Karl woke up to Brandy holding him, he checked his clock on the dresser next to him and it read 6:00, which was his wake up call, he would let Brandy sleep since she didn't have anything to do at the moment.
He walked over to his locker and put all of his armor on and his helmet. He checked his magnum per usual, everything checked out so he left the room quietly looking behind himself to make sure she was still asleep. She was so he closed the door and walked out into the hallway and decided to patrol the building. He made his way down the stairs and into the lobby, noting that there were two very tired guards yawning every five seconds. "You two can go get rest I'll take the shift until your replacements come, i'm sure Dao wouldn't mind." Karl said as he walked to the side of the front door. The two nodded and walked away. Karl sighed as he walked over and went outside the building.
He couldn't tell the temperature from his skin but his HUD read 50 degrees Fahrenheit. He sat outside and saw a couple other guards sitting on the wall, not asleep but they were just relaxing since nothing serious happened in a couple days. Karl nodded to the two and saw a patrol coming around the other side.
Karl saw some suspicious movement on the other side of the street. A man in a thick jacket was pacing with a phone in his hand, talking to someone and eyeing the building and Karl every few minutes. 'If that is not obvious I don't know what is' Karl said to himself and got on comms, "Dao I need you out here asap." Karl said speaking into his helmet. "Copy, on my way." He heard the man's voice over the radio. Karl waited a few minutes and the man was still there, probably plotting out patrols to whoever he was speaking to. Soon Dao walked through the door and into the cold weather, "What is it Kuhn?" Dao asked putting his marine cap on. "Don't act like you see him, but look at the guy over there, one suspicious SOB if I ever saw one, and I have fought a few insurrectionists in my time." Karl said pointing in the direction but not at the man. Dao observed him for a while and pressed onto his radio, "Bravo 1-1 I need you outside the building."
After a few minutes 4 men walked out the door in full riot gear. "We are here sergeant." A corporal responded to Dao's presence. "Okay, I want you to support the security here, and keep and eye on that man at the end of the street, Kuhn here will be here to, you listen to him." Dao said pointing at Karl. "Of course sergeant." He responded to Dao and ordered his 3 men to begin patrolling the front of the building. He walked over to Karl. "Kuhn, I am corporal Rodriguez." He said putting out a hand, Karl took it, "Sergeant Major Kuhn." Karl said with a nod and released his hand, "Just sit on the other side of the door, and keep an eye on that guy, we might have visitors tonight." Karl said as he sighed deeply.
"For fuck's sake, the last thing I want is an Innie attack, especially on Earth usually these guys are on colonies." Rodriguez said with a deep sigh. "Yep and I intend to make sure they don't get 10 feet from the building, if you don't mind me asking how many guys we got here?" Karl said as he unloaded his current magazine and put in lethal ammunition. "Well we had about 30 security staff and now that you guys arrived with 10 marines we are at about 42. And Dao has been managing us pretty well." Rodriguez said as he lifted up his visor up over his riot helmet. He was equipped with a shotgun and a 9mm pistol at his hip and was wearing think riot clothing from what Karl saw. "Well that should be enough to take care of whatever these assholes will try." Karl said.
"I will protect the ambassador though at whatever cost. Especially since these shits will most likely strike soon." Karl said as he looked at the man but didn't directly stare his visor at him or he would look like he noticed him. Then the man walked away into a building nearby and that was that. It's when he saw a large object coming out of it that he really jumped. "Fuck, comm Dao now!" Karl said as he took cover behind one of the large walls decorating the building just as a rocket flew and hit the building. "Holy fuck!" Rodriguez yelled as he took the shotgun off safety. Karl took his own pistol off safety and pulled it out of his holster, he peaked above the wall just to see several armed militants running across the road. Karl also heard his hired security companion yelling into his radio. Karl peaked over the wall and put a large 50 caliber slug into one of the militants running across, dropping him instantly. After Karl looked around he saw about 20 of them, 'Holy shit, 6 guys can't holds this off' Karl thought as he saw the other security aiming their shotguns at the militants. Karl could already see 4 dead militants.
While Karl was peaking he heard Dao over the radio, "We are under attack use of lethal ammunition authorized." 'Yeah no shit' Karl thought as he put a bullet into a militant trying to take cover behind a car, seeing him plop over and drop his weapon which was a military grade assault rifle he knew he was dead. Karl looked over and saw Rodriguez aiming his shotgun and firing into a militant, seeing him fall over dead Karl knew that he had loaded lethal ammo, must likely a slug, which were very lethal.
Karl ran over to Rodriguez, "They mad a breach in the building i'm going inside to defend the VIP, can you hold here until our guys mobilize?" Karl said ducking behind the wall while bullets were flying over his head.
"Yeah these guys are nothing, just make sure the sangheili is safe!" Rodriguez shouted to Karl, he nodded and shot the glass on the door so he could make quick entry. He ran into the building hearing all the alarms go off and saw the secretary hiding behind the desk, "Take my hand ma'am I will get you to safety." Karl said to her as he stood over the terrified women. "Th- Thank you..." She said as she nervously took his hand and he pulled her up and pulled her along to the second floor. He opened his door and pushed her inside, "Stay in here!" Karl yelled at her as he closed the door and ran to the ambassadors room. He didn't knock but slammed his shoulder into the door and it opened. She was not inside, 'Her office' Karl thought quickly and ran to her officer to be met with Brandy holding his rifle at the door. "It's okay i'm here." Karl said as Brandy ran to him and hugged him. He saw Soya behind the desk and sighed in relief. "Look I need you to keep her safe while I assist the defense. I need the rifle, take my Mag." Karl said as he held out his pistol and they traded weapons briefly. "Thanks for bringing her in here. Oh and Soya, she will keep you safe no worries." Karl said as he left the room quickly with his now better equipped weapon.
Karl sprinted to the lobby to be met with 10 armed guards now pulling out a couple wounded soldiers from outside, he could still hear gunshots being exchanged as he heard another explosion which caused a giant breach in the doorway, smashing all of the glass on the doors and causing a whirl of flames to engulf some of the guards.
Karl dove behind the front desk and looked to see if a round was chambered and it was, also with lethal ammo which Karl was going to make good use of on these next couple of militants.
He turned on his shields and while staying low ran to the wall next to the door that still had some decent cover. Peaking around cover he saw about 10 of them heading up the front steps towards the front door, Karl peaked out completely taking the group by surprise and he just unloaded the whole magazine into the large group of terrorists. He killed about 7 of them their blood all over the place. Karl dropped the gun knowing there was only one magazine in it and unsheathed his knife, ready to charge forward into action. However Rodriguez showed up with about 10 men and they began unloading buckshot into the reaming three with their shotguns. when Karl peaked again he saw the massacre in front of him and ran up to a body and took an assault rifle from the dead man's hands. "Rodriguez I need you and your team to follow me, we are going to rush the building that SOB came from and so did the rocket." Karl said as he waved for them to follow him.
They went across the street without taking fire and Karl could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles as well as most likely a lot of law enforcement. Karl got up next to the door into the building and looked the the team, "I want you to secure the outside and wait for police, I'm going in alone." As Karl suddenly cloaked and disappeared from the team's line of site. "Holy shit." One of the security said silently when he saw Karl cloak.
Karl was climbing up the fire escape on the side of the building and soon he found the window that the rocket came from, looking into it he saw about 5 armed men and a military rocket launcher on a table near the group, it looked like any other apartment except it was filled with illegal weapons. Karl came up with a plan in his head and he prepared a flash grenade that he had on his belt and he busted the window with his fist and chucked the grenade in. After the flash he charged in and shot all of them in the chest several times, except one. The last one was holding his eyes and screaming in some foreign language. Karl briefly slammed the rifle into the man's face more than likely knocking the man out. Karl put the rifle down and picked the man up onto his shoulder and came out the front door uncloaked to be greeted by about 30 riot policemen. "Stand down he is a friendly." Karl heard Dao shout. Karl gave the man to a couple of policemen and they took him away.
Karl sighed and walked over to Dao. "Casualties?" Karl asked him while pressing a button on his arm and turning off his shields. "3 wounded, no one was killed, thank god." Dao said and he checked his watch, "Only 8 o' clock it's going to be a long day." Dao said as they looked at the emergency personnel containing of ambulances, fire vehicles, and especially law enforcement, "The guy I captured has a lot to explain, better the UNSC interrogate him than me. He is a war criminal after all, considering this is considered an international outpost. I bet Hood would be happy to hear they got their asses kicked and not the other war around." Karl said as him and Dao walked back over to the building, Karl was covered in dust and even some small pats of blood from the close proximity of his breach and clear.
Karl waved Dao off as he went back upstairs to check on the girls, he was sure they were okay but he wanted to make sure because it was expected of him.
He walked to the office to find Brandy and Soya having a conversation, which he was glad of considering Brandy's bad history with Soya's race. "Whatcha ladies talking about?" Karl asked as he walked in, very stern and no games being played. "I was just having a conversation with her because she was scared." Brandy said getting up from a chair nearby and walking over to Karl. Karl took off his helmet and as Brandy got close he gave her a firm kiss. "I knew you would hold them off, how many were there, who were they?" Brandy started bombarding him with questions. "Okay slow down, they were insurrectionists and about 20 of em." Karl said walking over to Soya there was surprise on her face. "You did not look like what I thought you would look like human." She said to him, "What did you think I would look like?" Karl asked as he put his helmet back on and walked in front of the desk. "Well not like that." Soya said in response. Karl sighed and looked at his HUD, " Only 8:05, probably going to be very busy today." Karl mumbled to himself. "And you madam might have a lot of visitors today, to make sure you are okay, so be very careful I am really anxious after the attack." Karl said as he got up and walked right next to Soya standing tall and firm with his hands behind his back. "Oh and Brandy can I have my gun back, I have a job to do I will see you in our room when i'm off." Karl said. She walked over and put the magnum in his holster herself and took him in a hug, "Oh you sure will." She said to where only he could hear, Karl perked up at this and felt himself become very stiff, his body froze, he didn't want those thoughts especially after last night. "Ehem." Karl said before Brandy let out a chuckle and left the room leaving only him and Soya.
"So what did the female mean by that?" Soya asked in real curiosity. "Oh, nothing just common human talk, don't mind it." Karl said, easily hiding his blush underneath his helmet.
It was another long day and a few people came in to make sure Soya was okay, especially human diplomats and politicians. There were about 30 visitors in total, Karl stayed firm and intimidating making sure all would be assassins, if there really were any would not try laying a hand on her, Karl didn't even allow any of them a simple handshake. Then Hood came in which he saluted respectfully to. "So, I see that the attack had no harm done to you, that is good, that was a suicidal attack that they did, I bet Karl made sure of it." Hood said looking over to Karl. "I did what was necessary for her protection sir." Karl said nodding, "Well kid, I got some good comments about what you did to help in the defense. "I will have more men stationed here from now on, I hope that will not cause any problems." Hood said looking over to Soya, "And also I will have a second guard be stationed next to Karl." Soya nodded, "The protection will be much needed admiral, I thank you." hood then left the room with a respectful nod and Karl let out a deep sigh.
Soon after that a Sangheili entered the room wearing similar robes to Soya but his one was a little taller. They greeted in their own language which Karl didn't care about learning in his years considering there was no need. Soya then turned to Karl and said something while pointing to him, the taller one walked over and stood above Karl eyeing him carefully, "You human, are my sister's body guard?" She asked Karl in perfect english. Karl nodded, "That I am ma'am." "You protected her today, did you not?" She asked him again squinting slightly at him. "That I did ma'am, and once before, I will protect her with my life it is required." Karl responded confidently. The tall alien women in front of him nodded, "Well you better or you will have problems, do not ever let her get hurt, do you understand me human?" Karl nodded and kept his sternness show a little more. She turned away from Karl and went back to talking with Soya.
After a while she left and Karl escorted Soya to her room and did his usual goodbyes. He walked back to his room and walked in, exhausted more in mind then physically from the day's events. He saw Brandy was already laying under the covers, probably asleep. Karl got out of his armor and got on his usual sleepwear and quietly climbed into bed, sighing a little.
Brandy turned around and looked him in the eyes, "What?" Karl said after she just sat there for a while. "You are amazing you know that?" Brandy said smiling at him, "Well you are too, we are a couple, I mean there is no I in couple, at least I don't think." Karl said in response. "You need some work on your famous quotes." Brandy said chuckling at him and kissing him before turning around again. Karl put his arm around her and held her close. Soon they both fell to sleep, Karl especially fast considering his long day and mental tiredness that he really needed to sleep off.