Full Circle

by sleepycrawler1

The beginning marks the end, how truer have those words ever been until now. We stopped Truth and are firing Halo to exterminate the Flood, while also hightailing it as fast as we can back to the Portal to return home with all hands accounted... Well some. As Chief said "We'll head to the Portal and we'll all go home" Sadly nothing ever goes as planned.

5. Chapter 5 ENGANGED

Uploaded: 1/16/24

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POV Juke

Pain shot throughout my body as I awoke, my head felt like it was splitting itself into a bunch of pieces while my body felt like it'll break from just the slightest bit of movement.

Despite the pain being fresh in my mind adrenaline began to course through me, alleviating if not numbing pain as my eyes refocused.

The first thing I saw was the bright blue sky above and my HUD, flashing with a yellow and orange 3d body diagram of my bodily harm, warning me that I had lvl 2-3 trauma throughout my body and then some.

While my body's condition is worrying, I've had worse done to me… Looking to the top right corner of my HUD, my weapons list only listed off my M6S being the only available firearm while my rifle's signal and icon were both gone, leaving me with 3 ½ magazines on backup for the M6S while I now had 6 useless rifle mags along with 2 grenade mags.

My standard grenades and explosives inventory on the top left corner of my HUD didn't seem different from what I could recall… Speaking of remembering, I vaguely remember running away from something?

I can't really remember much, other than me hauling ass toward a doorway...

I craned my neck forward to view the front of me, neck muscles screaming in pain and discomfort, but I pushed through it to get a good look around me, wondering if I had somehow fallen off the side of a building due to this much pain.

Huh… I was in a ditch, a grassy one at that, with a bunch of old dilapidated city buildings taking up most of my view along with the overgrown super trees that entwined themselves within the old buildings.

Those buildings were a good bit away so falling from a building was out of the question, so what the hell happened to get me in this sorry state?

I racked my brain trying to remember, but ultimately nothing came to mind, having me let off a tired sigh, letting my head drop back down against the grass, leaving me once again to face back toward the great blue sky.

I took a moment to gather myself, and it was a long one… I didn't know how long, but it was long enough that the pain from before began to gnaw at my consciousness. Causing me to come back to reality, and the first thing I did was enlarge the 3d body diagram that was still flashing with damage.

Detailed information of my injuries popped up with numerous warnings and directives to seek immediate medical aid, and etc etc.

Although annoying, it's working as intended so that's a relief.

My right arm has a minor fracture, my left wrist is suffering from a sprain, pieces of small shrapnel in my back, superficial, a concussion, blunt trauma throughout the body, and last but not least internal fucking bleeding.

Sighing, I used my left arm to grab my IFAK from the back left side of my hip, passing over my grenade pouches, and while doing this I found that my left hand was quite stiff and weak when I grabbed a hold of the IFAK case.

Evidence of a very bad sprain.

Not that I can do much about it seeing as I had a fracture on my right arm and my body was basically in fucking agony, I had to make do with one hand.

While I could use my right arm to speed up the process of me grabbing what I needed from the kit, there was no medic around to fix it if it went from a fracture to a broken bone… Well, I could head back to the Android camp, but who's to say I won't run into trouble along the way?

After pressing the quick release from my ruck and using it to painstakingly help angle my head to view my body, I grabbed a hold of the auto injector that I had prepped from the IFAK and raised both my arms up into view.

My arms were sluggish, weak, and just outright in pain as I raised them, but once they got into my view a bright specific way-point appeared on my right wrist.

Carefully, I guided the auto injector toward the way-point, lining it up just right before placing it against my wrist and injecting the much needed meds.

Thank god the UNSC had the foresight to include a medical support program into the HUD, it'd be a pain having to perform first aid with a vacuum rated under-suit on especially when attempting to insert an IV into a patient or yourself.

Once the auto injector finished dispensing its cartridge of drugs, my head fell back to rest against my ruck, while both my arms slacked down to rest, my left arm on my abdomen, and my right arm splashing into… Something…

I tried to angle my head again to view my right side but honestly, I gave up halfway in trying to, I'm just going to wait and let the stims kick in before I do anything else.

Speaking of stims, I can feel it kicking in already.

The pain in my body began to dull while other parts of my body began to increase in temperature, more specifically in the areas with significant damage, like my right arm's fracture.

While the stims do wonders in helping to speed up the body's recovery and help to stabilize patients or numb pain. It wasn't instantaneous recovery the likes that you'd expect from a video game when hearing of stims, or 'combat stims' as video games like to call it.

Stims, meds, whatever you want to call it when in the field, takes time to run their course in a soldier's recovery. While research has gone into the field for an almost instantaneous recovery when in the field like video games, it's just not feasible when it runs the high risk of creating cancer growths randomly in the body.

Which is why most if not every UNSC IFAK and med kit has the atypical stim pack to help nudge or increase a person's recovery time by at most two to three times the norm. Nothing really superhuman about it nor fantasy like where you can visibly see the rapid healing.

While it's nice to know that I can recall the stim and its brief history, I didn't have the luxury of time to sit idly by and think deeply on other things until my body sensors gave me a lighter shade of yellow readings on my status diagram to get moving again.

I gave myself a good 5 minute wait, letting the stim shot further dull the pain in my body and fix what tissue damage it could immediately fix, and when I deemed it fit to get a move on, I packed my shit and tried to get up outta this ditch.

You'd think it'd be pretty easy climbing out of a grassy ditch, but when you have water, loose dirt, and an injured body, things tend to be harder than you might have thought at first.

The wet grass that was matted down by my attempts to climb up and out, only served to act as a slide sending me back down into the water below. Where I simply tried again to climb out but tugged at the long grass to give me leverage as I tried to walk up out of the slanted ditch.

It worked for the first few seconds until the clump of grass I pulled on popped out of the ground sending me back into the watery ditch below with a splash. With the grass now pulled from its place and my drenched outer layer of my suit going along the grassless area, it just added a whole new level of difficulty.

It took a while, and lots of time playing piggy with the mud that formed, but I got myself out of the ditch… Looking back at the ditch I came out of, It wasn't even that deep, but here I am exhausted with aching bones and muscles all over my body as I sat atop of the crest of the ditch that I was moments ago trying to reach.

Pulling out my canteen and drinking deeply from it in straw form.

I had the thought to remove my helmet and just inhale the water down my throat, but somehow my reasoning stopped me from doing that, no matter how good it would have been to do just that.

With my thirst sated for now, I placed the canteen back in its holder to begin reconning the area to get my bearings, and also to see if I could find my rifle among the surrounding area.

While the search for my rifle turned out to be pointless, I happened to have spotted a group of robots in the distance.

They were slowly approaching my area, and from how they were examining things that they came across, along with how they were simply shuffling about their area. I didn't have to worry about having to hurry and haul ass to the river, that had all but formed across the open area.

Speaking of the open area, getting a closer look at what was a small river now turned into a fast torrent of waist deep water, I found myself groaning in contempt.

It was ankle deep the last time I checked, and it was raining too… Either something upriver broke and over flooded, or I didn't judge the flow correctly… Whatever the case may be, I'll just have to find a detour to robot vil-

Shit.

H-How long has that fuckin' giant robot been watching me?!

Across the river and semi-hidden in the thick foliage of bushes and tree trunks next to the forest trail leading deeper into the forest to Green Eyes village, was a GIANT FUCKING ROBOT, with glowing yellow eyes, watching me as I sat still across the river in front of it.

Subconsciously, I reached for my assault rifle but in doing so a sharp pain erupted from my forearm. Not a good sign, but it did remind me that my shooting arm was all but useless and that I am significantly under-gunned… Wish I had a few plasma grenades right a.

With my left arm seizing my M6S on my right thigh mag holster, the giant robot emerged from its hiding spot with earth rumbling footsteps toward me.

While yes, it was coming over to squish me, it was taking its sweet ass time with how short its strides were. I reckon it has some servo or gear complication but I didn't have time to speculate its slow mobility.

Placing the M6S onto my left thigh mag lock, I reached into one of my grenade pouches to prep a frag while I slowly retreated away from the shore line of the river.

[Aniord Juke] I stopped mid stride, almost falling over before I slowly turned my head around to view the Giant Robot, straining my aching neck in the process, causing me to instead just turn my whole body to view the Giant with a grenade in hand, though tucked from view.

[Aniord Juke] It said again as it stopped in the middle of the river, extending its left arm to my side of the river bank, trying to beckon me closer.

Is this a trap? No… It said my name earli-

[Aniord Juke, oD uyo erqiuer aisstnce ot rocss?] Yep, looks like it is… Question is, how the hell does it know me? I know the Giant in Robot Village but this one? It's voice doesn't match it…

Maybe a voice setting?

[Aniord Juke, oD uyo otn erqiuer aisstnce?] It spoke again in a questioning tone, added with its small bulbous head tilting to the side while still keeping its outstretched posture.

"I think it needs a hand in crossing…" I muttered to myself, recalling Chip's dumb commentary in shitty moments.

I miss the guy, really.

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POV Pascal

Oh how wonderful this is!

Android Juke, now fully identified as Lance Corporal Jake Miller of the 105th ODST Shock Troops Division, can speak the ancient human language of French! But the most unexpected surprise was that he did not just possess the ability to speak one of the ancient languages, he held a catalog of the entirety of ancient languages spoken by Humanity!

Truly remarkable!

Books that were once untranslatable that I have stored away, have now become eligible for my consumption! So many new genres, so many languages, so much new information to take in and process!

What truly amazes me, despite the wealth of knowledge pertaining to the languages of ancient humanity, is that for an combat Android model like him to possess such knowledge and more, he possesses a full human name.

Most especially a 'nick-name' that was given to him due to his interest and actions by those he once fought with.

Juke, he said, was a nick-name given to him by his comrades for starting up an ancient human audio machine called a jukebox by simply striking it once. Though this was not the only reason for why this name was given, he has alluded to the reason why, but has yet to share it completely with me… It is… Understandable…

Some pieces of information are not so easily shared all at once. Given time, he may one day speak it when trust between us is at an acceptable level to share such a past.

{Pascal, this is Juke, do you have the panel of glass ready?} AH! I had forgotten my current task!

"Forgive me, I had been distracted by a personal matter" I replied back as I hurried from the village blacksmith with the packaged item.

"Is there something you wish to request of me?" I asked, only to receive a prompt, no, from Android Juke.

While I am glad that Android Juke has become more sociable with I and the many other villagers, or in his words, townsfolk. It is still a mystery to me as to how I do not recognize the model of transportation that Android Juke is requesting my support in repairing.

Even its name the 'Pelican' does not appear to bring forth any information other than the sea faring avian species known by that name.

Previous scans and assessments that I have performed during talks with Android Juke about the process of repairs, indicate highly advanced unknown alloys and electronics in the creation and composition of his craft.

The engines, fuel, armor plating, electronics, even this simple panel of glass that I have wrapped within leather, required utmost study by myself and the village craftsmen Y3R-35054981, also known as Yer, to replicate by trial and error.

Despite our best attempts, we have yet to recreate the materials that Android Juke has requested from us. However, Android Juke has been very welcoming of our failed products, he graciously accepted said failed products, and incorporated them into his repairs despite the obviously poor quality.

Perhaps this panel of glass will prove to be a success.

As I arrived at Android Juke's newly converted hangar, a crowd of villagers sat outside of the wide entryway into the hangar staring at something out of my…view? My… Is this music? It's different from what I would overhear on the Android broadcasts.

The music that Android Juke appears to be playing just sounds… Lonely… OH! I happened to have been so caught up with the music that I too had joined with the rest of the villagers in listening to the music being played.

Making my way around the seated villagers and entering into the wide space. I found Android Juke seated upon a stool overlooking a strange flat silver circular object with a giant blue orb in the middle, atop of a forest green tarp that he had set next to the rear of his Pelican.

It appears that he is in deep thought at the moment, so deep in fact that he has not noticed my presence as I approached his hunched over form "Android Juke?" I asked, only then for him to glance toward my direction.

"Pascal? Sorry… Wasn't paying attention, did you ask me something?" He answered, turning off his audio device that was playing the lonesome music, before glancing towards me with his glass face.

"The panel of glass that you have requested" I said as I closed the distance between us, holding out the panel of glass toward him to receive.

He glanced back toward the silver object, then back towards me "You wouldn't happen to know what this is would you?" He questioned.

I tilted my head to his inquiry as I searched within my data banks for any references pertaining to the object laying upon the forest green tarp. Despite my best attempts at recalling such an item nothing appeared matching the description of the object in question.

"Guess not" He remarked before I could answer, and took the wrapped panel of glass out of my hands.

Although I do not know the function or usage of the silver object, it appears to have some significance to Android Juke. Perhaps his earlier query to my knowledge of the object is due to his very own insufficient-

"Huh, I think this is your best work yet Pascal." His compliment brought me out of my musings.

"Is it-" I tried but he spoke, cutting me off.

"Nope, not even close, but it's structurally sound when compared to the previous works" Ah yes… The previous products that failed.

As if trying to comfort me, Android Juke scoffed aloud, giving words of encouragement to my future endeavors to create a better panel of glass… It is… Strange to say the least, that his encouraging words work to inspire me.

Removing my earlier disappointment in remembrance of earlier failures.

"Thank you for your kind words Juke, it is reassuring to know that the efforts of I and the town craftsman, Yer, are greatly appreciated by you. If you ever wish to request assistance, we will not hesitate in trying to fulfill such requests" I stated, much to the delight of Android Juke who softly chuckled.

"Huh, well, there are a few things I have in mind" He said, crossing his arms whilst clinging to the panel of glass.

I wonder what request he has for us.

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POV Juke

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! PASCAL HAS REALLY OUTDONE HERSELF… This… This is fucking heaven.

A hot fucking shower instead of the usual towel wiping is a huge damn improvement!

Best part?

It had a recycling filtration system with the drain so I didn't have to worry too much about drainage, nor did I need to worry about the water supply, because Pascal had the village connect some of their water piping to my hanger.

And~, Pascal went through the trouble of renovating this warehouse into an actual hanger/ workshop!

Some rooms off to the side for storage, Oxygen tanks, a workbench with tools from the Pelican and locally procured ones, courtesy of Yer the town's craftsmen… Well Craftsbot if you want to argue semantics, but honestly I couldn't care less.

For all the upsides to having a washroom, I sadly had to skimp out on toiletry for obvious reasons. Still gotta keep using the MRE packet toilet option. At least I have a place to piss now instead of storing it in my piss bottle, or worse yet, along with the filled up shit packets.

I shiver at the memory of countless recon deployments where shit bags burst open during combat.

After finishing up with my much needed hot shower and getting into fresh clothing, being that it's the typical black ODST t-shirt and pants duo with iconography of the UNSC, I went over to the freshly cleaned battle dress uniform AKA ONI's ODST stealth under suit, to put it on.

Surprisingly, the under suit was still holding up despite being nearly blown to pieces weeks ago.

And speaking of weeks ago, turns out that the big robot that was offering me aid was a part of Pascal's guard force for the town.

From what Pascal told me, he's usually on forest patrol away from the village, but due to the storm and recent explosion which screwed me over that day, the big guy was ordered to investigate and help me if I needed it.

Ugh, just remembering how persistent Pascal was about me receiving 'repairs' when I got back was so tiring… And this was before I knew she could speak French, so it was a line of constant gibberish until I told her I was fine, which was translated by my translator that I had all but forgotten to turn off when I left Android Village.

That shut her up for a bit, until the gibberish turned to questions… So many damn questions… It was only when I said I'd share the language dictionary did I put a stop to most if not all her questions, giving me my much needed R&R.

Slipping on my helmet, the familiar soft glow of my visor polarizing washed over my HUD, followed by my weapons, ammo, navigation, communications, and health status.

"Now I just need a weapon" I said aloud as I left the washroom now fully armored up, entering my living quarters which was also my armory.

It was a bit disorganized, but at least the weapons and crates of ammo weren't strewn about all over the place like a crashed supply Pelican where its entire cargo load littered the crash site.

Walking over to the weapons that simply leaned up against the wooden walls or their respective ammo crates, I grabbed the tried and true Magnum from atop of its crate of ammo. Well the M6G2 variant to be specific, along with its preloaded magazines and stowed them away into my pockets.

The M6G2 may not have the 2.5x magnifier of the M6G1, but makes up for it in its improved recoil dampener and improved smart link. Also, having SAPHE ammo over the standard FMJ of the M6S would do better against any hostile bots that I'll run across, sure the M6S is an ODST's best friend, but this isn't the time for cloak and dagger.

Once loaded up and adding a round into the chamber of the Magnum, it was mag locked onto my left thigh while I glanced over my limited armory.

Excluding the two MA5K's inside of the Pelican cockpit, the grenadier variant of the MA5C that I lost, and the stowed M247 LMG for the troop compartment, I still had a good selection of weapons to pick from.

Though seeing as I'm going back to Android camp on another delivery mission for Pascal, I'm gonna have to bring something that'll pack a punch.

While It would be great to have the stopping power of the Spartan Laser or SPNKR on hand, they don't have extra shots other than what they have loaded. And let's say I did carry either of the two weapon systems and used their ammo up, I'd have to carry an extra set of tubes for the SPNKR and I'd have to recharge the battery of the Spartan Laser.

Sure I'd destroy 2-5 of those walking giant robots depending on the weapon, but once they're spent I'm stuck with dead weight!

The SPNKR is manageable, just dump the spent tubs and wallah! You just have to carry the launch body.

When compared to the Spartan Laser, which while very very good at anti-fucking-everything… The problem lies with, THE WHOLE FUCKING WEAPON SYSTEM ITSELF!

Like ho-ly shit, when they were first issued out on Reach, its flaws were pretty evident and overlooked due to it being a point and shoot insta-hit, with twice the ammo capacity of the SPNKR.

Sure, we'll take it, they said… They'll improve it in the next iteration. It'll be better, they said… Fucking lying pieces of shit weapon designers and board of weapon reviewers.

They improved it alright, but only to have an extra shot from its battery but keeping the same immovable battery design with a slight decrease in its production cost!

If the Spartan Laser had an easy swap of its battery when on the field, it'd be the most beloved heavy hitter for an infantryman, even if it weighed more than a SPNKR.

My rant aside… I could just run with the SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, or AMR for short, over the other two while running with a M7 and Magnum as my back up. It weighs just about if not less than the SPNKR, more wieldy than the two, and with its ammo it most probably could punch right through the armor of those giant robots with ease.

Still, if I'm running with the M7, I'd prefer to be using the S-package upgrade with it. Better accuracy, increased range, improved smart link, and honestly, just a better feeling than the base model.

Sadly I didn't have a S-package upgrade kit for the M7.

While I loaded up on spare ammo, grenades, and slung my weapons of choice into place, my hands stopped short of grabbing my fully loaded ruck.

I don't know why, but my gaze slowly shifted to my left side toward my UNSC cot, but more so towards the silver metallic object that rested on the bedside of my cot.

The familiar crystal-like bulb of an eye at the center of its silver-metallic body stared back at me, devoid of what was once a glowing blue light synonymous with an active Forerunner unit.

Or to be very specific, a Forerunner Monitor… Though the design is different from that of 343 Guilty Sparks.

It was flat, weighed about 25-30 pounds, and was as big as Sparks if not bigger by a few inches in its circumference along with it being roughly 2 inches in thickness. I'd call it a panel or slab instead of a Monitor, and the only reason why I call it a Monitor is because it spoke to me before its light went out.

"Reclaimer. Safe." It simply said, before shutting down and disconnecting itself from the blast hole atop of the Pelican.

Didn't even get to thank the thing before it shut off, but at least I finally got my answer to how I was able to land safely on this plan-

.

.

.

Earth… How I landed safely on Earth.

It repaired the wiring, hydraulics, fuel lines… Hell it even repaired some of the armor plating leaving behind the signature silver Forerunner metal that coated areas that were affected by plasma damage.

Still don't know how it got on the Pelican though, or why it decided to save me and send me far into the future or how the hell it has so much power within such a flat looking body!

I know Sparks can create a beam from his eyeball, incinerating flesh and metal alike easily, along with his barrier-force ability, but traveling through time and space? Even for him, he'd need a lot of power to do that along with the hardware!

The portal on Earth that connected to the Ark required a massive fucking installation, and then it needed an activation from a Forerunner Dreadnought to even get it to open!

I even tried hooking it back onto the Pelican and turning on the main power to get a reaction from it, but that didn't seem to work.

Or it needs more power than what little juice was left in the Pelican's battery.

Honestly hope that it's the latter, because the Corp issued me a rifle not a lab coat.

A breath of air escaped my lips into my enclosed helmet as I let off a deep sigh, my hot breath from my exasperated sigh was recycled leaving no fogging effect and keeping my face and helmet interior free of condensation.

It was frustrating.

So many questions and problems with no way of answering them.

Wish Sparks or Cortana were here, even if their answers were purely hypothetical and very drawn out… Hehe.

Best to just put the Forerunner tech problem away for another time and get a move on with Pascal's delivery mission.

From there I'll see if the Androids have some hydrogen they'll be willing to trade, with what 'Gil' I get off the job, along with the money Pascal gave me for furthering her 'culture studies'.

Honestly, I feel kind of bad for not telling her I'm human after all she's done for me, but I can't be too careful now, can I?

Ah well, time to get a move on, I got roughly a week of hiking to go through until I reach my destination.

Android camp.

---

TIME SKIP Juke

It's only been a month since getting blasted to shit, and only a few days of me exploring this ruined city but I've noticed there's been some major changes to the surrounding nature covered streets.

Everywhere I look and step, I find myself going through scattered patches of white flowers that dotted the area, mixed with the wild grass that seemingly only came up to my armored ankles.

The increased chatter of birds and activity by the small wildlife echoed around as I marched along toward the Android camp.

It's significantly more livelier in these parts of the ruined city when compared to my original route, and speaking of my original route.

While I would have taken it, Pascal had advised me before setting off that this route would be safer if a bit longer then the route I was planning to take. Said that my route was a contested area between the Androids and Machines who patrol the area, along with the scattered groups of neutral robots.

The neutral robots, or in her words, 'Wanderers', aren't anything to pay attention to as they mostly keep to their groups and, well, wander about through the ruins and streets.

It was the hostile robots that she said were the ones I needed to worry about the most, especially the Elite variants, like the one I helped the Androids with taking down.

These 'Elite variants' are better spec wise despite their outer appearance not differing much from the average bot. Though seeing as how the Elite Variant I helped take out at the Android Camp's doorstep was taken out with old looking equipment, I don't really think there's been any changes to their armor.

This is supported by Pascal, who went so far as to give me a detailed encyclopedia of the 'Machines', and their specs, including info about her townsfolk.

I don't know if it was a slip-up on her part but seeing the good she's done for me, and the previous ambiguous meeting between myself and the support that she sent my way that time. It wouldn't hurt to register the identities of the townsfolk into my local IFF database, of course I let Pascal know that I did, so she wouldn't need to have a constant worry about me accidentally wasting one of her people that she sends out to help me.

She was thankful about that, and simply saw me off at the village gate reminding me about the new route to take like some mother hen.

And so here I am on a different route, but my original route. While dangerous, was quicker by at most, 4-5 days, this new route would be longer by a day or two but less likely to encounter pockets of hostile robots, and so far the only thing I've encountered was the passing Moose, or pack of Wild Boars, still haven't encountered any 'Wanderers' that Pascal told me about which was fine by me.

The longer I continue down the road, I notice there's been an increasing amount of flower patches wherever I look or step, so much so that you'd think someone was purposefully planting them.

But who's to say it wasn't just mother nature herself who was doing this? Just look at the wild animals that I've come across, massive beasts that dwarf the average human, and gigantic trees that reach up toward the sky, scaffolding old skyscrapers and small buildings alike.

Even the streams and ponds I walk by are teaming with wildlife.

Kind of reminds me of the Forerunner buildings and stone ruins on the Halo rings and other planets.

Planets that by now are probably just smoldering dust balls.

I pushed the depressing thoughts away as I came upon an odd if not normal sight. Before me were three Stubby's, my HUD highlighted them briefly in orange as I didn't know if I should label them as hostiles yet.

They didn't seem to notice me yet, seeing as they were just watering a large patch of flowers in the middle of an intersection.

Huh, guess 'someone' was purposely planting flowers… Well, time to see if Pascal was right about these Wanderers.

As I began my approach toward the three, they both looked up from their watering, straightening themselves and approached me while holding their watering cans in front of them.

I popped a friendly curious question to the three.

"What are the three of you doing?" I asked as I came to a stop a few feet away from the trio, arms ready to brace my M7 if I needed to open fire from the hip.

""Watering"" they all said simultaneously, raising their watering cans up to show me.

"Uh-huh, I can see that" I replied, glancing to the previous patches of flowers behind me then back to the Stubbys in front of me, kind of surprised yet not really, Pascal's intel about the Wanderers so far seems legit.

"You three planted these flowers right?" They nodded before glancing at each other, then back to me.

"Big Brother planted"

"We help Big Brother"

"Big Brother elsewhere"

Honestly, if I didn't know any better I'd think they were Pascal's townsfolk, maybe they are, maybe they aren't, either way it seems like these three are pretty harmless.

"Huh… Well I'll be on my way then" I said as I continued on toward my next NAV point, leaving the trio of Stubby's behind to continue their gardening.

I even spared a glance behind me just to make sure they were doing just that, instead of trying to follow after me, and thankfully they weren't.

A few hours later of walking through streets of flowers and encountering wild animals and the occasional stray stubby group who ignored me. My alarm clock sounded off, telling me it was time to stop, and by alarm, my stomach grumbling in hunger.

It was that time again to perform the same song and dance of finding a defendable building with bug out routes and concealment in mind, then break out an MRE and enjoy my 15-30 minutes of break before moving out again.

I did this with a building close to one of the corner buildings at an intersection up ahead of me, my left side.

It wasn't anything significant, just one of the many same empty concrete buildings littered with crumbling and broken furniture, or just flat out empty of anything. Sadly this place didn't have many escape points, but since I'm here I might as well get set up upstairs.

Times like these, I wish I had a squad of troopers with me when sweeping and clearing rest spots, or better yet just to talk to while on the march, if briefly.

Thankfully I had some music to accompany me in these times of solitude, I had my personal collection and Commander O'Donnell's to keep me entertained during my brief moments of respite, adding a certain flavor to meal times while I enjoyed the same monotonous MREs that have become a staple for me.

They weren't bad per say, just that no matter what new meal you get from a crate of MRE's, it'll have the same packaged taste just like the rest of 'em. The taste was only broken up by hot meals at whatever hastily erected mess kitchen that was able to be set up and brought up to the frontlines.

The meals didn't differ much from the MREs but it was hot and fresh, compared to the chicken noodle soup that I was currently eating. It wasn't hot, but it was warm, warm enough that it would keep the cold out of your joints during a long recon mission through a blizzard in enemy controlled territory.

Or give you that morale boost knowing that ammo may be low but food is still plentiful to last you and your friends until rescue comes… If they ever did.

I emptied out the last of the noodle soup at that thought, washing it along with the budding bitterness down with a swig from my canteen as I paused my music that was being played VIA my helmet's speaker.

As if the universe was playing a joke on me I saw the audio file's name that was playing.

"A 'Heavy Price Paid'... Heh. I guess you can say that" I sighed outwardly before allowing the file to continue playing.

While I cleaned up my ripped meal pouch and stored the other portion and its condiments away to eat on another time, I took my sweet time doing so while immersing myself in the haunting melody being played.

A tribute to the losses I've seen and been given throughout the war.

I could even now recall the whine of phantoms flying overhead, the sound profile of plasma being discharged, the nonstop staccato of gunfire, high pitched whining of plasma grenades, the thunder of explosions both small and large, shouts and screams from both humans and aliens alike.

So many battlefields, numerous wins and losses, and the fewer familiar faces I see after each battle flashed through my mind, causing me to pause in my clean up.

The sight of friends and acquaintances blown to pieces and left in gory messes as we marched on past them, snatching what dogtags or identification we could from the dead.

Their weapons and ammo serve to prolong our survival while dealing retribution against their killers and at times serving as bullets of mercy for those unable to continue onwards.

Killing fields of civilians and soldiers alike, the once inhabited cities and towns, littered by the dead. The wanton slaughter of the innocent for a lie… Men, women, children, the sick, the old, it did not matter to the inhuman sons of bitches, so why should we show them the courtesy of human rules?

Ordering my like minded ODST's to drive a Scorpion over a captured Brute did not bother me in the slightest, even when I blew out the fucking apes knee caps and hands off. I simply watched as the rumbling tank slowly squished the fucker into a course meat paste.

The animalistic screaming was loud but not as loud as the MAC gun going off in the distance followed by the subsequent rumbling which continued in my ears.

It was a continuous soft rumble now, far longer than what was characteristic of loud noises should be .

I snapped back to reality, my ears that had recalled past battles only now heard the ever familiar sound of rumbling.

At first I believed it was me recalling the sound of a MAC gun's lingering crack of its fired off a round. But the longer you listened, it became evidently clear that it was the tell-tale sign of a vehicle's approach.

And by the sounds of it, along with the deepening rumbling that came with its ever growing noise, it was tracked, and not alone.

While the noise it made grew louder in its approach to my general area, my instincts kicked in, snapping me out of memory lane.

Disregarding the trash I was cleaning up, I immediately seized my helmet and in one fluid motion with my left hand, slipped it onto my head, sealing it in place with a brief soft glow running across my visor.

Meanwhile my right arm darted for the ruck that was resting by my bipoded SRS 99D-S2 AMR.

I couldn't leave my pack, but the trash that was next to it I could, besides my pack had my supplies in it and it wasn't going to get in my way if push came to shove of me fighting or running.

Once secured to my back, I quickly seized the AMR by its carry handle, ignoring the sling as I jogged with it toward the staircase to reach the rooftop for a vantage point. By all means it wasn't fun running up the stairs in full kit and having a belly full of food, but I had to carry on with the ever growing urge to hiccup the meal from earlier.

Finally I had reached the rooftop, kicking open its rusted metal doors freeing it from long rusted out door hinges causing the thing to fall flat on the roof with a loud clatter. In all cases, I'd have tried to open it quietly, but I needed to get my eyes on the vehicle moving around in the streets below.

The vehicle's noise had grown louder, probably not too far from my building, and knowing armored vehicles, they're usually supported by infantry, hopefully this was an Android patrol.

With my back against the rooftop's edge wall, I disconnected my HU-RS (Hardened Universal Recording System) attachment from the top right corner of my helmet, fiddling with its settings VIA helmet as I held it in my right hand, still connected by wire to my helmet's port.

From a distance, many who didn't know its uses might mistake it as a flashlight attachment. While it can operate as one, both in IR and regular light, it also tripled as another camera with HUD sharing capabilities.

When paired with CNM (Command Network Module) and HUL (Hardened UpLink) attachments it was a force to be reckoned with in the field of data gathering, even had a small booster antenna module for better dissemination and receival of information on the back right corner of my helmet.

Cortana really did love the combination, seeing as I was generally uploading and updating info to the Master Chief while he stormed through Covenant forces like a force of nature, sometimes with me following close behind.

"There we go, now let's just see who's down below" I smirked, sitting up and moving my hand with the HU-RS over the wall to look down below catching sight of a roaming armor convoy.

My HUD immediately identified and tagged the three tracked vehicles along with two company's worth columns of the tell-tale sign of Elite robots below as hostiles, and with that I returned my HU-RS back to its place on my helmet.

A safer route huh? I recalled what Pascal said before my departure, scoffing at the 'safer route' that she proclaimed, but seeing as this was an in force armor column. The likes of which I haven't seen or heard from Pascal about, they had to be patrolling through for-.

*BRWOOOM*

An explosion erupted from down below, followed by the immediate barking of machine guns interwoven with automatic and semi-automatic rifle fire accompanied by many more explosions.

-A reason… I finished my previous trail of thought with an amused snort.

Only people I recall using conventional weaponry were the Androids, aka the Resistance, as Pascal refers to them or as they like to refer to themselves.

Huh… I think I just realized what Pascal meant by a 'safer route', this is probably the edge of Android territory or it is and those bots down below are an offensive force sent to probe their lines.

Pulling my AMR into my lap.

The ammo counter of the AMR immediately popped up in my weapon inventory, but the info was all wrong.

The software of the AMR told me it only had 3 rounds left in the mag and chamber despite not having fired the rifle yet… This happens from time to time, more so for un-updated software or nonstop rough usage of the rifle as a club.

"Stupid software" I cursed, pulling the mag out and just about to slap it back in, until a pop-up appeared on the left side of my HUD.

[H-R Engaged_EXTEN: Playing]

Ah, forgot about that… Oh well, it sounds like it'll be quite the banger with what I'm about to do.

Slapping the magazine back into its mag weld again with the distinct metallic click, I got up and ran over to one of the old rusted out air conditioners off to my left, and immediately jumped on top of it to give me a good sight line onto the streets below.

As I aimed my AMR down at the advancing black robots, the tensing strings of the music in my helmet increased its crescendo just as I sighted in on a red and white striped head of an Elite robot.

And as if the music was synchronized with me, the tensing strings stopped, replaced by the drop of drums that kicked in just as I squeezed the trigger. Sending a 14.5mm High Velocity Armor Piercing round down range, slamming into the tin can and sending it onto the ground below with its head rolling from its body.

"Engaged alright" I muttered with a shit eating grin across my face, sending more rounds down range towards other targets that seemed important or differed from the rest of the robots.

And the armor? 'I'll Improvise' as the Chief liked to say.

---

POV Lily

Lily couldn't believe her luck. She and her patrol of 15 Androids, including herself, had barely managed to hastily set up an ambush for a Machine armor column.

What's more is that this wasn't any average Machine column, rustic black and red bulbous heads of the entire column including the tanks was an obvious indicator to the upgraded and variant forms of Elite Machines.

While the weapons she and the rest of her forces used were still effective, the difficulty lay in the improved capability of the upgraded Machines. Or as many of the Resistance liked to call them 'Red Caps' due to their bulbous red heads.

These Red Caps had improved weapons, servos, and thinking, giving them rudimentary squad tactics that while very basic and see-through-able, added more challenges when paired with the drone like mentality of the standard Machines.

Just as Lily killed a Red Cap Stubby Gunner, her eyes now unfocused from the sight post of her rifle, found a black wall steadily approaching behind the previously dispatched Stubby's corpse.

She knew what it was before the wall callously pushed aside the corpse, it was the standard shield wall of Medium Bipeds leading the push.

"Machine Gunners! I want you to focus fire on that shield wall now!" Lily bellowed out her order above the constant bark of her fellow Androids rifle fire.

There was a simple nod from the machine gunners before they shifted their attention to the slowly approaching black wall of shields. Their barely visible red tracers from their two belt-fed guns slammed into the wall of shields, bouncing and ricocheting off of the black steel almost pointlessly in their attempt to slow down the Machine push.

But given a few more seconds, cracks and holes began to appear on the black shield they were firing upon to which seconds later the shield apart revealing its wielder who was raked by the machine gunner and their co-gunners.

This chink in their wall was quickly taken advantage of by the other Androids, who concentrated their rifle fire at the opening before another black shield took its place, shielding its fellow Machines in their ranks.

"SECOND TANK!" An Android called out as it emerged on the right side of the destroyed lead tank, energy weapons lighting up with their signature crimson energy that released spheres of hazardous energy projectile toward the entrenched Androids.

Lily, seeing this, was more worried about the main gun of the tank, watching as it swiveled for a target before aiming upward toward the rocket team's perched position inside of a blown out corner of an office building that overlooked two smaller buildings in front of it.

"ROCKET OUT!" A voice barked over the squad comm, before a missile flew out from the office building directly toward the hull of the tank where the Machine driver was located.

The missile detonated, much to the small cheers that were heard off to the side of Lily as they cheered the destruction of a major threat, but it was to be short lived.

No sooner did the cheering start, did a mass of dark crimson energy shoot through the wafting black smoke, blowing it away to reveal the sight of a still operable tank. While the rocket from earlier indeed killed the driver of the tank, it did not do anything else but immobilize it.

"Damn it we lost the AT team!" Cried out a Female Android as she gazed up at the billowing smokey position that once housed the AT team.

"Don't worry I hav-" A Male Android with a faded forest green baseball cap fell backwards onto the pavement mid sentence, dropping an extended disposable rocket launcher along with his cap that fell beside him.

"ROCKY!" The same Female Android called out, glancing over to her fallen comrade before unleashing a torrent of lead down range toward a pair of advancing Stubby Gunner Machines that took advantage of her pause of fire.

It didn't take long until another Android ran over to the collapsed Android and hoisted him up off the ground, leaning him against the rusted out car that was being used as cover. There, he looked over his comrade, finding that half his head was burned away revealing his metal skull and scorched artificial skin.

"I-adgkc-fight-jalskjf-Mab" Rocky said with great distortion in his voice as he looked at his comrade.

"Rocky's still with us, Que! But he's out of the fight!" Mab said placing the scorched cap back onto Rocky's head before grabbing ahold of the launcher on the ground and firing it at the crippled tank to finish it off.

No sooner did he fire did he ditch the spent tube before slinging Rocky's AK onto his back, without a thought to look if he had struck the tank with a killing blow.

"Tanks down!" Another Android called out to confirm the kill, watching as the turret of the tank blew upwards off its turret ring, but sadly the Android who reported this was quickly silenced by a blur of three crimson balls with arcing blue electricity slamming into his torso, sending him backwards from cover with a thud.

"Cheesmo!" An Android screamed out, running over to his down comrade, only then to see the endoskeletal top half of his head and the burning remains of his upper torso that showed his scorched synthetic muscle fibers "Cheesmo's gone!"

Lily, who heard her fellow Android get killed, felt a burning rage within her core, prompting her to give the order for withdrawal to the second line. The order was taken without any complaints, leaving behind the body of Cheesmo in their wake.

As they retreated from their positions to a secondary line, Lily turned around to the sound of an explosion behind her, and noticed through the smoke, the sight of three Androids laying on the ground. One was motionless with both its legs gone, while the other two were supporting each other as they struggled to stand up.

"Come on, you guys can make it!" An Android shouted encouragingly at the two as they struggled forward.

"Covering fire!" Another shouted.

Without a second thought, Lily ran toward the two struggling Androids and supported the one who was having the most trouble regaining balance. Once they were on their feet again, Lily shouldered her AK firing it sporadically until it was empty before running towards the closest piece of cover she could find.

The piece of cover in question was a small berm that two Androids were also using as cover, being that of Mab and the injured Rocky.

Once in cover, Lily brought up her radio handset to the side of her face, radioing in her unit's plight to command and for support.

"INCOMING!"

"GET DOWN!"

Androids warned as they noticed the tank's main gun taking aim at their comrades, before again another explosion occurred, this time fatal.

The Machine gun team on the left side of their firing line using a pile of rubble as cover simply ceased to exist, their metallic bodies glowing red hot with synthetic muscles charred black if not disintegrating from the intense heat.

"Oh god… Spezo… Roid… They were just-"

"Yeah they're gone, but keep firing damn it!" Cried out an Android reminding those close to the dead their situation, and a worsening situation it was.

The loss of a Machine gun team was felt greatly by the Machines, as with the loss of the pesky duo the Machines did not need to rely on their dwindling gunner types to thin out the Androids.

Now with the last Machine tank emerging onto the road driving past the two smoky black wrecks of its predecessors. The Machines now had superior firepower over the Androids who were lessening their gunfire and hiding in their makeshift fighting positions, taking pot shots whenever they could before more crimson balls of energy flew overhead.

On the Machine side, a single striped orange Red Cap Biped Machine climbed atop of the last active tanks, examining the battle and state of the Androids from behind the massive turret as bullets snapped or bounced off the thick armor plating of the turret.

This Machine had already been observing the battle from the safety of behind the turret ever since the second tank was destroyed, and seeing as how the Androids fled to their second line from the Tank's main gun, lessening of their return fire and dwindling attempts to slow them down further. It saw the opportunity to finish off the small force of Androids that had dared to try and stop them from their objective.

{Unit EB-25486-235, the Androids are at breaking point. Suggestion. Prepare Exploder Units to obscure our rapid advance} It transmitted to its fellow officer type units, only to hear two units responding to its suggestion.

{You are now the ranking leader of the strike group, Unit EB-68945-689. We will follow}

{I concur, suggestion.}

{Speak} Unit EB-25486-235, the orange striped Red Cap commanded.

{Officer units are being dispatched by a Android Sniper taking shelter within the ruin next to us, I will lead a small contingent to eliminate the nuisance}

{Confirmed, Unit EB-05689-354, was destroyed by high velocity projectile to rear head module, sound of high caliber rifle confirmed in close proximity, estimated trajectory, above} The orange striped Red Cap then looked above, only then to spot a humanoid figure skylining the edge of the rooftop.

{Confirmed, Unit EB-91235-034, execute your course of action, we will continue with destruction of forward Android element} Unit EB-25486-235 thus gave permission, and soon directed its attention back to the battle at hand with newfound seniority.

[PREPARE EXPLOSIVE UNITS! Hold position until units are in place] It commanded, watching as cylindrical bipedal Machines surge from the rear toward the front section, behind the shield wall.

Before it could give the order the Machine slammed against the back of the turret, its internal components spilling outward onto the tanks back deck.

This was noticed by some of the Machines, but their attention was fixated on the Androids in front of them, awaiting for the next order to come.

{Exploder units, ready} Came the reply of one of the last officer units in the column, awaiting for the next directive to be given.

The Machine forces, now organized with their main line infantry at the forefront with Elite Medium Bipeds equipped with shields, had a group of 20-30 Explosive units intertwined with their shield troops ready to charge when the order was given.

Behind this main column of Machines was an assortment of regular shorter sized Biped Machines with small rectangular shields, swords, maces, and built in energy weapons that replaced their limbs. These units' purpose was to break out of the shield formation once the exploders did their job of softening or obscuring the sight of the defenders, and once they got in close, they would wreak havoc upon any Android who was not a melee type and further a hole for more Machines to breakthrough behind them.

And finally the Goliath-class Tank would slowly advance with its complement of Machines providing fire support and mop up of any survivors.

That would have been the case, if an order was given.

Back on the Android side, the incoming energy balls increased in intensity, forcing the Androids from doing anything but taking potshots from cover. Though this had risk, as some Androids had their hands seared and become unusable due to being struck by a barrage of crimson energy.

"Do we have any more AT?!" Questioned an Android who was fixing a jam in his rifle.

Androids who were in cover reloading, repacking spent magazines, or simply trying to avoid getting hit by the Machine energy weapons, shook their heads before again trying to fire back at the closing Machine forces.

"Lily, we need reinforcements, if not that, we need to get out of sight of that tank! It's pinning-" Mab who was next to Lily and firing above cover, was struck in the chest mid sentence, sending him careening onto the ground.

His head slowly turned toward Lily, stuttering as his mouth tried to form words with his body shaking in pain before he slowly shrunk in on his wound.

Lily, who was listening intently to the information being spoken on the radio, saw what happened to Mab and quickly pulled him toward her so that she may render assistance to his injury.

"Lily, are we screwed or are we going to fall back?!" Que asked, running over to Lily, braving the intense barrage of crimson energy balls.

"We're holding!" Lily shouted while applying a repair bandage over the smoldering chest wound "We have reinforcements coming in 5 minutes, we just-"

As if on queue, a massive explosion erupted from behind the Machine shield wall, breaking apart their formation with the subsequent shock wave and enveloping them in a thick cloud of black-gray smoke.

"-Need to hold out" Lily said, developing a smirk at the timely intervention.

---

POV Juke.

Fucking idiot programming… Yeah who woulda thought, putting a bunch of explosives behind your vanguard was a smart idea?

Hah, and the info on these so-called 'Elite Machines' state they were better than the average robot, but seeing as I've been pickin' off their equivalent of officers with white, orange, gray, and blue stripes on their bulbous red heads, they're no better than Grunts…

Well maybe a bit seeing as they aren't panicking and brea- What the?

From the corner of my left eye, I swore I could have seen someone running straight into that cloud of smoke.

Gonna turn on VISR D (Dark-mode) on and zoom in to- Yeeeeep~ someone did plunge into that cloud of smoke, and from the looks of it they're using a sword or somethin.

Geez… Whoever that is, they sure are fast.

I zoomed a few magnifications out and lo and behold outlines of hostile robots highlighted in red, both big and small were being disassembled in a matter of seconds by this unknown person.

Arms, legs, heads, torsos, and brief flashes of light from miniature explosions were highlighted in my HUD trailing behind the ever advancing figure that my VISR outlined in yellow. From the looks of it the figure was feminine and wore some type of form fitting clothes while her hair flew wildly with every action she performed.

It didn't look like it bothered her in any way, but it makes you wonder if she intentionally let it fly wildly in these types of situations, or it was just the heat of the moment that her hair flew from whatever was being used to tie it in place.

I digress.

As I continued to view her from the smart link of my scope, I found that the surrounding robots were now becoming aware of her presence and were beginning to mount up a defense to fight back, though it seemed pointless.

Sword slashes from the normal biped sized robots were easily parried and countered along with their ax and mace wielding brethren. While the larger 'Medium' Bipeds were easily side stepped if not also easily countered by the long haired girl as if they were childs play.

Though despite how effective she was in dispatching those Machines that happened to try and end her, she did have a few moments of slip ups, slip ups that were rectified by my fire support which surprised her for the few moments that it occurred.

After slapping in a fresh magazine and zooming back to the smokey area below, the outlined figure of the girl was showing her somersaulting out the way of a punching Elite Medium Biped.

Seeing as she gave herself space in such a flashy way, I put a round into the thing's torso, unzooming from the recoil before zooming back in to get a view of her surroundings, to which a rectangular object flew at her from her left.

I don't know what she saw but the feminine figure was wary of it as she somersaulted again, out of the way of the incoming object, to which my VISR immediately outlined it as another Elite Medium Biped equipped with a shield, charging her.

*DHUOONG*

I fired a shot, milliseconds after seeing its outlined form and seeing how off my shot was, I should have given myself a second or two to adjust my aim.

Instead of a kill shot I somehow clipped its arm off its body, separating its forearm holding the shield.

As I was about to put my crosshair dot on the torso of this crippled Machine, the outlined figure of the girl appeared instead, causing me to release my finger from the trigger before I could finish the thing off.

Zooming out, to find out what the hell she was trying to do. My VISR experienced a small glitch, I don't know if it was a glitch but the outline of a giant sword sputtered in my VISR, but with how swiftly she was moving there was no way she had a giant sword on her back.

Seconds later though, I threw that thought out the window and replaced it with shock, because the outline of the giant sword indeed appeared in its entirety, gripped by her very hands.

My only thought at that moment was, where the hell did she pull that from?!

No sooner did I think that question, did the giant fuck off sword was used in conjecture with the way she twisted her body, moving forward with a horizontal cleaving motion toward the crippled Elite Medium Biped in front of her. Bisecting it in two from the waist, before transitioning to that of a vertical downward slash that bisected an up-armored Elite Biped straight down the middle as it ran toward her in hopes to beat her speed.

While I would have loved to keep watching her figure continue cleaving through the remaining Machines with that giant sword, the sign of a warning erupted from my VISR toward the Elephant look-alike tank, it was both a surprise and annoyance for me.

The four miniature turrets on the back of the tank dislodged themselves and were actively flying up toward me guns blazing as they finally got an angle on me, meanwhile the two front track assembly of the tank raised upwards so fast that I barely had time to see them coming crashing down toward the long haired figure through the hail of crimson energy balls.

No time to watch the fight, I had hostiles coming my way and my attention had to be especially focused on them. Quickly changing out of my 10x zoom to 3x, I acquired the lead flying machine who was flying straight at me without any attempts whatsoever at making it harder for me to hit it.

Not that I'm complaining because I sent a round straight into its torso, scoring a perfect center mass hit that seemed to have hit something sensitive, causing it to explode in a plume of black smoke.

Despite the smoke obscuring my sight, their outlines were still being shown on my VISR, allowing me to continue dispatching the remaining three fliers.

However, they wisened up and avoided my second and third follow up shots, and just as I was expecting a fourth round to be fired. All I got was the sound of a click and flashing red on the top right corner of my HUD.

FUCK.

*BRRRMMMmmmmm*

The buzz of one of the crimson balls flying past my head caused me to instinctually jump down from my vantage point before I could insert a new mag into the AMR.

Well those fliers have the initiative now, I thought to myself as I turned off my VISR mode while pulling the charging handle of the AMR to chamber a round from the new magazine I slapped in, and seeing as I was going to be up against flyers I needed to switch weapons and get better cover.

God knows how fuckin annoying it is to fight flying enemies with a semi only-gun.

Immediately I got up and started sprinting toward the staircase, using the AMR's sling to secure the large rifle onto my back before grabbing the M7 SMG from my right thigh.

Then I came to a skidding halt, just halfway towards the entrance, I spotted three sets of round glowing red eyes.

"Aaaaw fuck…" I cried out, instinctively and foolishly raising my right arm and preparing myself for the recoil that was to come from a full auto M7.

[ANDROID!] The shrill distorted metallic screeching voice of the Biped robot screamed, charging toward me with an ax.

The M7 barked to life, spewing a good 13 rounds into the charging idiot, while my left hand shot for my grenade pouch to grab one of my frags.

Despite the advancement of recoil dampeners for firearms, firing a gun full auto with 1 hand was still just as bad as early firearms, and when paired up against armored up individuals charging recklessly at you, it only worsened your attempts at aiming and conserving ammo for the next charging retard.

Luckily the sound of my SMGs bolt clicked empty just in time as I finished dispatching the first three Bipeds and killing a fourth that turned the corner of the staircase. My left hand primed the frag grenade before chucking it into the stairwell and waited for the subsequent detonation.

In the few seconds before detonation I removed the empty side magazine and clipped on a fresh one, tossing the empty magazine into the mag bag with a soft clutter, and before I was able to pull the charging handle on the right side of the gun with my left grenade detonated, kicking up loose concrete and other light particles from the staircase.

After priming my SMG I quickly moved past the dead Bipeds to the left corner of the stairwell door frame, getting a perfect view of the staircase.

Performing a quick scan and turning back on my VISR I proceeded into the stairwell, but before I could clear the doorway something slammed into my right shoulder, throwing me to the concrete wall with a numbing sensation erupting through my body with an intense prickling sensation coming immediately after.

"UUUGHR" I croaked out, head turning back to the outside, seeing the perpetrator to be one of the three flyers that I had forgotten about after being distracted by the four from earlier.

I slowly slid off to my left down the staircase, just in time as the sound of intense buzzing passed me slamming into the concrete wall, popping with a crackle and buzz of electricity as I fell down the stairs, left side first onto the victims of my frag grenade that tumbled down with me until I landed at the base of the staircase.

Mind you these staircases weren't the typical zigzag and were just straight down to the next floor, so it was quite the long tumble.

And I would be groaning and sore from the tumble, but unsurprisingly my numb body helped in that aspect, so much so that I tried to get up off the bodies of dead up armored Bipeds that acted as my metallic cushion.

But it appears the numbness which I was experiencing wasn't the only thing that came with being struck by those balls of energy.

My attempt at performing a push up off the metallic bodies ended with me falling back onto them with a thump. My body strength was weak and my muscles felt rigid, even my motor skills were delayed if not weakened by whatever energy made up the crimson ball of energy, resulting in my face flat image.

Though I had a rough guess as to what it was that left me in this sorry state, by the arcing blue electricity on most of those crimson balls of energy, and my time of getting shocked by charged energy pistols while inside of vehicles. It was pretty obvious.

Even if my motor skills were weakened earlier, by sheer will and instinct, I managed to get up on all fours, but the sound of metal thumping on concrete to my left told me to stop and brace for impact.

Fuck this is gonna hurt.

[ELIMINATE ANDROID!] A Biped declared as it sent me tumbling to my right with such force that I swore I heard my rib cage cracking.

I rolled a good few feet before my back hit one of the many support beams, where I then drew my Magnum from my left thigh and fired a single round into the fucker's armored up head, penetrating and blowing out the back of its head with a loud pop and scattering of components.

[Warning: Significant Trauma Detected.]

No shit, I just got kicked by a fucking sledgehammer! I swore as my body diagram popped up with the obvious affected area highlighted, while I tried to suck in the air cycling into my helmet.

Hopefully nothing broke I thought as I aimed the Magnum at the other Bipeds that were running toward me with an assortment of weapons.

[Eliminate!] The one leading the charge screeched out before my Magnum shut it up, and the next Biped that let off its own warcry.

The SAPHE of the Magnum was true to its moniker, the pocket cannon, because as displayed earlier and now, the small group of Bipeds didn't last long in their rush towards me. Their internals scattering across the floor along with what oily liquids they held inside of themselves splattering the area as if they were organic beings.

It didn't matter if it was headshots or body shots, so long as the SAPHE round penetrated and detonated its explosive load inside of the robots, they were as good as dead.

As I got back up onto my feet using the support beam I crashed into earlier to lean on, I tried to regulate my breathing while looking at the carnage of dead robots in front of me.

Instead of admiration at dispatching the asshole who kicked me and his buddies, I found that the group I took out earlier was now replaced by a new fucking group of robots, and they had a officer unit leading them with a gray stripe across its red head.

"Can't catch a fucking break!'' I let out an exasperated huff while reloading the Magnum, placing it back on my left thigh and unslinging my AMR from my back to brace it onto my right arm for the shit storm that was to come.

With the AMR braced against my waist, my left hand once again reached for a frag grenade, because I needed to thin these fuckers out to even the playing field.

Just gotta create some room and keep them at bay until I can get to my SMG that's somewhere around the previous bodies at the base of the staircase. I really hope it isn't buried underneath one of those things, cuz I really need that rate of fire for this fucking shit.

No sooner did I have the frag grenade prepped to be thrown, did the fucking officer unit give the order to attack, using its right gun arm to point at me while charging up an obvious shot while screeching the same thing as the other robots before it.

Silver lining? They didn't have energy shields.

*DHUOONG*

---

POV A2.

Removing the Type-4O blade from the core of the Goliath-class Tank, I sent one last charge of electricity into its split hatch, directly into its core to ensure complete and utter destruction of it before storing away the blade.

It was a useful weapon, one that I only recently came across when I managed to scavenge off the corpse of a long dead Yorha B-type unit. It was one of few unique weapons crafted by Yorha to specifically dispatch Goliath-class Machine Lifeforms, given only to squadron leaders or those whose mission was to outright hunt down unique and dangerous new forms of Machine life, as the previous holder was very much charged with.

Hm, now that I think about it, the elimination of the Elite Goliath-class seemed easier to dispatch than usual. Even with the recently acquired Type-4O, my battle with it should have been longer if not more challenging as I boarded its hull…

.

.

.

Of course… The turrets on its back are gone but it doesn't seem to be due to external damage from the Resistance fighters, nor do I recall destroying them.

It's almost as if they were purged from their platform before facing off against me, but why?

Looking around the destroyed Goliaths I spotted something odd not too far from the one I stood upon, still emanating black smoke from its smoldering remains, the remnant of a lone small flyer-type's lower body laid on the road. Its torso, gone, leaving nothing but remnants of Gil around its corpse.

I glanced back to the empty holes that once housed turrets, then back to the smoldering remnants of the flyer. The dimensions of its lower body looked to be a good fit for the Goliath's turret holes, but if it did then this Goliath was a newer variant, perhaps a prototype when compared to the other two wrecks… If so then I can see why the Resistance had to ambush this Machine column with such small numbers despite the significant danger.

If that were the case, unless they have gotten sloppy on their patrols and perimeter defense to let such a force enter their territory go unnoticed till now.

Still… If one of the four flyers that were ejected from the Goliath is here destroyed, where did the other three go?

No sooner did I draw the question, the dull loud pops of explosives briefly detonating above me drew my attention, this dull pop was then accompanied by the familiar sign of muffled gunfire and another of its louder instantaneous pops of explosive detonation.

The Sniper.

They must be trying to deal with the Sniper who was providing me fire support from earlier.

No sooner did I instinctively deploy my Type-40 sword, did I spot three flyers moving to the side of the building above, firing a barrage of crimson energy into the interior, no doubt to eliminate the Resistance member.

If only I had a rifle to-

"Oh?" I uttered in surprise, seeing as two of the three flyers instantaneously detonated into a plume of fire and smoke, while the third was flying erratically to avoid getting hit by said Android.

Jumping off of the Goliath's body and away from the falling remnants of the two flyers with my sword in hand, the sound of singular gunshots was now replaced by bursts of automatic gunfire which increased in frequency.

"A pair?" I muttered.

"A2!" Before I could enter the building with which the gunfire was originating from, a familiar voice called out my name, a voice that was very much happy to see me.

"Lily" I muttered, turning to watch as a group of heavily armed Resistance Androids followed behind her, they were better armed than your average Resistance Android, sporting sturdy full body armor and helmets meant for frontline combat.

Far different from the light loadout attire that Lily wore, including her weapon.

Perhaps my earlier assessment was wrong.

"I knew it was you when the explosion occurred, you always did know how to make an entrance" I simply nodded, though I looked at Lily confused by her statement.

"Explosion? I thought it was your Sniper's doing" I said, looking back to the upper levels of the building where the Flyer was at, now gone with the gunfire.

"Sniper? We don't have any Snipers A2… I'm sure it was you that caused that explosion before using the smoke as cover to cut down the Machines. If it wasn't you, then who caused that explosion?"

As if to answer her, the sound of an explosive going off echoed from the upper floor of the building, preceded by more automatic gunfire. Whoever this Sniper was, the Machines seem very interested in eliminating him… Or quite possibly, he is the reason why they are here in the first place.

Only one way to find out.

Dashing into the building's lower floor, I could faintly recall hearing Lily's flustered voice above the rushing of air past my ears and the muffled gunfire that echoed.

The distant sporadic rattling of automatic gunfire accompanied by singular pops, seemed to tell me that it was a two Android team fighting against an untold number of Machines. Each firing in tandem to the other as they reloaded, but by how long the pause was between the two, it seemed like they had begun to conserve ammunition.

Smart, but telling of the situation they were faced with.

It didn't take long until the gunfire resumed again but in much shorter frequency and very much more pronounced as I drew closer to the upper floors. All I had left was to climb this half of the stairs and I would finally reach th-.

"UUUuuaagh!"

*Ka-tck-lck-kkrrrrrrrrrrrr*

The cry of pain and gun scattering upon concrete was clear, so clear in fact that I noticed the odd sound of air escaping his respiratory system.

It sounded filtered and pronounced, almost as if it was spoken through a microphone of some type.

However as I ascended the remaining stretch of stairs, I found out why it sounded like so.

There on the ground crawling toward his uniquely designed handgun that now laid in front of me, was the Android prototype that I had long thought dead.

Behind him was a group of Elite Machines, four small bipeds with an assortment of melee weapons and a lone Officer Medium Biped that was standing behind its four smaller counterparts who visibly tightened their stances.

They were wary of me, and rightly so.

As I began to slowly approach the Machines with sword at my side ready, my foot kicked something solid toward the injured Android who I had put aside in my mind as I focused on the Machines behind him.

"UUUuuh" He uttered, as he reached for the gun that I had unknowingly kicked toward him with jittery motion from his right arm, before he ultimately went still with his hand on top of its silver like body.

Hmph, I'm sure he will be fine, if he was able to survive the explosion that I thought had done him in, in our last encounter, then I am sure he will recover when in the care of the Resistance.

As I charged toward the six Elite Machines, a thought came to mind, did he lose his partner or was he the only one here? I had not paid attention to his equipment but from what I could remember while splitting in two a small biped right down the middle with my Type-40 sword, he was carrying a bulky backpack and only a handgun.

Did he ditch his rifle when knowing he needed to be mobile?

I questioned, back stepping out of the way of an ax swing before countering with a kick, sending the small biped into its medium counterpart who was charging up a shot from its arm gun. Causing it to prematurely fire up into the ceiling, while I parried an incoming thrust attack from one of the sword wielding small bipeds, leaving it open for my sword to glide effortlessly along its blade and into its cylindrical body.

Carving off a good chunk of its torso and head off its body, before with a twist of my wrist and winding of my right arm brought my sword close to my body, to perform a swift wide sweeping arc with my sword.

Dispatching a mace wielder that charged at me, thinking it could take advantage of its dead comrade which I had so easily dispatched earlier, to swing its mace at whatever opening it had thought was created.

Ashamedly for it, I didn't leave an opening, nor would I allow myself to be so easily complacent in such a one sided fight.

The mace wielder and its weapon would be cut in two, detonating in a small explosion of fire and smoke behind me as I searched for the next closest Machine to eliminate.

*BRRRMMMmmmmm*

"Annoying" I stated, eyeing the officer unit and its two subordinates in my diagonal vision, after simply leaning off to the side to avoid an incoming crimson ball of energy.

The officer unit then fired another orb of energy at me, but was quickly sliced apart and detonated with a buzz of energy off to either side of me.

On queue, the last two small bipeds sprung into action hoping to capitalize on what small opening they thought they saw to keep me distracted, while their officer continued to fire more crimson orbs in hopes of scoring a hit, or to keep me from dealing the killing blow to either of the two small bipeds.

Afterall, they were attacking me in tandem with one another, coordinating with their officer who fired every so often to keep in their favor. It was annoying, yet effective, it was good at prolonging the inevitable outcome that was to come once they-

*RATATATATATA*

A chorus of gunfire echoed from the stairwell, causing both smaller stubbies to turn their attention to the unidentified new party, giving me an opening that resulted in the elimination of the stubbies.

"Friendlies coming up!" The familiar voice of Lily shouted above the clicking and clack of her rifle's reloading mechanism.

In a matter of moments, the very same group of armored up Androids appeared, spreading out from the stairwell to create a perimeter in the spacious open hall that was littered by dismembered Machines.

"Tin can was too busy firing its gun to notice us coming up, typical Machines"

"What the hell was this bastard trying to do to him?"

"Beats me, but looks like it was trying to run away with him on its back"

"Hey, does anyone recognize this guy?"

"Hey he looks familiar doesn't he Perna?" The Resistance Androids commented as they walked past the dead officer Machine and the unconscious prototype before spreading out from the stairwell.

"Stow the chatter! We still have a building to clear, let's get a move on!" The leader, Perna bellowed before glancing over to Lily who was leaning her AK upon her shoulder, earning a nod that gave them permission to continue.

As soon as they spread out into the spacious hallways and began to disappear from sight, I noticed that Lily was sighing in relief at the sight of the Android Prototype.

"Know him?" I posed the question to Lily, who was just about to grab ahold of her radio's handset.

She nodded as she locked eyes with me "Do you by any chance know him too?"

"Briefly, I had thought he was dead" I stated as a matter of factly, much to Lily's awkward grin at my answer.

I had stored away my sword, and just about left the scene after having my curiosity sated but my foot stomped on the same silvery metal handgun from earlier. Giving me pause to pickup the firearm and fully examine the unknown weapon the Android used.

It was… Interesting to say the least… Light, ergonomic, no iron sights, but very much comfortable to hold.

Magazine capacity seemed to be short in my opinion, but the caliber listed on the side of the handgun along with the name of its manufacturer told me why it was so small when compared to other contemporaries.

The name Misriah Industries did nothing to facilitate familiarity, but the caliber of 12.7x40mm was a new caliber that I could respect despite my lacking efficiency with firearms and their caliber.

'I'm telling you, the humans created this wonderful anti-material rifle! It even fires 12.7x99mm SLAP ammunition!'

The voice of a long fallen comrade echoed as I continued the examination, it was… Melancholic to hear her voice again, after so much time with only my own voice in my head.

"Confirmed identification, he's unresponsive, possibly overloaded by Machine Energy weapons. From the scorching upon his chest and shoulder armor he may require a reboot to his systems to come back online" Lily said, boots shifting, as she listened to the operator on the other end of her radio.

"Understood. Lily out."

I turned my gaze from the handgun to Lily just as she stored away her radio handset, hearing only the last bit of her conversation to who I suspected was the Prototype's officer.

"Is that his commanding officer?" I asked, only for Lily to shake her head with a growing grin.

"It's Anemone, and honestly? We don't know whose jurisdiction he falls under… Some Androids in camp believe he falls under the direct leadership of humanity, but at the same time, others believe he should be protected and removed from frontline combat due to his immense wealth of information"

"What?!" I exclaimed, taking a step closer to Lily who stood up in response.

"You see, he's an old Android A2. A very, very, old model that from Anemone and the Twin's hypothesis, served in the first Machine War, if not earlier" Impossible, for a combat Android to still exist all the way to the current year 11945, in pristine condition? This can't be true!

As my hands unconsciously relaxed themselves, the clatter of metal on concrete drew both my gaze and Lily toward the fallen object.

It was the handgun, and as my eyes went over its frame the name of the weapon manufacturer, Misriah, was clearly focused within my sight. While Lily questioned me about the handgun, I ignored her as I read the name again, the name of a Human company.

A name that has been lost to time until now.

---

Narrator

In the darkness of space a derelict vessel floated through the void trailed by a debris field of untold magnitude, covered in complete darkness from the debris. If one were to try and scan the vessel for residual heat, they would find that it was just as cold as the void.

But if someone were to say, scan for power and life signs, it would tell a different story.

A story that would deliver hope to those found wanting.

---

AU/N: HAHAHAHAH YES I FUCKING FINALLY GOT THIS CHAPTER OUT AFTER SUCH BAD WRITERS BLOCK AND MULTIPLE REVISIONS! It was soooooooo hard trying to put the combat scenes to word and getting them to flow well with the story. More so with trying to stop myself from adding unnecessary dialogue or details.

Alas, I'm just glad I finally got this chapter out. Its like the old saying goes "It's easy to start, but hard to continue" or something along the lines, despite having a storyline to follow! Its the "how" part of story A to story C that requires full on brain storming and rework that takes so long. Then comes the editing, grammar, and spelling check, because I really want to have a legible story that you can read and follow without the nagging thought in mind of auto correcting or line fixing.

*Sigh*

Well that seems to be all I have on mi- OH YEAH! Hope you all enjoy that last bit at the end mwhahahahahahaha.