[}{]
Maddie "The Viper" Harper
August 12th, 2552
[}{]
"Look at the size of it." Declan said, his voice soft and delicate.
"We need to move." I said, turning to Mikaela, "you said Farkas Lake, right? There's an old militia base there?"
"Still operational as far as I'm aware of it." Mikaela said, her eyes affixed to the horizon.
"We need to go there, there's a base nearby we can use to get off this planet."
"Woah woah, we didn't say anything about coming with you." Declan cut into the conversation like water splitting rock, the shock and softness gone all at once.
"That deal…" I said, weighing my words carefully, "you're still interested?"
"Well, if we both leave via Farkas then that gives us plenty of time to talk. I'll make my decision then." Mikaela said, tearing her eyes from the horizon and looking deep into Declan's. She smiled, "How can I just walk away from that?"
"Easy. She's not even proved it, yet. I say we put a bullet in her and leave, Miki."
"I'd like to see you try." I snorted, "I'm not going to prostrate myself for you two. If you want, I can just walk away."
"Declan is just being difficult. He cares for me." she looked at him as he shook his head, "Maybe a little too much, if you ask me."
"An iota of self preservation, it's all I ask." he sighed, stepping down the slope.
I turned, unable to contain my glee. As the flames of the Grafton licked the sky, I found myself descending the rocky cliff towards Declan.
"You're sure this doesn't change the deal?" Mikaela asked, still looking over her shoulder at the Supercarrier that seemed to appear above the horizon.
"Is that your first question?" I replied playfully.
"I'm serious, Viper. You need to be straight with me or this doesn't work."
I sighed, wishing for more of a game of words as opposed to interrogation. "It… doesn't really change much. It just confirms what I already knew."
"Which is?"
"That Reach is fucked."
[}{]
Aurellian "Ollie" Van Graff
August 12th, 2552
[}{]
I swooped low over the crash site, various small arms fire could be seen as the UNSC began to retreat from the wreckage and the Valley itself. Phantoms flooded the sky as the Supercarrier, now free of the restraints of stealth, rained its cargo across the valley. On the comms, CP's all over the sector were being hit simultaneously and in force.
"Winter, come in Winter, this is Aegis." A voice cut above the soup of voices, "Ollie, you out there?"
It was Liang.
"Go ahead, Winter. I'm guessing, you're seeing what I am?"
"Affirmative. Listen, I know that Valette-"
"She was on that ship, Mei."
"I know, Alex wants you to get in touch with Agent Belloc. Order him to divert to the wreckage, confirm that the Cole Protocol has been carried out and pull out any high ranking survivors, then he can pick up Maddie's trail."
"You expect him to do that?"
"Under the Winter Contingency, he has to."
"Ya'll become naive since I took off, huh?"
"Just get it done, Ollie, this is bigger than your treasure hunt."
"I know, Ma'am. WILCO."
James sat beside me, eyeing me suspiciously. We turned the Winter around, leaving the Viper's trail behind as we broke the sound barrier and accelerated across the valley. Covenant fliers dogged us the whole way but our ships profile was unique and our engines too powerful for the little craft of both sides to keep up. By the time they'd realised we were a threat, we were either too far to catch, or they were tumbling from the sky in a ball of flames.
"You don't think he's gonna follow that order?"
"You do?"
He laughed incredulously, "definitely not. What do we do?"
"Flyby of the wreckage should give us an idea of what we're dealing with. Maybe Vallette survived, if she did, she could probably use a helping hand. I'll put a ping out there, see what comes up."
It only took a moment, but several groups of survivors returned the call and I immediately began making my way to their locations. The Winter sang as she wove a path through the clouds and debris, which stuck out of the ground like reinforced steel poking out of the rubble of a collapsed building. It was a paltry count, five survivors from the starboard weapons labs and two from engineering. When a voice finally came over the radio, we had only the nine of us to help her.
"Captain Van Graff?..." he said, static tore his voice apart.
"Just what you needed, right?" I said, looking to James as the sound of gunfire rattled through the speakers.
"I'm glad there's something friendly up there, what the hell happened?"
"Cloaking tech, don't worry about it. I have tier one assets in play and ready to extract you. Winter Contingency?"
"Eden is well" he replied, giving the counter sign.
"Okay, I'll be on station and try to thin them out before they reach you."
"Much appreciated Captain. I'm sending you my location. We're stuck inside the bridge and pinned down."
I felt strange. Hearing him call me Captain felt other-worldly as I began to shift the Winter, turning in a close arc around the peak of a mountain and slamming the afterburners into overdrive. James smiled, gripping his chair as he spooled the cannons and tore a passing phantom to dust.
"Sucks to be that guy" he said, scanning for more targets.
"Plenty where that came from, cowboy." I leaned forward as the ship accounted for the thrust, its arti-grav generators reduced the strain on our bodies until we felt as though we were sitting in a drawing room. The comms pad flicked and began to connect me to Nico. "Agent Belloc, do you read me?"
"Go ahead, Winter."
"You're needed on an op, Captain Harper needs you to rescue Commander Waters from the Grafton."
"You're in contact with Maddie?" He was clearly more interested now.
"No, this comes from Aegis."
"Aegis isn't my mission."
"It is, now."
"You know who I answer to, right?"
"I do. You'll also know, then, that good ole ATLAS herself gave me this command."
I heard a huff, "Cole?"
"He's not in the garden."
"I can solve this," he said, conspiratorially.
"You're en-route?"
"I'll fix it." he said, cutting the connection dead.
James looked at me, his brow laden with worry. "That didn't sound good."
[}{]
Maddie "The Viper" Harper
August 12th, 2552
[}{]
"The forge, where did you find it?"
Mikaela had begun the trek in relative silence, spending the first hour in quiet conversation with Declan about tent meters behind me. Eventually, they stopped, and I found myself walking side by side with her as we retreated from the Grafton like a funeral procession.
"We didn't, what we found was a partial data cache. The cache was forerunner but we dated it as much older than most of the relics that we've found hidden throughout human space."
"So you believed it was ancient to the forerunners as well?"
"It made the most sense at the time, yeah."
Mikaela twisted her lips in thought, she seemed to zone out as she began to think.
"How did you come go join ONI?" She asked, "you don't strike me as the type."
"It's in the job description to deceive, what makes you think I'm not hiding my 'type'." I said, slightly taken aback by the question. I had expected her to go straight for the origins of the Forge but Mikaela, I had forgotten, was a woman who had seen a lot more than the inside of the lab.
Your sister you are not, Mikaela Sorvad.
"Well…" I began, unsure where to begin. "What do you want to know?"
"How someone so young can hold an office so high in Naval intelligence without combat experience."
"Who says I didn't?"
"The stories about The Viper, are they true?"
"They're… downplayed." I said, with a wry smile.
"So that's why they recruited you." she said, an air of amusement about her. She looked at me from the side of her eyes, "What's the inside of a covenant prison like?"
I stopped, "Do you want to know about my project or are you going to just probe about my personal life?"
Mikaela stopped and looked at me straight in the eye. I halted under the weight of her gaze, pausing as I rubbed my thumb against my finger.
"If I join your team, you'll tell me all about it out of necessity." she laughed, "no, I am patient enough to wait, what I really wish to know is who you are, Viper. I want to know if you're someone I can trust."
I bit back my words, they wanted to tell her to stick her questions up her arse but I was desperate and she knew it. An error on my part, and now I would have to share with her the intimate details of my triumphs and failures. Perhaps this was better? Afterall, it seemed to me as though she was curious about my offer. I already had her attention, so maybe this was an elaborate game for leverage.
"The inside of a covenant prison is… terrifying." I said, being vague. "I was tortured for information, kept isolated, kept awake. I was burned, branded, beaten…"
"The stories say you broke out?"
"There was a grunt rebellion, we just took advantage of it." I sighed, "the only thing I'm known for and it's… all a construction of section two."
"Section Two?"
"ONI's propaganda wing."
"So that story, what did they leave out?"
"That I had already tried to escape. What I found that earned me the protection of the SPARTANs."
"That's related to your mission?"
I nodded, setting off again as Mikaela took some time to process this information. We trekked down the hill, blades of grass began to brush against my boots as we walked farther and farther from the valley. Ahead of us, hills rolled into the distance. They looked like they'd provide little cover for us from the prying eyes of retreating UNSC forces, covenant death squads, and, the most terrifying of the three: from Nico himself.
Beyond them lay the safety of the Farka mountain range, a line of large god-like rocks that jutted out of the ground. They appeared to stab at the sky, jabbing upwards against the dark heavens above them.
"How old were you? The propaganda said you were sixteen."
Mikaela had picked up the conversation again, she kicked a stone at the heel of Declan who turned and scowled at me, thinking I had been childish enough to do it.
"They didn't lie about that." I admitted, "I'd been at a party the night before. It was one hell of a hangover."
"And your team? Were they your friends at the time?"
"No, they're just stragglers who believe in the project, for some reason they think I'm the right person for the job. Half of them could do a better job than me."
"The Viper is humble?" She snorted, "now I really have heard it all."
"Your data trove, where did you find it?"
"On a garden world not far from earth, actually."
"Really?" I said, feigning surprise, "Why did you assume it was forerunner if it didn't match other discoveries?"
She winced a little, as if cringing at the idea shed gotten it wrong, "As far as the data goes, the Forerunners were an empire that dominated all others. Imagine the Romans except their borders eclipsed the known galaxy. They ruled with an iron fist and were imperialists in the truest sense of the term. All tech was their tech, rivals were decimated and brought to heel, the galactic order they envisioned had no room for competition. All data, all military equipment, all space travel, agriculture, social development: It was all created by and for the forerunners. We had no evidence to suggest that another empire existed that could create such machinery. At the very least, we reasoned that if it was foreign to the forerunners, it was the possession of a space-faring empire that they wiped out during their ascent to the pinnacle of organic life."
"So you did consider it?"
She shrugged, "not really, funds were available to us but the size of this data cache… we couldn't go through it all so we were handed a priority list by our handler."
"So ONI were happy with the project?"
"Thrilled, until about seven months ago."
I opened my mouth to speak but she cut in, "what were you doing seven months ago?"
Thinking back, it was hard to remember. I'd been on Ballast, trying to play diplomat. "I was on Ballast, as you know." I said, evasively.
"Doing what?"
"My project hit a snag."
"Yes, and?"
"I genuinely don't think it's relevant, what I was doing is mostly common knowledge. I was in Ballast to repel a covenant incursion, about that time we were just building defenses. My Captain took a trip back here for a meeting with Parangosky but aside from that, ONI was pretty quiet until…" I trailed off, thinking back to the explosion at the Royal Palace. "Why do you ask, anyway?"
"That was when our handler quietly moved on and some guy named Drake took over."
"Drake?!" I sputtered, almost coughing in surprise, "the hell was he looking for?"
"Information on Gaes, ever heard of it?."
The world seemed to contort around me. The world felt like a room, its walls collapsing in on themselves as I staggered to a nearby rock and sat down.
Mikaela looked at me with a raised brow, "are you alright?"
"They knew…" It was all I could say as the realisation hit me, "they fucking knew. That or they suspected but either way they didn't tell me."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, her hands on her hips. Declan stood nearby, watching curiously.
I looked up at her through my hands, which felt glued to my cheeks. "ONIs local cell on Ballast was using the social order of the planet to study the effects of Gaes. Our missions conflicted and… well…"
The tears began to well up in the corners of my eyes.
Maggie…
Ana…
Drake…
Declan's expression softened, "so now you know, what will you do?" he asked, watching me still. Mikaela looked to him with an expression that belied her interest in my answer. The silence was deafening as I reeled in the realisation.
"What the hell can I do?" I asked no-one in particular. "This whole project I'm working on, it's a new start. Not just for me but the human race. I won't jeopardize it for a personal vendetta."
"It's starting to make sense now." Mikaela said, quietly. "You're me."
"Like hell she is" Declan snorted, "you didn't-"
"I didn't join ONI? Don't forget they tried, Declan. The only difference is that I met Dad first, you really think I wouldn't have been drawn in, just like her? How many times have I told you that civilisations are products of their circumstances; that the same principle applies to individuals?"
Declan paused, "so all that trouble on Ballast could have been avoided? It was pointless?"
Shaking my head, I wiped a tear from my eye, "no, there was a point. Parangosky is honest about one thing: you don't waste an asset. Be it a trove of forerunner data-"
"Or a secret project examining forerunner technology." Declan finished, disbelief plastered on his face like dirt.
"I… I don't suppose you have a cigarette?" I asked, slumping back against the rock.
"You smoke?" Mikaela asked, rummaging around in her combat jacket for a little cardboard pack.
"I used to," I said, taking the packet from her. In my pocket, Drake's lighter weighed heavily in my breast pocket. I fished it out and flicked it open, the metallic 'schlink' as the latch pinged open was familiar.
Don't do it, lass.
The voice was Drake's.
Fuck you, asshole. Why didn't you tell me?
You know why.
I was hearing voices, now. Shrugging and with that promise I made on Skopje all those years ago in the fore of my minds eye, I lit the little tube and pressed it to my lips. Drawing it into my lungs felt liberating as I sat, looking out towards the valley that we were leaving behind.
"Declan's right, you need to run the fuck away."
"It's okay," Mikaela offered, "he's been known to be wrong, occasionally."
"God, the sacrifices I've made for those people. Did you know I gave them my sister to save her life and they turned her into a SPARTAN? I literally torched every friendship I had to gain Parangosky's trust!"
Mikaela sat beside me, placing a calm and assured hand on my shaking hand. "You were dealt a rigged hand, Viper."
Declan looked like his eyes were about to burst out of his head but I was officially over it. "Wind your neck in, Declan." I growled, pointing with the butt of my burned out cigarette. "I have what I need, you two can fuck off the moment you want to."
The pair of them shared another strange look but I didn't care, I was already lighting another, lost in my head as nicotine flooded my brain.
"Let's just get to Farkas" Declan said, huffing. "There's a pass through the mountains, it won't take long for us to reach it."
Dragging myself to my feet, and ignoring Mikaela's outstretched hand, we set off behind Declan. The going was laborious and the boredom helped me stay fixated on ONI the entire time we walked.
"If you gained access to the world forge…" Mikaela began, "your project would become self sustaining, you know that, right?"
"I did not" I admitted, "I assumed it was just a terraforming device."
"It's a fabricator, too."
I looked at my metal arm, built aboard the Hel during its last stand.
"They were designed to be the heart of a new colony, they're A.I compatible, and can produce enough raw material to build an entire city."
"I see what you're saying, but one city is hardly enough to take on the covenant."
"No but it's big enough to support a viable population and you can place it on the other side of the galaxy."
"A new start" I mused.
"So, my next question is… what do you even need ONI for?"
[}{]
Aurellian "Ollie" Van Graff
August 12th, 2552
[}{]
"Captain Waters, is your gunnery chief there?" I asked, sweeping across the battlefield, strafing the encroaching forces left and right.
"Talk about a target rich environment" James noted, a grin breaking across his face as a wraith exploded into tiny chunks of metal.
"Captain Waters?"
"I read you. I can't say where she's gone but she's not aboard. This channel is compromised… status… of reinforcements, over."
"Working on it," I lied, looking at the map beside me. Agent Belloc was still headed due north, in the direction of Madeleine. "There's a lotta guys between you and him."
"Shit."
"We'll get you out, Sir."
"I'm not stupid, Captain. Just do your best."
I swallowed, pushing further towards the crash site. The situation on the ground was bad: The UNSC were reduced to the strength of a platoon and a half, with only my cover keeping them in the game. Furiously, a message was sent for Nico to hurry up but that boy was stalling for something and it didn't dawn on me until it was too late.
Shit.
"Shit!" I yelped, thumbing the comms channel, "Agent Belloc, you better not be doing what I think you're doing."
"I wouldn't fly close to that crash site." he said, his voice like liquid ice.
"We're on a retrieval op, not asset denial!"
"And what happens when we can't retrieve?"
"Nico!"
"You have thirty seconds. ODP round inbound."
The line went dead.
"What was that?" James asked, "woah, Captain, calm-"
I spun the Winter on its axis, rolling upside down and killing the engines. As we fell slowly through the sky, I watched the gunfire slow around the Grafton's bridge, wiping out of sight as the Winter tumbled. When the horizon was almost level I kicked the engines into overdrive, blasting away in the opposite direction. James threw up on the floor of the bridge. As he wiped his mouth, he looked to me for an explanation.
"ODP. Orbital Defense Platform. He's going to-"
The MAC round shot past us, cracking the sky like a nut. It slung beyond the horizon and exploded, with the most monumental noise, behind us. The shockwave almost caught us as I tugged hard on the controls and pulled us up towards the lower atmosphere. The Winter showed her strengths, maneuvering unlike anything I had flown before as she willed herself to safety, guided only by my calm hands.
"He blew it up…" James muttered.
I nodded, "like always." I stood up and moved to the lockers, scowling as I pushed a recon helmet and weapons into a drop pod. I placed a replacement security key in there, too, and loaded the pod into its drop bay. The Winter would be getting Maddie out, even if we couldn't save the crew of the Grafton.
"That gunnery chief, did you know them well?"
"They weren't there," I swallowed, "but without Waters, I might not see her again."
The ship descended as I pulled her into the cloud layer, picking up the trail as the ruined valley cracked and burned in the distance. Shaking the image out of my head, I quickly found the three fugitives at the base of a mountain, where a thin streak of indented rock formed a passageway towards Farkas Lake on the far side of the plains.
[}{]
Maddie "The Viper" Harper
August 12th, 2552
[}{]
"What the hell was that?" Declan asked. His head poked from under a rock and Mikaela was in a similar state, curled up under the most stable looking part of the crevice we'd begun to walk through.
"ODP round. The UNSC just made the Grafton a big pile of metal soup." I flicked another cigarette and took a drag. "Let's get moving, you can gawk at the top of this pass, I imagine."
Declan nodded, rising slowly from his hiding place and trudging over to Mikaela, who offered him her hand as she stood up.
The sun's golden rays could not paint the mountainside as it usually did. The rising smoke and the overcast weather saw the view remain muted as the three of us began our ascent up the towering peak.
With unwavering determination, we embarked up the treacherous path that wound its way through the mountain pass. The narrow trail, flanked by jagged rocks and towering pines, began to test our resolve with each strenuous step. Together, and in spite of our mutual distrust, we traversed the winding switchbacks, helping one another navigate the inhospitable terrain while our minds wandered to our respective problems and worries.
Coming to a spot near the top of the mountain, each of us were drawn like moths to the breathtaking vista that appeared before us. A valley stretched out below, embellished by a spectacle that defied comprehension. A river of molten slag leaked across the floor of the valley. The Grafton, once a proud ship of the UNSC Navy, now bubbled and boiled as it cooked and seeped across the valley floor. The river evaporated as it approached, the lava-like onslaught burned a ribbon of steam into the sky as water met lava. It had begun to snake through the wild and untamed flatlands that had been an active warzone only a few hours ago. The wrecks of vehicles, the trenches dug to hold the line, it all was subsumed by the melting hull.
Hovering above it, in a fashion as sinister as it was awesome: the colossal supercarrier loomed above the vast expanse, its metallic exterior reflecting the dying embers of the sun as it was drowned out by the clouds. The sight was both awe-inspiring and terrifying, a keen reminder of our place in this conflict.
Our awe was shattered by the chaos playing out above us. The sky, once serene and free, had transformed into a battlefield of epic proportions. Banshee's and Seraphs, ships of extraordinary design clashed with deafening roars, beams of energy erupting like fleeting meteors as they waged their celestial skirmish against the familiar sight of metal falcons and broadsword interceptors. Both sides relentlessly maneuvered, painting the sky with intricate aerial acrobatics while explosions illuminated the clouds and echoed through the valleys below.
Mikaela was captivated by the sight above, and Declan and myself refused to be deterred from the climb.
"Have you ever just felt so… powerless."
I nodded, "On Skopje, I got to see views like this for weeks on end."
"Makes you angry, doesn't it?" she said, her features furrowed and taught.
"Angry enough to join ONI" I replied, sourly.
Mikaela walked up to me and pulled the cigarettes from my pocket, lighting one as she sat, her feet dangling from the edge of the vantage point.
"Do you know any songs for this view?"
"A lot," Declan said, taking a seat behind me, his finger hovering around the guard of his trigger.
"Skopje had a type of music that could only be performed live." I said, remembering my last night as an innocent teenager.
"Music helps you say what you can't put to words, doesn't it?" he added, looking out at the horror before us.
Mikaela was silent, her eyes said all that needed to be said. They were dark and serious, downcast and leaking any semblance of hope. "I… we didn;t know it was this bad. I mean you hear the stories and-"
"Its okay, its what I…" I remember the covenant ship falling from the sky on Skopje.
History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.
The silence lingered and they didnt bother to press me for more. Instead, we shared a cigarette and Mikaela, after a while, spoke up again.
"So why did you stop smoking?"
"I thought I had to."
"For ONI?"
I nodded.
"Why did you start?"
"To rebel," I laughed, "seems silly now."
"How do you figure?"
"Well for all my mouth, I became exactly what I hate, didn't I?"
"I don't know you well enough to comment on that but… for me, it's a middle finger to safety. Why live in fear of everything that can kill you. Life wouldn't be worth living if I wasn't allowed smoke after good sex" she smiled at Declan, who reddened a little, much to my surprise.
I laughed. It had been a while, I realised, as the joke got away from me and I laughed loudly into the valley. I had always been a picture of resilience, as I grew older my smile had become a facade that masked the pain of my experiences. The Viper, a creation of ONI, a mere girl, who had weathered countless storms, was chuckling at that most relatable of feelings. Each one of my missions and all my training had robbed me of the happiness I hadn't known that I'd had. All of it had left me empty. Yet, on this day of days, amidst the chaos of battle and tragedy, I found myself wrapped in a moment of wanton bliss. As I sat beside the strangers I was beginning to know, Mikaela's mischievous eyes twinkled with shared understanding. The sound of her laughter, uncontainable and infectious, echoed out into the valley, a dull attack against the evils that lurked in the distance. In that precise moment, my own laughter became a liberation and indeed a testament to the resilience that I had cultivated over the years. The noise, which felt so alien to me, felt like the sun, cracking open the clouds and flooding the darkest valley with light.
I extinguished my cigarette and rose to my feet, my gaze shifted back to the mountain as we pulled ourselves together and forged onward, fueled by a newfound spirit. With every strenuous step, we pushed our bodies beyond their limits, the distant chaos serving as a somber reminder of the unseen forces that surrounded us.
As the battle raged in the heavens, the mountain pass seemed to sigh beneath our feet. It was a gentle reminder of the magnitude of nature's beauty and humankind's capacity to persevere. And so, without falter or doubt, we ascended, rising above the tumultuous clash below, inching closer to the mountaintop.
As we reached the peak, its uppermost point sitting above a small shrine carved into the rock by the areas earliest settlers, the sky cracked again and we dove for cover as a metal tube slammed into the ground around us.
"The hell is that?" Declan asked, resting his rifle on the rock as I approached.
"Seems like my friends are bored of tracking us."
"You-"
"I told you they'd find us, do you really think the director of this project wouldn't have someone keeping an eye on me?"
Declan was tense, his finger was on the trigger, signaling his intent to shoot.
"Look." I said, gesturing to myself, "I just need to know where exactly this data center is, if you two want to go, you are more than welcome to leave."
I turned and opened the little pod. It hissed as the hermetic seal was broken and a replacement recon helmet, a purple colour reminiscent of the garb of Rome's emperor, sat inside. Alongside it, a side arm, ammunition and the unmistakable profile of a rail gun. I slung the rail gun on my back and holstered the pistol on my thigh. Then, taking the helmet in my hand, I turned to Declan who refused to lower the gun.
"Even if you knew-"
"No." Declan said, "Don't say a word."
"There's a bio-lock."
"Mikaela!"
"What!? She'll only come back and shoot me if I don't tell her."
"That's not the point."
"Then come with and move on afterwards, I don't care as long as I get that information.
"What do we get in return?" Declan asked, finally approaching us.
"A chance to live. You're on a kill list because of this, you open it for me, you're off the list."
"And you can guarantee that?"
"I can only guarantee that it won't be me who kills you." then, pausing to let the moment sink in, I shrugged, "unless you come with me, that is."
At that, Declan marched over to Mikaela and dragged her away before she could answer. As we descended further down the wind-battered mountain trail, I couldn't help but notice the tension that enveloped the air between us. I smiled as the uneasy atmosphere that had accompanied our journey was now replaced with an unsettling silence. Mikaela and Declan were far ahead of me, hissing whispers into each other's ears. Although I couldn't hear the words exchanged, it was clear that their discussion had taken a serious turn.
The drone of our boots against the gravel only served to accentuate the oppressive atmosphere that seemed to hang over us. Each step felt burdened, as if we were being pushed, by crushing pressure into the mountainside as the myriad of unresolved emotions, as well as the war raging around us, built upon our shoulders a sense of hopelessness that got worse with each step down the path.
I watched them as closely as I dared, stealing a glimpse of the occasional sideways glance, filled with frustration and hurt, which revealed the disagreement as one of the most severe I had seen since I'd argued with my mother on Ballast.
For some strange and unknown reason, I tried to grasp at the remnants of our previous happiness, trying to find solace in the picturesque surroundings and the memories of home that came with it. The breathtaking view of snow-capped peaks and cascading waterfalls, which had enchanted me as a child and teenager, now appeared like knives in the sky, stabbing at the pock-marked edges of our long-dead relationship. As I watched Mikaela and Declan argue, I felt a desire to intervene, to tell them it wasn't worth it.
And yet you won't do it, will you?
My mind whirled with unanswered questions as we continued our descent. Why was I allowing this to continue? Why Would ONI cover up the knowledge of the Gaes on Ballast? Why, when I was promised their support, would they not inform me of another operation in the area? I could have…
I could have saved so many more…
I pulled myself back, avoiding the thought. Looking at my companions, I watched as their voices remained subdued. Their body language spoke volumes, however, tarnished with strokes of anger and despair.
For the first time, I felt a connection with my targets. My heart longed to bridge the gap between them, to understand the source of their anger and disappointment. The detachment in Declan's eyes repelled any attempts I made to reach out. It was as if a glass wall had been set between their souls, condemning them to wander aimlessly in a world where hissed truths and misunderstood intentions prevailed. As we moved further down the mountain, the trail seemed to grow steeper, mirroring the uphill battle they fought as their relationship became tense under the stress of a decision that was tearing them apart. The beautiful landscape, which had once symbolised hope and adventure now appeared daunting and treacherous as it strained under the cataclysmic battle that raged around it. The contrast between the outside world's majesty and the tumultuous storm brewing within us became ever more apparent, marking us as the trail began to level out and we began the shorter trek towards Farkas in the distance.
My heart ached with every agonising step, desperate for an explanation. The storm clouds in the distance raged as we headed into the maw of Reach's stormlands. As much as we moved on, time seemed to stand still as the path through the hills dragged on endlessly. While I wrestled with my own demons, Mikaela and Declan were locked in an unending dance of frustration and despair. The mountain, once a shared symbol of unity and joy, now became a haunting reminder of our inability to find common ground.
As we finally reached the end of the path, the Saber Launch Facility towered at the far side of the lake. A bittersweet sigh escaped my lips. The journey had come to a close, yet the emotional chasm between us remained. The silence that accompanied us back to civilization was deafening.
Uncertainty loomed ahead, I felt a sense of dread as I noticed the faint markings of the UNSC on the side of the building. Confrontation loomed, a decision, one that would change my life forever. I knew what would happen when that confrontation came. Nico, Drake, Parangosky. Liars and Frauds. I was tired, not just physically but emotionally. The same was true of Declan and Mikaela, who had slowed to a stop ahead of me. They were a few metres shy of a fork in the road.
Decision time.
My influence had clouded their future and cast unyielding shadows on the love they had cherished. I silently prayed that time would heal the wounds that I had opened between them, and that one day, we might all meet again under different circumstances. Whimsical thoughts of a journey together, that might lead us back to the mountaintop... to a place where shared hope and unspoken apologies would replace the bitter taste of my intervention… of ONIs putrid influence.
"So…" Declan asked, tentatively, "you're going through with it?"
Mikaela couldn't speak. Her mouth was glued shut and her eyes glistened with sadness.
"Fine." he said, his voice wavering, "Fuck!"
She looked at me, a lamb in a cage. A puppy in fear, submitting, showing her belly in defeat. A thousand uneasy metaphors poked and prodded at my heart. A monster. I was a monster. I was tearing their love apart. I'd done it, I'd continued the cycle. Declan turned and stormed off. Mikaela and I watched in silence as the man, earnest and loyal, walked away from something he couldn't be a part of.
It was unceremonious, unremarkable, and utterly devastating to watch.
"I'm sorry," I said, trying to make it better, "I-"
"We all have a choice, Viper. When yours comes, you'll understand that some lines can't be crossed… mine is just well beyond his."