Chapter XLVII: Between Scandium and Vanadium

August 9, 2541 (UNSC Calendar)/five months later

UNSC Inconvenience, in orbit over Reach, Epsilon Eridani

I yawned. It was the seventh time I had done it in two minutes. I was bored as hell, but didn't want to fall asleep just yet. My lockup was about to finish and I planned on taking a couple of combat pills to keep myself awake and have some fun down in Alexandria. We had gotten a rather lengthy rest period after that incident back in Juno. A rather well publicized incident back in Juno. The UNSC had made the victory a huge propaganda tool. The latest numbers showed that recruiting had increased by at least 12% in places where footage of the UNSC forces winning battles or the carrier being blown up to bits after a nuclear device went off right under it. It had been a rather nice battle for the UNSC. Of course, there had been casualties, moderate casualties the reports said, but they had been against a superior army with a freaking SUPERCARRIER!

I was pondering on the beautiful sight of the Covenant space ship falling apart as the nuke went off, only to have a coup de grace be delivered to each half in the way of three MAC shots to each place and a rather lengthy artillery barrage. The Covenant armed forces had been eliminated completely short after. There was something very satisfying about not taking any prisoners whatsoever. Not that the covvies tried to surrender, but regardless.

"Staff Sergeant, you're free to go," a Marine PFC said. The man had been guarding me for the whole time I had been here, which was 48 hours. I pitied the man until I realized that he was watching porn on a datapad and getting food directly from the mess hall. He didn't even have the decency to offer me some of the warm lasagna.

"Finally," I said as I jumped from my bed and stretched.
"Yes, and try not to piss off Lieutenant Darbinian anymore," he helpfully said.

"I'll give it my best."
Having said that I left and walked towards my room, normally there would've been a rather lengthy process involving paperwork and whatnot, but we were both willing to skip it. The only record that said that I had been in lockup for misbehavior was verbal accounts by Darbinian, the guard, and myself. More like Darbinian and perhaps the guard.

I got into my room, changed to my jeans and a plain black (surprise, surprise…) shirt. After that I made my way to the hangar. Pelicans had stopped making their runs from the ship to Reach a few hours ago, that meant that most pilots were down in the ground having fun and getting drunk, something that I had every intention of doing right now.

I entered the hangar and was unsurprised to find it almost completely devoid of life. There were a couple of techs playing some card game and two lone pelicans. One of them had the familiar red paint on its hull. I smiled.

Aw, she waited for me.

For a moment I actually had a heartwarming moment. Marina wasn't the kind of girl to skip a leave. At first it made me kind of nervous and more than slightly angry that she enjoyed partying without me. Yeah, it pretty much made me jealous. After I realized that her idea of partying hard included a couple of beers and making fun of all the drunk people, I stopped worrying. Besides, most of the time I was with her and in the few exceptions, Pavel was guaranteed to break the arm of any idiot that tried to approach her. I would repay the favor as soon as he admitted to being in a relationship with Lieutenant Delacroix. That probably wouldn't happen any time soon, provided he was an NCO and she was an officer (sound familiar). Besides, from my short experience with Delacroix, she was shy in public. Oh, it looked like she had some rather kinky tastes in bed as well. I smiled at the memory of her back in Juno.

"What are you thinking about?" Marina asked.

"Oh, nothing," I said, looking away.

"I know that smile, you get that one when you think you'll get lucky," she said with a smile of her own. "Were you thinking about me Frank?"
"Yes," I said. Let's go with that.

"Well, you might just get what you want later on," she said and winked.

I cocked my head in confusion at her. She was a contradictory person. She dressed rather skimpily for a member of the military, yet she was probably one of the less flirty women on the whole ship, just short of Chloe Delacroix, who turned out to be a contradiction herself as well. Marina liked to know people's opinions but mostly kept her own to herself. She enjoyed having a good time but didn't like drinking, yet she wasn't bothered in the least that I was the closes thing that I could be to an alcoholic without actually being one. She was like that really nerdy girl that you befriended in high school because she was really nice (so Pavel says), but managed to look like a supermodel.

You know what, I don't even know what I'm complaining about. I won the lottery after loosing my previous winnings. Fuck yeah!

"Sounds good," I said to Marina.

"You do realize. I'm. Right. FUCKING! Here."

"Yeah, yeah, Sheppard, we know," Marina said.

"Huh, you managed to convince him to stay here?"

"Not that I had much of a choice in that," Sheppard said angrily. "She outranked me or something."

"Aw, you did that for me?" I asked in a fake lovey-dovey voice.

"I would do anything for you honey-bunny," she said in an equally fake voice as she leaned in to kiss me.

"Ok, we're taking off," Sheppard warned.

"Hey," I called to Marina as left for the cockpit.

"Hm?"

"Do not call me honey-bunny," I said.

She simply laughed that beautiful laugh of hers and entered the cockpit after blowing me a kiss. I sighed contentedly and sat down on my usual seat. Corner closest to the exit on the right side. I usually sat there out of habit, but it was reputedly the best place to jump of a crashing pelican in an attempt to save yourself. Nezarian agrees with me and we often fought over that place in the various ops we ran on Juno after blowing up the carrier.

I heard the noise of hangar walls closing down this small section of the place from the rest of the hangar bay, sealing it completely. That way, when we chose to leave the ship, we wouldn't accidentally launch a bunch of sailors into outer space. Well, upper atmosphere at the very least.

"Here we go," Sheppard announced moments before the pelican was dragged/half-flew out of the hangar bay. I floated in zero gee for a couple of moments after being released from the ship's artificial gravity generators. I had a nauseous feeling that I quickly got under control. It was usual for that to happen in sudden changes like that.

The pelican started moving, although my only clue of that was the shrinking Inconvenience I could see through the small plastic window on the door/hatches that closed off the pelican's bay from the cold vacuum of Epsilon Eridani. The ship shook for a few moments before gravity returned suddenly. I was already holding myself down to my seat, so I didn't slam into the floor, but I got another wave of dizziness as soon as gravity returned.

The small view that the rear window provided initially showed a very dark sky that eventually turned that light blue that we all know and love. After that I started seeing clouds in the distance until the pelican flew through one and emerged on the other side, the landscape turned from bright blue to grey. Didn't really matter, you don't need sun to get drunk.

"Frank?"

"Yeah?"
"We just got a transmission."
"You getting somewhere kid?"

"Yeah… looks like you won't be able to have your fun," Sheppard said after hesitating.

"Fucking Darbinian, what the hell does he want now?" I cursed.

"No, it's not him," Marina specified.

"Aw crap," I said, putting my face between my hands.

"Sorry Frankie, rain check on this one," Marina said.

"I am right fucking here," Sheppard said.

"Nobody cares!" both of us replied.

The pelican landed in the usual place. The military base whose name I hadn't bothered to learn after all this years of landing here for some pretty memorable nights. The craft wheezed and shook a little as it landed on its designated zone. As soon as it touched the floor, the back doors opened, I didn't bother standing up.

There was a small crowd of marines and army soldiers waiting outside, most of them looked like they were pissed, a few of them didn't have readable expressions. All of them looked drunk.

They started moving towards the pelican and boarding it in a comparatively orderly fashion for drunkards.

"Excuse me, coming through," a familiar voice said through the soldiers. "Move it asshole!"

Yep, that was Pavel. My friend emerged from the crowd and pulled a marine back by his collar, almost slamming the poor guy to the ground and took his place on the pelican instead.

"Frank? I thought you were in lockup," he said as soon as he saw me.

"Yeah, got out just in time," I said.

"Huh, if you had known you could've spent your time doing the nasty to Marina," he said with a small laugh.

"True," I conceded.

"Guys, I am right here," Marina said.

"Nobody care…." Sheppard started saying until he got a glare from Marina. That previous statement is pure conjecture, but I am pretty sure that's the way it went.

"Try that again and I'll chop off your…"

"Whoa, whoa. Chill," I said. "He was just kidding," I said.

A couple of the marines on board the pelican laughed a little bit before Pavel and I made them shut up with a couple of well-practiced death-glares. We looked at each other and it was all we could do not to burst out laughing at the gulping marines.

The pelican took off as soon as fifteen marines had jumped on board. A couple of them didn't get a seat and had to take the trip standing up, it'd be a show watching them stumble and perhaps even fall down as we left the atmosphere.

Mary's Little Lamb started leaving the atmosphere and the half-drunk marines certainly met their expectations and fell to the blood tray. The entirety of the soldiers and marines on board laughed at them heartily. The shamed marines tried to stand up with as much dignity as possible, which wasn't that much, considering that they had just done a faceplant in public.

As soon as the pelican completely left Reach's atmosphere, we all started floating. Most soldiers were strapped down to their seats, so the only thing giving away that we were in zero gee was the fluttering clothes of the two marines that were using their arms to push themselves against the floor. For the third time in less than five minutes I got a wave of nausea and dizziness. The fourth time came after a short while of the pelican doing I don't know how many kilometers-per-second in the friction-free volume of space between it and the Inconvenience.

The pelican landed soon enough and we got the feeling of solid land below our feet. Sort of. I waited for all the other soldiers to leave before I moved towards the cockpit.

"You're not coming?" I asked.

"Well, Frank, I'm flattered that you asked me, but I am as straight as they come," Sheppard said in a deadly serious voice.

"Not what I heard," I mentioned. "So?"
"Nah, sorry, I've got three more trips to make before I am allowed to rest," Marina said.

"Well then, as soon as you're done you can make up for that rain check," I said as I pulled her close by the waist and leaned in towards her.

"Get a room you guys," Sheppard said. I think this guy was seriously annoyed by the fact that he couldn't seem to get a girlfriend.

"Shut up," I said, this time rather playfully. I was enjoying the moment, although Marina's flight suit made the embrace slightly awkward. I had no doubt that she was wearing street clothes under that, as she was coming with me on her leave. Also, I had no doubt that she was wearing something interesting under the street clothes under the flight suit. She had made some implications that I really liked.

"See you in a few," I said.

"Well, about goddamned time," Pavel teased as soon as I left the ship, he had been waiting for me to leave. It wasn't really all that comfortable to walk down the halls of the ship alone, you felt like something was watching you. Well, something other than Eliza the bipolar AI.

I walked to my room, I would stay there until Marina came knocking on the door for some alone time. Not like I had anything else to do that didn't involve exhausting myself in the gym before she arrive. That could prove disastrous to our alone time.

"So, no partying?" Pavel asked.

"Well, actually, I disguised myself and went to Reach before you did, idiot," I said.

"Sure you did," Pavel said after laughing at me. He sure did enjoy making fun of me as much as I did enjoy making fun of him. We walked into our room, feeling abnormally large since it was meant for six people. I yawned a little despite the effects of the combat pills. I decided to kill some time by throwing my knives at a wooden target that I had hung from one wall. The room was still pretty small, which only allowed for rather easy throws, so instead I wasted my time doing flashy and flamboyant throws that would have no practical use in anything other than a circus and humiliating your victim beyond recovery.

I eventually got bored of it, so I went to juggling my backup knife and Tenare's Damascus Steel knife with clever twists. At least I thought that they were pretty clever myself. Pavel had read some recent sports news in a datapad before deciding to take a shower. He took advantage of the situation and actually managed to take a decent length shower at more than three minutes. He actually managed to last through ten before Eliza cut the water.

Before he left the shower, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," I said, absorbed in the twirling blades of my knives. One of them was as black as my armor had originally been, the other's blade shone and sparkled with every movement under the rooms lighting.

The door opened and none other than Lieutenant Chloe Delacroix walked in. My concentration was broken momentarily as I went back to the tent in Juno. It was enough to make one of the knives slip through my fingers and land tip-first less than a quarter inch from my right foot, actually slightly cutting through the material of my shoes.

"Umm, hello," she said. "Is Pavel here?" she asked, obviously every bit as uncomfortable as I was.

"Yeah, he's in the shower."

"Oh, ok," she said.

Delacroix sat down on the bunk opposite from mine and said nothing. I tried to start a conversation but couldn't come up with anything interesting to say, so instead I went back to knife juggling. Interestingly, the dangerous activity calmed me down. Fortunately, Pavel rushed out of the shower as soon as I told him Chloe was here, so he spared us from any further awkwardness. I only relaxed after the door slid shut.

I went back to my knife juggling, this time adding Pavel's backup knife into the mix as well. I concentrated as much as I could to keep them in the air, catching them and spinning them and twisting them in my hands before throwing them up in the air again. The activity distracted me from everything else, and I actually started to have some fun doing it, mostly because I knew it was a rather impressive feat and I was proud of myself to be able to achieve it.

The door was knocked on again and I immediately caught two knives and waited an instant to catch the third.

"Come in," I called out as I placed the blades on the small wall-desk that the room had.

"Don't mind if I do," said Marina's slightly accented voice. She walked into the room and confirmed my theory that she had been wearing street clothes under her flight suit by showing up with jeans and one of her signature tanktops.

I pulled her close towards me and leaned in to kiss her.

Time to confirm my second theory, I though to myself.

"What theory?"

"Oh, nothing," I said.

"Staff Sergeant," a familiar soldier's voice called out.

"Fuck," both my girlfriend and me whispered.

"Oh, am I interrupting anything?" asked a private whose face had a vague familiar feeling about it.

"No, we were just baking cookies," Marina said.

"Well, personally, I was lacing my shoelaces," I added.

"Oh, and we were going to play chess afterwards," Marina said.

"Then we would decorate pots," I chimed in.

"Staff Sergeant sir?" asked a very confused private.

"Well of course you're goddamned interrupting!" I said. "What's it for?"
"You're required to show up at the observation deck," he said before leaving promptly.

"Aw shucks," Marina said.

"Puta madre, no puedo creer esta clase de mierda que me dan, necesito paz de vez en cuando," I mumbled.

"What?" Marina asked.

"Oh, nothing, just that I'll see you later," I said as I gave her one more kiss. This time I left my room before I really got into it and arrived late at the meeting or whatever.

I made my way through the ship and had to elbow myself past a few groups of returning soldiers to make my way through. I finally arrived after an odyssey through 200 meters of steel and flesh, managing to make my way through hordes of intoxicated marines and soldiers holding on to the walls for dear life. It was more interesting than it sounds, I swear.

I entered the observation deck, which was displaying a lovely view of the Viery Subcontinent in all its glory. The space had a greenish hue to it that was caused by some particles and whatnot, just Wikipedia it if you really want to know. Anyways, Captain Brooks was there, same as Captain Sharma, and Major Hernandez. Commander, no, Major Albaf was there as well, with a cleanly cut Lieutenant Wilkins standing to her right and a step behind her, hands clasped behind his back. The guy looked a little bit bulkier, maybe he had been working out. Both XO's were missing, same as Nezarian.

"Sorry for the delay," Nezarian said an instant later. He was wearing an actual civilian suit, which for some reason made him look like a mafia enforcer. I smiled a little bit at the thought of Nezarian busting human skulls for a change, but didn't bother saying anything.

A few seconds after that a very blushed Chloe Delacroix entered the room while fixing her hair. It was very obvious to all of us in here as to what she had been doing, more so to me, since I had been a witness to the beginnings of it. I smiled at her knowingly, giving her my best mocking-yet-friendly smile. She just seemed to turn an even deeper shade of red and looked down to the floor after putting the last of her unruly strands of hair back into place. Now we were only missing Darbinian, he was an exception I was willing to accept.

"Damn, sorry I am late," Darbinian said just after I had formulated that thought.

Every single person in the room raised an eyebrow at the man. He was wearing some suede loafers, which in itself wasn't really that weird. Next, he was wearing white jeans, which seemed to be fashionable this summer. That in itself wasn't weird at all either, if only a little bit unnerving that the man managed to keep up to fashion in times of war. Especially since he was an enlisted officer. What was a little weird though, was the fact that the polo shirt he was wearing had almost as many colors as a rainbow and the collar was neatly propped up. I gotta give it to the guy, he didn't look that bad, probably because every teenager nowadays dressed like that, bus since he wasn't a teenager, and in fact was the XO of a legendary Marine unit made for a very unusual image.

"Nice shirt," both Nezarian and I said at the same time.

Now, Nezarian was a more professional version of me, even if his training or equipment wasn't as good as that of an ODST. Still, it was rather unusual for the lieutenant to make a comment that might've been deemed disrespectful outside of a combat situation. Trust me, the only time I had seen the man swearing was during combat, and he certainly made up for the time that he spent being a quiet and respectful officer.

"Shut up," Darbinian said, rolling his eyes.

I smiled at myself and stood at attention. I noticed that everyone except the two spooks were dressed in regular clothing. Looks like they all planned on a night of sex and debauchery. Well, more like a night of sex and alcohol drinking. Nevermind, it was more of a night of sex and debauchery what they probably had in mind. I simply shrugged to myself. That sort of night was granted to keep any marine or soldier or swabbie happy for a while.

"Well, bad news, but you probably knew already," said a tired-sounding Brooks. "Eliza, you take it from here."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the planet of Concordia has been found out by Covenant scout forces. The system, as you may already know, sports a sizeable defense force by itself, but the size of the Covenant scout fleet was larger than usual, so command is sending a few extra ships to participate in the defense of the planet. That is not the only reason that we are being recalled to defend the planet," the artificial construct said.

Of course not, Concordia was a geological anomaly all by itself. It was one of the reasons that silver's worth had been reduced to that of tin. Well, maybe I'm being overly dramatic here, but the place was full of the stuff. It was originally called Argent, the French word for silver, but that name was changed for unknown reasons to its current name. It was also the reason why UNSC Navy ships were covered in the hard and durable Titanium-A instead of the comparatively weak and brittle Ceramic-12 plating that had been in use in the past. The freaking place was full of Titanium, I swear.

"The rich titanium deposits and Titanium-A factories and plants are of vital importance to the UNSC war effort in the sector, providing over 29% of the Titanium-A plating in use by the UNSCDF. We are to protect the planet for as long as reasonably and practically possible so we can prevent the enemy from eliminating a large part of our armories."
I knew that the reason we were being sent there was to save the UNSC some money by facilitating the production of armor that could be outfitted on anything from a spaceship, to a base, to simple marine's armor. Well, if it saved the UNSC money, it meant that that money could be spent on something else, perhaps something more productive, like, I don't know, Spartan Lasers maybe? Oh I know, Gauss Hogs. Yeah, I like the sound of more gauss cannons tearing through covvie armor.

"…Staff Sergeant, are you listening?" Eliza's avatar asked.

"Umm, yeah," I said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, what did I just say then?" she asked. I saw every last person that was inside the room stifle a laugh, much like in school whenever the teacher caught a student in a similar situation.

"You were talking about how Concordia has rich titanium deposits and it should be protected at all costs because titanium is used to make armor and armor is needed for soldiers to fight and soldiers fighting are a good thing for us," I said with the same mocking tone I would've used for talking to a teacher in the same situation.

"I've got my eye on you Castillo," the AI playfully said as she resumed her briefing. The people in the room all smiled at this, and the mood lightened considerably, that was of course, until everyone of us remembered that we were just about to be shipped into a battle with a hegemony of alien races bent on the annihilation of the entire human race.

Yup.