AN: Guess I had to come up with a name after all…
I do not own Halo, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or associated characters and properties.
Islandfall
Early morning, before sunrise
It was a rather sleepless night.
In her sleeplessness, Suki had been stargazing on a mountain to the northwest of the lagoon. Despite the level of maturity needed to be a Kyoshi Warrior, it seemed that the childish fascination with the stars was a constant. To wonder if anyone was up there, and if they might one day come to us and say hello.
She was entranced by the pinpricks of light that made up the constellation of Anili when she noticed a new star flare into existence to the southwest, outside the lagoon. It glowed brighter than all the other stars in the sky, before vanishing just as quickly as it came. As she began to take her attention away from the odd sight, Suki noticed what seemed like two meteors trailing from where the short-lived star had been. The meteors were roughly the same size, and seemed to be headed in the same direction.
Observing the meteors, Suki realized that they were headed for the island. If they hit the village, people could be hurt. She began to get up to warn the village, but then she got a better look at the meteors' path. She sighed in relief as she observed that they were headed for the beach. Resolving to investigate after her chores and training were done, she walked back to the village.
Roughly two hours after noon
Following through with her promise to herself, Suki was on the way to the beach to find the meteors. About two miles away from the village, it was about half an hour's hike to get there.
Suki had decided to bring some of her friends in the Kyoshi Warriors with her, given the fact that it was rather rare to see rocks from space. Nobody wanted to miss this opportunity.
Reaching the beach, the group found the impact trails indicative of meteors. But what was inside the trails surprised them. They weren't meteors, but men. Heavily, heavily armored men.
The first one looked like his - was it even a he? - armor was patched together from scrap. His chest had red and black plates attached to it, and on top of those was a large machete with a curved tip. The waist was lined with pouches, and the left thigh had a set of small knives sheathed on it. The right shoulder pauldron was red, vaguely U-shaped, and had a large chunk taken out of it, and the left was small, tan, and had a strange box strapped to it. But the most striking feature was the helmet. On top of it was what looked like a set of goggles, and the faceplate was shining red and had a set of sharp teeth painted on it. Strangely, it lacked eye holes, leaving the method of vision up to anyone's guess.
The other man had a much more organized and new-looking set of armor. It was gray with pale orange highlights. The chest was boxy, thick, and looked almost undamaged. Two protrusions stuck out behind the shoulders, looking almost like a small set of wings. Both pauldrons were somewhat triangle-shaped, and the thighs lacked any sort of attachment. The helmet had a reflective green faceplate, also without eye holes, and the armor as a whole was comparatively basic compared to his companion. On his back, behind the 'wings,' was a strange, battered green staff with multiple protrusions and what looked like writing. The one thing in common between the two men was that their armor looked like it was meant to take a beating and come out on top. One already appeared as if it did just that.
When Suki saw the two, she immediately realized that they needed help. "Give me a hand!" she called.
Upon reaching the unlucky pair, the group attempted to drag them out of the craters, but eventually realized that they were far heavier than they looked.
"What is this stuff made of?!" One of Suki's friends grunted.
"I don't know, but we're not getting them out on our own," Suki responded. The group ceased their ministrations as they realized that the armored men weren't going anywhere. "We need to get help from the village."
At this order, Suki and her fellow warriors shot off towards their home to get help.
Three and a half hours after noon
The group returned to the crash site in full Kyoshi Warrior attire, alongside a dozen men from the village. Despite the strange story, they knew Suki was trustworthy and that she wouldn't tell them this if she didn't believe it was real. But when the rescue party got to the beach, the two men were nowhere to be found.
"They were right there!" One of Suki's friends exclaimed. "Where did they go?!"
Suki remained more level-headed. "There's a trail," she pointed out. "They can't have gone far."
Turning to her fellow villagers, she said, "Head back to the village. We can deal with this from here."
As the villagers began to return home, Suki took charge. "Let's follow the trail, quietly."
They had followed the trail into the forest, where the group elected to travel in the trees. It was treacherous business, but they didn't want to be discovered just yet.
Following the trail, they discovered the pair seemingly searching for a place to make camp. When they found a small clearing, the patchwork man was the first to speak. "Let's make camp here. Should be defendable enough." If only they knew.
The gray man spoke next. "I'll go find us some food. You can make the fire." The patchwork man nodded, and they split up.
Suki made eye contact with three of her fellow warriors, the unspoken order perfectly understood. As they followed the patchwork man, Suki and the one remaining warrior trailed the gray man to the beach.
The pair stayed in the forest, but made sure to keep a close eye on the gray man as he went to the coast. He dropped his green staff a short distance away from the water, and they watched wordlessly as he walked in and sunk beneath the waves, not even attempting to swim.
He came up a short while later, dragging a dead elephant koi onto the sand. This elicited a silent gasp from Suki, as elephant koi were very large and very heavy. The fish sported several slashes, likely due to a knife hidden somewhere on the gray man's armor.
Said knife made itself known rather quickly as the man used it to take several large chunks out of the elephant koi. Returning the staff to his back, the gray man took the pieces of fish back to the campsite.
The gray man returned to the campsite, where the patchwork man had set up a fire.
"Why didn't you just take the fish here?" questioned the patchwork man, as if he did not know how big elephant koi were.
"The fish was too big to carry. Easily four meters," said the gray man.
"...and you killed it, how?"
"I swam." Suki had to stifle a laugh.
"Right."
After the fire had cooled, the pair hung the fish meat over the fire. When it was no longer raw, they took it off and removed their helmets.
The patchwork man had semi-dark skin, reminiscent of the Water Tribe, but the long black hair spoke of the Fire Nation. He had several scars, a goatee, and dark brown eyes that spoke of his age.
The gray man was evidently much younger than the patchwork man. He had short brown hair and a pale, rounded face, as if he was from the Earth Kingdom. He had dark green eyes that lacked the same kind of experience as the patchwork man. Unlike the patchwork man, the gray man's face was completely shaven.
The pair began to eat, and their small talk indicated that they liked the taste of elephant koi.
"Not bad for mystery fish," said the gray man, confirming to Suki that they did not know what elephant koi was.
"Tastes like salmon," agreed the patchwork man.
While the pair ate, it seemed as though the gray man had a question. "Iratus called you a spy before we ended up here. You wouldn't mind shedding some light on that, would you?" His tone indicated that he did not like this 'Iratus.'
It seemed the patchwork man was slightly annoyed by the question as he answered. "I was an ONI field analyst before I became a Spartan, so?"
Seeming to recognize his companion's unwillingness to talk about it, the gray man decided to end that line of conversation. "Just curious."
Suddenly, the now-identified Spartans seemed to recognize that they weren't alone. "Do you feel like we're being watched?" the patchwork man asked.
Taking their cue, Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors dropped from the trees and encircled them, war-fans drawn. As the Spartans donned their helmets, Suki took the first move. "Who are you?" she demanded.
Responding to his companion's question, the gray man sarcastically said, "To answer your question, I do believe we were watched."
Unknown forest
Unknown date
Local time roughly 1730
The Spartans watched as the women slowly closed.
"How do we go about our introduction to the locals?" the Spartan asked, reaching for his combat knife but not drawing it.
Hieu mulled over their options for a few seconds. Sure, they could easily take the women, but they still needed information, and a fight wouldn't make a good impression with the locals.
"We play things by ear," said Hieu. "Don't start a fight unless they do." Turning to the women, he removed his helmet and answered the leader's question. "Lieutenant Commander Hieu Dinh, of the UNSC."
His companion also took off his helmet. "Petty Officer Neil Glenn, also UNSC. If you could kindly tell us where we are, that would be great."
It seemed the leader was slightly confused, but she obliged Neil's request- "We don't know any UNSC, and Kyoshi Island doesn't take kindly to strangers. You're coming with us." -if in a rather unkind manner.
The Spartans shared an uneasy look. Why would someone claim to not know what the UNSC was? Dismissing the thought for the time being, Hieu then unsheathed his machete and knives, dropped them on the ground, and raised his hands in surrender. Neil did the same with his combat knife and Bandit. The women gathered the weapons and took the pair away.
AN: Chapter 3 is done and dusted! I decided to come up with a name for the Spartan myself, since no reviews came in with ideas :(
Anyway, I decided to have Suki be the one to discover our lost friends, but I wanted to do it in a way that enabled them to have the customary Kyoshi Island greeting of being tied to the bottom of the Kyoshi statue. I plan on having the next chapter be introductions and explanations. As for returning to the Academy side of things, I don't plan on doing that for a few more chapters at least.
On the note of the now-named Neil Glenn, I decided to name him after two legendary American astronauts, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn. This isn't any sort of foreshadowing, just me thinking the name was cool. As for his appearance, I based it on Peter Parker from the remastered Spider-Man game, if anyone was curious.
Thank you to those of you who have followed and faved so far.
This is Believer218, signing off.
