Chapter CXXII: Deployment Notice

July 14, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/

Esztergom (Ezhtergom), Viery Territory, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System

"All good things must come to an end."

A single message is all that it takes to drag you back to reality. I stood there, staring at my datapad's screen. For a couple of moments I had allowed myself to forget about everything. Everything but stuff that made me happy. But I was a soldier, my job was to fight for the greater good of humanity, it wasn't glamorous, but it was necessary. We had just gotten our notice of redeployment, it was only two days away. On July 16 we were to report to base to board the Inconvenience. I didn't know where we would be going yet, but it looked to be patrol duty if we weren't being called on an emergency.

A lot can happen during patrol duty, so we'd probably end up reinforcing some attacked colony or other. I sighed and let my head fall on the table, producing a loud clang. I groaned in annoyance, back to reality it was. At this point I would've been storming out of my room to get wasted in the Grenadier in celebration of my vacations ending, but I was already inside the Grenadier. The danger here was that I could easily get five times more wasted than I originally planned to.

Sigh.

"A double please," I asked Montgomery. "Make it a triple."

"Sure thing sonny," Cap smiled. "Not on the house."

"But I just got news that I'm redeploying."

"Ok, I'll sell it to you for the price of a double."

"Thanks Cap."

I put my datapad away in my bag and sighed deeply.

"What's the matter hon?" Lys asked.

"Wow, you've really got that waitress stereotype nailed, don't you?"

She shrugged. "That's what I get paid for."

I explained the situation to her in a couple of quick sentences. Lys worked in a military bar, so she understood what I was going through as well as any civilian ever would. For once, the feisty waitress just nodded understandingly instead of delivering a hurtful comment in her usual nonchalant way. I thanked her for her concern, she laughed at me when I said that, and I had no choice but to laugh at myself as well.

"Frank!"

I had to pull my phone away from my ear. "Yeah yeah, I just got the message."

Pavel's groan of annoyance was clearly audible through the speakers. "Man, I was hoping it was just a mistake."

"Apparently it's not."

"Hmmm, where are you?"

"Grenadier."

"I'll join you."

"Don't you have to take care of your daughter?"

"Well, I'll be damned," Pavel cursed. "Do you think Amber would take kindly to me leaving her with the neighbors?"

"She's your daughter!"

"I know, I know, I'm just kidding. I guess I'll have to settle for a beer."

"I'll drink for the both of us."

"That's what I'm worried about," he said before hanging up.

I smiled at my triple glass of whiskey. I could tell that it wasn't the usual cheap crap that I ordered. It might not have been premium quality, but it certainly was damn good. I shook my head as soon as I downed the alcohol. No matter how much damage I did to my liver I never did get used to the burn. If I had anything stronger than tequila I would look like a yawning dog for a few seconds before I got over the taste. And I hated tequila.

By the end of my stay at the Grenadier I was so wasted that I didn't even mind what I had as long as it was high-percentage alcohol.

It seemed like lately some asshole just came a-knocking to wake me up from my hangover. It wasn't regular knocking either, it was full-blown wake up or I'll kick the door down and eat your face knocking. Kind of like when you're sleeping with a man's wife and didn't know that she was married and the husband starts banging at the door while screaming seven hells that he's going to murder his wife.

But I wouldn't know about that.

"Fucking, fuck, fucking fuck," I assertively said.

I managed to get up and to the door without further swearing. I had half a mind to let out a punch as soon as I opened the door, but decided against it. As I opened the door I stumbled sideways, not only was I hungover, I was still piss drunk, I could barely stand on my feet. I propped myself up with my other arm and looked up at whoever had been knocking on the door. I immediately felt sorry for myself when I saw Hanna's head cocked to the side with one raised eyebrow. She wasn't exactly in the big leagues with Marina, but she could give a glare that could've been easily turned into a WMD. Was my face melting, was my- oh, that was just the alcohol feeling.

"Good morning," I said lamely.

"Pavel called me, told me that I should come here to punish you."

"What time is it?"

"Late," she replied, exasperated. "Are you all right?"

"Drunk, but otherwise I'm fine."

She walked below my arm and inside my room. "Put a shirt on. Better yet take off those pants and get a shower."

"Nursing me back to health Miss Lockley?" I laughed at my own sad joke. "Sorry, I'm still drunk."

The pretty girl that I would love to call my girlfriend grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me so that I was facing her. The look in her eyes wasn't one of anger or frustration. It was worse, it was one of disappointment. I avoided her eyes. Her voice was quiet. "If we're going to do…" she gestured at both of us with her arms, "us, you can't keep doing this."

I stumbled over my words before getting a clear idea on my mind. "You want me to give up drinking? For you?"

"Yes," she replied, there was steel in her voice.

I thought about it for perhaps one second. "I can do that."

Her grin was big when she leaned forward to kiss me. She immediately jumped back and started making faces and yuck noises. "Wow, you taste like…everything…" She looked at me quizzically before just shaking her head and smiling. "Just take a shower, I'll wait for you."

I closed the door behind me and turned on the tap, stepping inside the hot water after taking off my clothes.

"She's the one Sarge," Scarecrow said.

"Shut up," I replied.

"Sorry? You say something?" Hanna asked through the door.

"Nevermind, stubbed my toe!"

"Ok!"

Damn…

Scarecrow had disappeared when I turned to look at the door, but standing in his place was Schitzo. The man was creepy-looking half the time, standing inside the bathroom while watching me shower.

"Man, she wants you to give up drinking? Well, it is a reasonable thing to ask, but you wouldn't make it a year without drink."

Fuck him, fuck alcohol, I didn't need anything other than me to make it. I closed my eyes and started furiously rubbing shampoo all over my head. When someone said something to me I knew better than to listen to them, whether a friend or not. I know that it sounds childish, but when someone tells you the brutal truth to your face you know that they can be wrong, or lying. When your subconscious tells you the brutal truth you know that even you believe what it's saying.

"Do you want to toss me my clothes?" I asked through the door. "Or do you mind me walking out? In my own hotel room."

"We're dating." Hanna's voice seemed to give the impression that she was nervous. "I'll think about it like practice."

"Are you sure?" I teased. "Cause I can stay here, I mean, you'd miss one hell of a show, but at least you'll be able to be attracted to other men in the future."

"Ha-ha, if you're so sure of yourself why don't you walk out?"

Now I felt nervous. "Are you doing all reverse psychology on me? It won't work."

"Just walk out then."

"Want me to walk with my towel on or off?"

Ha-ha!

"You know what, I dare you to do that."

Uh-oh.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Are we really doing this? Damn, I'm almost thirty for god's sake.

Shit, I'm almost thirty.

I walked out of the room with my towel on. I felt like teenager. I raised my eyebrows at her and she raised them back in challenge. I was probably still drunk and was a sucker for challenges, but at that time I decided that I wasn't going to be the one to back down. I placed my hands at the knot that kept my towel secured and, in one swift motion, pulled.

"Oh dear."

Hanna immediately turned a very dark shade of red, nearing on purple, before pointedly turning her head and looking away. I felt awkward for a moment before realizing that I had won this little standoff. Of course, I was still naked in front of a person that I had never been naked. I dare any of you to strip down in front of someone that you don't know. I'm willing to bet that none of you will feel entirely at home while doing that.

Stupid me.

I quickly got dressed up in a fresh pair of undies and a semi-fresh pair of jeans. "You can open your eyes now."

"I never closed them."

I chuckled. "Fine, you can look now."

Hanna did turn around and tisked at me disapprovingly before laughing and covering her face with her hands. At that point she took a deep breath and blushed lightly again. "Put a shirt on," she ordered. "Let's get some food in your stomach, get you less drunk."

"Sounds good," I agreed. "But don't think that you'll get to tell me when I have to be dressed and not."

"It certainly won't be the other way around either."

"Seafood?"

"Seafood."

I picked at my plate, pushing what was left of my salmon around. "It's not very good."

"You're kidding me," Hanna deadpanned. "You're just drunk and don't feel like eating anything."

"You sure do know a lot about being hungover."

"A lot of the girls in the orphanage took to getting drunk. I was usually stuck taking care of them after they came back. Man, Saturday mornings were horrible for me. I woke up earlier than usual just to squeeze my roommates' stomachs and have them throw up in the toilets."

"Sounds like fun," I said, still trying to get the lack of appetite under control and finish my meal. "Never been drunk yourself?"

At this point Hanna decided to pointedly look around for a waiter and start asking for the check. She always did strike me as the kind of girl that didn't drink at parties and didn't take advantage of her looks.

"Come on, there's nothing wrong about it."

"I've never gotten drunk," she replied without looking at me.

"Wow, really?"

"M-hm."

"Ever had a drink?"

"Of course I've had alcohol before, I'm not twelve."

"Ok, ok." There are times when a man needs to know when to back off. This was one of those. Her tone indicated that I had hit a nerve. Or at the very least something that she didn't want to talk about.

"Are you going to finish your food?"

"Yes mom," I groaned before eating what was left of my salmon. It was pretty decent, but it wasn't nearly as good as some of the stuff that I had had back home, on Jericho VII. Over there most of the cuisine was based on ocean life, both local and imported varieties. Imagine going to one of those little islands south of Viery or in the Caribbean to have some seafood. All of the best dishes that you've tried don't compare to a simple piece of smoked tuna.

When I tried explaining that to Hanna I just received a raised eyebrow. She really took it seriously when Pavel told her that I deserved some sort of punishment. I hoped that this didn't extend to the bedroom. I mean, I really hoped that I didn't have to end up wearing tight leather spandex.

"Check please," I asked a waiter. "I'm paying, it's the least I can do."

"You're probably right," she replied with a smile. I took it to mean that I was forgiven for interrupting her day and having her come and take care of my drunken self.

Man, I really liked this girl.

I spent the rest of the day just walking around the city, talking to Hanna. She had been living here for a large chunk of her life, so she knew certain places that most people didn't. Technically speaking I was a glorified tourist here, but I guess I could be considered an honorary citizen of Esztergom. She showed me several small marketplaces and a couple of backstreets filled with little cafés and restaurants. It was very much like a super special tour of the city. We even stopped a couple of times to grab snacks. Most of the locales were founded by the natives, descended from Hungarians. That in turn meant that most of the food here was of Hungarian origin. Boy, did they love their meats and sausages.

By the end of the day she had showed me a large portion of the city. I was impressed, I had never done the tourist thing in this town, but I had been renting hotel rooms in here for a few years now, I knew the main places and had passed the important landmarks more than once. It actually felt a little bit sad that I didn't know this place nearly as well as I should have. I could've been eating wonderful and cheap food for years if I had only tried to look. I had been living off of burgers and fast food for the past decade. Sigh.

"We have to report to base tomorrow morning," I reminded Hanna. "Maybe catch some sleep?"

"So early?"

"It is kind of early," I admitted.

Hanna stopped and turned around, pressing herself close to me. "I was planning on leaving for New Alexandria tonight, rent a room for the night and then report to base."

I winked twice. "You know, I could've saved myself a lot of trouble just by doing that…"

"You take the maglev?"

"Usually," she shrugged in reply.

"You wouldn't mind it if I rode the train with you, would you?" I let go of her hand and wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her just a little bit closer to me.

"Of course not," Hanna replied in less than a heartbeat.

They say that you've got to take some risks every now and then, so I took one. "And would you mind if we shared the hotel room?" The look of uneasiness in her eyes immediately made me regret my decision to be so forward with her. "Of course, it's ok if you don't want to."

She nodded slowly. "I think it's better if we take this slowly."

I smiled at her. "For you, anything."

That incredibly sexy disarming smile of mine seemed to put her at ease, of course the comment didn't exactly hurt either. Hanna smiled broadly and planted a quick kiss on my lips before taking my hand again.

We took separate cabs to my hotel and her apartment respectively. I quickly packed my things and took off to the station. Of course it took Hanna almost half an hour to find and pack her BDUs, her fatigues, and her spare clothes. I usually left mine in my quarters, no need to bother myself with extra baggage. I was walking around with my military-issue duffel bag on a bench close by. My phone had this wonderful thing where you downloaded games, you could play them on the screen or on the hologram projector. It certainly served to kill time.

"Hey! Sorry!" Hanna was carrying two suitcases behind her. I have no idea how she managed to fit the suitcases inside the ship. Hell, I'd have a hard time

"No problem," I replied.

The next departing railcar to New Alexandria was supposed to come by in a few minutes, so we sat on a bench and talked. I said this before, but I really liked this part, getting to know her as a person. For example, I could tell you that when she was little she played the violin, still had one and practiced occasionally too. She also liked iced tea, windsurfing, and long walks on the beach. Oh, and she was allergic to strawberries.

Bummer, I love strawberries.

"Stop knocking already!" I yelled while trying to jump inside my pants. For some reason Hanna believed that if you didn't arrive before everybody else arrived then you were a miserable failure. Well, perhaps that's putting it a bit strongly, but she did seem to be the kind of girl that took punctuality seriously. No wonder she had apologized so much when she arrived late at the maglev station yesterday.

I slammed sideways into the floor when one of my feet got caught on its respective leg hole and I tripped over myself. I ended up feeling like an idiot with his pants around his knees. I quickly (and skillfully) finished putting on my pants before putting my shirt over my head. Totally badass, I know. Before I could say 'fuck you asshole' twice I was already dressed and out the door, bag on my shoulder.

"You've got tireless arms," I told Hanna as soon I opened the door. I didn't mean it as a double-entendre. Thankfully, she didn't see it as that or didn't bother to comment on it.

She did have a strong arm. I guess that's bonus points.

"Come on, we're going to be late," Hanna pleaded. I couldn't help but noticing that she had tied her hair up in a bun. Looked good on her.

"I'm a Helljumper and I'm barely keeping up with you," I groaned, putting on a black baseball cap with the letters ODST in white on it. It had the UNSC eagle logo on the side. I didn't even get it from the Corps, I had to buy it from a local store. Damn expensive too, at least it looked cool.

We got a cab to the base and quickly made our way through the sea of deploying and arriving marines and sailors. Back in the city I would've been taken for another dumbass who bought a cool cap just for kicks. In this base everyone knew that nobody would be stupid enough to sport ODST headwear unless he or she actually was a Shock Trooper. It was precisely because I was wearing that hat in particular that we made good time. Everybody knew better than to block me.

I was inside an Albatross with everything packed before long. I felt a strange sense of satisfaction for being so early. I usually felt smugly superior when arriving on the last shuttle, but being on one of the first ones made me feel like I actually was superior to everybody else.

That's probably not how I should've felt.

"I'll see you later," I told Hanna as soon as I stepped onto the Inconvenience proper. "There's a couple of things that I have to take care of."

"Ok, good luck."

"Thanks."

First order of business when reporting back for duty was to leave my things in my room. My booze locker felt awfully empty without the extra liquid courage that I usually brought here. I don't even know why I skipped buying it, it's not like Hanna would've actually gone through my bag to check for everything. Still, I unpacked my civilian clothes and a pair of BDUs that I had shoved inside my duffel bag just in case. I quickly switched from my civilian clothing to a more military pair of black fatigues and an ODST t-shirt.

The ship was awfully empty, I usually arrived when everybody else had already gotten here. I didn't meet anybody when making my way towards Albaf's office. I knocked twice before walking in. Lieutenant Wilkins was sitting at his desk. He barely looked at me before gesturing for me to walk inside Albaf's office proper. I shrugged to myself and took the three steps needed to enter the lion's den.

"Wow," was the first word that came out of Albaf's mouth. "I'm impressed."

"Thank you ma'am," I said politely. "Why is that?"

"You're actually early."

I didn't have anything smart to say so I shrugged. "I'm just reporting for duty, Commander."

"Of course, and I'm not complaining about your earliness either, let's just get this over with." Albaf straightened up on her comfortable-looking chair and placed her hands over her desk. "Technically speaking this is strictly a patrol mission. Standard deal. We are going to be patrolling a mostly uninhabited subsector of Sector Two."

"Mostly?"

"There are a couple of colonies, three colonies proper, to be precise. Two of them are small mining settlements on moons, but there is a large colony in our patrol sector as well. Asilon."

I nodded. "I've heard of it."

"There have been reports of increased Covenant activity in that section of UNSC space. It is a possibility that we'll encounter enemies during the duration of our deployment."

I nodded. "Why is this important to me or my squad ma'am?"

"No reason really, it just occurred to me that you might want to be prepared for the eventuality of combat."

"Of course, thank you ma'am."

"One last thing," she said. "I don't want any trouble from your part. You have been behaving more professionally, I would love to keep it that way."

"I'll do my best."

"I certainly hope so. Dismissed."

I saluted smartly and turned around to leave. I couldn't help but think that Albaf certainly looked pretty when she wasn't yelling at someone. I entertained the thought for a couple of minutes while making my way to my room. It turned out to be a pretty bad idea because I suddenly felt the need to release some tension but was too scared to do it. Pavel could walk in the room any second and the bathroom locks were nonexistent.

True enough, Pavel came barging in after a few hours, making me all the more frustrated for not taking advantage of my alone time. He was obviously angry at something. If I had to guess I'd say that he was angry at having to leave his family behind. It was funny, I was usually the one pissed at everyone when we got the call to deploy while Pavel told me to calm the hell down. With the positions reversed I had almost no idea on how to process.

"Hey," I said.

"You're early," Pavel noted. "What gives?"

"Hanna made me do it," I complained.

"I'm telling you man, you picked the right girl," he said with a smile. "Getting up early, sobering up. What's next? Being nice to strangers."

"I'm nice to strangers," I defended myself loudly.

"Provided they're female, Frank. We don't call you an asshole for nothing."

Well, that was certainly offensive. I ignored my friend while he was packing and instead grabbed my datapad to finish up my reading. I was beginning to get into those sword and magic fantasy novels. I got to admit, the idea of dragons is something that really makes me feel like a child. Just picture it, putting on comparatively crappy armor and grabbing a sword to fight a giant flying lizard that spits fire magically.

Surprisingly enough, I am not being sarcastic.

"Yevgeny said he'd be down in the mess hall. I'm going, wanna join me?"

"Sure," I replied, groaning as I got up from my bed. I groaned not from being tired, but from the pain in my back after sleeping on the soft hotel bed for so long.

Lieutenant Nezarian was picking at his meatballs when we arrived. I have no idea how he managed to get pasta and meatballs since they weren't serving it in the mess hall, but it certainly seemed a lot better than the vat-grown steak and rice that I got on my own platter. You'd think that an ODST would get better food than regulars.

"Hey Frank, Pavel," Yevgeny greeted happily. "How has leave treated you?"

"Well enough," Pavel grunted in reply.

I shrugged noncommittally. It was a little bit too early to talk about my 'blossoming' relationship with anybody other than Pavel, and by extension his wife. Yevgeny didn't seem to mind my lack of an answer and instead dug in on his pasta and meatballs. I had to suppress a groan when I saw him do that, my food was so incredibly bad that I couldn't help but want a bite of his. I wouldn't let him know that, I had self respect.

"Well," the Army Ranger started. "Moffat showed me a couple of tricks."

I turned to the private, who just looked self-satisfied at the comment. "What couple of tricks?"

"Oh, just a few ways to get a girl to sleep with you."

"I hardly think I need help with that," I replied cockily.

"And I'm married," Pavel chimed in. "Still, what kind of tricks?"

"It's almost surreal," Yevgeny interjected. "Subtle body language and certain phrases that have a…positive effect on all women."

I chuckled. "That's bull Yevgeny."

He raised an eyebrow and smiled at me, the gesture stretched the scar running across his jaw, giving him a weird appearance. "Watch this."

I turned around to see who the man was looking at and was startled to see that it was none other than my very own squadette. Camilla was walking towards our table, she was oblivious to the looks that her face and figure got from the marines and sailors that watched her walk by. She eventually stopped by our table to say hello to everyone before resuming her way to the food line.

"So?" I asked. "You barely said hi."

Yevgeny looked at Private Moffat who just smiled and nodded back. "Very well, now I shall delve into phase two of the plan."

I rolled my eyes, now they were just popping smoke to conceal their failures. Still, I remained quiet and paid attention to the man. He didn't seem to be moving any differently than he would've on a normal occasion, he was still eating like a regular person would, albeit slightly more messily, and he wasn't really doing anything that would call any attention to himself. By the time Camilla walked past us again I hadn't noticed anything unusual. I almost let my mouth open in shock when she stopped by to chat with Yevgeny a little. He didn't play it cool or aloof, he just replied politely and made conversation with her for a minute. By the time she left I could tell that she was blushing and smiling.

"Wow." Pavel was the first to talk. "I'm impressed. Haven't seen her blush since…since she joined the squad."

"Thank you, thank you," Moffat said, "I do my best."

"How exactly does that work?" I asked, curious. "You didn't do anything or say anything unusual."

"Secret of the trade Gunny," Moffat interrupted his lieutenant. "Maybe some other time I'll teach you how it works."

I shrugged, trying to appear uninterested. "I guess it'll have to do."

The two Rangers quickly switched topics and instead asked us what we did during leave. That was pretty much the standard conversation, much like the 'What did you do on vacations?' that every student was so familiar with. The two men had stayed in New Alexandria. I couldn't help but notice that Nezarian trusted the private. After his sergeant friend had his arm chopped off and had been forced to retire he had been slightly depressed. I guess that since Moffat was the only survivor from his last platoon he made some sort of connection with the man. I rarely saw them apart when they weren't in combat. And I had it under very good authority that none of them were into men.

"So, Frank, are you ready to try and beat up my whole platoon again?" Yevgeny asked.

"Only if you make them run fifty miles before."

He laughed loudly and Pavel chuckled into his drink. Moffat just looked worried that his lieutenant would actually go through with it. "Don't worry, I won't," he assured me. "That was enough embarrassment for them. Did you know that half of my men took up lessons to improve their close quarters training."

Private Moffat chuckled. "Hell, Claire Winchester took it as a personal offense when you beat her. I hear that she started taking lessons with some fancy teacher down in Reach. She was probably offended that you beat her in fair combat."

"Oh, come on, she has to know that it was hardly a fair fight, she was tired from half a marathon's worth of sprinting and I wasn't."

"She's very competitive," Nezarian assured me. "One dumbass started a killcount competition on her squad and she started complaining when she lost because she thought that grunts didn't count."

"They don't," Pavel said. "If they did my killcount would be in the thousands."

"Mine is, "Yevgeny assured him, "it pretty much has to be if you've lived as long as we have."

"I'm almost up two a hundred and ninety," Moffat said sadly. "I never get to man the machine guns."

I ignored the young soldier and redirected my attention to Nezarian. "Maybe you should start a little tournament or something, if Claire is going to win anyways you might as well do it. Boost her ego."

"Why would I do that?"

I shrugged. "Don't know."

"Nobody gets special treatment in my platoon, if she's pissed at the world then that's her own problem."

"Sometimes I forget that you're an officer," Pavel said thoughtfully.

"And a damn good one at that," Yevgeny reminded him. "Now, excuse me, I have a boxing tournament to organize."

"What, El-tee, really?"

"Hey, it's an amusing idea, watching large men get beat up by a good-looking woman is always entertaining."

"But Lieutenant," Moffat complained. "It's not fair if you don't fight."

"Wrong, it's not fair if I fight."

"Trust him on that," Pavel told him. "Well, I'm done, see you around." He stood up and gave us all a mock salute before leaving towards our room. I just shrugged and finished what was left of my crappy rice and steak.

"If you do go through with this tournament thing, please do let me know. I'm going to be putting some bets in."

"Sure thing, what do you recommend as a prize?"

I thought about it for a second. "You can start a pool, but it would be nice to give your men something to actually want to join the tournament…"

"I'll come up with something."

Moffat just groaned. Despite being a good officer Nezarian still enjoyed the pleasures of making fun of your underlings when they are beat up by a girl. Hell, everyone on the ship would enjoy seeing that. Perhaps it would be a good idea not to broadcast the tournament to everybody on the ship. It wouldn't do the Rangers any good to have everyone think of them as crappy fighters. Wait, Yevgeny would never expose his men like that…at least not more than once.

"You lied to me," I said suddenly.

"What?"

"You're not doing a tournament."

"Of course not. It took you long enough to catch up."

"Oh, thank God almighty," Moffat preached. "Thanks lieutenant."

"Anytime," Nezarian replied with a sly smile.

And I was getting so excited about it. Asshole.

And I'm back. So is Frank by the way. Thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter. Lazy quote, sue me.