Chapter XXVIII: Different Problems

March 8, 2540 (UNSC Calendar)/two months later

In orbit above Valhalla, Delta Tyranus System

"Can you believe she's still mad at me?" I said, exasperated. "It's already been two months! Two fucking months!"

"No, it has been a week and a half, the rest of that time has been spent in cryo, so you shouldn't be surprised about all the time it's taking her to forgive you."

"Yeah right, how would you know anything about that?" I said, skeptical.

"Well, because I'm a girl, obviously," Marina said while sliding out of the bottom of Mary's Little Lamb. She was dressed in cargo pants that were obviously too big for her and a gray tank top that was too tight and too short. She was holding a blowtorch in one hand and a wrench in the other, I have no idea what mechanical problem would require the use of both at the same time.

"Sometimes I forget that," I told her.

"Really?" she said, looking like she was pissed off at the comment.

"Sorry, you're not like other girls," I told her. At least not like Layla. "Take it as a compliment."

"Sure," she said, elongating the word. "Whatever you say Franks."
She bent over to pick up some tool from the floor, I enjoyed the view for a couple of instants before she popped back up. "Enjoy the view?" she asked me.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah right," she said with a smile. I'm pretty sure she liked when other guys looked at her. I had repeatedly told her that she should really wear a little more stuff when around the ship, unless she wanted the whole male soldiers and sailors drooling after her. She had just smiled and patted me in the shoulder, making me feel like a total idiot.

"Just let her cool off, I am sure that after the next time you return from deployment you'll get that make-up sex you want," she said from under the pelican.

"Sure, I'll do that," I said, "not like I have much of a choice."

"Now, if you don't mind, you're blocking my light," she said.

I turned around and left, pondering on what she had said. I didn't have much experience with relationships, mostly because any contact I had had with a girl in the past had been with alcohol as an intermediary. It was sort of difficult to deal with my girlfriend, I mostly made up everything as I went along. Marina sometimes helped, but most of the time she just sat back and laughed at me. Pavel was not big on relationships either, after all, he had been raised in foster care with a 'psychotic police officer' his words, not mine. He joined the UNSC as soon as he turned seventeen and left behind his home. His knowledge of relationships consisted of the brothels in various planets, and of course, Vicky, who had been one inch away from becoming a prostitute herself.

I made my way through the ship, not really going anywhere in particular, I ended up in the armory, mostly because I went there every chance I got to see if there was any new equipment. Lately we had received less and less special parts, mostly because ONI had decided that the program was to expensive, most people died before they could even answer the questions regarding the performance of the armor they used. The ship was now as similar as it could get to any other UNSC ship. We still had dogs on board, not two, four now, the two original ones had decided to have puppies. Those puppies were all grown up now. A grown Martian Mastiff is really something to look at, I swear, that dog could've taken on a rhino. Of course, this four dogs were as dumb as rocks, and they couldn't hurt a fly. What I meant when I said that they could take a rhino was that they are large and fat. That's what they were bred for, I have no idea who would want to create that kind of dog breed.

"Whatda ya got armorer?" I asked the man, he was one of the few soldiers that had remained a constant presence on the ship. Most others were either dead or WIA. Navy types usually lasted a lot longer, but for some reason ONI kept shifting the NCO's.

"Well, I've got some mean new weaponry," he said as he stood up. I had never really bothered to learn his name, but I am pretty damn sure that the man didn't know mine either. "Follow me," he said. He walked me across the room and pulled out a large drawer from the wall, inside of it were four of the most exotic-looking weapons that I had ever seen. There was one Spartan Laser, I had seen those before, they were great, but not my kind of weapon. I moved on to the next one, it was a pistol, an oversized pistol. It was one of those revolver type guns from half a millennium ago. No one used those anymore.

"This baby right here was designed by one of the most renowned gunsmiths in Luna, it can fire six rounds in quick succession before you need to reload. Although it isn't what you'd call a good weapon for battle, I think the intimidating look is worth it," the armorer said as he spun the revolving part of the large pistol. His salesman abilities had gotten better over the past years.

"Nah, not wasting money on something I won't use," I told him.

"Fair enough, moving on."

The next weapon was an SMG, at least that's what it looked like to me. It had a pistol-esque look to it, with the handle being in the center of the gun. The pistol looked like someone had grabbed to rectangles and placed them together at right angles. It had a small barrel poking out of one end, and a collapsible stock on the other, it sported laser sights, a small lantern, and a red dot sight. The magazine went inside the handle, much like a pistol, only that this magazine in particular extended five inches further from the bottom.

"Here lies the venerable Uzi machine-pistol. The design comes from the nation of Israel back on Earth, it has proved to be reliable and the weapon has been on the assembly line for the better half of 600 years."

"Not my type of weapon," I said.

"You're a tough one, you barely buy stuff anymore," he said.

"Not with those prices I don't. How much money do you decide to keep for yourself?" I asked.

"I wouldn't dream of scamming my fellow marines!" he said, sounding hurt.

"Yeah right," I said as I examined the last gun. ONI actually charges us for the guns they give us. Bastards.

The gun in question was really something to look at. The stock was almost exactly the same as the one on an M7 SMG, although that's where the similarities stopped. Its grip was similar to that of an M90 shotgun, although it was a different design, the main body of the gun was simply a rectangular piece of steel. What surprised me the most though, was the fact that the weapon itself didn't sport a bullpup configuration, the only guns that size that didn't sport a magazine port in the rear were the M7 SMGs. It's ammo port was similar to that of a pistol, only that longer and wider. The magazine that it had right now was a drum-type magazine. The barrel was hidden by rails that functioned as coolers and a nice grip. It was ugly as hell.

"What is it?" I asked.

"That, my friend, is none other than an automatic shotgun, the ACS-37."

"What's so special about it?" I asked.

"It is," he said and paused for effect, "an automatic shotgun."
"Woah."
"Woah indeed," he said. "This beauty right here fires in semi-auto or full-auto, it uses the same rounds as the M90 shotgun, which does facilitate ammo sharing. Its spread is less than that of the M90, which maximizes damage. Theoretically it can take out an elite minor with a single well-positioned shot to the chest."
I admit it, it sounded interesting, but I am not a close-quarters kind of guy, shotguns were not my weapon. Sure, I had gotten some nice kills with an M90 or an M45, but only when I didn't have any other weaponry. However, I think that I could give a good use to this weapon. Pavel's birthday was coming up, and he had saved me a couple of times in the past. Besides, if I got him this, he would be forced to give me something similar in my next birthday. Pavel sure did love shotguns.

"I'll take it," I said.

"Great! That'll be 800 creds."

I said nothing.

"Fine, 700."
I shook the man's hand and bought the gun.

"Aw man, you really shouldn't have."

"Don't worry about it man," I said. "Happy early birthday."

And then, Pavel did the most unusual thing. He hugged me. He actually hugged me and lifted me up.

"It's ok big guy," I said.

"This is great!" he said before he picked up his new weapon and left for the firing range. He looked like an eight-year-old on Christmas morning. I hadn't seen the man that giddy in years. He would be thanking me for the next couple of years, but I hoped that that would get me a nice gift in return.

Since I had nothing else to do I went back to the hangar bay, see if Marina was around, maybe challenge her to a game of battleship or something, Layla was working and not talking to me, and my only male friend was pissing himself with excitement at the chance to try out his new gun.

Sure enough, Marina was still there, she had just finished fixing her pelican, or doing whatever the hell she was doing. She was the only pilot in the whole ship that didn't allow the mechanics near her craft, most of the other flyboys simply landed their ship and let the grease monkeys do their job, not her, she was a hands-on kind of person.

"Why do you always carry that knife?" she asked before I even had the chance to speak.

"A friend once gave this to me," I said, while remembering the kitchen of Camp Afghan.

"Oh really, why is it so special?"

"You do realize that you are asking the same question?" I told her.

"You know what I mean," she said, smiling. She also had a kick-ass smile, gotta hand it to her, had I not been going out with Layla, I would probably be chasing after Marina.

"A cook, he was a cook back in Jericho VII, one of my only friends, and a master knifesman."

"Is knifesman even a word?"

"You know what I mean," I said, echoing her previous statement. I drew my knife and gave it a couple of spins in my hand. "This piece of metal right here has saved my life many times."
"I personally prefer bigger knifes," she said. After having said that she pulled out a machete from her toolbox.
"What do you even need that for?" I asked. "You're a pilot."

"Unwanted suitors," Marina said while smiling.

"Now who would chase after you?" I asked, I know, I'm a big hypocrite.

"You'd be surprised," she said while she edged closer to me, almost uncomfortably close.

"You're taller," she said, her voice dangerously quiet now.

So there I was, standing an inch away from one of my best friends, contemplating the consequences of pulling her face towards mine and kissing her, when a loud noise saved me. It was the emergency alarm. It saved me metaphorically speaking, because no one wanted the ship's alarms to go off.

"Oh crap," Marina said softly, I could tell that she had been debating the same thing as I had.

I remembered the reason we were here, in this system. A Covenant corvette had been spotted and destroyed about a month ago, the UNSC forces that engaged it weren't entirely sure if they had managed to destroy it before it could send a message, so they had called FLEETCOM for reinforcements in case of a possible Covenant incursion on the system. So we had been sent there and had been orbiting the planet of Valhalla for the past six days. I was beginning to think that the corvette had been simply an isolated incident until a few seconds ago.

"Oh crap," she repeated, this time I'm sure her comment was linked to the fact that there were Covenant in the system and not to emotional issues. We both parted ways without even bothering to say goodbye or good luck. She went inside her pelican and I ran to my room, careful not to do it faster than I should have. Funny, even in the face of a highly likely death, I still cared about secrecy that I shouldn't have by any means.

I entered my room and slapped on my boots and thigh protectors. I put my vest as fast as possible before strapping on the chest and abdomen pieces, I finished by putting on my pauldrons and forearm protectors, my knives were already strapped to their respective places, save my very own knife, which I had to switch from my belt to my boot. One I was done doing that I grabbed my rifle and slung it over my back. I ran to the armory. It was the same thing I did every time the alarms rang. It was the same thing everyone did. As soon as I arrived to the large room someone tossed me a bandolier, I quickly pulled the mags from their cases and placed them in their own designated webbing over my abdomen piece. I grabbed one of those drum magazines and slapped it into my BR55, next I made sure to grab four mags for my pistol, those went in special cases in the holster. I finally grabbed four grenades, two of each kind, and left.

I was now walking fast, not running, the urgency from the first alarm rings had gone down, everyone seemed a little bit calmer now. I made my way to the briefing room. Since I was currently the highest-ranking ODST soldier in the ship, I was the one that got the briefings. Right now, it was only Pavel and me. The rest were either too wounded or too dead. Since the ship had been 'regularized' in the past years, the large ODST bay had been made smaller to allow for more space to fit regular soldiers in. I burst into Colonel Zavala's office. He had been looking more his age with every time I saw him. Right now he was pale as a ghost. He also looked hunched over, but his armor took some of the old-man look that he had away. There were a bunch of lieutenants and a major in the room already.

"Ok, all of us are here. As you all know, Covenant troops have entered the system, we find ourselves facing no less than fifteen enemy ships, five CCS battle cruisers and the rest are regular destroyers," the colonel said.

There was a collective sigh of relief in the room, it could've been much, much worse. Since the UNSC had reinforced the colony heavily after the corvette incident, the Navy had forty ships in orbit. It would be a tough fight, but we stood a chance of actually winning.

"The enemy doesn't seem to eager to fight, instead they are spreading out into combat formation, it seems like they won't be going directly for the planet, this time we are stuck on the ship."

There are few things than being unable to do anything to fight the enemy. We would be inside a frigate, hearing the shockwaves of the explosions bouncing off from the hull, sometimes we would feel sharp movements when we maneuvered, but for the most part, we wouldn't be able to do anything at all.

"Now, gather your men and spread them across the ship, right now you are all on anti-boarding duty," the colonel said before sitting down.

It was a short briefing, but it told us all that we needed to know. I made my way to the drop pod bay to see if Pavel was there.

"Yo Pavel!" I called out.

"What?" came the answer, he was sitting down near his pod, carefully checking his new shotgun to make sure everything was fine with it, his M247L was placed aside, it seemed like this time he didn't bring his rucksack with him, instead opting for more conventional box ammunition for his machine-gun.

"We're on piracy watch," I told him.

"You serious?" he asked.

"Yup."

"I hate that, we just stand around like idiots before the covvies do manage to attack whatever planet we're orbiting."

I shrugged. "Cmon, we're positioned in the bridge."

We made our way through the corridors of the Inconvenience and finally ended up on the bridge. Captain Brooks was there, standing in the middle of the room while everyone around him ran back and forth doing God-knows-what. He had a hand on his chair and on the other a glass filled with a brown liquid. Whiskey, no doubt. Layla was there. She saw me and nodded at me, probably meaning that she had decided to forgive me for not telling her what had happened during four days back in Reach. And for ruining her shore leave with a bar fight. Or club fight, whatever. I simply tried to wash away the recent event with Marina from my brain. I was feeling very guilty even though I hadn't really done anything wrong.

Yeah right.

I was about to start discussing with myself all over again when the Captain took a seat. Everyone else did the same. I was facing away from the large screen in front of the captain's chair, but I could peek over the walls to take a look. The screen was black, which was to be expected, since the cameras were pointing at space. It wasn't completely black however, I could make out little dots in the large screen. Those little dots were surrounded by red circles, and a larger image was next to those circles. It represented them as cruisers or destroyers.

"Give me battle overviews," the captain ordered.

"Right away, sir," Eliza's mechanical voice said from nowhere. A few seconds later, the screen changed to something more akin to a strategy game. I could see all the UNSC ships spread out in front of the planet. They were colored blue. On the other side of the screen, the Covenant fleet was forming up, looking like some sort of wall.

"How is the evacuation going?" Brooks asked.

"As it is expected to, sir," Eliza answered.

"Well that's just great, tell them to speed it up."

"Aye, aye captain."

"Give me a firing solution on the cruiser closest to us, double MAC shot followed by a volley of Archers and then another double MAC."
"Yes sir," an unfamiliar voice answered. I was now simply staring at the metallic wall in front of me. Pavel was doing the same, standing on the opposite side of the door. Since we were the elite troops of the ship, it made sense that we were protecting our most important personnel during the battle.

"Wickett, redirect all non essential power to the MAC cannon as soon as the first two shots are fired. Also, give me the status of the longswords."

"The fighters are already prepared, they can launch any time you say, sir," said the voice of my girlfriend.

"Eliza?"

"Already done captain."

"Good, what's the estimated time until the first shot is fired?" he asked.

"If we fire first sir, it'll be around a minute."
"Thanks Eliza," the captain told the AI.

It was one of the longest minutes in my life, normally I didn't really worry myself with the ship-to-ship combat or its details, I was usually too busy fighting planetside, but there was something about being right outside the bridge that made me nervous.

The entire ship shook when the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon fired a depleted uranium slug at slightly less than half the speed of light. I wouldn't have enjoyed being on the receiving end of that hunk of metal. A second afterwards another slug followed the first one. Our MAC cannon was a prototype that allowed our ship to fire two slugs with the energy that would take to fire one in any other ship.

"Both slugs contacted captain," another unknown voice stated. "In addition to our rounds, two others hit the cruiser captain, it seemed it is badly damaged."
"Fire from pods A1 to D12, make sure the firing solution is accurate. Also, inform the UNSC Grafton and the UNSC Kraken that we are firing the kill shot, tell them to switch targets."

"Aye captain," answered yet another voice, whose owner promptly transmitted the message to the other two ships.

I managed to make out the hissing noise that the missiles made when they left their pods, but it was nothing compared to the MAC cannon, which by itself managed to rock the 500 meter frigate.

"Is the MAC warmed up?"

"Seventy-eight percent captain," Layla said.

"Enemy fast movers!"

"Shit, activate PDGs, Eliza, you know what to do."
"My pleasure," the AI said as she connected with the heavy machine guns that protected the ship from seraphs and boarding craft. The ship's hull vibrated with the thuds that the PDGs made whenever they fired into the enemy fighters. Every single round landed where it was supposed to, and soon, the Seraph's would go away.

"Plasma torpedo inbound!" a voice called out.

"Evasive maneuvers! As soon as it is within range fire a couple of rounds at it Eliza, also, be ready to drop deflectors," Captain Brooks ordered.

Instantly, I felt the ship lurch slightly. Normally no one would feel any movement the ship made in zero-gee, but since we had artificial gravity generators, all sudden movements could be felt around the Inconvenience. The ship was apparently spinning or doing some weird shit, because the explosion that I expected to hit the ship never arrived.

"Plasma torpedo is turning around sir," a voice informed.

"Ok, let go of all deflectors as soon as it is within one kilometer of distance, then boost away quickly."

For a couple of instants nothing happened.

"Maneuver was successful captain, the torpedo collided with a deflector."

"Good, now give me a firing solution on that destroyer, it looks a little to cocky from where I'm sitting at."

And so it went, our ship was hit a few times by plasma turrets and bombs from Seraphs, but nothing too serious, we managed to take out a destroyer and several fighters before the battle stopped. The UNSC fleet, originally numbering forty ships was now reduced to thirty-one. The Covenant hadn't fared so well either, with two destroyers and a cruiser destroyed. It was standard UNSC doctrine. Three-to-one ships on all space engagements were what was considered an even fight. We had lost nine, they had lost three. The bad news was that we were short five ships if we wanted to keep up with the Covenant Navy.

"Ok, congrats boys and girls," Brooks said, "the enemy is disengaging, if anyone needs to pee, now's your chance, they'll be back with a vengeance in no time."

Most of the officers in the bridge stood up and left. I have no doubt that not all of them would be going to the bathroom. Some would get some food to chew on for their nerves, others would get some gum, and I'm pretty sure that some of them must've gone to smoke some pot to calm down. Layla also stood up from her station, but she didn't go anywhere, instead she just stopped right in front of me.

"Oh crap," I said to Pavel through my comm, Layla wasn't able to hear that.

"I hear you brother," he returned.

"Eliza, start repairing any damage that we might've suffered, heat up all of our weapons," I could hear the captain saying.

"Yes captain," the AI answered.

"So," this time it was Layla speaking.

"So," I said.

"Take your helmet off, I don't like talking to a reflective visor."

I sighed and lifted my helmet from my head, looking at Layla right in her green-gray eyes.

"Pavel," she said, her voice a little bit to sweet, "take a hike."

"Yes ma'am," my best friend said before he left for a short walk. I don't know if he was allowed to do that, but right now I was feeling pretty uncomfortable.

"So," she repeated.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"For you to apologize," she said.

"Ok, I'm sorry for ruining our date in that club that you really wanted to go to."

"And…"

"What do you mean and? That's it," I said.

"So you're not going to tell me where you were?" she said, looking like she was shocked.

"No, I can't."
"Why not?" she asked, she was raising her voice now.

"Because I can't. It's confidential, or something."

"Really?"

"Really."

"You're lying."

"Why would I be lying?"

Now it was her turn to start feeling awkward. She kept getting angry for little things, I hadn't told her that, but she was starting to notice that on her own.

"I don't know ok," she said. "I was just so worried for you and you didn't seem to care."

"You didn't let me care," I complained. "You simply walked away and ignored me."

"I just thought, I feared that you had gone off with someone else," she said.

Uh oh, taking a hike into paranoid territory, this can't be good, I'd better take her mind of that.

Even as I thought that I cursed myself for being a hypocrite, not half an hour ago I had been that close to kissing another woman. That fucking close.

"You know I'd never do that," I told her. "You're beautiful, nice, great to be around of, and the sex is great," I told her. I added that last one part because I needed to get sex in her mind. I really wanted to get some.

"Seriously? I am right fucking here sergeant!" Captain Brooks' voice called out from the bridge.

"Ahem, yes sir, sorry sir," I said as Layla shot a string of apologies to our captain. Instants later the rest of the bridge crew returned to their posts, Pavel right behind them. He wordlessly took position on the other side of the entrance to the bridge before I put on my helmet.

"So?" the speakers said.

"As soon as this is over, I'm so getting laid," I said, smile hidden by my helmet.

Hello readers, I just wanted to tell you that after this my weak attempts at characterization will be over. I tried to devote a couple of chapters to characterization (obviously), but I promise we'll go back to the blood and gore soon enough. unless, of course, you don't like that...

Anyways, thanks for reading and sticking with me for 28 chapters now. Hope you've enjoyed them so far.

-casquis