looked down at a file he was holding in his hands, "Corporal Castillo…" he said carefully. "Did I get that right?"

"Yes, sir," I said as I dropped my bag and snapped to attention.

"At ease soldier."

I complied.

"My name is Captain Brooks, I command this ship and everyone on it. That now includes you," he said to me.

I nodded.

"This man right here is Colonel Zavala, he is in charge of the ground forces on board this ship. That now incluyes you."

I nodded again.

"I read your file, the single page it contained at least," he said.

Now that made me feel bad, but I had only seen combat once and it hadn't been for more that ten hours.

"Sir?" I asked, confused as to what that had to do with anything.

"Do not think for a moment that you will get special treatment, or that you are any better than anyone else on this ship because you were lucky enough to see all your team killed soldier."

The captain sounded angry, looked like there were some past issues there.

"Of course not, sir," was all I said. Better to say as little as possible before I said something stupid.

"Since you have no armor, the colonel will escort you to the armory," he said.

The colonel motioned with his head for me to follow him. I did so prompty, I was starting to get a bad vibe from the captain. Not that I believe in vibes and stuff. Once we were far enough from the bridge the colonel started talking.

"Ignore the man, he doesn't want the job he has right now. He was caught doing some general's daughter and two days later the daughter caught him doing another girl," he said. "Couldn't keep it in his pants, that's what got him here."

I simply nodded and smiled. The colonel went on.

"First thing you need to know, is that you were lied to, you will not get to test additional armor, the only pieces you will get are going to be shoulders, knees, and with a little bit of luck, you might get other thigh protection," as he said this he patted his left thigh.

"You are allowed to configure your armor as you please, I recommend you keep it as simple as possible."

I was now confused.

"Technically speaking, you are testing the performance of experimental armor, every now and then you'll be asked to answer some questions about whatever armor you have used that isn't standard issue."

I nodded, still confused.

"You weren't lied when you were told you'd get to use some special gadgets, that we have plenty off, just don't think you'll get to use a cellphone grapple-hook. The additional equipment we have here is limited. Also, I am sure you were told about the discipline problem in this ship."
I nodded once again.

"Well, it is worse than you imagined, on board the ship it is probably more like one of those sea cruises that are so famous in Jericho VII. No one listens to anyone and everyone does what they want, we even have a couple of dogs on board."

"Yeah, I saw one," I said, talking for the first time since the colonel started his sermon.

"However, we are still soldiers and we are still trained to fight. On the ground you will never encounter a better contingent of soldiers. Every single man and woman here is going to die for you, and you will learn to do the same for them," he said proudly.

"My recomendation is that you make some friends, meet a nice girl, and try to keep yourself alive on the battlefield. Good luck," having said that, he turned around and walked away. We had walked accross the ship and I was now in front of a door labeled 'armory.' I walked in.

There were rows of weapons on either side of the long room. There was a man sitting at a holding chair playing something on a datapad. He glanced up at me.

"You the new guy?" he asked.

"I guess," I said. The exchange was identical to my first one on the ship with the exception that this man was actually dressed in regular marine fatigues.

"I take it you need some armor," he said.

I nodded.

He shrugged and lifted himself of the chair with loud groans, as if he was doing me a huge favor, which in a way, he was.

"Army or Marines?" he asked as we walked to another door on the end of the weapon's room.

"ODST," I replied.

He raised his eyebrows. "We don't get many of you guys here, you are in luck, we have a couple of spare ODST suits of armor in here."

He opened the door and led me inside a smaller room, this one had morgue-like drawers on the walls, they were labeled with an armor type and what piece of the body it protected.

"This room gives me the creeps," I said.

"Ha, me too, did you know that it used to be the ship's morgue?"

Go figure.

I shook my head as the man looked through the drawers. "ODST, here it is, he said as he pulled out four drawers. He handed me another duffelbag and I dumped the torso armor and helmet in the bag, in addition to the bodysuit that went under the armor. I also picked up the vambraces. Boots and thigh protection I had managed to put on before bailing out of the Count Me In.

I hesitated when I reached the ugly pauldrons.

"Can't I get anything other than this?" I asked.

"It's not for free kid," said the soldier. For some reason I really hate when people call me kid, I was nineteen for christ's sake.

"Seriously?" I asked, slightly surprised.

The man seemed to think for a second. "You are entitled to full body armor for free, any additional pieces you might pick up are charged to your account."

"I haven't picked shoulder protection yet," I pointed out.

"You're right," he said as he closed the opened drawers and opened all the ones that were marked with shoulder.

I looked around at the amor pieces, asking what their carachteristics were and stuff like that. Eventually I settled for two different models. A UA Multi Threat pauldron for my left shoulder (it was the one that was more exponed when I fired) and the slightly smaller Gungnir shoulder cover for my left shoulder.

"Will that be all, sir?" asked the man in charge of the armory.

"That'll be all."

I left the Armory before I realized that I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do next, I didn't know if I'd be stuck in cryo for a while or if I needed to go to my room, whichever it was. I settled for asking a marine I encountered in a corridor. As soon as he found out I was the new guy he told me to go to the mess hall and ask one Sergeant Bell.

I complied. I found the man after asking around for a while.

"Sir," I said, to get his attention. The man was resting his head on a table. He raised his head slowly

"Whaaa?"

Great, he's fricking hungover.

"Sir, I just got transferred to this ship, someone told me you were the person I should ask where my quarters are?"

He groaned as he straightened up.

"Sure," he coged a couple of times, "Deck 4, room 4011, you'll be bunking with two other guys while you are not in cryo."

I nodded. "Thank you, sir."

He simply slammed his head back into the table and fell asleep again.

This place is crazy.

I arrived at my room a minute later. I opened the door and found myself facing two soldiers wearing VR googles.

"What was that noise?" one of them asked.

"Pause," the other commanded the videogame system.

They both took off their goggles and stood up. They gave me a once over as I did the same to them. They were dressed in standard-issue fatigues, the one on the right had a gray t-shirt with the word ARMY written on it, the other one had a white t-shirt.

The one with the army t-shirt spoke first.

"You're the new guy right? My name is Dominic McNabb, PFC," he introduced himself as he offered his hand. I shook it.

Dominic was a regular-looking guy. He wasn't particularly tall and not strongly built either. He had dark blonde hair and brown eyes. He could've been from pretty much any ethnicity except black.

"I'm Singh, you probably can't pronounce my name, so I'll keep it to myself. I'm a Lance Corporal, from the Army," said the other man as he offered his hand to me as well.

"So you both are from the army?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm from the Corps," said Dominic.

I stared pointedly at his shirt for a few seconds before Singh explained to me that McNabb seemed to be unable to operate a washing machine, so he had to borrow shirts every now and then.

Singh was shorter than me and McNabb, but he was more muscular than his roomate. He had a completely bald face and otherwise looked like an Indian person would. No offense to Indian people.

"Lance Corporal Francisco Castillo," I said, telling them who I was.

"Nice to meet you Franceescoh," said Dominic.

I sighed. "Just call me Frank," I said, resigned.

"Coolio, where you from?" he asked.

"I was born on Earth, but lived on Jericho VII since I was young," I answered.

"Really? Where on Earth?" this time it was Singh asking.

"Mexico."

"What, crossing the border was not enough? Did you have to cross half of Human Space?"

I said nothing, my eyes could've burned through his face.

"Chill man, I was kidding,"

"Ignore him, he has the IQ of a dirt worm," Singh said as Dominic put on his goggles again and called out for the game to resume.

"Sure," I said to Singh, "what game is that?" I asked him, curious.

Singh looked slightly embarassed and looked at the floor. He shuffled his right foot a bit before he answered.

"It's umm… an art videogame," he murmured.

"Ahhh, and you two play this… art game together?" I asked, imitating the tone of voice that shrinks used. Singh didn't answer and continued looking ashamed.

"Interesting, do you play this game on cooperative or on individual campaigns?" I asked, still doing the shrink impersonation.

"Ok man, don't judge me, I've got lots of time on my hands!" complained the Lance Corporal.

"Does that mean you have to share your time with him?" I asked as I motioned to Dom.

"Keep it down you guys!" called out Dom, he had a smile on his face. I avoided looking at his pants.

"I'm going to the gym," I said, "I'll be back in an hour."

I was specific about the time so I didn't walk in to find two grown men on the verge of orgasm in my room.

I walked out and once I arrived to the gym I hopped on the treadmill. I ran only five kilometers before switching to weights to kill the remaining time. I mostly worked on my arms, hadn't really had time to excercise in the last week. I was bench-pressing around two hundred before my muscle 'roids came in the form of a rather painiful injection, but now I was doing slightly under three hundred. I felt good about myself.

Once I had completed one hour I returned to the room.

I opened the door carefully. "You done?"

"Oh piss off," said Singh.

I laughed. These were bound to be some interesting roomates, at least I knew they shared their porn.

I was going as fast as I could, still, it couldn't have been more than a slow sprint. My opponent was already ten meters ahead and I wasn't really sure of what I was doing. My rollerblades felt unnatural and heavy on my feet, but I managed to speed up a bit, I was slowly catching up. Right on a corner I slowed down a bit before slamming onto the wall, I kept on going, pushing myself with help from the walls. I gained speed again and was now only five meters behind my opponent.

We had arrived at Sigma Octanus IV a day ago, we were here to pick up a couple of Navy personel before leaving for the frontlines. Unlike soldiers, the Navy forces on the ship didn't really have to consist of sole survivors, but they still picked them from different ships. The newcomers were supposed to arrive any moment now, so this was the last race of the day before the ship started boosting away from the system. Roller-blading on a shaking ship isn't really a pleasant experience, or so I was told. The Roller-blading championships would resume once we were in slipspace.

I was going faster and faster, I was getting the knack of this sport quite quickly, I had borrowed some roller blades and practiced on the hallways of the ship, no one seemed to mind.

I was only a meter behind the guy in front of me when I slammed onto something, well, someone. She had appeared from one of the docking stations adjacent to this hallway. I think it might've been the one I was almost run over some time ago.

I hit the girl head on doing at least twenty five miles per hour. I hit her and we rolled for a few feet before I landed on top of her and my head slammed into hers.

I woke up in the medical bay, my head feeling like an elephant was sitting on it. Everything looked to damn bright, it was like the worst hangover I had ever had up to eleven.

I slowly got myself up as my eyes adjusted to the light. I sat on my bed and glanced to my left. On the bed next to me was the girl that I had hit. She looked at me with a familiar glare.

"So you're awake now?" she asked, sarcasm soaking her lovely voice. She sighed and looked up again, her left eyebrow was patched up and there was some dried blood on her cheek. She had bags under her eyes that looked like they could've reached down to her ankles. She looked beautiful, especially in the way the light from the med bay was hitting her face.

Truth be told, I almost cried, at least there was someone in this universe that could make all the guilt I felt for surviving go away. I gave the girl the biggest smile I could. It was a genuine smile, warm and honest.

"How did you make it?" I asked, curious.

"Long story, I managed to bail out in time and then we were picked up by another UNSC ship."

"That wasn't a long story." She sighed, slightly annoyed.

"I am glad you're alive Layla," I said.

She sighed once more.

"Truth be told, I am glad you're alive too, but I still don't get why you had to give me a concussion."

"I'm sorry," was all I could say, given the situation.

"You'd bettter be," she said, crossing her arms. Her tone was now getting a little bit superior.

"Well, you slapped me," I countered.

"I am sorry!" she almost yelled, "It's like the tenth time I've said that."

"And you gave me a concussion."
"Ok, fine I'm sorry," she said.

I smiled.

"What? No, I am not sorry, you gave yourself a concussion with my head!"

"You already said you were sorry for that," I said while giggling like an idiot. The blow to my head had probably been pretty hard.

"No, I take that back!" protested Layla.

Our bickering (which was worthy of five-year olds) was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly.

Me and Layla both turned to the door to see a doctor and Dom standing at the door with puzzled expressions on their faces.

"Okaaayyyyy?" said Dom.

The doctor cleared his throat again before speaking.

"You, mister Castillo, you might be able yo be discharged right now, can you stand up for me?" I complied with his order and promptly collapsed on the floor.

"Maybe not just yet," said the doctor. I'll see you both in a couple of hours, maybe tomorrow. Depends on how much alcohol I manage to drink."

"What?" exclaimed Layla.

"Kidding, I'm a professional doctor," he said. I could almost see the parenthesis with the word 'fairly' in between the words 'a' and 'professional.'

I sighed. The doctor chuckled and left.

"What are you here for Dom?" I asked.

"I wanted to show you something," he said, with a dangerous grin on his face.

"What is it?" I said, my head was starting to hurt more.

He pulled out something from his pocket and showed me a picture of me fainted on top of Layla. It was possibly the most unflattering picture ever taken of me. That's counting all my yearbook pictures. My face was pushed against hers and I was bleeding a little from my nose, my mouth was slightly open and there was a little bit of drool on my chin. Layla was also bleeding and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth in a comical fashion.

A very bad picture.

"Don't you guys look cute?" said Dom in a baby voice after Harding the polaroid to Layla.

"When was the last time you were on top of a woman?" asked Layla calmly.

Dom's Grin disappeared from his face in what could've been record time, but Layla wasn't done yet.

"A real woman I mean, videogames don't count."

"Snap," I said.

"How… how does she even know that?" Dom asked me. "Did you tell her?"

"Lucky guess," said Layla.

Dom looked confused for a few seconds and then simply smiled and shrugged. "See you later Frankie," he said as he walked out of the room.

"Nice," I complimented Layla. "High five," I said as I put out my hand as far out from my bed as I could. I wasn't about to stand up again. She reached out to high five me with a grin on her face when her balanced failed her and she fell of the bed.

I roared with laughter.