Meetra gazed upon the sands of Tatooine, a sense of nostalgia striking. Though she'd never really been to the place, the Jedi had long-ago heard of it and the messes it got people into, including a certain Jedi General currently aboard the Pelicans with them. She watched as the aircraft skimmed the surface, bothering layers of sand unmoved by the centuries in the Dune Sea.
She'd also heard of Revan's second escapade through Tatooine, to search for a map of some kind, guarded by a Krayt Dragon. Now, that must've been a fight, she thought with a smirk as the aircraft gently banked left, toward a series of massive rock outcroppings meant to be a set of mountains. As she stared out of the ship's forward window from her seat, she could see an old Monastery, now one of the Hutt Crime Lords' Palaces.
She hummed and scratched her neck, then murmured, "Wonder if he's related to Vogga..." as she checked her lightsaber. The Pilot lifted his finger, showing they were about a minute out from drop. She prepped, donned her hood and nodded. The aircraft swung in for touchdown, thrusters powering to the max as they descended, kicking up dust clouds all around them.
The first to disembark were the Marines and Clones, followed by the Jedi and Spartans. Richard looked around and murmured, "A bit sandy, sir..." which got a slight exhalation from the nostrils of the Lieutenant. The young man seemed to like stating the obvious, Six thought as they looked at the massive gate ahead of them. The little alien was in the care of the UNSC's Corpsmen.
The massive bulkhead door to the monastery opened, out marching several pig-looking guards with massive axes and tusks. Meetra whispered to Six, "Gamorreans. As tough as they are ugly..." which made the man tense. There was about four Gamorrean guards. Behind them were several pirates with light armors, pistols and creased-looking, rock-like faces, as well as what looked like a three-eyed lizard-person with a long mouth and brown skin.
Said brown-skinned alien saw the baby with his three eyestalks, then nodded and motioned for everyone to follow. Six looked to the Marines and showed them to be at the ready with a single motion of his hand, then checked his weapon. The group of guards led them inside with the little guy, Ahsoka carrying him on his back. Skywalker tensed. Both Spartans noticed it.
Neither asked, though. Ahsoka didn't, either, to her credit, as the group marched forward into the cavernous and familiar maw of the Palace. The Marines kept their eyes on the corners, Rex and his Clones doing much the same as they advanced. Ahsoka held 'Stinky' close, while the Corpsmen walked with her to make sure the little guy wasn't gonna get sick or something.
Descending down some stairs, the group started feeling the foul smell of the bigger Hutt already, with Meetra sighing deeply. She really hadn't missed the smell. One Hutt was enough to deal with in a lifetime. A second was just a bonus pain in the behind. Strolling down into the main area, where a band was playing various tunes that seemed to irk the UNSC's staff, the group came upon the biggest slug they'd ever seen.
Several Marines stifled laughter, while the Spartans simply stared, dumbfound, at the massive green alien slug. They looked toward the child and Richard murmured, "So, that's what it'll grow into..." before feeling Ahsoka elbow him in the shoulder. She whined quietly after hitting the armor, which got a snort out of him. Meetra, meanwhile, seemed to be talking to General Skywalker. He nodded to her.
She showed Ahsoka to follow her, then stepped forward and bowed toward the slug, "Greetings, esteemed Jabba. I am Meetra Surik, a representative of those who aided the return of your young son," before showing Ahsoka, who carried the little guy. The Slug spoke in some unknown language that the UNSC forces could not understand, though, by the tone of his voice, he was ecstatic.
"The Great Jabba welcomes the return of his son," Spoke a protocol droid from next to him, its voice monotone, fairly female, "And wonders who the soldiers supporting the Republic and your people are, Jedi."
Meetra tilted her head toward Jabba and Ahsoka walked forward, taking a knee and handing the little guy over. The 4,000 year old Jedi opened her arms as if to show the UNSC around her and said, "These fine soldiers are representatives of the United Nations Space Command, a faction that has allied with the Republic in our quest to end this war as quickly as possible."
The Slug spoke again, this time a hint sharper, before the droid translated, "The Great Jabba greets this new faction, though he wonders to what end you may've come with them to meet us." And the Marines seemed to pause, one of them looking to Rex, who showed him to stay calm. Meetra hummed, then looked back to the corpsmen and officers. She sighed.
"They assisted us in keeping your son safe and alive. Their medical corps, though they know little of Hutt physiology, was able to ensure the young huttlet's arrival without as much as a scratch, while their Marines ensured that the recovery went unabated during the operations on Teth," She explained calmly. Jabba squinted, seemingly a hint wary of the new faction.
The droid translated his speech yet again, "And how are we to know that they did not participate in the kidnapping, being such a new group?"
Meetra blinked, then said, "Great Jabba, you must see the folly in such a thought, surely," as the Marines behind her audibly tensed, grips tightening around their weapons. She continued, waving the Marines off to calm them down with a motion of her hand while Skywalker, Ahsoka and Rex all stared on. Softly, she spoke to Jabba, "They are outsiders to everything pertaining to Galactic knowledge, including knowledge of the Hutt Empire's outreach. They had no reason to attempt a kidnapping, especially not after having arrived over Christophsis, only to be shot at by the Confederacy. As I said, they knew nothing of the Hutts beforehand."
"The great Jabba understands," The droid replied, "... Then, as per the agreement with the Republic's leadership, your forces will be allowed to utilize the Hutt hyperspace lanes for the Outer Rim." And that seemed to get everyone to quietly sigh in relief. Meetra bowed in thanks, before the group as rather hurriedly dismissed by Jabba, presumably so he could tend to his kid.
"Well, that was close..." Muttered one of the Marines as they walked back up the stairs toward the Pelicans, "Guns must've put him off trying anything."
"You could tell he would do something, too, eh?" Meetra quipped, then looked to Six, who nodded. As Meetra looked to Six, she said, "Could've gone worse, honestly. One single unfounded and quickly disproven accusation of kidnapping toward your folks is better than entire heads being lopped off. Something tells me things would've gone a hell of a lot worse, though..."
"Thanks for taking the role of negotiator. Short speech, but you got the point across," Six commented, words which got the hums and nods of approval from the rest of the gang. She smiled proudly, giving Six a light tap on the chest with her fist. One light tap that sent a current flowing through her hand and turned it numb. She let out a quick 'ow' as she rubbed the tingling appendage.
"MJOLNIR shields, ma'am," Richard quipped, "Don't like being touched all that much."
"I can tell..." Sighed the woman. She clenched and unclenched her fist until the tingling static disappeared, then climbed aboard the Pelican. She looked to Anakin and Rex and said observantly, "You two have been awful quiet..." as they entered the Pelicans outside, under the twin suns of Tatooine that beat down on them. The Marines laughed, with Nemeth grinning as he plopped himself down into his seat.
"Just taking in the fact we left the Hutts without a fight," Anakin quipped, crossing his arms to his chest as he leaned against the vehicl "Guess you're every bit the persuasive person they said you are, master Surik."
Meetra waved it off with a smile, "It's just Meetra, master Skywalker. I'm not that type of Jedi anymore..." before humming and sitting herself down as the aircraft began their liftoff, the rear doors closing. She looked to Ahsoka, who seemed giddy still, before giving the kid a nod. She looked over to Six as the man settled himself in position, checking his equipment.
"Radio the INF," Six told the pilot, "Patch it through to the holo-com in the Blood Tray."
"Copy, sir."
A trio of holographic display devices flickered to life as the Pelican's engines kicked on into afterburner. Admiral Lasky's form materialized ahead of the group, his voice modified by the speakers on board as he asked jovially, "Ladies. Gentlemen. Good to see you're all alive and okay. Status on the delivery?" as he arranged his dress uniform. The Pelicans flew out into the void, with the visible UNSC fleet dead ahead, alongside a ship unfamiliar to Meetra, but familair to the others.
"Accomplished, sir. We've secured the routes for allied FTL transports, too, courtesy of the delivery." Six reported just as the shipboard artificial gravity kicked in. Lasky gave a nod of approval, to which Six motioned to Meetra and said, "She talked for us all. Wanted to, as well..." which got the Admiral to look toward Meetra. The blonde blushed and rubbed the back of her neck, letting out a short, awkward giggle.
The man nodded approvingly, "Welcome aboard, general."
"Glad to be here, sir," She saluted, too. The man nodded, then dismissed everyone with another quick wave of the hand and shut off communications. Meetra, meanwhile, looked to corporal Nemeth. The man glared at the ship that was unknown to her, which prompted Meetra to ask, "Something bad about that ship, Marin-" only to notice the warship's design, "Oh... A CAS carrier..."
"That's our allies, ma'am," Quipped another Marine, "Nemeth here's angry cuz the hinge-jaws burned Reach. Understandably, too."
"Was my homeworld. I was born on Reach alongside a childhood friend," Nemeth explained, "I can tolerate them, but you won't see me workin' with them for too long..."
"Fair enough..." The Jedi replied, then turned to her fellows. Both of them looked over to Richard, the Spartan humming and simply giving an affirmative forward tilt of his head. Well, good to know the other shipboard xenophobe openly approved the thought process of one of their Marines. The aircraft touched down in one of the Infinity's hangars, the crews descending off the deck. Meetra turned to Ahsoka and Anakin and said, "Say hello to everyone else when you get back to your ships, I suppose. I'll be staying with the UNSC."
"Alright," Skywalker nodded, "Gotta get Obi-Wan here to meet you, too, heh..."
"Gonna teach me those moves later, right?" Ahsoka raised a brow, though she wore what the UNSC called 'puppy eyes'.
Meetra chuckled, "I promised, didn't I? Swing by any time you want a lesson in hand-to-hand and Force usage..." before she patted Ahsoka on the head. The girl beamed and nodded, which got a cough out of Richard. Meetra chuckled at the reaction, then watched the Jedi and Clones depart for gunships. Richard sighed and took his helmet off, then looked to Six.
Six nodded and said, "Let's move it out. Command's probably gonna want us to give a debrief... I'll handle it."
"Be my guest," Meetra offered as they walked together toward the bridge. Along the way, however, they met a certain dark-skinned man...
"Sergeant-Major," Six nodded, saluting him.
Sergeant-Major Johnson grinned and saluted back, offering a quick, "Good to see you made it back from the slug's place, Lieutenant. Chief and Blue team've been lookin' for you and Crimson to have a chat," then turned to Meetra and said, "And this must be our very own personal Jedi. Evenin', ma'am," with a pearly smile as he saluted. She saluted back and nodded.
"That, I suppose I am," She chuckled, "Evening, Sergeant-Major. I'm Meetra Surik."
"Sergeant-Major Avery J. Johnson, ma'am. Good to meet'cha," He nodded, "If you'll excuse me, El-Tee, ma'am, Imma go deal with something my Marine platoon screwed up after we came back from Christophsis..." before walking off. Meetra hummed and chuckled, then continued following Six and Richard toward the bunk area so she could get some RNR...
... Come a few hours later, Meetra was laying, sprawled out in her bed and staring up at the ceiling again while playing with what the UNSC folks called a 'Stress Ball'. Basically something one squeezed to de-stress. She was, however, utilizing the Force to push it back and forth out of her hand, keep it floating, that type of stuff. She hummed, yawned, then set the ball aside and jumped to her feet off the bed.
Part of her wondered just how much more they'd have to do. Or what the next few battles would entail. Shew as also tempted to go meet the Sangheili, the warriors that'd allied with the UNSC and, by extension, with the Republic, to handle the situation in the Galaxy. They seemed like interesting characters with an even more interesting 'warrior culture' that was adapting with the times. Sort of like how the modern Mandalorians were.
Man, she missed Mandos. They actually came for a good fight back in the day. She was, however, glad that the Kryze family was following through on the promises made by Canderous, the Force allow him rest. She started pacing around the room while reading more data on stuff like the Spartans(What little of it had been declassified for her viewing), then thumbed the drive and tossed it back onto her desk.
She sighed, before turning to look at her open wardrobe. She had some UNSC standard-issue gear in there, including basic clothes to run around in while off-duty. A khaki shirt with the letters INF plastered above the Infinity's crest on the chest, cargo pants and military boots, as well as a standard Navy uniform with grey and missing rank pins and chevrons.
She picked the PT uniform, which included a sports bra and pants, donned them alongside a pair of more comfortable shoes, then decided to hoof it to the gym. She had to keep in shape. That and she was meaning to ask a certain Spartan to help her train back up her old skills. She promised to teach a certain Padawan some of her old moves and she intended to keep that promise.
Marching to the gym, the young woman was surprisingly able to avoid most of the gazes of the Marines and Crew around her that were Male(And some female), strutting into the Gym itself with a smile and bee-lining it directly for a certain benchpressing table, where two Spartans resided, just by the boxing ring. Six himself was sat there, drinking water, clad in nothing but a tank top, shorts and pants, same as Richard.
Speak of Richard, the young man noticed Meetra approaching and tapped Six on the shoulder, then tilted his head toward the girl and whispered, "Jedi General on our immediate one o'clock, sir..." as a faint grin grew on his face, watching the Lieutenant turn and face the blonde, his eyes growing wide at her shapes, seemingly. Dick turned back to his own work, tying his laces better, before standing to his feet and patting himself down. He saluted the Lieutenant and told him, "I'm gonna be going to another workout, sir. See you."
Six saluted and nodded, then turned toward Meetra as she approached, all while under the watchful gazes of several men and even some women, again. Whistles and a few silent catcalls filled the room, but she greeted Six with a quick, "Hey." As she looked over at the weights on the bar. She went a little wide-eyed at the seeming size and thickness of each plate, before looking back to Six.
"Hello, General," He replied, then stood to his feet. Even out of armor, the man was taller than her by a good margin, being forced to shift his gaze down in order to look her in the eye. He slung his towel over his shoulder and asked her, "Can I help you?" as he started walking toward a pair of boxing gloves and a sandbag the size of him. She hummed, feigning a thinker's pose.
Then nodded, "Yeah. I need a sparring partner."
"Huh?" The Spartan stared at her, dumbfound. She didn't just ask that.
"Yep," She smiled. The confusion and concern on Six's face told her he thought she asked something stupid of him. She sighed, then clarified, "Look, Padawan Tano asked me to teach her some of the moves I know from an old friend and I wanna see if I forgot them nearly four millennia later..." as she put her hands on her hips. The Spartan gave her a once-over...
She was well-built and looked like the average supermodel blonde back home. Still, even with all that, he saw the muscles were well-developed, a probably necessity with being a Jedi, honestly. They weren't anywhere near his, obviously, him being a male and a Spartan. That gene engineering did a lot for people like him, including the enhanced muscle growth.
He told her, "You do know what you're asking for, right?"
She nodded. Sigh sighed and pinched the bow of his nose, "Alright... I can say no, you do know that, right?" before taking a moment to think about it as she gave him an affirmative reply, though it was backed up by some variation of 'puppy eyes'. Six did, however, figure out one way to solve this issue. He sighed, then replied, "Yeah, fine. Sure. If you wanna practice some moves you forgot..."
She beamed, then said, "Thank you! Now, c'mon! In the ring! I'll do my warmup there..." as they climbed into the boxing ring. Stretching under the gaze of a good bunch of people, the girl smirked at Six, while the Spartan averted his gaze and sighed deeply. He was gonna regret this, or so he felt, anyhow. He had decided to act the part of a training dummy, so as not to cause any problems.
He gave a taunt toward her as she finished stretching. She grinned, then rushed forward with a surprising burst of speed. She skidded to a halt in front of him, swept low, then slammed an open palm into his wrist, diverting it to the right, before dropping to the floor and swiping his legs out from under him, sending him tumbling to the floor with a hardy thump, much to the surprise of a few gym-goers.
She smirked and stood to her feet, then extended her hand toward him. He took it and said, "Not bad..." without so much as a huff. She grinned, then started bouncing from one foot to the other, before seemingly scouting out one of the many openings the Spartan was giving her. She hummed, spun, ducked, then sprang up behind him, grabbing one of his arms, then the other, and pinning him to the floor.
Helping him up once again, she commented, "Are you going to fight back?"
"You said you wanted to practice some moves, so, no," He replied, stretching and cracking his various joints. He sighed and turned to her as she pouted, before asking her, "What? Do you want an actual fight now? You do realize what a Spartan is. You have read about us, after all..." as he leaned over the ring's lines and grabbed his bottle of water, taking a sip from it as the girl looked at him, arms crossed. He wondered just what was going on in that mi-.
"I bet I can kick your behind," She smirked. Six quirked both brows up as a few Marines and Spartan-IVs let out short laughs, before humming and looking at her again. She shrugged and stated happily, "C'mon, it'll be fun! Plus, we're in the gym, in a training ring. It's a safe fight, ain't it?" as she cracked her knuckles and stared at him, still wearing that taunting smirk, before taking a fighting stance.
Six sighed, rolled his eyes and said, "Alright... Don't say I didn't warn you, then..." as he prepared to... Still go easy on her, but not as easy. She grinned, took a step forward, then ran toward him. The Spartan stood his ground, his defenses now looking mighty impregnable. She seemed to chicken out, trying to break off the attack. The Spartan, however, extended his right arm out and...
... Well, Meetra was now sitting on a medical chair in the sickbay, rubbing her jaw and nursing a Coke. The Spartan sighed, walking toward her, then told her calmly, "Cola doesn't mesh well with the pain meds..." before sitting himself down next to her. He sighed and told her, "I did warn you, didn't I?" which got a huff and pout out of her. Six couldn't help but think it was sort of... Cute? He didn't really know how else to put it.
Spartans never found things cute if they weren't, say, a puppy or something, and even that was a rarity in Gamma company, considering how fucking Psycho those kids were. Still, he couldn't help himself in thinking like that. Unlike the S-IIs, the IIIs lacked the hormone suppressants that would usually put such thoughts at bay, so it was definitely not abnormal for him to have them. He was, however, well-trained in keeping them contained.
She hummed, then rubbed her jaw and said, "I apologize for the fact you had to bring me here..." as she frowned, "Should've figured a seven-foot-tall brick of a human being would be more than capable of putting me flat on my back in one or two moves. Especially a SOF member like your Spartans..." only to look to him. He hummed, then grabbed the bottle of soda from her hand and took a swig.
He sighed, "It happens. Overestimating one's strength shouldn't be a thing when you're a four-thousand-year-old being, though..."
She burst into a giggle, "My mistake... I thought I could take on a soldier after, well, years of soldiering myself..."
Six nodded and handed her the soda back, adding, "Overconfidence. It's good to be confident, honestly, but..." And she waved it off quickly, trying to avoid the discussion. With a sigh, the Spartan said, "Look, general, we're going to be working together. Next time, just tell me you want an actual spar instead of whatever that was. I'll probably be more prepared for that."
She smiled, "Next time, eh?"
He nodded, which got an even brighter smile out of Meetra. She nodded and replied, "Very well, then." before downing the whole bottle of soda and humming. She looked to Six and inquired, "Know any decent food being served at one of the ship's mess halls today, Spartan?" as she arranged to go to her room and change into more comfortable attire than her sports-wear.
Six paused. What was she asking him, exactly?
