Our way back to Infinity was neither filled with chatter, nor eerily silent. It seemed almost normal, well as normal as a cabin filled with a newly disabled man and a handful of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy. That's all we were anyways, just weapons. Right? I felt my head weakly begin throbbing again from my fall. I placed a hand to my temple, annoyed. It sucked to have a concussion, I'd had my fair share, but there were much worse things that could happen. I could've lost an arm.
"Infinity, this is Fireteam Crimson reporting alongside Fireteam Majestic, requesting permission to dock. Please respond." said Fallen into her helmet, her chestplate still removed, but her helmet attached atop her head.
It was an amusing sight, the tiny girl in only her helmet and leg armor, making her chest look disproportionately small. I played with her gauntlets that I had put in my lap when I sat in the co-pilot's seat. We awaited the response from Infinity's bridge with open ears and hope in our hearts, but Commander Palmer was not known for her kindness and forgiveness.
Back on Infinity
Commander Palmer stared blankly at the helmet cams of the SPARTANs, the warship hanging precariously in space in front of them. She had to admit, she was impressed with their efforts, and even more impressed with their relative success. She sighed and walked out onto the bridge, approaching Lasky from his left.
"Sir, they're requesting permission to board, your response sir?" came the voice of one of the many people seated at the various terminals on the bridge.
Thomas looked up from the holodesk and turned his head to Sarah, a weathered look on his face.
"Your call Commander." he said, a tired sound to his voice.
Sarah didn't hesitate, turning to the man to tell him to deny them entrance, but she stopped. She thought of what they'd done, what hell they'd gone through to get their team back. She thought of what she would have done,and how angry she would have been had she known no search party would be made for her team. She had her mouth open, but instead let out a sigh, rubbing the back of her head.
"Let them in." was her muttered response, before she turned to Lasky, nodded, and left the bridge.
"You heard her, let them in."
Back with Crimson
"Fireteam Crimson this is Infinity, permission granted, welcome back." the radio spat out through the cabin.
At first we were all silent but at the first cheer everyone joined, there were high fives and hugs going all around at this successful mission, even Dragon seemed happy. I turned in my chair and looked at Jasmine, who'd removed her helmet and was smiling back at me.
"You did it." she said.
"No, we did it Jas." I responded, both of us smiling even bigger at each other.
Jasmine gave a hummed laugh and placed her hands on the steering wheel and replaced her helmet.
"Copy that, returning to hangar 6" she said, jetting the pelican through the space between our two ships.
And in what seemed like seconds we were landing in the all familiar bay 6, the hatch on the back opening up to the ship's interior. I heard no shouts o rejoice, or happiness, only the scuttling of two pairs of feet to the infirmary. I got up and walked into the back cabin, Jasmine on my heels, reattaching armor pieces as she went. And by the time my visor was penetrated by the daggers shooting out of Commander Palmer's eyes, she was dressed. I looked around at all of Majestic and most of Crimson, save Meteor and Dragon, standing at full attention as Palmer began to pace the edge of the ramp.
"Now I can understand you wanting to go after your fireteams, and I can understand your aggravation with the UNSC not wanting to help. But what I can not understand, is why you hijacked a pelican, knocked out two marines and stole a crate of rations. Would anyone like to explain?" she said, her eyes daring one of us to step forward.
I accepted her dare and lightly brushed past the two teams, coming to the front of the pack and receiving a few odd looks, one from Palmer herself. When she asked for an explanation I don't think she was an expecting an answer.
"Permission to speak freely sir."
"Granted."
"Sir, they were following my orders sir. And as a Master Chief Petty Officer they were obliged to follow sir. I accept full responsibility for their actions sir." I rambled out, trying to remain strong, but I was almost positive my knees were clacking together.
She smiled at my response and walked up to me, she, towering over me an entire three inches. She looked down on me before speaking, "I admire your bravery soldier, but both fireteams will be punished as wholes." she said before walking back down the ramp and addressing everyone again, "You will all compete in The War Games, now some of you may think this sounds fun, but this is no normal War Games, it's The War Games. This is a tournament between five fireteams, a three day long competition where you may never leave the simulator. Should you die, you are yanked from the simulator and put through one of our new obstacle courses" that didn't sound too bad, "until the War Games are complete." she finished, making the deal a whole lot more uncomfortable to think about.
I heard several simultaneous groans from the two teams behind me, causing Palmer to speak up again, "Be glad this is all I'm doing, I could have you Court-Martialed."
That was true, I didn't make any noise until she waved her hand and spoke a final time, "Dismissed." we all shuffled down the ramp, most of us to the infirmary. Even DeMarco followed us in.
I rounded the corner first and saw Dragon sitting up on a bed, barely holding up his weight even with most of his armor removed. A doctor was looking over his arm, and sewing him up. Dragon remained straight faced and looked straight ahead. Not wanting to look down at the absence of his arm. The doctor took a few measurements, patted him on the shoulder and walked off. I was surprised that Meteor wasn't around to be with Dragon, but then again I hadn't seen Athena come in either. I walked up to Dragon and gave him a reassuring smile as I removed my helmet. He smiled back weakly.
"Thank you comrades, for retrieving...well, most of me." he gave a hearty laugh.
We all lightened up a bit with his laugh, Crow stepping forth, usually silent, but actually very well spoken, "I will pray for you whilst I meditate." he said in his fatherly bass, smiling and patting Dragon's shoulder.
"Sorry to ask, but have you seen Silas and Kat?" I asked.
He nodded and went to point with the arm that no longer existed, "Bah." he said in frustration, turning and pointing with the other arm.
"Thanks." I said, walking off to where he'd said they'd gone.
I walked out of the infirmary and looked down the hall, there was really only one place to go from here. I walked the hall, only a few rooms branching off from it, one of them was a janitor's closet, the door was slightly open strangely enough.
"What are you doing out here?" came Jasmine's voice from behind me, startling me out of my wits.
I jumped and turned to face her looking at her through slitted eyes.
"I don't know, but I think that Silas and Kat may have just hopped into the janitor's closet."
"Well why would they be in there?"
"Jasmine, why else would they be in there."
She seemed to think for a moment before her cheeks flushed bright red, "You don't think they're…"
"One way to find out." I said with a smile.
She shoved me out of the way and peeked through the crack in the door, I could almost see her cheeks change shades in that very instant. She moved back from the door a hand over her mouth, she looked at me and all I gave was a smile. I moved to look as well, peeking through the crack in the door.
They were there alright, and they surely did not want to be disturbed. I think it may have been the sloppiest, most heated make out session I'd ever watched. Though it's not exactly like I'd seen many. Kat was straddling Silas and Silas had wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her in tight. It was definitely sloppy the way they kissed. I internally chuckled before I felt something rub against my thigh.
Jasmine had crouched down and was looking through the bottom portion of the door, her cheeks still reddened. I felt really, really wrong for watching them but it was like watching one of the cheesiest romance movies of all times. One you sat down and made fun of instead of really watched. Only this time it was real, and they were really doing this. And I could hear their lips smacking together. I almost lost it. I looked down at Jasmine and whispered.
"I knew it."
"How would you have known!" she whispered back.
"You're just blind."
"I am not!" as she turned to try and make a point she knocked into my legs, propelling me forward.
I slammed into the door and fell in, Jasmine, entwined in my legs, fell in with me. I looked down at her and sighed, looking back up at the two who were now looking down at us in confusion, and fear. I stood, dusted myself off and apologized.
"Sorry for interrupting, continue." I said with a smirk.
"Were you spying on us?" asked Kat defensively.
"We weren't spying, we were just watching you without you knowing." said Jasmine.
"So you were spying." piped back Silas.
"By definition, yes." I simply stated, grabbing Jasmine by the back of her armor and dragging her out of the room, her arms crossed and a pout on her face, it was times like these that reminded me that we were all just human.
I smiled and let her stand, walking back to the armory with her hot on my heels, seemingly thinking over something. So much so that when I stopped at our armor racks she ran into my back. I shook my head and scoffed playfully receiving a punch to the arm as I stepped up to the armor rack and waiting for the machine to take action. I felt the armor fall off of me and onto the floor, a huge weight lifted. I could see Jasmine's Infiltrator chestplate clank to the floor across from me, the forest green dulled in this light but the Crimson accents strangely highlighted at the same time. We both stepped down in nothing but our jumpsuits, now headed back to the cabins.
I wasn't unnerved by Jasmine's silence, she wasn't one for a whole lot of talking. As we left the armory she place the white leather eyepatch over her black eye, sliding her hair out from under the strap. I looked back at her and smiled, receiving just an upturn of the corners of her lips, good enough for me. I turned back and went to open the door to my cabin. As soon as I was able to open the door I was shoved in with an oof, Jasmine coming in behind me and shutting the door.
I caught myself on the bed, turning and sitting on the bed, "What's up?" I asked, a bit nervously.
"We need to talk." I'd always heard from movies and such, all the kids at school, it was never a good thing to hear that in a relationship, but was this a relationship, was it really? Maybe that's not even what she wants to talk about, I reasoned.
"Alright, talk to me." I said.
"I wanna talk about… well, us." dammit.
"Ok…" I said as she walked over to the bed, sitting next to me.
"I don't…"she struggled to find words, "I don't know how all of this stuff works." she said, gesturing at the space between us.
"I promised never to love anyone after my parents died, and then I found you… and I don't know how to feel." she said, a confused look on her face, "I guess what I'm trying to say is… I think I forgot how to feel."
She looked up at me and all I could produce was a smile, "Thank God" I said, looking up at the ceiling with a chuckle, "I thought I was the only one on this godforsaken ship that felt this way."
Jasmine looked up at me with a shimmer in her eyes, her lips slightly parted, like a child in awe. I chuckled at her face and assumed she wanted to hear more, so I did what any reasonable human would do, and spoke.
I drew out the dogtags by which the pendant hung, running a thumb over it, "The day that the covenant attacked, I never knew what happened to my parents, they were just… gone. I got closure about my mom thanks to you but my dad, I know deep down he's dead but I can't let go of the hope that he's alive. I was at school when they attacked so I never saw Dad. I want to believe he's alive, but it hurts to think about, so I shove it all away."
"I thought you may have been making fun of me, but wow, you... you really understand, don't you?"
I nodded and ran my thumb over Mom's dogtag one more time before replacing it and moving my gaze from the ceiling back to Jasmine.
My breath hitched, her face dangerously close to my own, our breaths mingling with one another as she uttered, "I want to know what it's like to feel again."
No one else would have heard her, but from how close she was, I could. The whispered words nearly stopped my heart, but somehow it was still telling my body what to do, because my brain was no longer giving commands as I found my arm moving without my own consent, my fingers hardly brushing against her jaw, her breath becoming shivering and jittery. I swallowed all of my insecurities away, all my fears, concerns, all my thoughts, swallowed back everything but this moment right now. I ran my thumb over her jawline, just as I had the other two most precious things in my life many times before. I felt her gently lean into my hand, leaning centimeters forward at the same time. Unlike our first kiss, I didn't rush her without her knowing, she wanted this just as much as I did, and I could tell from the way she leaned in time with me, our lips barely brushing, our noses touching. I tilted my head just a bit to my right and fell the rest of the way into her, the feeling I'd craved since our first kiss taking over me as if it were the first all over again.
She slowly lifted her own hand to the back of my head, running her fingers up through my brown hair, gripping a handful at the back, pulling me closer. I kept my hand on her jaw, massaging her jawline with my left hand and reaching out for a handful of fabric with my right. I grabbed onto her jumpsuit's chest, clumping the fibers in my hand and pulling her in tighter until we were chest to chest and neck to neck. I savored the taste of her lips on mine and memorized every curve in her body, moving my hand behind her neck and entangling my fingers in her hair. I didn't want to break away, but I was running short of breath, no matter how much I could pull in through my nose.
I reluctantly tilted my head down until our lips fell apart, resting my forehead on her own, each of us greedily taking in gulps of air. I gave a breathy chuckle, placing my hand on the top of her head and placing my lips on her forehead before drawing her head under my chin, her body molding perfectly to mine as I stroked her hair. She blushed, adjusting her head and tucking her face into my shoulder.
"Uhm, am I… interrupting something?" came a familiar voice to both of us, making both of us freeze up.
I turned to look at Jordan, both of his violet eyes staring at us with a bit of surprise.
"No Jordan, go ahead." I said, a bit displeased as I let Jasmine's head go, her body still frozen in place.
"Well uh, it's just, we got debriefing in 15 minutes in the war room."
"Alright, thanks Jordan."
He nodded and walked down the hall towards his cabin. I waited until his footfalls became inaudible before grabbing Jasmine by the shoulders and looking at her with a smile. She looked back up, blushing madly, the red a stark contrast to the white of her scar and her eyepatch.
"I didn't know how embarrassing it was for Kat until it happened to us. How long had he been standing there Sam?" she asked, a bit of a scolding tone to her voice.
I only smiled, "What does it matter how much he saw, y'know I'd say, it was worth it." I said with a wink.
Her cheeks looked as if they burned, her face cross, her lips drawn up in a tight line. I only chuckled at her before standing and taking walking over to my closet.
"Unzip me would you?" I asked.
Such simple tasks were normal before we, well, I guess we had gotten in a relationship now? But for some reason Jasmine hesitated to unzip the jumpsuit. I could almost feel her eyes scorching holes through my back.
"Look, unzip me and I'll unzip you, then we can get dressed, alright?"
She gave a feeble, "Yeah." before unzipping my suit, I turned around and returned the favor, watching her scurry out of the room.
I chuckled to myself and shook my head before peeling off the skintight suit and dressing in my standard shirt and sweatpants. I walked out of the room just after Jasmine, seeing her in yet again her tank top and sweats, a forest green bra showing through the side as she turned to look back at me with a small smile. We walked the halls to the armory side by side, no words spoken between us, but I did manage to snake my hand down to hers and wrap my pinkie around her own, shuffling a bit closer to her than necessary. This put a smile on my face. We walked like this all the way to the armory, where we were the last to arrive, though still on time. I looked around and did not find Dragon for obvious reasons, but I did find Silas and Kat, standing at attention ridiculously close to one another, Silas's hair dishevelled a bit more than Kat's, who had probably revamped her looks in the bathroom mirror.
Jasmine and I walked up in line with the others, Commander Palmer rounding the corner just as we assumed our positions, a less angry look on her face this time.
"At ease" we all changed our stances to parade rest in trained synchronization, "So, Ardent, you start the debrief."
"Well sir, the mission started off a bit like this…"
30 Chapters y'all! That's amazing! I've stopped getting reviews lately, and I'm a bit saddened by that because I love to hear you guys feedback on what's going on. If you don't tell me I can't know what you like or dislike more! So anyways, have a good one.