Darkness, that was all I could think of, the familiar comfort of the pitch black void hugged me as I sat for a time which was lost to me.
I was content to just sit there, basking in the indescribable comfort of the void that I had begun to simply just stare off into the black. Losing all sense of my body and cognitive thinking, that when an object clasped onto my shoulder, pain erupted within my head.
It was excruciating painful, so much so that I saw light.
It was but a small blurred dot of light in the black void but with every flash of white, the darkness overtook it's place. In turn the brilliant light grew twice in size, and not wanting to allow this light to grow, the darkness doubled in growth to keep the light smothered in the blackness of the void.
Yet the light persisted, growing brighter and brighter until I could see shapes, and other variations of color.
My mind slowly begun to comprehend what it was that I was looking at, but it was slow and painful. The colors, the brightness, and the sound... The muffled and droning sound which repeated itself again and again grew in loudness and clarity.
It sounded concern?
About what?
What was happening?
Is something wrong?
Why is it getting louder?
Upon asking that question my eyes shot open.
"Trooper!? Trooper!" The all too familiar voice of Cortana greeted me, but with it a splitting headache.
"Thank god. I thought it was just me and the Chief" Looking up I saw the Master Chief's bronze visor staring directly into my helmetless face.
"You good?" The Chief questioned, pulling himself away from my face while handing me my helmet.
"Gah… Got a bad headache, but other than that… Ack… I'm green sir!" I placed my helmet back on, and attempted to push the seat restraint off of me, only to find it stuck in place.
The damn thing must have locked into place when we landed… Explains why I could see other occupants slumped forward in their seats. Must have been a hard landing if my headache is any indicator, along with sparse recollection of the lifeboat pilot reporting of something hot.
"Damn stupid-" Before I could finish, Chief simply pulled on my seat's restraint and effortlessly pulled it upward over my head with a loud clang, no doubt the locking piece or what was left of it breaking.
"Thanks" The Chief nodded as he left the escape pod with me following after him.
But before I left I grabbed my MA5 from the weapon rack, checking its ammo counter to make sure it was loaded.
My attention was thus turned toward the Marine that was seated in front of me, his head slumped forward "Hey, Marine" I reached forward and shook his shoulder.
His slumped figure ragdolling from my input, this guy must be-
"Don't bother Corporal, we already checked for vitals… We're all that's left" I see… I thought Cortana meant- forget it.
Just another day of this war.
"They sure did put up a fight waiting for us to board, wish some of them made it" Cortana solemnly said.
"They sure did" We have to leave them behind, no attempts at burial or anything traditional… At least they weren't left behind, ALIVE.
I shudder at that thought, the times we had to fallback from a position or were quickly overrun forced us to do more than leave our dead.
Those lucky enough to still be able to move after taking a needler or plasma bolt did their best to drag along their fellow wounded whenever a position was abandoned. The crippled or immobile had to either bite the bullet or go out with a suicide grenade, taking them and the alien fuck who happened to come across them with'em.
The unlucky ones didn't have much of a choice other than getting executed right then and there or becoming a Covenant POW… The worst of the outcomes.
"We need to move, Covenant search parties are probably already closing in on this lifeboat" This brought me out of my thoughts as I looked over to Chief, who was on guard scanning the tops of the valley gorge surrounding us, MA5 in hand.
With a heavy hearted sigh, I left the lifeboat, but not before pulling an incendiary grenade off my left hip, grenade rack, and tossing it into the lifeboat.
As I turned around, Chief stared at me "Left on fire from a failed reentry, there'd be no questions asked"
There was silence between the three of us, Chief staring at me along with Cortana in his armor, and Me the lone ODST with a bad headache staring back at the silent Spartan.
"Fair point, but we better move it. Chief spotted a bridge not too far from here at our 4 o'clock. It should lead us away and out of this valley to higher ground" Cortana carried on without saying it, but Chief? He simply nodded while handing me a string of dog tags… Heh and the old timers tell me Spartans are nothing but robots.
I reached forward to grab the dog tags, the dreadful sound of nameplates clattering with one another as I took them into my hand. Briefly looking over the names before recalling the words of some historical figure of ages past, as if it were a prayer.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
"Let's get a move on Corporal" Cortana called.
"Yes Mam" I said, bringing the dogtags closer to my belt, only then to stop as a hand was clutching my arm before it moved a third of the way to my waist.
It was four fingered and hairy, just like… Oh god… Looking up to the hand's owner I found myself staring into the face of a Brute Minor grinning at me.
"CONTACT!" I shouted, bringing up my right arm wielding my MA5B and squeezing the trigger as soon as my smartlink told me it was on the bastard.
A burst of hot lead was sent into the face of this ugly mother fucker. Its stupid toothy grin was replaced by a gory mess of blood, skull fragments, and parts of its gray matter all minced together like ground beef.
Yet even in death its grip held tightly on my forearm and seemed to only increase in pressure as I tried to shake its grip from my arm.
In my attempts at freeing myself another hand seized my wrist that was holding the MA5. This new hand was from the same dead Brute Minor I just wasted just seconds earlier.
That's just fucking impossible! I nailed him point blank with-
{SQUELCHING NOISE}
Oh god… No… NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! WAIT A MINUTE! NO NO NO NO!
This is not happening!
I looked back to what was left of its face to confirm my newfound fear and oh god, it's mess of a face was staring at me with the all too familiar twisted green flesh and red antennas replacing the blood red gore from earlier.
This isn't right, THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT! We fired Halo, we escaped its destruction and… We? No, WE DID ESCAPE! We made it to the Dawn and were on full burn toward the portal.
WE MADE IT!
"Lies, for the deluded" The Brute that turned Flood disappeared and with it the entire world around me, replaced by nothing but a pair of green eyes.
More specifically, a brown face plate with two big glowing green eyes that seemed to grow in size and brightness… Just what am I looking at? Better question, where am I?!
Instinctively, my legs and arms pushed against the ground putting space between me and whatever it was that stood over me. Though my hands were still completely closed out from the elements, I could feel that the floor was cold and metallic to the touch.
My first thoughts were that I was inside of a holding cell, hopefully not Covenant.
But a quick glance of my surroundings showed the unmistakable wall lined seats with overhead storage racks still filled with supplies and weaponry, though my eyesight was blurry I'd recognize the sight of a Pelican's cargo hold anywhere.
I sighed, relieved that my worst fear of becoming a Covenant POW was gone, then there was the other issue. That being the thing standing at the entrance of my Pelican with other sets of what I assume to be glowing eyes behind it, a multitude of green pairs overlapping one another as they eyed me.
Slowly I reached for my magnum, seeing that it was still showing up on my HUD, but stopped when the blurred figure of whatever it was that stood in the Pelican's cargo hold raised its limbs and spoke {We surrender please do not hurt us}
My hand instinctively clasped the familiar ergonomic grips of my socom magnum, drawing it to bare against the unknown, relying purely on the smart link to aim my weapon at what is assumed to be its head.
Whatever it was that spoke before, spoke again in its language, either alarmed or threatening me. Whatever it said, didn't register and either I was delusional or imagining things I thought I picked up on French or German.
At what felt like hours passed by, my eyes began to focus. The blurry figure that stood at the opening of the cargo bay sharpened, allowing me to view it with all the details its body held, and man was it strange.
Standing there between six to seven feet was a robot, an honest to God robot that looked as if it belonged in an amusement park or tech fair.
Now the use of robots in the UEG is a common occurrence, but with humanoid robots like the one standing in front of me. They're usually under intense scrutiny and regulations, so as not to be used as terror weapons. Or worse, hooked up with a runaway rampant A.I with a thirst for blood like some 20th century movie.
Now that I think about it… This robot was holding its arms up, surrendering?
(We surrender, please do not harm us. We only want peace.) It spoke again with a feminine yet metallic voice distortion which I only just now noticed, followed by others who repeated what she… It said but shorter, almost tribal in chanting.
(We surrender, We surrender, We surrender)
While I still didn't understand what these things were saying, the action of this brown robot clearly showed that they at least weren't hostile… At the moment.
Cautiously, I lowered the magnum and posed the typical military question "Unit, identify, designation, purpose and affiliation"
Almost instantly the chanting stopped and with it the brown robot tilted its head while lowering its arms, slowly.
Again the robot spoke but this time with a questioning tone? I couldn't tell due to the distortion in its voice module, let alone the language it was speaking.
(Are you accepting our surrender? Please we truly do not wish to fight you Mr. Android)
I honestly couldn't understand it but it did wrack my brain trying to place the words spoken "Look I don't know what you're saying but I'm Lance Corporal Jake Miller of the 105th ODST Shock Troops Division" I said, thumbing to myself with my left hand.
"What is your name or designation? Whatever it is that you go by" I pointed at it.
Taken aback by my gesture, the robot pointed to itself mimicking my earlier introduction and replied almost happily? (I am Pascal, leader of this village. Mr. Look I don't know what you're saying but I'm Lance Corporal Jake Miller of the 105th ODST Shock Troops Division. I know you may be cautious of us but please know that we truly do not wish to harm you)
Okaaaaay? It copied what I said and then some… Kind of wish Cortana was here to analyze or hack into its system to get a basic translation going.
Well I guess I'm gonna have to play a game of pictionary or charades or something, if I wanna communicate with this robot, and seeing as how it was holding its arms up in surrender I might as well confirm it.
Point at the robot, lift both arms up in surrender, and then point at myself. Lets see if it- Huh, I guess it does understand, seeing as it's nodding its head vigorously along with its eyes widening and glowing brighter, I'd say I'm making progress.
Alright, let's try explaining my situation.
POV
This armored Android is very strange, when his aircraft landed and turned off its engines I had expected Yorha Androids to disembark from its cargo hold, weapons at the ready.
Yet it never happened, and for the next 10 minutes of it resting idly, many of the villagers watched in anticipation and curiosity as I approached to investigate the strange craft.
The rear doors opened just meters away from me revealing a spacious cargo hold lined with seats on either side of its interior, with cargo and weaponry still resting within their storage holds.
It was most worrying as some of these weapons were very strange in design, yet I found it odd that there were no other Androids in sight, that is until I found the armored Android laying face up, staring at the ceiling of its craft.
I did not know if he was a passenger or the pilot, but I endeavored to help the unknown Android in hopes that it would understand that my village and I are not its enemies nor hostile in anyway.
No sooner did I examine its glass face, did it awaken. Quite possibly from picking up my movement within its senso.
Cautiously I backed away to create space between the two of us, whilst raising my hands up to my chest, showing that I held no ill will towards it and tried to explain what had happened.
Sadly in its confused state, the Android drew its weapon upon me to defend itself.
Again I tried to explain myself to the Android but it went unheard, I had believed it would fire its weapon and begin destroying my village right after eliminating me. Immediately I raised my arms up to the air, reminiscent of old data pertaining to humanity, a posture with both of oneself's limbs raised above into the air, was a sign of surrender and submission to the opponent.
During these intense moments I noticed that other villagers had approached the cargo entrance and began to also mimic my action, even chanting that we surrender to it.
I was quite nervous that the Android would not accept our surrender, but as it lowered its gun away from my head, it asked me a question in an unknown language.
I did not understand what it said, yet I assumed it wished for my surrender to which I stated that we did not wish for conflict.
In response the Android pointed to itself and spoke, in all likelihood explaining it will now take charge or- Oh, now it pointed to me… … … … OH DEAR ME! The Android was introducing himself, and now asked for me to respond in kind!
As I introduced myself and parroted his long introduction, the Android began to… Surrender? Why- Ah I see! I nodded uncontrollably, overjoyed that this Android understood our intention despite the language barrier.
The Android then continued its assortment of gestures, some I understood such as his rough explanation that his craft landed here in a rough manner.
It is strange though that his account was that of a violent crash, was it during his descent?
Such thoughts were quickly overshadowed by the Android motioning for us to exit his aircraft, hand in hand? Yes I would gladly show you around the village! I held my hand towards the Android who simply shook his head.
Again he gestured for us to go out but saw that he meant for me to leave first! My, how embarrassing, I certainly hope the Android is not intimidated by the amount of Machines outside of his aircraft.
My worries were quickly buried when I stepped outside of his aircraft, the villagers who watched my interaction with the Android earlier, now held white flags that waved above their metal frames.
Thank goodness everyone didn't forget the plan when we encountered Androids.
I then heard the Android groan loudly behind me, when I glanced upon him, the Android was looking at his left arm and fiddling with a glowing piece of his armor. Did he just get into contact with other Androids? Oh no I did not ask for him to keep quiet about our village! No… He can't understand me, but gestures yes!
Calling his attention the Android looked up from his screen toward me, immediately I held my own left arm up, mimicking his current posture before bringing both my arms into a X to signify denial.
Sadly he simply looked back at his glowing piece of armor whilst I tried my hardest to convey to him to not spread information about my village to other Androids.
Commander White inwardly sighed, she had just finished an emergency meeting with Night Kingdom Command.
The appearance of the Alien reinforcements had set off alarms across the entire frontline in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, as reserve troops were quickly rushed to bolster sections of the line that were undermanned, while munitions and equipment were rapidly distributed.
New battle plans were drawn for the inevitable collapse of the frontline, with new defensive emplacements being created, of course this created panic among the rank and file troops who watched the events unfold, with rumors of an enemy grand offensive action being prepared.
Such a rumor was strongly supported by the lack of Machine probing attacks along the front, resulting in high tensions.
"Just as we were finalizing the descent operation… I suppose we will need to hold off on the operation and focus on locating the Alien reinforcements and destroying them before they cause complications" White then leaned back into her recliner.
"Damn Aliens…" White thus closed her eyes and entered her low power mode, a state that would be associated with the human pastime of sleep.
*knock knock knock*
White groaned in annoyance.
"Commander! Excuse me for the interruption but we have a major development concerning the Alien reinforcements" 6O said with a muffle from behind the door.
Immediately, White stood from her chair and hurried to the door, sliding it open to reveal 6O hugging a data pad closely to her chest.
"Report"
Devola and Popola, both Androids of a long discontinued line due to the failure of two models in their duty to safeguard humanity. Even now after centuries the failure of the two models still stains their entire Android line, and with that failure, scorn and distrust went wherever the Androids of the line went.
Even now as they finished helping a wounded Android back to full operation, no words of thanks were uttered, only silence between patient and doctor.
"Another Android ready to return back to the front" Devola chided as she set down a box of bandages.
"Yes, another Android repaired" Popola turned to her sister, expressionless as her twin.
"It has been a week since the mobilization of every able bodied Android, yet there still has not been any altercations with the supposed Alien reinforcements Devola… It is worrying"
Devola walked to her sister and grasped both her hands together with her own smile warmly at her little sister "I am worried too. Who knows what the Aliens are planning, that is why there is a increase in casualties coming in to the infirmary"
Popola nodded, the two sisters then brought their foreheads together in an act of affection, more so to comfort one another for the coming days.
"Hey! We got wounded coming in! Get back to it!" A resistance Android interrupted the two's moment of affection with his shouting. The twins thus separated from one another and saw the very same Android shouting at them, holding up a legless Android with their comrade heading toward the closest free infirmary bed.
The twins simply glanced over to one another, before returning to their duties as the doctors of the camp.
"He was attacked by a medium biped wielding a sword, severing both his lower legs, just below his knees" The Android who shouted at the two from earlier reported as he set down his unconscious comrade.
Devola quickly went to work, stopping the leakage of coolant and oils, before beginning her attempt to repair the unconscious Android.
"Were you able to recover his limbs?" Popola asked to which his companion pulled two severed lower legs out from a satchel.
Popola did not waste a moment of time, as she took the severed legs from the Android and went over to the unconscious Android and jammed the severed limbs back into place, magically stuck in place.
"Popola, he has lost a large amount of coolant" Devola cooly stated as her sister went to retrieve the needed coolant.
This had become the daily routine since a week ago, with the threat of Alien reinforcements, the resistance went into overdrive to find and possibly destroy the newly arrived forces.
Patrols were tripled, and heavy munitions were stockpiled so as to ensure the readiness of their forces for the impending attack against their foe. Yorha even bolstered the Resistance forces by increasing their patrols, yet sadly it was only for the northern region as it would stretch their forces too far to make any impact.
As time went on, the empty beds in the infirmary area began to slowly fill with wounded Androids. Ranging from the loss of limbs, energy base damage, to blunt and bladed damage, which in due time would be remedied by the efforts of Devola and Popola, who tirelessly ensured their patients were stabilized or otherwise brought back to full health.
Though as great as their efforts were, some were far too gone to ever be repaired again.
The deceased were thus removed from their beds and were taken to a non-disclosed area away from the eyes of other Androids.
Watching from her command center, Anemone watched coldly as the dead were carted off.
Another death to add onto an already burdened consciousness "That's the 23rd thus far… And there is nothing to show for the losses" she muttered bitterly.
"Lantana! Recall the search teams, I am putting the search on hold, for now" As ordered, Lantana made her way to the radio equipment and began to issue the withdrawal of all forces involved in the search.
Leaning down against the large table, with a map half the size of the table. Anemone grimaced at the sight of many points of interest pinpointed on the map were crossed out, especially the Sand Zone in sector C6.
Just 6 days after the initial emergency meeting with White, Anemone sent a team of her most capable scouts to the sector in hopes of pinpointing the exact landing site of the Aliens.
When the scout team returned, she was taken aback by their reports. There was no change in the landscape nor the local Machine life, which continued to wander mindlessly in the great sandy wasteland.
This of course prompted her to triple the patrols and increase the range outside of their established line with the Machine forces to the south, who had made the old foundry as their own base of operations.
Conflict was inevitable but the high attrition was something she had not expected.
Generally most of her scout teams that were sent out before the search for the Aliens, came back with light wounds and 30% of their munitions depleted, nothing too worrying since they had their own light arms factory churning out supplies.
Now? Most scout units came back with medium to severe injuries putting most units out of action, or worse yet, never returned.
She sighed, this was a loss on her part. The best they can do at the moment is recover and strengthen their lines for the ensuing attack.
"Anemone" Lantana called out.
"What is it?" Anemone asked, as she rose to her full height.
Lantana turned to her superior "Pascal sent us a message, it has something to do with your shipment order"
Anemone gave a look of apprehension before remembering what it was that she had asked for "I see, will it be dropped off at the usual location?"
"A-About that… It seems like she is sending us a courier" Lantana wryly smiled.
Anemone simply pinched the brow of her head, wondering what made Pascal do something so brazen, now of all times.
If I knew, there'd be hulking… Giant. Hostile. Robots, before I left robot village… I'd have brought the Spartan laser, or the SPNKR… HELL I'D TAKE A HEAVY MACHINE GUN RIGHT NOW!
I blasted away two small bipedal robots with two shots each to the head with my M6 Socom, before swapping back to my MA5C-G and firing off a shot from the underslung grenade launcher toward a charging sword wielding medium sized bipedal robot.
The detonation of the explosive destroyed the charging idiot and sent a light blue electromagnetic pulse that stunned two small bipeds bringing up its rear, allowing me to hose them as they fell face flat into the dirt.
Why do these things feel like the Covenant but with a new coat of paint?!
Like sure it's nice not being shot at! But the bum rushing is god damn annoying!
Out of the corner of my eye, something came streaking toward me.
Instinctively, I dove forward into a roll that transitioned back to a ready standing stance, and turned to look at the spot I stood at just moments ago becoming nothing but chipped concrete with visible black soot coating the area like a miniature blast.
"What th-" the same spot was struck again with a dark crimson ball of energy with arcing blue electricity pulsing its circumference.
Oh come on energy weapons now!? I take back what I said earlier! Bring on the bum rushers!
I turned my head back ahead of me, finding more of those balls of energy coming in fast. Again I dove away from my position, avoiding the balls of energy, slapping right where I was standing seconds ago.
Fucking hell.
My eyes darted toward the one responsible for firing those crimson energy balls and spotted a trio of stubby bipeds with round saucer lower bodies, in place of legs, flying towards me, lower body- guns- whatever blazing more of those crimson balls of energy.
I instinctively barrel rolled to my right and in one quick motion of my left hand cocking the pump action of the grenade launcher, loaded another round into its chamber.
An explosive 40mm round flew from my barrel, missing the flight lead but detonating in the center of their formation engulfing them in a cloud of shrapnel, as smoke began to emanate from the tiny holes littering their metal frames.
And surprisingly the EMP that followed after the explosion of the 40mm ended up destroying the balls of energy that were fired at me, neat, but still had to avoid getting hit by the ones outside of the detonation zone.
Just as I pumped another round into the launcher, one of the flying robots that was struck continued its course toward me with red eyes glaring into me.
Oh no you don't! I survived plenty of Grunt suicide attacks and I am not going down to some suicidal tin can in a flying bowl of noodles!
I emptied my entire magazine into the flying little shit with both grenade launcher and rifle fire, obliterating the bastard into slag as it flew overhead, detonating as it slammed into the ground.
Instinctively I reloaded my rifle, slamming a fresh magazine into place and scanning for more robots who wanted to pop up into this little skirmish.
Especially those flying ones, they are the only ones I've seen with range weaponry, and pairing that up with flying? Well they'd be almost as annoying as dealing with Buggers… Almost.
I didn't know when I'd have to deal with more of these hostile robots but I sure as hell didn't want to run into the same giant robot that put me in my current situation!
I was just minding my own business until I turned a corner, and found myself being stared down by a behemoth of a robot. It didn't take long for my body to go into flight, and thankfully so!
The giant robot chased after me street after street until I made a sharp turn through some overgrown alleyways, taking small pathways through some old ruined buildings.
Sadly the last building I went through wasn't so empty, and I had to fight the robots that chased me out from their little dark abode, leading me to where I am currently.
Loading a new grenade launcher magazine into place, and pulling my M6S out to change its half filled magazine for a full one, before moving away from my little mess I made.
There was the risk of running into the same giant again as I jogged along the wide open road, but it beats needlessly wasting ammo in avoidable confrontations such as the previous one.
Speaking of which, due to being stuck on this planet with no signs of UNSC support or any way to resupply, I'm gonna have to hold onto my empty mags to refill them when I get back to the Pelican.
Should have a few crates of loose ammo somewhere onboard, after all I did ask for a full loadout before the crew left the- OOF!
The hell?!
Rolling onto my back with my gun pointed at the thing responsible for tripping me, I found myself staring at a… A gray box with an arm? Half buried into the ground.
A sigh escaped my lips as I got back up, checking my surroundings just before I crouched down to the gray armed box thing.
My gloved hand went over its frame, feeling it out for any access ports or identifying marks.
Sadly there were none to be found at the moment, what with all the mud caking it and being half buried but if I dug it up, maybe I could find an access port and grab some data off of its system or something.
Could also find out its weakness too if I happen to run into any active units of this thing that turn out to be hostile. Same could be said about the robots I destroyed earlier but I doubt I'd get anything after what I put them through.
Now that I look at this thing… It must be equipped with a handheld gun or something if it has grappling appendages, I just can't see a reason for it to be a melee unit.
Well I can see a reason for turning it into a melee unit but I just don't see it being very efficient if it's going to chicken walk into combat.
For the next 15 minutes that it took for me to dig up the boxed object, I found that it had two smaller arms buried beneath its body, broken off from presumed combat.
I'll just stick those somewhere on my chest rig.
Whatever destroyed it, I'll find out after arriving at my waypoint, courtesy of Green Eyes, the Brown Robot who was so generous as to build a 'makeshift' shelter for my Pelican and me within the span of a few days.
A week if you include personal accommodations being made by yours truly.
This waypoint was a rough location that Green Eyes gave me along with a large canister, it was no bigger than a MFDD, a Medium Fusion Destruction Device. I didn't know why she gave it to me but after a few dirt drawings and what I found to be a route towards a destination it was a request to deliver this canister to another village or encampment of robots.
Of course it took some time to calibrate the waypoint along with my inquiry as to why she wanted me to do it, but after what she's done for me? It wasn't that much to ask now was it?
A simple trade shipment along with me getting more data on the surrounding environment, it sounded like a walk in the park… But if I knew what I was getting myself into, I'd decline the request or maybe pack a SPNKR or Spartan Laser before I left.
Once I salvaged the gray boxy unit, I magnetized the thing onto my M/LBE Hard Case, or simply known to many in the corp as the 'Ruck'.
Hopefully this boxy thing wasn't sensitive to the mag locks, I'd hate having to carry dead weight all the way to the waypoint, with an unchanging sun.
Speaking of the sun! It's strange! Day is a constant, hostile and neutral robots wander n about through the streets of a ruined city, an unknown language that seems to be the norm despite the obvious human architecture of this city.
Even stranger yet, there aren't any human remains! Be it skeletal, burial, or signs of struggle!
You'd think there'd be remains seeing as robots basically inhabit this world, meaning runaway A.I that went genocidal on humanity.
I shiver at the thought, as A.I tech is under heavy scrutiny so as never to allow such a thing from happening in the first place.
Ha! Funny how the Covenant beat A.I to committing genocide on Humanity… I'm sure Cortana would also get a chuckle out of that.
But if it did happen, it still doesn't explain a lot of things. Namely the lack of information about the UNSC or UEG in general.
Green Eyes didn't even recognize the emblem of the two when I drew them out for her, especially when I wrote the date. She believed it was my name or designation like I'm some kind of unknown robot model to her.
But I can't really fault her for that… Despite her hospitality, I never removed my helmet in front of her or tried to explain I was human. For all I knew, the moment I removed my helmet and showed my fleshy face to her, she and every robot in the village would turn on me in a heartbeat.
I don't know whether it's due to my armor and clothing being coated in ONI's spook material or Green Eyes not having any built in scanner modules, but I haven't been treated unfairly or suspiciously by her or the village robots.
They, being mostly robots, didn't act like soulless machines. Most had chores or were busy chatting with other robots while I walked around their homes, which were strangely homely even if cramped.
There were some tall and big chonky robots too! One almost as big as the same bastard from earlier who tried to squish me like a bug!
Honestly, I thought the giant would be rare seeing how there was only one in the village but hopefully the one I encountered was just that a rare encounter.
The one in the village though was a gentle giant, seeing as it played with smaller stubby robots that gathered around its large brown rusty legs.
It's kind of unsettling now that I think about it when some of those robots acted like children with high pitch childish voices, especially that duo of a tall bipedal robot and its short bipedal companion.
Each fashioned a bow of unique coloring that somehow kept its color for who knows how long they had it, an amethyst purple for the tall biped and a sky blue bow for the short biped.
Didn't really need a genius to tell me the two were siblings or closely related units or some sort, but hey, at least they didn't bother me like the other half of the village robots with my privacy.
Luckily ol Green Eyes would shoo the peeping toms away from bothering me, giving me much needed privacy.
Sadly, even with that privacy my human needs were hard to conceal… Especially if my diet consisted mainly of MREs, ugh makes my asshole feel like a drive through.
Now I could forage for anything edible but with the Pelican survival kit or hunt the wildlife here, but that would be a huge red flag, showing that I was organic to the robots.
And speaking of the wildlife, the animals were absolutely monster size and very recognizable to animals of Earth!
A Moose was twice if not just larger than what was recorded on earth and its various colonies, even the wild hogs of this planet were just as big as a Warthog! A WARTHOG!
…
…
…
I can see some marines trying to put a gun on the back of one if given the chance.
Hehehe…
I couldn't contain my laughter, the image of three marines riding atop of a living hog, guns blazing away as they sped toward fleeing Grunt formations.
Instead of running over the Grunts the damn thing would probably eat'em if they got in its way and gore those unfortunate.
"Talk about fuel efficiency" I muttered to myself, grinning with fading laughter.
If only the same could be said about the Pelican Gunship.
Hydrogen fuel cells are critically low if not depleted, fusion cells have just 20% of juice left to keep the Pelican air worthy for a time.
The hydrogen situation I can manage, if barely, the liquid state and quality which most UEG and UNSC vehicles use as standard fuel will be outright impossible to recreate without the proper facilities and production know-how.
But, and this is a big but, I could use the basic form of hydrogen in its gas form or try to recreate its inefficient, basic form of liquid hydrogen to refuel the hydrogen cells.
The 20% juice I have left in the Pelican may be all I need to get the job done.
It didn't take long until I encountered signs of civilization on my way closer to the waypoint, and by civilization I mean recent civilization that isn't just another empty husk of a building or a heavily rusted down frame of a vehicle.
Actual walls and makeshift barricades littered some street sections, causing me to take detours that led me across stray stubby and bipedal robots, who~ were thankfully minding their own business when I bypassed them.
Speaking of civilization, I've been picking up some random radio frequencies, ever since day one of landing on this… Place. Both from the Pelican Com systems and my own gear.
Some were coded, meaning military or some form of an organized entity, while the other two were on open coms and seemed to have a variety of speakers. At first I was quick to assume that they were simply other humans who were talking or rallying survivors for safe zones or last human bastions, but after hearing the same transmission coming from a radio the robots had built in robot village… I've given up on that idea.
I'd listen from time to time to catalog segments of transmission for Cortana's translation software to analyze, but, while slow due to not having any references, the software managed to translate a word or two of audio much to my surprise.
Some words were taken and translated from Latin, Japanese, English, German, French and etc. while everything else was still left as unknown. Though if the first few words of translation are any indication, I get the feeling I'm going to need to record more of those open transmissions.
Or better yet find a working console so I can just plug in and get it sorted immediately.
Which reminds me, when I reach the next robot village, I'm gonna try just that on the box drone I have magnetized to my ruck.
That is, if it still had functioning circuitry.
Now here I am, right at the mouth of where my waypoint indicated this supposed robot village was supposed to be at.
Instead of a village or robot community, what I found was a large open space that had a crystal clear pond area at the center with a pool of water and a stream running from said pool, originating from two rock cliffs.
No make that an old sewage or drainage channel and a rock cliff.
After all the hiking, running and gunning, and arriving at my destination, only to find nothing but an empty open space? Either the waypoint is off by miles or Green Eyes gave me the wrong info.
"Whatever, it's not like I have a schedule to keep… At least I didn't run into a group of hostile robots" I complained aloud, placing my rifle on my ruck, mag locks kicking in to secure it as my left hand reached down to grab my canteen from its pouch.
With a jostle of the hand, I could feel the water sloshing lightly side to side from within its bagged interior.
Seems like I have 8-12 OZ of water left, guess I'll need to refill it here… glancing to the left of me at the small stream then back to the open space in front of me, where the small pounds seem still despite the water flowing into them.
Yeah, not going to fill my canteens with that nor this stream, but that waterfall to the left of the old drain pipe seems like a good place to try and refill my canteens at. Thing is though, is that I'll have to slog through the pond area, uphill, which has no cover whatsoever.
Lets not forget that I don't even know if the ground is stable enough to support me, sure the ground looks solid and there's green patches of grass here and there.
I could also just hug the wall of the building to the right side of the pond area but the interior shadows of the building make me feel uneasy.
Now that I got a good look at the surrounding buildings, it's literally a fubar situation… Lots of blacked out interiors from high positions of skyscrapers and office buildings, perfect for a sniper or heavy weapons team to pick me off as soon as I make it into the open.
And for all I know, just a few steps into the center and I could just very well sink into the ground by a few inches to a foot deep in mud.
Oh and then there's the chance that if I do go across it right now and get myself stuck or bogged down by the mud I'm about to churn up. Hostile robots who may or may not be taking cover within the surrounding buildings, jump into action to try and kill me.
An exasperated sigh escaped my lips as I fiddled with my canteen.
Pressing down on the top of the canteen's cap and rotating it 90' degrees clockwise, opened the top of the cap to reveal two black rubber dots. As practiced so many times in training and war time, I brought the canteen to the chin of my helmet, tracing its movement along until it was caught in a weak magnetic grip.
Pushing the canteen upwards, the familiar green notification of my hydration system turning on appeared, with it the hydration straw as it moved toward my mouth ready to discharge the much needed H2O of life.
It didn't take long for me to empty the canteen of its contents, but I made sure I didn't drink too fast so as to get a cramp mid run across the open area.
Hopefully, whoever plans on gunning me down when I run across the open isn't a fucking Jackal sniper… Fuckers were the bane of urban combat, especially when paired with their skirmishers, even if they weren't as accurate as the standard Jackal sniper, they could vault and reposition themselves for a better-
(Bwooompth!)
The hell was that?! Spinning around, to where I just came from, I found myself holding my suppressed magnum at hip height, aiming with the smart link at whatever happened to be in my line of sight.
Quickly putting the canteen back into its pouch, and holstering my magnum in lieu of my rifle. I glanced toward the rock cliff then back forward to where my rifle was aimed, it really didn't take a genius to make the obvious decision here.
With my boots scuffing against the old concrete and grassy ground, I b-lined it toward the sloped high ground that led to the waterfall.
Surprisingly when I had to wade my way through the ponds and over what I assumed was mushy soft mud, I found solid ground underneath.
Although it was very squishy… Almost as squishy as-
(Bthoom! atatata!)
Oh shit, that was closer, and from the sounds of it, sporadic gunfire? I said halfway up the steep part of the slope leading up to the high ground.
(Ratatatata- Ratata)
Yep gunfire… But who or what is using a firearm? The question then drew my thoughts to that of the box unit I had attached to my ruck.
Despite the noise of gunfire growing in loudness, I didn't stop to look and see if I could spot the ones responsible for the ruckus. All that mattered to me was getting that water and finding some place to take cover, if not in reverse order.
Feeling the slight onset of limb fatigue from both my legs, I finally reached the top of the high ground. There to the left of me was the waterfall, the sound of rushing water crashing down against the rocks was loud, but not loud enough to drown out the distant gunfire, and the shouting that erupted from the right side of me.
I didn't know if it was directed toward me or something else, but instinctively my rifle was brought to bare against the unknown who was shouting.
My smartlink and hud sights landed on the head of a sand gray cloaked figure, pointing toward the direction of where I came from and the very same direction that the gunfire grew in loudness.
Just stopping behind the cloaked figure were two more cloaked individuals carrying a single tubed object each, one wore a full set of forest green clothing, cloak and face cover both in a lighter tone of green, contrasting between the two articles of clothing.
The third individual wore tiger striped green pants with a tan shirt, with a cloak of a brighter shade of forest green, with a visor over their eyes that exhibited an azure blue glow, even in broad daylight.
There standing in broad daylight, standing at the mouth of an alley were three humans… Three living humans.
"Hey! Uoy hTerE! ErA uoy usjt ogngi to andst hTereE rO hWat?!" The gray cloaked figure turned her attention to me, revealing her face to the never changing afternoon sun.
I didn't know whether it was due to having long bangs or due to her cloak, but the right half side of her face was partially obscured, leaving just the left side of her face open for anyone to see.
And- And she was smiling?
(RATATATATA!)
The distinct staccato of rifles firing in tandem to one another echoed loudly, bringing my attention away from the trio as I spun to face the shooters, shifting from a standing posture to a kneeling fire position.
Unsurprisingly there wasn't the distinct sound of bullets snapping by me or the sound of bullets impacting the area, instead, what did surprised me was seeing a group of 9 people in a mixture of green, brown, and tan clothing emerging from around the corner of a building, next to the small stream that I walked along not to long ago.
If my earlier reaction to the three off to my left side was anything to go off, I'd be sputtering and trying to make sure I wasn't just seeing things.
It was just so surreal, just so, that I almost thought the giant robot following behind them was just me hallucinating my earlier encounter with a giant robot.
The one I encountered earlier was more rustic and weathered by time, while the one chasing after the group was more well kept. Instead of a weathered frame, steel gray paint covered the entirety of the giant with red accents lines across its limb and body.
Even the head was up armored with red steel plating, its small red head encased with a steel gray helmet. Providing ample protection as was seen with the numerous scratches that wore away the paint.
I should have brought the Spartan Laser…
"HtEre Ti is!" The Woman from earlier shouted aloud as she ran up to the left side of me, followed by her two companions carrying their tubed objects, which I finally recognized as single tubed rocket launchers.
The UNSC had similar weapons platforms in their vast array of weaponry, especially for the SPNKR's duty, but most were issued to the Army and planetary garrisons or to some backwater outpost.
This wasn't due to the SPNKR becoming an old or obsolete piece of equipment, it was just that those launchers didn't fit the Corps requirement checklist.
The ones that the two guys wielded on the other hand looked really simple, archaic even by Insurgent standards, and those fuckers had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for simple and effective launchers when fighting the UNSC.
(RATATATATATATAT- RATATATATATATATA)
The cacophony of rifle fire took me back to reality, and not too long after, the familiar sound of a rocket motor igniting boomed off to my left. Sending off what would most likely be an explosive shaped charge type of munition, that arced downward toward the Giant.
Pausing its pursuit, the Giant's right arm swiftly batted away the incoming rocket, detonating it before it could strike its cylindrical torso body.
Oh and now it's looking over here…
No sooner did I make the comment, did the Giant begin stomping toward us ignoring the group it had originally chased. Finding that the heavy weapons team off to my left was of more importance, and not wanting to lose the advantage of range, my rifle barked to life with precise automatic fire toward its head, causing the Giant to pause itself before raising an arm up to shield its head.
(SHROOMPTH)
The second Rocketeer fired off his rocket, just as my ammo counter struck zero. The rocket struck the small shoulder joint connecting its torso with the massive left arm, which was at this moment dangling freely.
This put a stop to the Giant's advance, it stopped, examining the damage done to it. Using its right arm to move and diagnose the extent of its battle damage, and not wanting to let this chance go, I removed my empty magazine from its mag weld. Inserting a fresh one in place and about to pull the trigger again, but the new cacophony of rifle fire erupting off to my left and right side gave me pause.
The group of 9 that were chased by the Giant had managed to haul their asses up to the high ground. Where me and the Rocketeer team sat upon, I don't know how they managed to cover ground that fast but when adrenaline is pumping anything is possible.
I should know, because I had to keep up with the Master Chief and the amount of bat shit insane stunts he pulls off!
Be it running head first toward a Brute artillery position with nothing but an assault rifle and magnum, straight into the arms of a Brute Chieftain who was getting ready to batter the Chief like a baseball with a gravity hammer. Or going toe to toe with a pair of Hunters and killing them in the most badass way you could think of, sticking a grenade into the fleshy back of a Hunter and jumping away only to land into a superhero pose!
Even cooler yet was him picking up that dead Hunter's fuel rod cannon and using it against its partner! Blasting it into a gory mess of worms and orange bioluminescent blood.
I could go off on a tangent about the things the Chief did during the time we served together, but right now the Giant robot was of utmost concern seeing as it now stomped toward us with its last good arm raised above its head with visible electricity arcing from its large gauntleted hand.
"oCMe on! iRfE hTe oRkcet laRdeAy!" A male voice shouted as I joined my rifle fire with theirs.
"SiMfreI!" Another shouted panicky, that didn't sound good.
While the Rocketeers shouted to one another, the Giant got closer with each step, sending a slight tremor through the ground. And it looked like it was picking up speed, almost as if too…
Nu-uh not gonna let it smash me and the other people here into a fine red paste!
With my ammo counter reaching zero, I changed my fire selector to that of my grenade launcher. Firing it shouldered and rapidly pumping a new shot into the chamber with wanton disregard for pinpoint accuracy, as my hud calculated and inputted the arming head of the explosive.
The first shot detonated behind its target, erupting into a miniature pillar of water behind it, while the other two landed just in front of its head, but instead of an immediate detonation of explosives and emp blast waves.
The two shots dinged off the head of the Giant, shooting upwards toward its raised arm, detonating into the familiar blue and yellow of explosive and EMP shockwaves that coursed throughout its body, dispersing the arcing electricity in its arm and stopping it dead in its tracks.
"Feuer! iHT tI oNW" A voice shouted among the many rifle wielding people.
On command two rockets streaked toward the stunned Giant, one rocket crashed directly into the armored head of the Giant whilst the second one blew a hole right into its metal thigh limb.
The rocket didn't take the leg off the Giant, nor did it bring the Giant crashing down, but if it put weight onto its leg I'm sure it'll snap, bringing the bastard down.
Not that it mattered as the first shot definitely killed it, the black soot that covered what was left of its red bulbous head and cracked armored plating, revealed the internal wiring and mechanical oils which sparked and spewed its mechanical gore for all of us to see.
Oddly enough the Giant hasn't didn't come crashing down yet, maybe its joints are still locked up by the EMP detonation? Whatever the case, inserting fresh magazines into my rifle took precedence… Along with greeting newfound friendlies?
I glanced over towards the Rocketeer team and- "Guh!" Holy shit! I took a step back, giving me space from, well, whoever this chick is with the-the creepy smile.
She cooed, ogling me while getting in closer to inspect my gear, moreso me than my gear as she looked closely at my face "Personal space lady!" backing up to get more space between me and this weirdo, I felt myself bumping into someone.
Seeing as the creepy weirdo stopped her advances, I turned to face the person I backed up into, finding myself staring at two other camo green wearing individuals who were eyeing me with amused looks.
"oDwN Ehre…" a feminine voice said from below me, to which I craned my neck down to see the person.
Looking up into my visor concealed face, were a pair of emerald green eyes with a visibly irked expression "My bad, I didn't see you" I mentally face palmed.
I took a few steps back, giving room between the two of us "S-Sorry" I awkwardly said rubbing the back of my helmet.
Getting a better view of her entirety, the short emerald eye girl wore a dust ridden tawny colored cloak atop of her white baggy long sleeve, her pants were loose but just enough to give her the much needed mobility for combat, but those knee pads looked impractical… Hahaha, if you need more leg armor just strap some to your thigh or improve the knee pad, don't just make it ridiculously curved upward like horns.
Aside from the weird knee pad armor her attire seemed pretty normal, but my eyes continued to move up along her frame back to her face, finding that she was quite pale skinned with dark green hair hidden beneath her hood.
If she didn't have that irked expression, I'd have thought of her to be quite the looker with the paramilitary look she has going.
Even as I stared at her I found myself gravitating toward her eyes, the bright emerald green of her eyes were flawless, even without having to get closer to view them or zoom in with my VISR, you could already tell at a moment's glance from how they just seemingly had a mystic glow to them, but that's probably due to the sun.
Even without the sun's light bouncing off of her emerald iris, anyone would find them pretty to stare into. Almost as if she knew what I was doing, she shifted her rifle in front of herself in a questioning manner.
With how she held her rifle, I could see a shoulder and waist strap connecting to three magazine pouches on the left side of her body, a bandolier no doubt for her rifle ammo, and from the edge of what I could see a magazine bag in the same khaki color as her bandolier.
Honestly the full sized rifle she held in her arms seemed a little big for a person of her stature, but if she is using it then she must know her way around it. I've seen my share of smaller sized troopers hefting weapons twice their size performing their duties without a shred of discomfort, namely the Sniper Rifle which we love to nail covie officers with.
Speaking of seeing my share of things, that rifle she's holding is an antique right? I've seen insurrectionist cells use old weapon designs dating back to the 20th century during my counter terrorism ops, and I'm a hundred percent sure that she herself is holding one.
I could ask-
She took a deep breath, calming herself before slinging her rifle onto her shoulder, her irked expression melting away to that of curiosity as I waited for her to speak.
"mI oRrsY, uTb AnC uOy YsA Hatt GaIan?"
That's right… language barrier, "Fuck it… Look I'm-" I thumbed to myself with my left hand "From the UNSC, Lance Corporal, Jake Miller of the 105th ODST Shock Troops Division"
My left hand thus pointed to her "And you are Miss~?"
She seemed taken aback, eyeing me as if I was some weird person for speaking the universal language of humanity, ENGLISH.
Well seeing as she doesn't know it I guess not so universal in this part of space… Wherever this part of space is. Whatever, guess I'll go with what I did with Green Eyes, drawings and charades to explain my situation, it would be easier with my tac pad but that's currently waiting for IT support.
Now that I found other humans, the wait for IT support shouldn't be long now. Hell, I could very much get a guaranteed translation for whatever language they have. I could restock on hydrogen fuel if they have some to spare, or better yet a fusion generator to help recharge the Pelican's power cells!
And quite possibly get an explanation of what the hell happened here!
AU: It has been some time since I've updated, found a new job so didn't really find the time nor had stints of full on writer power to continue this or my other stories. You'll probably notice while reading where I stopped and continued, hopefully my editing helped to weave a nice long duration of text for you to enjoy.
Be seeing you next time, readers.