As they had predicted, the moment Tz'eal set foot aboard the UNSC Glasgow everything hit the fan. Marines of all ranks and files surrounded him with guns raised.
"What in the hell is the meaning of this?! Why is there a Split-lip aboard my ship?!" The Captain demanded as he stepped forward. He was expected to meet with Shapiro and welcome all the Marines of Destiny aboard the Glasgow and have someone show them to their rooms while they had their down time during their slip-space jump back to Sol.
Shapiro slowly stepped forward, gesturing to Tz'eal with a smile on his face.
"This is Lance Corporal Tz'eal N'Thanalm. Defector from the Covenant and a new member of the UNSC. He's coming with us to help fight for Earth and there's nothing you can do about it." Shapiro explained calmly with a smile on his face. The Captain stammers while opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to believe what was in front of him. Eventually, after a few moments to collect himself he brushed himself down and composed himself before addressing Shapiro again.
"With all due respect Commander I'm going to have to confirm this with Lord Hood before we depart. I've heard nothing of a 'Defector' and don't trust this at all." He explained as he began to turn away from Shapiro, who grabbed him on his shoulder and stopped him.
"You're going to have to get him to confirm while we move. I highly doubt he's going to be happy that an entire Task Force of Marines and ODSTs were stopped from coming to fight for Earth because you needed to confirm one tiny little detail about a single soldier within our ranks." Shapiro said with a smirk once he finally let the Captain go. The Captain looked down to the floor with a look of concern on his face before he walked away without another word.
Shapiro and the rest of Destiny simply stood about in the hangar bay of the small Corvette waiting for any kind of activity when there was a low rumbling from all around them as the engines roared into life and the Glasgow slowly began to drift through space. Then, after a small squeak of feedback the Captain's voice came over the internal PA.
"Lance Corporal N'Thanalm is to be welcomed to the UNSC Glasgow as per orders from Lord Hood. Marines, show our guests to their stations while we align with our jump trajectory. Once we're aligned we're going to jump to Slip Space and get home." He said before there was an abrupt click, the PA shutting off.
"He seems like a nice guy." Shapiro commented as his Marines began to envelop with the rest of the general population and were taken to their rooms. As they stood looking out of place one of the Glasgow's ODSTs approached them and waved them down.
"Sergeant O'Hara. I'm here to escort you to your rooms while we make the jump. If you'll follow me." O'Hara said as he waved Shapiro, Drake and Tz'eal forward. Drake glanced between the three with a concerned look on his face. Shapiro nodded back to him, sharing his concern. It was a little strange that after a brief talk with Lord Hood that the Captain would suddenly be willing to allow a Sangheili on board so easily.
Their suspicions were confirmed when O'Hara opened a door which led the group to a very familiar looking chamber. The Brig.
"As per Captain's orders 'The Elite Lance Corporal is to be escorted and placed in the Brig,'" O'Hara explained quietly without any real tone to his voice as he stepped inside and gestured to the trio to follow.
"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Drake said with a grumble and a roll of his eyes as Shapiro raised a hand to silence him.
"And what about Sergeant Taylor and myself?" He asked, as Drake shook his head.
"You both will be provided a room in the Officers Quarters as the Captain wishes to speak to you both about the Elite." O'Hara replied, his tone not changing, his eyes firmly fixed on the floor.
"Are you alright O'Hara?" Shapiro asked as he leaned over slightly, trying to make eye contact with the Sergeant.
"Yes sir, I just don't like conflict with officers. If you'd please step inside." O'Hara replied as he quickly glanced away and opened one of the cell doors, the red shield fading away with a sharp hiss.
"You have issues with your Captain, don't you O'Hara?" Shapiro asked after a brief pause. Usually any kind of conflict with Officers stems from something currently ongoing. O'Hara didn't respond, simply nodded his head quickly without looking up.
"I give you permission to speak freely Sergeant. Nothing will go back to your Captain unless you ask it to. You have my word." Shapiro said calmly as he noticed O'Hara begin to tremble.
"He's an asshole Sir. He and I were in the Academy together. He treated me bad because I wanted to be a Ground-Pounder while he was pursuing a posting as an officer. Then when he found out about my condition it got worse." O'Hara explained as his hand began to shake quite uncontrollably.
"Oh shit." Drake said abruptly as realization sunk in. Shapiro turned to look at him with a quizzical look on his face.
"Fancy informing the rest of the class of your discovery Drake?" He asked.
"You're on the spectrum aren't you?" Drake asked O'Hara, ignoring Shapiro's question. O'Hara nodded his head quickly once again.
"He told me back then that 'someone like me should never be in the military'. I made it my life goal to prove him wrong so here I stand." O'Hara said, clenching his fist and finally looking up to Shapiro and Drake with confidence on his face.
"You haven't taken this further have you?" Shapiro asked as he waved Tz'eal forward towards the cell.
"No sir. Like I said, I don't like conflict with officers. I can get into trouble just by looking at him the wrong way. I keep my head down and do my job." O'Hara explained quietly.
"Now please. Step inside the Cell Lance Corporal. You will spend one hour here while we travel through Slip Space to Sol." He continued as he finally looked over to Tz'eal.
"I don't appreciate my men being treated like this." Shapiro commented with a sigh as O'Hara looked away from Tz'eal stepping towards the cell.
"My orders were to get the Lance Corporal into a cell. I'm sorry but I'm just doing as I am told." O'Hara explained which caused Drake and Shapiro to share a glance and a grin with one another.
"O'Hara. Could you repeat the order your Captain gave you word for word please?" Drake asked with a smile. O'Hara quickly glanced from him to Tz'eal and then to the floor where his gaze stayed, a nervous groan coming from him as he began to sway.
"You will not offend me by repeating anything that your Captain said. Those will be his words. Not yours." Tz'eal said calmly which caught O'Hara's attention. He abruptly stopped and locked eye contact with Tz'eal.
"He said: 'Get the Split Lip into a cell before we move to Slip Space. I don't want it causing any issues while we travel.'" O'Hara replied without looking away or blinking.
"Bingo." Shapiro said with a nod as he looked to Tz'eal. "Enter the cell please Tz'eal."
Tz'eal finally broke eye contact with O'Hara to look over to Shapiro questioningly before slowly stepping towards the cell.
"Trust me. Go on, sit down." Shapiro added. Slowly Tz'eal walked over to the cot and sat down. Shapiro spaced his palm on the adjacent console which caused the red shield to hum to life and block the door once again.
"Now then, you'll agree that the Lance Corporal here is in a cell before we move to Slip Space correct?" Shapiro asked O'Hara with a large grin on his face.
"Yes sir." O'Hara replied calmly while looking around the room between Shapiro and Drake who was also grinning.
"Perfect. Now Tz'eal, step outside please." Shapiro continued as he pressed his palm to the console once again, disabling the shield and allowing Tz'eal to step outside. Once he had passed, Shapiro stepped inside the cell and looked around, sitting down on the cot and got himself comfortable.
"If I'm correct you have fulfilled your orders by making sure the Lance Corporal there was in this cell. So now you'll have no issues following new orders right?" Shapiro asked with a smile as O'Hara looked at him and a smile slowly began to form on his face.
"Yes sir. That's correct." He replied.
"Good. Take the Sergeant and Lance Corporal here to your HEVs and get them set up for a drop. Once this next hour is over I'll come over and we'll go over the briefing with your Captain and get you all down on the ground to get into the fight." Shapiro finished with a smile and a nod as O'Hara looked over to Drake and Tz'eal.
"If you both will follow me I'll get you to our HEVs and assign you both pods." O'Hara said, sounding very happy.
Drake and Tz'eal followed behind with smiles and clicks all around. Aware of how much Shapiro had gone out of his way to screw over someone who is in the position of an officer purely for the power that comes with the title.
O'Hara escorted them from the Brig, through several thin hallways towards the rear of the Corvette. It did, however, take them through the core of the ship, through the central holding hangar where all of the ground vehicles and aircraft were stored before being lifted down to the hangar bay.
Crossing through they followed a shallow ramp leading down into the guts of the Corvette, the lower rear section of the ship where the HEVs were built and stored to be deployed. Inside the room, the HEVs were arranged in several rows, several of which were already occupied by ODSTs. All eyes slowly landed upon them for a few moments. O'Hara waved them away and continued towards two vacant HEVs and gestured to them both.
"These will be yours. Sergeant Taylor, you know how this all works. Lance Corporal N'Thanalm have you ever been in one of our HEVs before?" O'Hara asked quietly as Tz'eal approached the metal coffin and looked inside. The screens, buttons and sticks looked very confusing to him. He didn't even glance over to O'Hara before he spoke.
"I will take that as a no. Don't worry, it is quite simple to operate. For the most part your landing zone will be pre-programmed into the on-board computer so you won't need to do much inside. The screens here display simple information which isn't vital to the operation of the HEV but it is important to know. Simple things like velocity, the temperature of the HEV as it re-enters atmo, the integrity of the HEV itself. Simple things but things you won't need to worry about." O'Hara explained with a smile on his face as Tz'eal looked over to him.
"The integrity of the vehicle sounds like it would be something of importance." Tz'eal commented as he continued to poke around at the internals of the HEV.
"It does sound very important and it technically is, however, because of the occupational hazard that comes with being an ODST you learn to not worry about it. If the integrity of the HEV fails while we're dropping we're dead. The only thing you have to worry about is if it's before or after re-entry." O'Hara replied with a smile and a nod. It was clear to Drake and Tz'eal that he was so much more relaxed while in his element.
"What would happen if it failed before re-entry?" Tz'eal asked as he took a step back still enamored over the vehicle.
"You'd likely die a quick death. The G-forces of being forced out of the vehicle would probably rip you apart." O'Hara began with a nod as he reached up and leaned against a nearby bulkhead.
"And if you did not die?" Tz'eal asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
"Oh it'd be a gruesome and painful death more than likely. Imagine falling at terminal velocity as you re-enter the atmosphere of a planet. You'd begin to burn up quickly and it would probably be a painful albeit quick death. If it was after re-entry however it'd be a slow but relatively painless death." Drake added with a nod as he watched several of the nearby ODSTs climb into their HEVs and close the hatches.
"How would it be slow but painless?" Tz'eal asked, suddenly getting very confused.
"Oh. Because as they say: it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end." O'Hara replied with a hearty chuckle.
"Yeah. After re-entry you're looking at several thousand feet of freefall without anything to arrest your descent. The only thing that will, is the ground and unless you're very lucky that'll be a sudden stop and you'd abruptly be turned into red mist. Well purple mist for you." Drake added with a chuckle of his own.
"Ah yes of course. The natural enemy to all beings. Gravity." Tz'eal said with a nod, clicking his lower mandibles a few times happily which almost instantly caught O'Hara's attention.
"So that's how you show emotion!" He called out happily as he leaned over and got quite close to Tz'eal who took a step back.
"Oh. Oh no. I'm sorry." O'Hara said quickly and quietly as he stepped away and turned around.
"You're good. Don't worry about it. I know where you're coming from and how interesting it is to see in person." Drake said quickly, trying to calm him down.
"That was abrupt but, yes. I understand how you humans are able to smile and show emotions with your mouths. My people and I are unable to do such things of course." Tz'eal added with a nod, seeing Drake's reaction.
"I see. So you use audio clicks in certain frequencies to convey emotion. That's an interesting trait your kind has. If this war ever comes to an end I would like to maybe study this behavior." O'Hara suggested.
"I am sure once we become allies and the memories of this war ease, one of my kind would be more than willing to help you conduct a study." Tz'eal added as he stepped over to O'Hara and placed a hand on his shoulder.
O'Hara glanced at his shoulder quickly and, after a brief moment, smiled. "I had never thought I would have the hand of my 'enemy' on my shoulder as a friend and ally. Thank you Tz'eal. And thank you Drake. I'm glad someone understands what my condition is and how to handle it." O'Hara added as he abruptly turned to the third HEV and stepped inside, slowly closing the door and sealing him inside.
"What a strange individual." Tz'eal commented as he made his first attempt to climb into the HEV. The seat was not designed for his leg structure so it was very uncomfortable.
"It's not his fault, it's how he was born. Not going to lie, I'm super impressed how far he's come. Given how difficult it would have been for him since not everyone is as compassionate as others. He'll have my respect for as long as I live." Drake added with a nod. He knocked on O'Hara's HEV twice and heard a single knock in response.
"Come on, try to climb in and get comfortable. We're going to be dropping here soon. So check your gear and get set for a combat drop." Drake explained as he climbed into his pod, leaving the door open.
Tz'eal made several attempts to climb into the pod with extreme difficulty which was made worse by the odd chuckle coming from Drake every now and then. This first drop into the fight was going to be painful in multiple ways.