Managed to find myself with a ton of time today. Due to having the day off and nothing better to do, here it is. I hope everyone enjoys this very talkative chapter.
Karl woke up. He felt super tired even after it felt like he slept for a whole day, when he looked up at the clock it turns out he did sleep for about 12 hours. Something he has never done before.
Karl sat up in his bed and got up to go to the bathroom. When he got there he looked in the mirror and saw the shadows under his eyes. His hair had grown to non military regulation and that pissed him off a bit, but not that much. He started to grow somewhat of a stubble and sighed. He took out his shaver and began doing the normal shaving routine. After that he splashed some water on his face and stretched out a bit.
He walked out of the bathroom to hear someone calling him on his PDA. "What?" He said out loud in confusion. He walked over and answered the call.
"Oh my god Karl!" He heard the voice and instantly recognized it as Brandy's. "Holy shit Sarah, I thought you would never call." Karl said as he sat down on his bed and let her video feed pop up and his own. "I'm sorry it took me days to find out how to call you on a safe channel, with ONI wanting your blood and all." Brandy said with a sigh. Karl let an even deeper one out. "So, are they keeping it quiet or is all of Earth on my head." Karl asked.
"Well, they did release wanted on almost every billboard in the city, and well, they came and asked me questions about you. They were probably going to use my 'relationship' with you to make you come back." Brandy said. Karl sat there for a moment and looked up at the ceiling. "What about out relationship. I know we are supposed to be like that, but I think it was just a crutch for our loss for Jorge. I don't think there was really anything special about it." Karl said in full seriousness. "I agree to be honest, as long as we are still friends, I wouldn't mind still loving you as the best friend I ever had." Brandy said.
Karl let a smile slide onto his face, "I couldn't agree more Brandy, how is everything on Earth, have they threatened my family yet?" Karl asked. "No, they have not because Hood told them to leave your family out of this and if they try anything he well hit ONI with the hammer." Brandy said. "Where do you get all this info?" Karl asked surprised. "Dao knows a lot and he knows a lot of people." Brandy said in response.
"Good ol' Dao." Karl said. "Well Brandy I have some business to attend to, if you wouldn't mind telling Hood something for me though. ONI attacked the place I am staying currently and is using locals to also get a way to get to me and possibly my protectee. Which I am sure is way against our treaty. They want a fight they will get one that is for sure." Karl said. "I will tell him the next time he visits Karl. Be safe." Brandy said. Karl nodded, "You be safe too Sarah." Karl said and ended the transmission.
He let a breath of air escape his lips. He sat up and went to his ration box and took out some, after mixing it with water he had a nice chicken soup MRE. After that he got up and put on his scratched and nasty armor, 'Gotta clean this' he thought to himself. Karl got up and walked out of his room but not after grabbing his pistol and energy sword.
He left the room and walked outside of the living building to see that most of the bodies had been cleaned up and he actually saw some civilians walking around doing their daily duties, but he also saw many not outside like there was just a couple days ago. Karl walked up onto the top of the wall and saw that Furam was on top of the wall looking around with his arms crossed.
"Hey." Karl said to let him know of his presence. He heard Furam just let out a grunt and he kept looking forward. "You fought like a demon yesterday human." Furam said when Karl leaned against the lower part of the wall with his arms holding him up. "Did I? And... A... Demon..?" Karl asked. "Yes, beast you humans used to fight us with, they wore armor made of something even our weapons couldn't penetrate." Furam said monotone. "Aahh, you mean a Spartan." Karl said.
"A Spartan? Is that what you humans call them?" Furam asked. "Yep they are named after ancient human warriors that were trained their entire lives to fight. Nothing else. Emotionless souls that do nothing but kill." Karl said. He heard Furam let out a 'hmmm' sound. "But I don't think that is all, true, besides I met one and he didn't seem that bad." Karl said.
"I see." Furam said. "I must go I have to report to m'lord." Furam said and Karl saw in his peripheral vision that Furam went down the steps and off the wall. Karl just kept looking on at the sight before him. It was an almost open field, but he could see the city in the distance and the somewhat tall buildings, but nothing as large as human sky scrapers. Just thinking about that made Karl a little home sick, but nothing too severe. 'I could go for some nice pancakes and syrup, or a nice cup of coffee' Karl thought to himself while he took off his helmet and put it under his arm.
He walked off the wall and towards the main keep area. When he walked in he saw that there were only two of his personal guard left and his wife and Furam now. "My lord, there is no signs of the enemy, I can gladly report I don't think they are coming back." Furam said with some happiness in his tone. "Good captain, now carry on with your duties." He heard Jaka say.
"Ah Karl it is about time you woke." Jaka said leaning forward in his chair a bit. "My bad, I had a long night last night as you can imagine." Karl said with a smile on his face. "Indeed, you fought hard that is for sure, I have had that amount of exhaustion before aswell. I want to propose something to you." Jaka said. Karl nodded.
"I am going to ask if you would leave your personal guard of my daughter and begin guarding the keep instead." Jaka said. "I'm afraid I can't sir, but I will guard the keep regardless, but I still have to stick to my mission." Karl said putting hit helmet on, "Speaking of, I will take my leave sir." Karl said as respectfully as possible. "Of course human." Jaka said as he leaned back into his chair again and began talking to his wife.
Karl left the keep and walked back to the living spaces and went to the nobility area. He went over to Soya's door and knocked. No response. Karl's soldier instincts kicked in for a moment but he pushed them back. "Soya?" Karl said through the door. No response. He knocked again and no one answered.
His inner soldier kicked into high gear as his worry grew, he went to the other side of the hallway and pushed off the wall. He smashed through the solid wooden door and looked around. She was not there, but he did see the smashed blood stained window. He walked closer and upon further inspection saw the blood was purple. He clenched his teeth. 'It was my job to prevent this, fuck!' He mentally slapped himself.
He turned on his heel and as fast as possible ran down the hall. He turned the corner and rammed into Jede. "By the prophets human!" He yelled as they both got up. "Soya's gone Jede, she's been taken." Karl pushed past Jede and he looked back to see Jede's mandibles drop and his eyes widen. Karl kept running and quickly ran out of the building.
He then looked up at the wall and saw the guard. "Open the gate!" Karl yelled at him. He just looked at Karl and then the gate opened. Karl sprinted out and went to the same window that she was dragged from. He looked at the blood that stained the window and then he turned on his infared vision. He looked to the ground and could see the blood trail. So he followed it. After turning on his cloak of course.
Karl followed it into a large wooded area where it began to get smaller and smaller. Karl stopped when a clearing popped up and he saw a large ONI prowler and 4 to 5 agents in the distance wearing their special ODST gear. Karl turned off his infared and now just looked that them. He used his cloak to sneak closer and he got right to the back of the prowler. "When do we leave sir?" He heard what sounded like a tired feminine voice say. "As soon as it reaches nightfall, so we don't get spotted." Said a much older and rougher male voice. "Now shut it."
Karl climbed up to the top of the prowler and just sat there, he was going to see where they were taking her. After waiting patiently he made sure his helmet was on, 'comms mode' which meant no one outside his helmet could hear him, only himself and who he was on comms with. "Jede, do you read me?" Karl asked, "Yes I read you human." "Look I am on the transport they are taking her in, I am going to see wherever they are taking her and hopefully blow it up." Karl said. "Okay, make sure she is unharmed before my father does anything rash, she is his pride and joy." Jede said. "Copy that, make sure you keep the place safe while I am gone." Karl said and cut the comms.
After a few hours it started to get a bit dark and he could hear them, "Alright load up, boss wants her safe and sound, unharmed, so lets go before Kuhn shows up." He heard the leader of them say and then he heard the footsteps of them loading up. Soon the engines flared up and he heard them begin to throttle. Karl mag booted to the prowler and stayed crouched down. He held on as they began to ascend towards the atmosphere.
After several minutes and they started speeding up to what Karl could guess was over mach 2. They ended up in space. Karl looked up into the HUD of his helmet. 'Oxygen supply, 100% nice' Karl thought to himself. His armor was completely vacuum sealed. After a while he saw the giant ONI corvette. 'Wow, they have been here a while' Karl thought to himself as they neared it.
'Time to kick ass and take names and blow up a whole fucking ship' Karl thought to himself. Karl ducked as they docked with the ship, he laid completely flat on top of the ship.
He heard the sound of the ship landing and also the sound of the engines shutting off. Karl still had his cloak on and had about 50% power left for it. He peaked over the top of the prowler and saw them walking out of the ship with Soya, two of them holding each of her arms while dragging her across the ground. Soon he saw the door to the hangar open and, what he saw will be in his mind forever. A spartan wearing pitch black armor, a spartan in the Mk II armor in fact, which was just a bit dated. The spartan was escorting a man wearing black pants and a black shirt, as well as wearing an ONI cap on his head. Karl saw Colonel rank insignias on his collar.
Soon the two groups met in the middle. "Ah wonderful to have you here my lovely ambassador. It really is a shame you are on such good terms with Kuhn or I wouldn't have to of forced you here." He heard the man say. Just his voice made Karl cringe, 'Sounds like a rich boy who's money is compensating for penis size' Karl thought to himself and nearly chuckled. He then went into full focus mode. He knew he only had a magnum and an energy sword, but he would make them work.
"Or I will just let him follow you." The man said as he looked to the top of the prowler, as did the Spartan. Who aimed the Assault rifle on his back at exactly where Karl was. Karl knew he had been found, "Alright you caught me." Karl said as he uncloaked and would let his energy regenerate. He jumped down from the Prowler and sat there in front of it. He saw the leader of the ONI squad turn around, "How did he..." He heard him say. Karl just shrugged, "Learn to cover blood trails, what amateurs." Karl mumbled.
The leader walked towards Karl, looking very angry. "Stay away from him Gibson! He is dangerous!" The colonel said. The leader stopped and walked away, "Take her to the brig I will see that Kuhn joins her." The colonel said, they group walked away with Soya, who looked shocked, happy and sad at the same time. The door to the hangar closed behind the colonel as he walked out. Now it was Karl and the Spartan, who looked at least 7-8 feet tall.
He just stared blankly at Karl with his bronze colored visor. Karl stopped leaning on the Prowler and walked until he was feet away from the Spartan pointing the gun at him. "Well, let's get this over with." Karl knew he probably wouldn't win. But he had to try. "Let's dance Kuhn." He heard the spartan say through his helmet, with a very deep voice. Karl went into focus mode as he took out his energy sword and activated it. The spartan threw down his gun and then put his fists up, and they began to circle each other, waiting for the other to attack.
The spartan went first as he charged Karl, Karl went wide eyed at the speed the spartan had and quickly rolled out of the way, but as soon as he got back up the spartan put a large metal boot to Karl's face. The shield took most of it but Karl still went sliding several feet. Karl still had grip of the sword and jumped back to his feet, just to see the spartan charging him again. Karl charged back and slid under his legs, swiping with the energy sword and hitting him in the leg. Karl jumped up and turned around the spartan looked at Karl blankly still from his mask and looked down at his leg that the sword did not penetrate the armor. Karl let a sigh of frustration escape him, this would be hard.
The spartan charged Karl again and when Karl went to dodge he felt something grab his foot. He felt himself being lifted off the ground and then he knew he was airborne. He looked at the wall that he was nearing and tried to move in mid air, but he couldn't. A ton of pain went flying through his body as he felt his back hit the wall. He slumped to the ground and saw the Spartan nearing him again. He had flown at least 30 feet into the wall on the other side of the hangar. Karl had trouble catching his breath as he got back up slowly. By the time he got up the spartan was already on his and sent a punch to his gut. Karl put a hand over the punch and then felt the knee to his visor. His visor cracked at the impact but didn't break. Karl used all his strength to begin swinging the sword at his attacker. He felt the energy sword make contact with the spartan's chest plate. He looked up and saw it had melted that armor away, but did nothing else. The Spartan threw a punch as Karl was pinned to the wall. Karl moved away and heard the metal get smashed as the Spartan's fist went into it. He then couldn't help but smile when the Spartan's hand was stuck in the wall.
Karl used the advantage to weaken the spartan, as he used all of his strength to stab in energy sword into that arm stuck in the wall. He heard the hissing sound and saw the plasma blades go through the armor perfectly and come out the other side of the arm. Karl heard the spartan release a grunt as the blade came out. Then Karl felt a hand grab his arm. Karl got his other hand and pulled his magnum out. He unloaded a full magazine into the spartan's face, but the bullets just bounced off harmlessly. Karl felt his arm get pulled forward and then his whole body got lifted off the ground. He flew another 10 feet and slid across the ground. He couldn't feel that arm, he looked and saw that it was limp. 'Dislocated, fuck' Karl thought as he felt the energy sword slip from his grip.
Karl looked forward and saw the spartan had gotten the hand out of the wall and was now charging him again. Karl grabbed the energy sword with the other hand. "Why are you even helping them, you know they are sick fucks!" Karl yelled at the spartan. The spartan then stopped the charge, digging his boots into the metal. "What?" He heard the spartan say. "I'm no criminal, I was just doing my service to the UNSC, protecting my mission!" Karl yelled at the Spartan, but he saw it didn't flinch. Instead it pulled out a magnum. "Fuck you man, fuck ONI, just wait till Hood finds out about this." Karl said as he held his limp arm. "He won't, Kuhn." Karl heard over an intercom system. "You realize what we are doing is for the good of humanity." The voice said again, and he knew it was the colonel. "Good of humanity? How is starting another war where more people will die 'good of humanity'? Huh? Causing more people to die?" Karl yelled back, to a camera. "Pussy couldn't face me yourself so you made your pet fight me." Karl looked over to the spartan who was just pointing a magnum at him. "I'm no pet. I'm a soldier." The spartan said. "Oh you're a solider? Then why aren't you taking orders from the UNSC? These guys are just intelligence, not a war department." Karl said. The spartan tilted his head. "What, intelligence?" The spartan said with a little anger in his tone. Karl nodded. "Want to fight, then help me blow this ship to smithereens, these people are traitors to the UNSC, they are killing our allies and they are killing humans, for their own benefit." Karl said, sounding as serious as possible. The spartan looked up at the camera. "Traitors eh." The spartan said. "Don't listen to him 119!" The intercom said. "Ah shut up. Traitors." The spartan said and then shot the camera in the hangar and the intercom speaker. Then the alarms went off. Karl smiled under his cracked visor and then pushed his arm back into place with a snap. "Ah, fuck." Karl said as he grabbed his energy sword. "We have to alert UNSC command of this." The spartan said. "Let's worry about that later, for now we need to blow this ship up.
The spartan nodded, "Behind you, sergeant." The Spartan said as Karl walked to the hangar door. "Can I borrow that a moment sarge." The spartan said pointing to the sword. "Go for it." Karl said as he tossed the sword to the Spartan. The spartan then put it to the ONI logo that was on his arm until it was seared off then tossed it back to Karl. Karl nodded and put it back to his mag lock. He pulled out his magnum and loaded a fresh magazine into it and chambered a round. He looked back to see the spartan grabbing an his assault rifle and then running back over to Karl. "Know where the brig is Spartan?" Karl asked. "Affirmative, transferring to your HUD."
Karl got the marker on his HUD, "Thanks." Karl said as he pressed the button and opened the door to find about 30 people with guns waiting for them, 'Cakewalk' Karl thought. Karl peaked the corner and shot a round into each of them until all 8 rounds in his mag were out, and he saw 8 of them fall with holes in their heads and blood flying out of the back and front. The spartan just stood in the hallway and his shields were taking all of the hits. He watched as the spartan was maneuvering around the hallway and would shoot a couple rounds into each one with pin point accuracy in the heart. They would fall. He watched as the spartan cleared the entire hallway in seconds.
Karl stood in shock, he was impressed. Karl run up to the Spartan and looked around, "We have a prisoner to rescue Spartan, let's go." Karl said as he and the Spartan began to run down the hallway towards the Brig.
Sorry to leave it on a cliffhangar but this is all I had time for, I am making the second part soon, maybe this weekend idk, I managed to scoop up a couple hours to write this so I will be able to make grammatical fixes and stuff. Welp I hope you enjoyed the chapter and part 2 will be coming soon.