Hey guys, what's up! Azores here with another story for you to read and enjoy.
I would also like to point out that while I don't mind and actually encourage constructive criticism, please note that this is a work of fiction, and may not be entirely canonical or accurate with their respective Universes. (I will try my best not to be too over the top for either side, though.) So try not to take it too seriously. This is an Alternate Universe, after all.
Anyway, onto the chapter and I hope you enjoy.
!WARNING!
This story contains content not suited for younger readers, such as Violence, Blood and Gore, Language, and Explicit Sexual Content. This Chapter's Rating will be placed at M-Rated. Future Chapters may, and most likely will switch back and forth between the T and M ratings.
Regardless, Reader Discretion for this Chapter is advised.
I don't own Halo or Naruto.
Bold-My Own Words
Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar
Normal-Narrative
"Normal"-Person Speaking
'Normal'-Thoughts
"Italic"-Foreign Language
'Italic'-Radio Chatter
/Italic\-AI/Computer typing
"Listen to me, Covenant. I am Vice Admiral Preston J. Cole, commanding the human flagship, Everest. You claim to be the holy and glorious inheritors of the universe? I spit on your so-called holiness. You dare judge us unfit? After I have personally sent more than three hundred of your vainglorious ships to hell? After kicking your collective butts off Harvest - not once - but twice? From where I sit, we are the worthy inheritors. You think otherwise, you can come and try to prove me wrong."
Vice Admiral Preston J. Cole, during the Battle of Psi Serpentis
Prologue Arc-Episode 1
-A New World; A Fresh Start-
(Part 1)
June 10, 2543 (54 days after the Battle of Psi Serpentis)
Unknown Star System
362 Light-Years from the Psi Serpentis System
407 Light-Years from the Sol System
In the silent depths of space inside a Star System, an enormous Blue Gas Giant, ten times the size of Jupiter, lay in orbit as the fourth celestial body orbiting a yellow star, with some 34 moons orbiting it. Its age is timeless and forgotten, standing as a silent guardian for the small, life-wielding planet further in the star system. It continued its slow and lazy orbit around the star, uneventful and relatively peaceful.
But this peace was about to be interrupted.
Near one of the Gas Giant's moons, a massive hole in space tore open, the iconic sign of a slipspace portal opening. Through the portal, the silhouette of a massive UNSC Valiant-Class Super-Heavy Cruiser exited and returned to the world of normal space. The ship had a few burns and scratches, more towards the back end, but otherwise, the ship was fine.
1,518 meters in length, 373 meters in width, and 420 meters in height, the Valiant-Class Super Heavy Cruisers are the largest Cruisers made by the UNSC. They are also among the most powerful warships ever fielded by the UNSC. Armed with three Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, each one capable of firing an 800-ton Slug of Tungsten at 55 km a second, fifty oversized Archer missile pods, thirty point-defense guns, and with armor infamous for its resiliency, nearly two and a half meters of Titanium-A armor plating, few warships can match the Valiant-Class' capabilities. However, this vessel also had six inches of Tungsten-MA coating the main hull for better protection against plasma weaponry, an addon necessitated from nearly twenty years of war.
Large printed words could be made out on the bow's sides.
UNSC Everest
UNSC Everest
Bridge
"Sir, all systems are showing green across the board. Minimal hull damage towards the ship's rear, but otherwise, we're okay, Sir." The Chief Engineer spoke, looking over to his superior officer. The man he was looking at was 56 years old, physically, roughly 6'0", and weighed 170 pounds. He was wearing a grey uniform, with the insignia ranks of Vice-Admiral on his shoulders. His face was somewhat wrinkled, but despite his graying black hair, his dark brown eyes still shined with the vigor and resolve of a younger man.
The aged Admiral, though, wasn't looking at the engineer. His attention was focused on the holo-pad, which showed him the entire star system, showing the four planets that orbited the Yellow Dwarf Star in the center. He was also deep in thought. What they survived was in all honesty, a miracle. Few people could say they experienced a gas giant going supernova and lived to tell the tale.
Then again, not many people had lived the impossible life of Vice Admiral Preston J. Cole.
He leaned back in his command chair, "Are our fighters ready to take off?" He spoke.
"Yes, Sir." the Communications Officer spoke.
"Good, have two wings of our Longsword Fighters fly out and conduct a recon of the surrounding area. I don't want any surprises if our... friends followed us."
The Comms Officer quickly saluted and went back to his station to inform the pilots of their new mission. Cole turned to his Weapons Station, "What is the status of our MAC guns?"
"All guns are showing green across the board. We have them loaded and holding at 50% charge, Sir."
"Good, maintain that level. Navigation, give us half power to engines and get us out of this moon's shadow."
The ship shuddered as the engines roared to life, driving the massive warship forward as they stayed on alert for anything that could pose a threat.
Especially if a certain Alien Hegemony decided to rear its ugly head.
"Sir, do you have a moment to speak?" A voice with a slight American Southern accent spoke behind him.
Admiral Cole turned around to see an ODST soldier standing at attention. Cole motioned for the soldier to relax, which he did. "About what, Colonel?"
"About our little issue concerning the Spartan IIs on board?"
Eyes widened in recognition of the subject, to which then Cole motioned for the Colonel to follow him to a more secluded room. The two men walked down the hallway and entered a small room so they could speak in private.
"Alright, Colonel. Speak your mind."
The ODST soldier took off his helmet, revealing a man of roughly 32 years of age, physically, with short brown hair and hazel eyes. A scar ran down the left side of his face, over his left eye. He stood at 6'1" and was 200 pounds of solid muscle. This was a man that had seen many years of combat, a veteran of numerous battles.
Colonel Leonard Joshua Micheal Barnes. Commanding Officer of the 75th ODST Shock Troops Battalion.
"Sir, when are we going to confront the Spartans about the fact that we aren't going back to the UNSC? Because frankly, I'd rather not have two Spartans rampaging across the ship."
"I know, Colonel, I know. I've been pondering the best way to break the news to them, but frankly, I don't know how they will take it." Admiral Cole sighed, running his hands through his fading black hair. The three-man Spartan-II team had been a last-minute addition to his crew roster after he had acquired the 5,400-strong Marine Brigade and 1,000-strong ODST Battalion for his fake mission to capture a Covenant ship, both of which were in actuality made up of numerous Battalions, Regiments, and Companies that were fed up with the UNSC, the war, everything, and wanted to start anew. And this wasn't including the 600 Marines and 200 ODST that had already called Everest home beforehand.
Needless to say, their ship was cramped, and supplies were now starting to run low. They had maybe three months' worth of food reserves left.
In all truth, however, it was honestly his fault that the Spartans were on board, to begin with. He had lied to his superiors about a plan to cripple and capture a Covenant Warship, which had been tried numerous times throughout the war, then bring it back home to Earth for study, which was supposed to have happened during the Battle of Psi Serpentis. In their infinite wisdom, ONI had decided to attach three Spartan-IIs with his ship to assist in the capture, who was currently sleeping in cryo. And now, they were stuck with three super-soldiers, and he had no clue how they would react when they found out they weren't going home.
Colonel Barnes sighed, "Well, shit. I guess we have no choice but to cross that bridge when we cross it and hope for the best. So, what's the plan for now, Sir?"
"Keep any talk about leaving the UNSC quiet. Better yet, just don't talk about it at all. As for the ship as a whole, we're going to do a scouting mission of this system and see if there's a planet suitable for us to colonize. For now, return to your men and prepare for a possible recon mission."
"Yes, Sir." The ODST soldier snapped a salute, which was returned, and he exited the room to inform his men of the Admiral's orders.
Rear Admiral Cole walked back to the bridge and hoped he had no more surprises in store for him today.
5 Hours Later
Exiting nearby Asteroid Field in between 3rd and 4th Planets
"Sir, our scout probes confirm that there appears to be a habitable planet past this Asteroid Field. Third Planet in the system, Sir." the Navigation Officer spoke up.
"Show me," Cole ordered.
The holo-pad changed into a view of the 3rd Planet, showing the oceans and landmasses that dotted the planet. The data showed that the planet was roughly a tenth smaller than Earth, with about 65% of the Planet covered in saltwater. He could see there were four continents and hundreds of small and large islands that dotted the Planet.
The scout probes were primarily focusing on the Northern Hemisphere of the Planet, namely a relatively large continent that was situated there, that had a smaller sub-continent just opposite of it across the ocean a few hundred miles. Aside from the large desert to the East, the continent looked very promising for colonization. A few of the Probes were scouting out a large island off the southern coast of a peninsula on the main continent's far eastern end. The probes also reported that the island was devoid of any concentrated heat signatures... wait, what?
He looked over the holo-pad again, and sure enough, all across the planet, there were numerous concentrations of heat signatures. Which likely meant only one thing.
Civilization. There was an intelligent race down there.
Cole sighed; while the probes weren't reporting any significantly large-scale electrical sources, save for a few areas but still meaning they had only just recently discovered electronics, the fact that there was an intelligent race down there meant that colonizing this planet probably wasn't a goo-
"Sir, multiple Slipspace ruptures detected at our 2 O'Clock, roughly 35,000 km away!" A Navigation Officer spoke up.
The room went into a minor panic. Was it the Covenant? Had they tracked them down and followed them here, looking for payback after the destruction of their fleet?
But instead of a Covenant Fleet greeting them, they were surprised to see 5 Charon-class Light Frigates, heavily modified, 3 Parabola-Class Freighters, and 2 Springhill-Class Mining Ships exiting Slipspace in an unorganized formation. But their surprise turned into resentment when they saw the lettering on the sides of the ships.
URF
The United Rebel Front. The bane of the UNSC's existence until the Covenant showed up. And now he had a battlegroup right in front of him. This wasn't good. The MAC guns were only half charged, they had roughly 7% of their Archer missiles left and only two nuclear warheads left. They were at a major disadvantage.
Luck, however, was on their side today. This group wasn't here to fight them.
"Sir, we're being hailed by the lead Frigate." A Comms Officer spoke up.
This gave him pause, thinking for several seconds before speaking up, "What are our IFF tags identifying that ship as?"
The Navigation Officer blinked a couple of times, surprised by the request, but nonetheless, carried out the order as he checked the ID on the Frigate. After a few seconds, he replied, "Sir, IFF is identifying the lead Frigate as the UNSC Bellicose."
Bellicose. Lyrenne's ship. His posture softened and relaxed. They weren't in any danger. He knew why she was here.
"Patch them through." He spoke, leaning back in his chair as he watched the video screen in front of him change.
The screen changed to show the image of a woman, roughly 52 years old, physically, with graying black hair and almond eyes. She wore a black uniform with the insignia ranks for Rear Admiral on her shoulders. (Much to the annoyance of the UNSC bridge crew. Regardless if they were working together, they weren't keen on the idea of being subordinate to an Innie.) Her face, despite her age, wasn't very wrinkled. She had a smile on her face as she looked at Cole through the monitor.
The very same smile that he had fallen for all those years ago.
"Lyrenne Castilla," Cole said.
"Hello, Preston. It's been a long time." She spoke, her voice soft but firm.
"Indeed it has. So, how come I'm looking at a battlegroup of 10 ships? I was under the impression that it would be just our two ships." He asked. His crew was already aware of what was going on, so none looked too terribly surprised. Everyone had agreed to leave the UNSC and start anew with a colony somewhere. Nevertheless, that didn't mean they weren't tense at the sight of a URF Battlegroup.
"First off, you completely missed the rendezvous point." She stated rather bluntly, obviously irritated by this fact. In his defense, when you're trying to escape a gas giant that's going supernova because you just fired 100-something nukes into its core, the typical mindset of escaping is 'anywhere but here.' And it wasn't like she was entirely forthcoming about 'where' exactly to meet at.
He chose to keep that to himself, though, as she continued talking.
"Second, these are all the people that wanted to come as well, as well as the ones that know of our little plan. Those Parabolas in the back? Each one has some 100,000 passengers on them, not including the crew for each of them. Not only that, we have another 3 Parabolas and 2 Phoenix-class ships full of colonists coming into the system behind us, too, from 4 different systems as of right now. Plus, we'll need many people to perform various tasks if we want our colony to be successful and expand."
She's gotten her hands on a couple of Phoenix-Class ships? Lyrenne's been busy. Then again, knowing her, she probably has more than that under her control. Way more.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to have the extra manpower, plus those Springhill mining ships would come in handy for mining. And they could disassemble the Parabolas and use them to build housing and hydroponic farms. They probably already have enough supplies to feed everyone on board, as they're known to be able to carry enough food and water to supply a small city.
"So where exactly are we colonizing? What system are we going to?" Cole asked.
"You're already hovering above it."
"What?"
"We stumbled across this system by accident two years ago when we surveyed the cluster. When we noticed the fact that there was an intelligent race living due to a scan through the heat sigs, we opted against trying to colonize it. However, a couple of our eggheads decided they wanted to leave a couple of observation probes behind. When they returned a few months later, they couldn't believe what the probes showed them." Lyrenne spoke, leaning forward into her chair.
"What did they find out?" Cole inquired. Lyrenne smiled, then pressed a couple of buttons on her data pad. A few moments later, Cole's personal datapad beeped, signifying that he had received a message. He pulled it out and clicked on the data file. The screen changed to show a village, which very much reminded him of a small, sleepy little Asian village back on Earth. However, it was what he saw next that left him speechless.
Walking about the village and its surrounding area, going about their lives, were what looked like human beings.
The footage had been put on several of the larger screens and left the bridge crew dumbfounded, for a lack of better words. This system was uncharted by the UNSC, meaning no one had been to it beforehand. So there was no way this was some Colony that had been forgotten by the UNSC. And the technology being observed looked so primitive, which meant this wasn't likely some URF Colony either. 'What the hell is going on here?' That was the only thought Vice Admiral Cole had running through his mind.
As if sensing Cole's confusion, Lyrenne spoke up again, "Believe me, this had our eggheads baffled for hours on end. I assure you, though, that this isn't a joke. Nor is this some Colony we set up long ago and just forgot about. We weren't sure what to do at the time when we learned about them, so we kept quiet about it until we could decide what to do regarding these people."
"So why didn't try to integrate them into your faction or colonize the planet?" Cole questioned, somewhat skeptical that they would just keep quiet about something like this.
"We felt we had no right to involve them in our fight with the UNSC."
Cole raised an eyebrow at this.
Lyrenne closed her eyes and sighed, "Look, not everyone in the URF is an extremist like that, Preston. Most of us just don't like the way the UNSC runs things. Very few of us would actually resort to nuking cities."
Truth be told, they really had no room to talk, either. The UNSC had done the same just to quell rebellions. Regardless, they had other, more important matters to discuss at the moment.
"That still doesn't answer why here, though. If humans live on this planet, wouldn't it be best to leave them be?" He didn't like the idea of a group of primitives getting their hands on guns or tanks, god forbid.
"Preston. I want you to be honest with me about something." Her face was completely rigid and serious. From his own memories, she typically wasn't like this unless it was something extremely important. "Go ahead."
"How much longer do you think the UNSC has before the Covenant wipes them out?"
The room went silent after that sentence came out. The one thing no one wanted to think or talk about. The idea of losing didn't just mean humanity lost the war; it meant humanity would go extinct. For Cole, it had become nothing more than a damn cycle of winning a battle at one colony but losing a colony or two somewhere else.
Every battle he would win in space was overshadowed by the Covenant glassing two or three worlds somewhere else, killing millions every time. It didn't matter how many times you won in space if every one of your colonies was wiped out. In truth, the UNSC probably had another ten years before the Covenant would be at Earth's doorstep. And this was only because of the Cole Protocol being enforced.
"You and I both know that the UNSC gets weaker every day with each colony lost. And the Covenant doesn't seem to be slowing down or getting any weaker, even with the number of ships you've destroyed, Preston. This place," She gestured to the planet below, "Could be used to rebuild Humanity. According to the data from the probes, this planet already has some 200 million people living on it. We could rebuild Humanity and start all over. No war. No Insurrection. No Covenant. A fresh start."
While what she was proposing wasn't a bad idea, what she suggested would also take decades to fully implement. A full century, even. Time they may not have. As far as they knew, they could be right next door to Covenant Space and not even know it.
However, this may be the best opportunity they're gonna get at the same time. It was worth, at least, toying with to see where it goes.
With a sigh, Cole spoke up, "Alright. We'll send down a scouting party to survey a few spots for colonization. We first focus on building up our colony, then talk about communicating with the locals."
"Excellent," Lyrenne replied, satisfied that Cole mostly agreed to her plan. "We'll start right away."
"Lyrenne, wait. There's one more thing we need to discuss." Cole suddenly spoke, making sure he had her full attention.
"What is it?"
There was a short pause before Cole replied, with a firm voice, "I want to meet her."
Lyrenne's eyes widened slightly, realizing what Cole was talking about. "Preston, I don't think this is a good time to talk about this."
"Then you shouldn't have mentioned her when you contacted me." Cole growled out, narrowing his eyes, "Now, I'll move my ship in position to link up with your group. Also, I want you to come aboard my ship so we can discuss our next course of action in person, but I expect her to be with you on whatever shuttle you take over here. I think it's only fair that I finally meet Rebecca."
It was Lyrenne's turn to narrow her eyes, but nevertheless, she relented, "Fine. Don't expect her to be overly excited about meeting you, though. Remember, she's been raised by a bunch of Innies for her whole life, so she may have some colored views about you." She replied mockingly, using the UNSC's nickname for the insurrectionists, "I'll see you... we'll see you in about a couple of hours."
And with that, the connection was cut. The monitor screen went black. Cole leaned back in his chair and sighed. Today was going to be a long and exhausting day, and it wasn't even half over yet. Well, at least one good thing was going to come out of it.
He would finally get to meet his daughter.
2 Hours Later
In orbit of Planet's Moon
UNSC Everest
Bridge
The combined UNSC/URF battlegroup moved closer to the planet, now called Shinsei, as they entered the moon's orbit, Shirudo. The Frigates lead the way in a wedge-like formation while the Everest tailed behind them. Further back, the Parabolas and the Springhill mining ship hung, with some 12 Longsword Fighters flying around them as protection.
Vice Admiral Cole continued to observe the battlegroup through the holo-pad. He glanced over to his left and spoke, "Julius. What's the status of our ODST recon element?"
To his left, an AI hologram appeared, taking on the appearance of the Roman Dictator he was named after. "They're ready to depart now, my liege. They're merely awaiting your command to depart." Julius spoke in a very formal voice.
"Good. Tell them they have a green light to depart."
"Very good, sir. They're boarding the Pelicans now. They should be departing Everest in roughly 1 minute. Also, sir, Rear Admiral Castilla's Pelican has arrived in hangar 2-A4. I have a Platoon of Marines waiting to meet her and a squad to escort her to the bridge."
"Good, notify me when they get up here." Cole finished. Julius' hologram flickered out of existence as the AI did its tasks. The holo-pad then showed 10 icons, identified as Pelican dropships, exiting and moving away from Everest. They moved about until they got in a loose formation and proceeded down towards the planet below.
Now, he just had to wait for them to reach the ground side.
"What is the status of the crew?" He asked one of the technicians next to him.
"Roughly 55% of the crew have been awakened from cryo-sleep and are getting ready, sir. As for the three Spartan IIs, we've yet to awake them, per your orders, sir."
"Alright. Have everyone on board go to a combat alert status and prepare for possible mass deployment. I want that Island lockdown and secured before the day is over."
The young man saluted and went to complete his task. Cole looked back at the holo-pad, watching the slow and steady progress of the Pelicans as they descended to the planet below. He just hoped he wasn't going to come to regret this decision to go along with Castilla's plan.
First Contacts never do go according to plan.
Meanwhile...
Shinsei Atmosphere
Pelican Gamma-12
Combat Team Tombstone, 3rd Platoon/Charlie Company
75th ODST Battalion of the former 88th ODST Division
The roar of the dropship's engines thundered and reverberated throughout the troop bay as the 22-man Combat Team checked and double-checked all of their gear. Most of them were veterans with years of experience fighting the Covenant or Insurrection. They had all seen several worlds fall to the Covenant's genocidal campaign over the years and had become hardened by this long and bitter conflict.
Corporal Oliver Rhineford, however, wasn't like his fellow ODST.
He was a relatively new member of the group, having only been with the unit, and the Helljumpers, for that matter, for the past two years. He was a rather young man, 25 years old. 6'0", 175 pounds, he was about average height for a human. He had dark brown hair and soft, green eyes. He was a religious man, raised in a Catholic family, and had a Catholic Cross on his dog tags. However, four years in the military had dampened his religious views somewhat.
And now he was in charge of a Fireteam for the first time. The 4-man Fireteam Whiskey.
"Ok, Marines. 2 minutes till we hit the ground! Everyone remembers their orders?" His C/O, Staff Sergeant William 'Bill' Jackson, spoke up to everyone in the dropship. Silent nods confirmed that everyone knew what they were supposed to do. Their mission was to explore an island for possible colonization by the fleet above. The one their company was going to was an island off the southern coast of some peninsula on the main continent's northeastern part.
It was roughly 121 miles long and about 38 miles at its widest point. There was a large mountain in the northeast surrounded by flatlands filled with forest and grasslands to the south and southwest. Ideal for an upstart colony. The problem? Command wanted to make sure no one else had already staked a claim on it before they did, so they were sending ODST down to explore the area. The only things of notable entry were three villages, a couple of small port towns, and a small city near the center of the island that looked like they had all been burnt down and abandoned ages ago. Orbital surveys didn't show signs of habitation, but that didn't mean the island was necessarily abandoned.
With any luck, this would be a mostly uneventful mission. Many of the shock troopers were already having trouble accepting that they were now working with Insurrectionists. Now there was supposedly a whole other group of humans that lived here. One that appeared as though they were stuck in the middle ages.
'30 seconds, guys. Lock and load.' The pilot spoke over the intercom. Rhineford loaded his M392 DMR and MA5C before putting on his helmet. His visor immediately polarized, as did the rest of the ODST Marines. The ramp opened up and lowered, exposing them to the outside world below. Staff Sergeant Jackson peered down at the small clearing below that was surrounded by an incredibly dense forest. There was no way a Warthog was going to traverse through this. It was moments like this he wished they had a Scorpion Tank. Nevertheless, they were going to be hiking on foot for a while. The Pelican reached the ground and hovered there.
'Touchdown. Good hunting, Troopers.' The pilot spoke once more. Jackson looked back to his Combat Team and shouted, "Okay, Helljumpers. Go! Go! Go!"
With that, he jumped out, and the rest of the ODST filed out of the Dropship, out into the new, unknown lands. The ODST spread out and dispersed, putting as much distance in between their individual selves as possible in case someone had an explosive device aimed at them. This was years of combat experience fighting an alien hegemony equipped with advanced weapons being put to use. The Pelican immediately began to ascend once the last Marine was out of the Dropship.
The ODST set up a perimeter, going prone to ensure they made themselves the smallest possible targets. They waited for the Dropship to ascend high into the air before slowly shifting to a crouched position.
'Tombstone, Gamma-12. We'll provide air support if and when you need it.'
"Copy, Gamma. Contact Command and see if we can get some Warthogs down here." SSgt Jackson replied. While he didn't mind hiking it for a while, some armed transport would make things go quickly once they were out in the open.
'Roger, Tombstone. We'll see what we can do. Gamma-12, out.' And with that, the Pelican lifted up into the air and disappeared into the clouds above.
"Okay, Marines. You know what to do. Split up into your respective Fireteams and fan out. Let's bounce!" SSgt Jackson motioned for his Fireteam to form up, as did the other Fireteam Leaders. Once they had linked up, they split off from the other Fireteams and went their separate ways.
The exploration of the island had begun.
30 minutes later...
Rhineford moved through the brush of the forest, along with the other three members of his Fireteam in a wedge formation, scanning their surroundings for anything out of place or hostile. So far, nothing except, strangely, birds and even a couple of deer that were native to Earth.
His grenadier, Lance Corporal Robert Parker, was on point to his upper left, methodically sweeping his MA5C back and forth, scanning for targets. His MA5C had the Assault Rifle's standard flashlight attachment swapped out for an M322 40mm under-barrel grenade launcher. As a backup, he had a BR55.
To Corporal Rhineford's right was the Squad's Automatic Weapon, PFC Simon Peltier, covering the right flank of the Fireteam but ready to lay down suppressive fire with his M739 SAW in any direction if needed.
The extra Rifleman, and medic of the group, PFC Lydia Armstrong, was on the lower left side of Parker, scanning the left flank with her MA5C.
The Fireteam continued through the forest, keeping an eye on their surroundings. The last thing they wanted was to get caught in an ambush. For most of them, this mindset developed from years of fighting the Covenant. But with any luck, those days were behind them. One thing Oliver noticed was just how large and how thick the trees were. The treetops were so thick and bushy that they blocked out a significant amount of sunlight. It looked almost like it was dawn or something if he didn't know any better. The trees and flora in this forest were definitely ancient, growing wild in the absence of any civilization to harvest them.
"We should be coming up on a clearing. Has Everest launched any UAVs yet?" Parker spoke up as the Fireteam rounded a trio of massive trees intertwined with one another.
"Yeah, but none are close enough to our position to be any help. The closest one's about 7 minutes out." Rhineford replied, doing a sweep with his DMR before continuing forward.
"Tch, figures. Flyboys are never nearby when you need them." Peltier retorted. The Frenchman wasn't in a good mood this morning. Cryo-sleep never did suit him well. He was just lucky he didn't get 'freezer burn' as some people do coming out of Cryo.
"I see the clearing, tree line about 80 meters ahead," Parker spoke up. The 4-man Fireteam trained their weapons forward as they approached the clearing. The sunlight shined so brightly that they couldn't see outside the darkened forest. It also meant that anyone looking into the darkened forest couldn't see that well unless they were near the edge of the forest. A double-edged sword, in Parker's opinion.
However, the clearing they were heading to was also where they needed to go, if they want to acquire the Warthogs they needed faster movement across this damn island.
"50 more meters to the clearing," Parker spoke once more. Suddenly, the very edge of his motion tracker picked up movement, if only for the briefest of seconds. Parker had just narrowly noticed it and stopped. The others noticed Parker's sudden halt and halted as well, looking towards the Lance Corporal.
"What is it?" Armstrong was the first to speak.
"Saw something on my motion tracker, on the edge of it. It was only for a second, but whatever it was, it's directly ahead of us." Parker replied, never looking away from the front of them, slowly raising his MA5C up until it pointed forward as he talked. While it was very unlikely to be the Covenant, that didn't mean the shock troopers weren't put on edge.
They were taught to always expect the unexpected.
"Where's the nearest friendly unit?" Peltier asked. He crouched and aimed his SAW to cover the Fireteam's right flank.
"Fireteam Kilo. SSgt Jackson's team. They're roughly 600 meters East of our position."
"Shit. Then we need to investigate and find out what that was." Parker replied as he started to walk forward slowly.
"Whoa, whoa, now." Rhineford stopped him, putting an arm on the man's shoulder. "This doesn't necessarily mean anything. Could have been just another deer for all we know." He understood the man's uneasiness, but there was no Covenant here, no enemy to fight here. Therefore there was no need to go the typical Gung-ho that the military usually does when they hear an unusual noise. At least, in his mind, that was what he thought.
Plus, the scans done hours earlier showed that the island wasn't inhabited by anybody, so there was no need to go into a full-fledged panic.
"Doesn't mean we shouldn't at least confirm that." Parker retorted. "I'd rather be safe than getting fucked over in an ambush later on."
"I understand that but-"
Rhineford's reply was cut short when they heard something they shouldn't have heard. People conversing. Talking.
"Down, now!" Rhineford immediately whispered loudly. All four soldiers dropped to a prone position instantly. They lay there listening to the conversation. Granted, they couldn't understand a word being said, they listened in any way to figure out just how far away the conversing parties were. The last thing they wanted was to be discovered, especially considering they had no idea what they were up against.
Rhineford turned his head to Armstrong, who had the best ears out of the group, "Lydia?"
"I'd say they're roughly 40-50 meters out, just outside our motion tracker's range. I don't know how many there are, though." She replied, listening to the best of her abilities while keeping her MA5C at the ready. The conversation continued, and from the sound of it, the people conversing didn't care in the world, judging from the volume of the talking. That was good for them. It meant that whoever was talking wasn't on alert and watching their surroundings.
"Okay, move forward slowly and keep. Your. Eyes. Open." Rhineford commanded as he took the lead in their slow but deliberate crawl toward whoever was near them. Who or what were they about to stumble upon?
He had seen the video showing that there were, in fact, other humans living on this planet, but he still had trouble believing it. Many of the Marines, himself included, had watched the videos several times, trying to find anything that would make them inhuman. Cat ears, scales, a tail, anything to dehumanize them. Many of them had been fighting inhuman monsters for so long it was hard for many troopers to accept the idea of other human beings existing in the galaxy.
Regardless, they were about to find out firsthand.
Hidden Sky/Hidden Mist Rendezvous Point
Kiyabu Hideo was having a good day today. Why? Because today was going to be the start of the Hidden Sky Village returning to the empire they once had.
Kiyabu Hideo was a 27-year-old from the Hidden Sky Village. Standing roughly 5'11 and weighing in at about 160 pounds, he was a lean, strong individual. He had short, dark brown hair and dark green eyes, which had a light red streak going over each eye. He had a scar on the right corner of his mouth that ran from the bottom of his nose to his chin. He had a Ninjato holstered on his left hip.
Rated an A-ranked Shinobi in the Bingo Book, he forged his reputation as a skilled and competent leader within the ranks of the Sky Village Shinobi, leading him to earn the rank of Jonin within just three years of graduating from the academy, a feat unheard of in the Eastern Elemental Nations. That being said, that didn't mean he didn't have his flaws. If someone had severely wronged him, he would hold it against them. He wasn't the type to forgive. Especially the person who gave him his scar.
After the disastrous 2nd Great Shinobi War, their nation was a shadow of its former self. Its former territory is now fractured into numerous new countries. such as the Land of Birds, Wolf, and Honey. Not only that but their Easternmost territories were taken by those wretched Hidden Swamp Shinobi, from the Land of Swamps, in their weakened state.
But that was going to change quickly. They were going to return to their days of being a mighty and feared world power. They had already reconquered the Land of Birds, and now they were on track to retake their eastern lands from the Hidden Swamp Village. And this would, according to his superiors, be their first step.
His team, which comprised five other Hidden Sky Shinobi, was being backed up by roughly another 30 Hidden Sky Shinobi nearby at a small base they had set up, and many more back with the ship due to the importance of their missions. All they were waiting on was for the team of Hidden Mist Shinobi to show up with their bounty. Frankly, the Hidden Mist Shinobi had wanted to arrange the meeting point to be somewhere in the Land of Wolf. Still, his Sukaikage didn't trust the people of those lands and had decided to have the rendezvous here, in the former territory of the Land of Whirlpool.
While still a very fertile and lush island, even after the carnage and destruction wrought on it, nobody had come to claim the land as their own since the destruction of the Hidden Whirlpool Village. With the political landscape of the lands, that was unlikely to change for a long time. He honestly was surprised that the Land of Fire hadn't tried to annex the island since it fell. Regardless, it made a perfect place to arrange a meetup. Pirates, the superstitious lot, very rarely operated bases on these islands, and very few of the local nations had shinobi travel through here. There wouldn't be any interferences, save for maybe a marauding fleet of pirates or bandits passing through, which their airship carrier would deal with if needed. All they had to do was wait for the Hidden Mist to show up.
"Where the hell are they? I figured they would have beaten us here to this damn island." One of Hideo's teammates, a large, imposing man whose black hair was hidden under a doo-rag, spoke up while propping himself against a tree.
"Pft, you would complain about having to wait, Kotaro. All it means is that we sit back and relax while they drag their asses along to get here. Better here than someplace like the damn desert." Another teammate, a dark blue-haired woman, replied, glancing her light brown eyes at her teammate in annoyance. She leaned up against a tree as well while she inspected her kunai.
"Fuck off, Naoko. If I wanted a comeback, I'd wipe it off your chin." Kotaro grinned, earning a grunt of disgust from the woman.
"Knock it off, both of you." Hideo finally spoke up, giving Kotaro a glare, receiving a chuckle in response. He was getting tired of their constant bickering, "They'll show up when they show up. With the amount of money we're offering them, they're not gonna risk being no-shows over one woman. They need every bit of help they get with that civil war they're dealing with." He chuckled. He could care less about the Hidden Mist's Civil War. If they wanted to go and wipe out all their shinobi with bloodlines, let them. Just means they'll be weaker in the long run.
"Our internal affairs are none of your concern, Sky Village."
Finally, the Hidden Mist team arrived. 2 Hidden Mist Shinobi leaped in front of them, one of them carrying a tied-up, unconscious woman on their shoulder, her head covered in a bag. Their target and purpose of this entire mission.
"I guess she put up more of a fight than anticipated?" Hideo teased, motioning towards the unconscious person, now being tossed to the ground.
"More so than her useless teammates, but the results were the same. You Easterners are rarely a challenge compared to Konoha or Kumo." The lead Hidden Mist Shinobi, Fumio, growled out as he crossed his arms. His black eyes were the only visible features of his face, the rest covered in a grey mask.
Hideo smirked as he walked over to the unconscious woman, who was slowly starting to stir awake. Kneeling down, he took off the bag covering her head.
Removing the bag revealed a woman, 26, with long orange hair that went slightly past her shoulders. She had brown eyes, with a dark blue triangle marking under each eye, signifying her being a member of a particular clan. She had a well-built and beautiful figure, one that made her the envy of a lot of women in her home village. Her name was Takashima Satomi, the daughter of the 2nd and current, Numakage of the Hidden Swamp Village.
And the very same woman who, along with her village, had been a massive thorn in the Sky Village's side for several years.
Satomi groaned softly after being just blatantly dropped, the large bruises on the side of her head and cheek evidence of just how bad of shape she was in at the moment. Dried blood caked the side of her head as well, along with a few splotches on her clothing. Even if the Hidden Mist Shinobi wouldn't want to admit it, she had put up quite a fight, a far better one than they had expected from one of the Eastern Shinobi Nations. That alone had cost them two shinobi dead and two more badly injured by her hands.
Nevertheless, the target had been captured. All that was left to do was to collect their paycheck and return with the bounty.
"Wasn't there supposed to be 8 of you?" Naoko suddenly spoke up, curious as to why there were only two of them.
The Mist Shinobi that hadn't been carrying the woman turned to her, "The others are nearby, close enough to respond if you Sky Shinobi decided to try something stupid, which I highly recommend you don't."
Hideo rolled his eyes, not wanting to stay here any longer than necessary, "We're not." he sighed, "You kept up your end of the bargain. Now, we keep up ours." He looked at Kotaro and motioned for him to pull out the money. Kotaro walked over to one of his fellow Sky Shinobi, who had pulled out a sealing scroll. Taking the scroll from the Shinobi, he walked back over and raised his hand out to give it to the Mist Shinobi. The lead Mist Shinobi suddenly stopped him with a raise of the hand.
"Open it." He commanded. Obviously, the Hidden Mist wasn't very trusting of the Sky Village.
A wise mindset.
Kotaro set the scroll on the ground and unrolled it. He placed his hand on the scroll and channeled chakra through the scroll, releasing the contents inside. With a puff of smoke, the scroll spilled out three large chests, each opened up to show some 25,000,000 Ryo's worth of coin and cash combined. The revelation of the money inside the scroll seemed to ease the Hidden Mist Shinobi's suspicion.
While Kotaro and a couple of Sky Shinobi put all of the money back into the scroll, the Mist Shinobi walked over to Hideo and spoke up, "Well, since you've kept your words, then our business is concluded. We'll take our leave now."
"Good." Hideo replied, satisfied with how the events turned out, "Then we'll be on our way as well."
The Hidden Mist Shinobi said nothing more as they both shunshined away.
Fireteam Whiskey
"What... the fuck?" Was all Parker could manage out after watching the two men... basically disappear into thin air.
"How the hell did they do that?" Peltier whispered, glancing at his squadmates before looking back down at the group of humans before them. All they did was make some random signs with their hands, and then suddenly, like magic, they just... up and vanished. They had never seen anything like that before. The active camouflage of the Elites didn't even work like this.
"Tombstone-Actual, you saw that on the video feed, confirm, over?" Rhineford questioned after opening a channel and live video feed to his CO to show them their discovery.
'Uhh... R-roger that, Whiskey-Lead, we saw it. Standby while we relay info to Kingpin-Actual and Everest-Command, out.' Ssgt Jackson replied over the comms. The Fireteam held position while they waited for word from either Everest or Colonel Barnes. Every one of them had dozens of questions flowing through their heads. At the same time, they waited, wondering about these new and strange people they'd encountered.
"Sooo... is anyone else's what-the-fuck detector going off right now?" Armstrong spoke up as she scanned her surroundings with her MA5C.
"Yeah, I'm sure everybody is. What the hell did those people use, magic?" Parker piped in, shrugging his shoulders as he spoke.
"I don't know. One of them pulled out what looked like a scroll like freaking Romans would use or something, rolled it out on the ground." Rhineford spoke.
"Yeah, I saw that, too. Then the guy holding it put his hand on or something, and suddenly there were three fucking chests that sprang outta nowhere! How the hell did they do that?" Parker replied, replaying the event in his mind as he glanced up at the open field ahead before scanning his surroundings.
"Yeah, I know. It was crazy-" Peltier was cut off when their comms came to life.
'Whiskey-Lead, this is Kingpin-Actual, over.' Colonel Barnes' voice came over the comms.
'This is Whiskey-Lead; we read you. Go ahead, over.'
'Whiskey-Lead, Everest is dispatching all 12 of her F-99 Drones; I'm having one redirected to support you personally. Your new mission is to track down this group and determine where they're based. However, you are not to engage in any interaction whatsoever; a simple reconnaissance mission is over.'
Fireteam Whiskey looked at one another before Rhineford replied, 'Roger that, Kingpin. We'll do what we can to track them down, over.'
'Roger that, Whiskey-Lead. Good hunting. Kingpin-Actual, out.'
"Great, now they want us to look for these guys." Peltier groaned, standing up as he stretched his lower body out.
"Look at the bright side, Simon," Armstrong teased, "At least we got that Air Support you were whining about."
"Ha. Ha." Peltier flicked her off. Rhineford and the rest of Fireteam Whiskey stood up and started to walk toward the clearing. "Okay, let's see if the Wombat can help locate our missing friends," Rhineford spoke as he opened up his tact pad on his arm and opened a connection to the nearest F-99 Wombat. The tac-pad's screen changed to the bird's-eye view the Wombat provided as it flew over the island.
Rhineford connected with the Wombat's 'Bee-net', and his headcam screen changed to a birds-eye view of the island. Friendly units were highlighted by green boxes. Once he was linked with the one flying over his fire team's position, he had the drone scan the surrounding area for other people. If it did, since it's not known if they're hostile or not, they'll be marked with an orange box around them.
"See anything?" Peltier questioned.
"No, not yet. If they're still here, which I'm sure they are, the drones will find 'em, though." Rhineford replied as he continued viewing from the drone's perspective.
'Fireteam Whiskey, this is Fireteam Gamma, over.' The radio suddenly came to life with the sound of Gamma's leader, Corporal Ferrero, calling out for them.
'Gamma, this is Whiskey. Go ahead, over.' Rhineford replied.
'Whiskey, we've got eyes on your boogeymen. We're currently about 1 Klick North-Northeast your position. We're shadowing a group matching the description about 100 meters ahead of us. Over.'
Fireteam Whiskey looked at one another. These guys were already a Kilometer away in roughly 3 minutes? That was something only Spartans would have been capable of doing right there. Maybe. They had their work cut out for them.
"Okay, guys, I guess we better start hiking over to catch up," Rhineford spoke to the team as they stood up and started walking in the direction of Fireteam Gamma's location. Rhineford replied on the comms, 'Roger, Gamma. We're moving to your position now. ETA 10 Mikes, over.'
'Roger that, Whiskey. We'll maintain visual. Fireteam Gamma, out.'
"Okay, let's pick up the pace a little, Marines," Parker spoke up as they all began to jog towards their destination.
UNSC Everest
Bridge
The two Admirals looked at one another, from across the bridge, in silence for what seemed like an eternity, neither one moving a muscle. Vice Admiral Cole took in every feature he saw on Lyrenne's figure. Her stainless white BDU was typical of a naval officer. Her soft, blue eyes stared straight at him. Even if he was mad at her for everything that's happened, he couldn't help but admit he had missed her dearly.
Lyrenne smirked, "It's been a long time, huh, Preston?"
"Yes... it has." He slowly walked over to her, a soft, small smile gracing his lips. As he got closer, he stopped when another woman walked into the room, considerably younger than the two of them.
"Mom, what's-" She stopped when she saw Cole. Her face turned to a slight scowl as she sized up the Vice-Admiral. She spoke with a soft 'hmph,' "I honestly thought you'd be a little taller. Less wrinkly, too." The young woman was roughly 5'8", maybe 120 pounds, and 28 years old, physically. With short black hair and almond-colored eyes adorning her face. She had a modestly curvy figure, though most of it wasn't visible with the black BDU she had on. On her nameplate, the name 'Cole' was visible.
Cole hadn't noticed the nameplate at first, though, and with narrowed eyes, he asked, "And... who are you, miss?" He suspected he already knew the answer.
"Really, Preston? After all the fuss you made about wanting to meet her?" Lyrenne replied, causing Cole's eyes to widen in surprise and take a glance at the nameplate. She walked over to the young woman and spoke, "Preston Cole. I would like you to meet your daughter. Captain Rebecca Alexander Cole." she finished introducing. At the same time, Rebecca simply crossed her arms and stared at her father. A handful of the bridge crew glanced back at the small group after hearing the name 'Rebecca Cole' but quickly returned to their tasks.
"Captain? You let her in your fleet?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, since the Navy pretty much runs in the family, I figured, why not. Besides, who do you think it was that saved your sorry ass at Psi Serpentis?" Rebecca retorted as she glanced around the room, crossing her arms.
Cole's eyes immediately glared at Lyrenne, "You let her engage a Covenant Fleet?!" he growled out. Leading a ship was fine, but the last thing he wanted was for any of his children to have to fight in the war against the Covenant. Lyrenne was about to respond, but Rebecca beat her to it.
"I'm not a child, Preston. I can make my own choices. Besides, I've been a Captain for years now." Rebecca retorted, glaring at him.
"That doesn't mean you need to be involved in fighting the Covenant in any shape or form!"
"Enough!" Lyrenne suddenly shouted, catching both of their attention. She continued, "Right now, the last thing we need is to be arguing with one another. We must focus on ensuring everyone will get along with one another. That, and making sure we don't screw up this colonization. We've got one chance to do this right, or we could have an entire planet rising up against us. The last thing we need is another hostile First Contact. Let's focus on all of that first, then we'll go back to resolving our family problems. Preferably in a more private setting."
Cole looked around the room and noticed that several of the bridge crew were glancing at the arguing trio but quickly turned their heads back to their consoles and platforms when they noticed Cole looking around. Cole sighed, "Agreed. I just hope that you know what you're doing, Lyrenne."
Lyrenne glanced at her former husband, "So do I. We don't exactly have a solid record in first-contact scenarios." she joked, though no one laughed.
The irony of the joke, however, wasn't lost on anyone listening on the bridge.
Fireteam Whiskey/Gamma
50 meters outside perimeter of Unknown Camp
Fireteams Whiskey and Gamma both crawled up behind several fallen logs, looking out towards the small encampment before them. Rhineford could see that there were maybe 30 to 40 people either inside or patrolling the perimeter some 10 meters out. Some were gathered around having drinks, while others were sparring or moving a couple of boxes from one tent to another out of the roughly two dozen set up.
"How the hell did we miss all these assholes? Probes should have picked them up earlier on their sensors, shouldn't they?" Parker whispered, leaning over to Rhineford. Despite their helmets being capable of muffling their voices, that didn't mean they were foolproof.
"You saw how thick those woods were, dudar. They could easily hide a person. Plus, with the probes so high up, even with thermals, they could have easily overlooked them due to the larger villages and cities on the planet." Corporal Ferrero replied beside him. Parker thought about it. It made sense. Plus, this wouldn't have been the first time something like this had happened, where scout probes had overlooked something.
"Regardless, we need to radio it in so the rest of our boys are aware." Rhineford pipped in, following this by speaking into his headset, 'Kingpin-Actual, this is Fireteam Whiskey, over.'
'Roger, Whiskey-Lead. We read you. Send your traffic; over.'
'Kingpin-Actual, we have linked up with Fireteam Gamma and located the local encampment. We're looking at what looks to be maybe 30 to 40-something individuals in the camp. Be advised, more may be in the camp, over.'
'Roger, that. Whiskey-Lead, are they doing anything in particular? Do they appear to be on alert or such, over?'
'Kingpin-Actual, aside from the patrols they've got around the perimeter, that's a negative, over.'
'Roger that. Whiskey-Lead, your orders are as follows. You will proceed with recon of local inhabitants; gather more intel on them for the eggheads upstairs. Do not, I repeat, do not interact with them in any way whatsoever. This is strictly a recon op, not a first contact, over.'
'Roger that, Kingpin-Actual. Be advised, however, it does appear they do have what appears to be a prisoner of sorts, over.'
'Understood, Whiskey-Lead, but irrelevant. No interaction. Kingpin-Actual, out.'
And with that, the radio went silent, and the two ODST Fireteams looked at one another before looking back at the encampment. They noticed one rather large man walking into one of the tents while the circle of people he had been drinking with was cheering him on. "Well, fuck. Who woulda thought there were other humans in the galaxy? Huh, go figure, right?" Simon spoke up, trying to lighten the mood of everyone.
"Still not seeing any horns or tail. Maybe they're not monsters after all." Someone joked, "Then again, they're probably a bunch of Innie-sympathizers. Might wanna napalm 'em just to be safe."
"Nah. Just go ahead and jump straight to nuking. Kill the men, rape the women, enslave the kids." Another suggested, earning a couple of chuckles.
"Alright, comedians. How 'bout we just hope that when we finally introduce ourselves, it doesn't go as bad as it did with the Covenant." Lydia replied. "Got enough fuckheads and cocksuckers wanting to kill us as it is."
"Hoo-fucking-rah." Peltier quietly agreed. Parker and three of Fireteam Gamma's soldiers replied with "Yeah." and "Amen." Rhineford, however, just continued to watch the camp inhabitants go on with their day, oblivious to the eight soldiers hiding in the bush 50 meters from their camp.
Hidden Sky Shinobi Encampment
Hideo's Tent
Hideo Kiyabu leaned back into his sleeping bag as he reminisced about today's events. Everything had gone completely according to plan. And that was left now was to return home, and they would be back on track to becoming the large and feared Empire they once were. Then, they could get back and have vengeance on everyone who put them in this state to begin with.
"Ryu for your thoughts, Hideo-kun." came Naoko's voice as she entered his tent.
He smiled, "Just happy everything went off without a hitch today."
Naoko walked over and sat down next to Hideo, leaning on him as she got comfortable. Outside, several of the other Sky Shinobi could be heard celebrating the mission's success. All that was left now was to go home with their prisoner.
"Well, we did it, huh?" Naoko asked as she curled up next to him.
"Yep. And with the Numakage's daughter in our custody, he'll have no choice but to submit to our demands. Otherwise, we'll dismember her one piece at a time." Hideo's relaxed yet thrilled reply came as he cupped his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.
"Are you sure he'll just roll over and submit to us?"
Hideo snorted, "Of course! After what happened to his wife and first daughter, he's been overprotective about his sole surviving daughter. Hell, some of our reports say she hasn't even been out of the Village for nearly a year before this. Tch, yeah. He'll submit, alright."
"What about our guys? They better not rough her up too bad. Especially Kotaro, knowing him." Naoko spoke as she nuzzled up to her team leader, her face adorned with a scowl as she thought about their scumbag of a teammate.
Hideo batted an eye open at her, "Don't tell me you're actually concerned for her, are you?"
"Hell, no!" She scoffed, "I just don't want to get in trouble with the Sukaikage because our guys decided to get too rough with her. I couldn't give two shits if they wanna fuck around with her; just don't go overboard with it."
"Damn. Talk about cold-hearted." Hideo chuckled.
Naoko rolled over on top of him, looking directly into his eyes with a seductive look on her face and a knowing smirk. She brought her face inches from his. "Well, how about you help me warm up, then?" She cooed as they closed the distance and locked lips with one another for a soft kiss.
After a few seconds, they broke off the kiss and stared silently at one another. Naoko, however, was the one to finally break the silence between the two.
"Hideo. How much longer are we going to pretend nothing is going on between us?"
Hideo sighed, knowing this was coming, "Naoko..."
"Don't 'Naoko' me! We've been like this for over two years now. But you still can't make up your mind. Do you want to be with me or am I just some trophy? It makes me wonder if you actually love me or not." Naoko growled at him, crossing her arms in agitation.
"You know I do, Naoko!" Hideo snapped.
They've been seeing each other for the better part of 2 years now. It wasn't that Hideo didn't want to be with Naoko. Kami, she was everything he could ever want in a woman. The truth was he was just afraid to get too close to her. Why? Who could say? Maybe something to do with his childhood as far as he knew. Naoko, though, was probably one of the only things he cared about more than life itself, and he wouldn't dare imagine what would happen to her if he died on a mission. What would that do to her? Could he honestly be willing to put her through something like that?
No. He couldn't. He wouldn't dare to. Maybe further down the line when they were older and retired, but at this moment, he couldn't. Especially in the line of work, they do, where death could be right around the corner.
"Then what is it, then?! Are you afraid to admit it or something?"
"I just..." Hideo sighed, trying to compose himself, "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to me and it ended up hurting you in the end. What if I died or something? Where would that leave you?"
"Hideo..." Naoko spoke softly, looking at him with a hurt look in her eyes. Hideo looked back at her, waiting for a response.
Suddenly, Naoko bonked him on the head rather hard, earning a yelp of pain from the Sky Village Jounin. "Baka! You'd already be putting me through it if something happened to you. I think we're well past that point now!" She growled out, glaring at him with annoyance, while Hideo meekly rubbed the new bump on his head.
"We're Shinobi, right? Death is an everyday risk we take. It's part of our job. Instead of sitting being paranoid, make the most of what you have, and appreciate what Kami blessed you with." She wrapped her arms around his neck, "Life's too short. Enjoy it." She finished as she planted a soft kiss on Hideo's cheek before nuzzling her head into his neck.
Hideo thought long and hard about her words. He knew she was right. Life was too short to worry about. Make the most of it instead of fearing the possible. He knew it would be a long and painful process for him to overcome, but he could at least give it a shot. When they returned to the village, he decided he'd take her out for dinner. She deserves that much, at least. He was lucky to have someone as faithful as she was, and he knew it.
Leaning his head back with a smile, he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and dozed off to the sound of her soft breathing.
Hidden Sky Shinobi Encampment
Outside Tents
Takashima Satomi was tossed unceremoniously as she hit the ground hard, which only made the bruises and injuries she's sustained beforehand hurt even more. With a pained gasp, she looked up at the laughing and jeering crowd that had gathered around her.
To put it bluntly, she was in bad condition. Her forest green shinobi outfit was torn and tattered. She had cuts and bruises all over her body. Dried blood was all over her body and in her hair. She had ended up this way from her team being ambushed by 2 teams of Hidden Mist Shinobi. Unfortunately for her, they were all A and B-rank Shinobi, quickly cutting down her team. Though she had been able to kill a couple of them, they had still bested her and subdued her.
"HA! Fucking swamp whore!"
"Show you to mess with Sky Village Shinobi!"
"Let's shave her head!"
"No, better yet! Take all of her clothes off and parade her around!"
The chants and jeers of the surrounding Sky Village Ninja echoed all around her. It wasn't helping her raging headache in any way. Though, that was more than likely a concussion she was feeling. She'd want nothing more than to escape at the moment, but her chakra reserves were depleted. Even if it weren't, it was sealed off with chakra binds on her hands, which were bound behind her back. She wasn't going anywhere from them anytime soon. Satomi was completely at their mercy.
And they knew it.
A kick to the gut earned a small gasp of pain out of her as a large and imposing man towered over her, twirling her Village Headband in his fingers. With a lecherous grin, he spoke, "Not so tough now. Huh, Lightning Queen?" he mocked. All she could do was glare at him as he kneeled down, looking her dead in the eyes.
Raising an eyebrow, Kotaro questioned, "Hey, now. Don't take this personally." Closing his eyes and shrugging his shoulders, "I mean, to be fair, you did kinda bring this upon yourself." He chuckled.
"Fu... Fuck... you." Satomi breathed out. Kotaro grunted in amusement and tossed her headband aside.
Grinning even wider, he grabbed her by the collar of her outfit, bringing her up to eye level. Looking at her figure and grinning, he warned, "Careful, you're not really in a position to talk big."
Suddenly, Satomi spat a wad of bloody spit onto his face, causing him to flinch back in surprise. Growling in anger, he punched her in the gut. Satomi gasped out and doubled over in pain. Kotaro flung her to the ground as he wiped the spit off.
"Now that..." He growled threateningly, "Is gonna cost you."
He took out a kunai and slashed at the front of her uniform, revealing her large bust to the crowd. Satomi gasped as lots of whooping and whistling from the Sky Shinobi followed. One of the Sky Village Shinobi, however, walked up. "Kotaro, what are you doing?"
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna kill her." Kotaro replied, looking back at the man with a devilish grin, "That being said, that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with her. I figured the least she could do was give us a little show before we head back." he laughed, as he looked back and cut away at her shorts, tearing them away and revealing her nether regions.
Looking back at the crowd, Kotaro shouted, "Whadda say, boys?! Let's have ourselves a little fun with our guest! Who wants first dibs on some Swamp Village pussy?!" Roars and whistles of approval echoed amongst the Sky Shinobi and Kunoichi. Kotaro laughed as he watched Satomi's face go from pure anger to mortified shock. As a couple of Sky Shinobi walked past him towards their captive, Kotaro simply stood back and watched the show before him play itself out.
While he normally would be the first in line to try out a captive Kunoichi, this Kunoichi, in particular, was one he wanted to watch suffer first. He'd have his fun with her. This Swamp Village bitch has killed 30 of the Sky Village's ninjas in her career, including his brother.
He was going to get his revenge soon enough. First, though, he'd let his teammates try her out first.
Fireteam Whiskey/Gamma's Position
"Man, how the hell is she still conscious?" One of the Fireteam Gamma squad members spoke as the two ODST Fireteam watched the events unfold within the encampment. They were all disgusted with what these people were doing to the poor captive woman on the ground. Just from the look of her battered outfit, they all could tell she had been through a lot.
Rhineford, in particular, was disgusted with what he was seeing. Memories started replaying in his mind. Memories he'd much rather forget and repress. His conscious was wanting nothing more than to go in there and stop this. But they had explicit orders not to interact. All they could do was sit there and wait.
"So, any ideas who these guys might be?" Peltier questioned.
"Maybe they're a group of pirates or bandits. A large and isolated place like this would be a good hideout for such." Armstrong replied.
"They might be a part of a military branch if those headbands mean anything." Parker piped in.
"Nah, they all gotta piece of metal over 'em. They look more like just some kinda forehead protector." Ferrero also spoke as he readjusted his stance behind the tree.
"No, no. Take a closer look at it. You'll notice something about the headbands." Parker replied, to which the Gamma Fireteam Leader raised his Battle Rifle and looked through the scope at one of the locals.
He noticed that the metal on the headband had some kind of emblem or symbol on it. He looked at another one of the locals; sure enough, she had the same symbol on her headband. He looked at a couple more to confirm, and their headbands also showed the same symbol.
"He's right. Their headbands all have the same emblem on them." Rhineford, having done the same thing through his DMR scope, spoke up, looking over at Parker.
"Exactly. And I noticed that their prisoner had a different emblem on her headband. That's got me thinking that maybe these are two different militaries or factions that are at war with one another." Parker continued.
"So what about the guys from before? The ones that brought that captive here?" Armstrong questioned as she looked over at her teammates.
"I dunno. I didn't get a good look at their headba-"
"Hey, what's that asshole doing?" One of Fireteam Gamma's soldiers suddenly questioned. Fireteam Whiskey all looked away from one another back towards the encampment to see a large, muscular man grabbing the captive woman by the collar of her outfit, bringing her face to face to him. They were too far away to hear what was said by the man, but they saw the captive spit on his face, which earned her a strong punch to the gut.
"Oh, honey, that was not smart." Gamma Fireteam's leader muttered.
The large man pulled out what looked like a knife and cut away at her shirt, exposing her breast to the crowd of men and women in the encampment. Cheers and whistles of approval followed.
The man continued to tear away at her clothing until her clothing was too tattered to decently cover her now mostly nude body from the lecherous crowd. The woman tried to cover herself as best as possible but was largely unable to due to her hands being bound behind her back. A couple of the men walked towards the nude captive as she attempted to back away from them.
"Motherfucker..."
"What the fuck, man?"
"Are we seriously just gonna stand by and watch this?" Rhineford stated, disgusted with what he was seeing. The 2 ODST Fireteams were all disgusted with what they were seeing. Even so, their orders were still clear.
"We don't have a choice-" Parker started, but Rhineford cut him off, "The fuck do you mean we don't have a choice?! Of course, we have a fucking choice. This isn't right, and you know it." Even with the situation developing, it was surprising for Fireteam Whiskey to hear Rhineford curse. Being a deeply religious man, hearing Rhineford curse was like sighting bigfoot. Even so, their orders were clear.
"Regardless, Command ordered no interaction whatsoever. If they say something, they expect us to follow it to the letter." Parker retorted, leaning closer toward Rhineford.
"If that was Elizabeth out there, you wouldn't be saying that."
Rhineford received a punch to the helmet from Parker. To their luck, despite the rather loudness of the punch, the roving guards were too distracted by all of the commotion going on inside the encampment to hear it.
"Fuck. You." Was all that Parker growled out. Rhineford knew he had struck a nerve, but it didn't change the fact that Parker was right. Their orders were coming directly from High Command. They looked back to the encampment and saw a couple of men groping and just outright molesting the poor woman, their hands feeling up and groping every part of her body as she struggled in their grip. The crowd around them was laughing and cheering them on as they continued to molest their captive.
Rhineford couldn't stand it anymore. He tapped into his headset and spoke, 'Kingpin-Actual, this is Fireteam Whiskey-Lead, over.'
'... Whiskey-Lead, this is Kingpin-Actual. Go ahead, over.'
'Kingpin-Actual, we've got a situation developing within the local encampment. Requesting permission to engage, over.'
'Is it directly affecting your ability to remain hidden? Have you been compromised? Over?'
The eight soldiers looked at one another. Rhineford looked over to Armstrong, then to Parker, who simply shook his head and whispered, "Don't." to him.
Grunting in aggravation, mainly at Parker, 'Negative, Kingpin-Actual. We're still out of sight, over.'
'Then your orders haven't changed, Whiskey-Lead. Over.'
Rhineford didn't like that response. Despite Parker motioning him to drop the subject, Rhineford pressed the matter.
'Kingpin-Actual, we have a confirmed prisoner in the encampment being basically tortured, and if this keeps up, the prisoner's going to die.'
'Whiskey-Lead, this is Everest-Command, over.'
All Eight of the ODST Marines' blood ran cold when they heard his voice. Now, they had Vice Admiral Preston Cole talking to them. This either meant they were in serious trouble or that their leadership was taking this whole discovery of other humans far more seriously than previously thought.
'Fireteams Whiskey and Gamma, this is Vice Admiral Preston Cole. Your orders are now coming directly from me. You will not interact with these locals under any circumstances unless your lives are in danger or you are given explicit authorization to, over.'
This had just escalated really quickly. Now, they had a Vice Admiral giving them orders not to interact or interfere. But it didn't seem like Rhineford was going to let the subject go. Parker knew that either one of two things would happen. One, Rhineford would finally relent, which didn't seem likely given his own history, or two, they would get in trouble because Rhineford's conscience didn't agree with the orders given.
While Parker actually liked the fact that Rhineford was a decent human being, wanting to help out his fellow man and do the right thing, the problem was that Rhineford let his heart guide his actions too much at times. He understood the man came from a troubled and traumatic past, but as a Marine and a leader, making difficult decisions is a mainstay of the job, especially the ones you don't want to do. Rhineford's particular mindset had gotten him in trouble with leadership in the past. And this was not one of those times that Rhineford needed to be arguing with leadership, especially when the person he was arguing with was a Vice Admiral.
"Rhineford, let it go!" Parker growled out.
'Sir, with all due respect-'
'Whiskey-Lead, I understand that you do not agree with these orders, but we have no understanding of the current situation between the locals. As far as you and I know, that prisoner is a war criminal responsible for thousands of deaths. Henceforth, your order still stands, over.'
'But, sir-'
'Whiskey-Lead, you will follow your orders, or you will be relieved of command and punished accordingly. Is that understood, over?.'
Silence fell between them. None of the ODST spoke a word, nor did anyone else connect onto the line. Everyone held their collective breaths, waiting for one person to break the silence. They could still see the locals tormenting and humiliating their captive, despite her yells of protest. Finally, after seconds that felt like minutes, someone broke the silence.
UNSC Everest
Bridge
"Unbelievable. It's like the Jarheads are actually incapable of not shooting everything that moves." Rebecca commented, a scowl on her face as she crossed her arms.
"Rebecca..." Her mother growled out, looking sternly at her.
"How many troops do we have on the ground?" Cole questioned, stepping up towards the holopad, which showed a massive map of the island they were planning to colonize, with icons marking the locations of all their forces on the ground or in the air.
"Sir, all of the ODST have been deployed ground side. We're getting ready to deploy our contingency of Marines to the surface, and prefab bases are being prepped to be transported by Pelican ground-side." A crewman replied, turning in his chair to face the Admiral.
Turning to his old flame, "Do any of your people plan on landing anytime soon?"
"Yes." Lyrenne replied, "I've already ordered some of our flyers to prepare to help set up a few bases and startup colony sites."
Cole arched an eyebrow, "No soldiers?"
Crossing her arms, Lyrenne replied, "I figured it wouldn't be a good idea for ODST and URF soldiers to mix just yet."
Cole stared at her for a few moments before nodding, "Fair enough." He then turned back to the holopad, watching the movement of the troops on the ground as they continued to explore the island.
Fireteam Whiskey/Gamma's Location
Rhineford was silent as he stared at the scene playing out before him. Though the scene before him hadn't changed from what had been transpiring for the past few minutes, his mind had been transported to another time and place. In his mind, he was sixteen again. He was in that damn hospital in New Alexandria again. The Innies running around, killing everyone they could find. The bodies sprawl out while the sounds of gunfire and screams could be heard echoing throughout the massive building. The floor was running red with the blood of the innocent. Two children lying on the floor beside him, a bullet hole through each of their heads. Blood and brain matter seeping out of what was once his brother and sister.
"Rhineford?"
He could see him. The towering monster; more a snarling hateful beast than a man. Grasping its victim in one hand while a smoking pistol was held in the other. The pistol was slowly raised up to the side of the woman's head.
"Rhineford, you good?"
The last mental picture he had of his mother before the gun went off.
"Rhineford?"
In the blink of an eye, Rhineford stood up and raised his weapon, aiming directly at the locals, specifically at one of the two men molesting the captive. Parker's eyes widened in shock. He gasped as he lunged toward his friend in a futile attempt to stop him. He was too far away, though. All he could do was yell out as Rhineford locked onto his target and squeezed the trigger.
"RHINEFORD, DON'T!"
And that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a comment in the review section to tell me how I did. Likes, Dislikes, I don't care. I actually encourage criticism from the fans, as long as it's constructive, of course.
See ya next time!
-Azores