Justice League of Amazons: Halo
Chapter 13
…
Watchtower Monitor Room.
In the Monitor Room of the Watchtower, John sat on a high grade titanium chair made to hold his weight while in armour. His helmet was seated on a nearby foldout table. There was a focussed look in the Spartan's eyes as his fingers flew across the keyboard of the computer system and he took in all the images that monitor screens showed at a rapid pace that most human eyes would struggle to keep up with. But to a Spartan, the pace was mildly slow as John took them all in, absorbing the data the screen displayed.
The door to the Monitor Room slid open with a pneumatic hiss and entering the room was Diana. In her hands, she held a tray that bore two ceramic mugs, a steaming pot, and some sandwiches of different varieties. John looked over his shoulder briefly and gave a tiny nod to acknowledge the Amazon's presence before focussing back on his work.
"You've been in here for the past hour. I thought you might be hungry," Wonder Woman said to him as she pulled up a chair to sit beside the Master Chief.
"Thank you," the Spartan replied not even looking at the Amazon Princess who pursed her lips a little at this flat delivery.
"You've been in here for a while," she reiterated. "Are you alright?" she enquired.
"We got careless," John said bluntly. "I got careless," he then added as admonishing himself for something he did.
"What do you mean you got careless?" Diana prompted him.
"The op; I should've realised sooner that Intergang would have the means to scramble our communications and that the android parts would have GPS tracking devices in them," John stated. A minute frown creased his brow as he then said, "I'm getting soft."
"Soft?" Diana wanted to laugh at this but refrained so as not to offend the Master Chief. "What in the world makes you think you're getting soft? You've been nothing but alert and at your peak the whole time I've known you," she told him.
John then turned to look at Diana before replying, "Ever since Cortana and I have landed in this universe, I've been… lax. I've had more downtime than I've ever had back home. It's making me lazy."
"That sounds like defeatist talk there," Diana remarked. "You weren't so lazy when you fought Aresia. You very nearly killed her had the Gods not intervened," she reminded him.
"Perhaps," John conceded. "But even so, I've been getting lazy since my time here," he reinforced.
Diana had a sympathetic look on her face as she said, "You are a warrior. All you've known was the battlefield and war. It's no surprise that you find it difficult to adjust to peacetime and feel that you are getting lazy."
John kept silent at this before he turned his chair to face the Amazon more fully. Seeing this as a chance to talk more, Diana continued. "Have you ever considered the fact that there will come a time where you don't need to fight anymore?" she asked.
A flash of what appeared to be confusion was in the Spartan's eyes as Wonder Woman asked him this. "I… never really considered that," he admitted cautiously and he cast his eyes down to gaze at the floor in contemplation.
Diana reached out with one hand to take John's hand into her own. "You never asked yourself what you might do when you aren't needed anymore?" she pressed gently.
John did not say anything at this, but he looked up at Diana. The Amazon then took her hand back and poured herself a cup of tea and said, "A cup of tea sounds like a good idea, I think." She then poured John a cup of tea and offered it to him. "It's green tea," she told him. "It should help you think and relax," she added.
John gave a nod of thanks and took a slow sip of the hot fragrant brew. As the hot liquid hit the back of his throat, a cool minty sensation came over him as he sipped his tea. Diana smiled upon seeing the relaxed look coming over the Spartan, she then offered him a chicken salad sandwich which he took.
Taking a bite and chewing slowly, John felt himself relaxing a little more as he took another sip of his tea. Diana watched him carefully, pleased that the Spartan was relaxing and the tension was leaving him.
"Feeling better?" the Amazon Princess asked the Spartan who nodded and said, "Yes. Thank you." He then took another bite of his sandwich, quickly devouring it and taking another sip of his green tea before turning back to the monitor screen, this time with a sense of renewed vigour. Diana smiled, pleased that she was able to help the Chief revitalise himself.
"So, have you figured out where Intergang is, right now?"
John contemplated the question before replying, "Cortana is working on tracking the GPS devices in the android parts, but it'll take some time before we can pinpoint their exact location. Odds are that Intergang's HQ is in Metropolis since it was their base of operations for many years, but I won't rule out the possibility that they've moved their base to somewhere else entirely."
"We'll find them. And when we do, with any luck, we'll be able to take them out," Diana stated confidently.
"Hopefully, but I've never put much stock into luck or even chance," John said to the Amazon who nodded at this.
Then Cortana's avatar appeared on the monitor screen and her smooth voice announced itself. "Chief, Diana. I see you're working hard," she observed.
"What do you have for me?" John asked getting right to the point.
"I've tried tracing Intergang's location in Metropolis, but it appears they've moved their HQ away from there almost entirely," Cortana replied. "But the good news is, I have a fairly solid lead to where they have stashed the android," she said as her avatar gave a thumbs up on the screen.
"Where is it?" Diana asked.
"Ever heard of the island nation of Corto Maltese?" Cortana said. Diana shook her head slowly, while John brought up what information there was on Corto Maltese on the Monitor screen.
"Corto Maltese. An archipelago island nation off the coast of South America and it has a long bloody history of revolutions, slavery, tyrants and rebels," Cortana narrated. "The last big revolution they had was back in 1967 which saw the ruling family of Corto Maltese be executed in public by the freedom fighters and patriots," she said.
"Sounds like a charming place," John said lightly.
"Yeah, but while many of the world governments didn't condone Corto Maltese's excesses and took no real part in their many revolutions, the island nation was largely non-hostile to the rest of the world," Cortana said. "But ever since the virus has struck, they've almost regressed into a feudal era with Intergang swooping in to take control of the place," she added grimly.
"Who rules over the country?" John asked.
"Officially, one María Marquessa; formerly the Minister of Culture for Corto Maltese and now acting president of the country," Cortana replied. "And she's as corrupt as they come; narcissistic and prideful, she's made a deal with Intergang to act as their ruling dictator while providing them a place to organise their new base of operations and act as muscle for her," she said as images of a woman with tanned skin and hair dyed blonde wearing an elegantly made dress was shown on the monitor screen.
"Is there anyone in Corto Maltese who is resisting Intergang's rule?" Diana asked.
"Small rebel cells dotted across the archipelago are doing their best to resist María and Intergang, but they're too spread out and poorly organised to put up any real fight," Cortana said to the Amazon. "One rebel leader we should take note of is one Clara Gonzalez, a former journalist born to an upper class family in Corto Maltese, but left to become a rebel leader when Intergang took control of her home. She's got spirit and but she's outnumbered and has too few fighters at her command compared to Intergang."
John contemplated the information before sending a message to Shayera to call for a league meeting.
…
Fifteen minutes later, everyone was in the conference room. "So, what's this about?" Vixen asked as she sat in her chair. "You wouldn't have called us all in to just to socialise," she pointed out.
"We've got a lead where Intergang may have stored Ivo's android," John said for everyone to hear.
"So, where is it?" Karen asked getting impatient.
"Corto Maltese," John said bluntly.
Everyone had grim looks on their faces as they heard the name of the country. "Corto Maltese, huh?" Helena remarked grimly. "Figures they'd hide the robot there," she said dryly.
"You've been there before?" Shayera asked the brunette who shook her head and said, "No, thankfully, but I do know that the UN has put trade sanctions on the place and that it has a long bloody history of slavery and revolutions."
"So, what's to stop us from going there?" Supergirl asked. "It'd be pretty easy to get there and take the robot and Intergang out," she said flippantly.
"Not that simple," Cortana said as she appeared on the deck of her holotank. "With relations between the world and Corto Maltese being tense as it is, it'd be hard to even set foot there without raising alarm bells, not to mention that the acting president has Intergang acting as her muscle," she explained.
"Okay, so we do this in the shadows," Black Canary suggested. "A small team to get in, find out where the robot is being held and take it out before Intergang realises it's gone," she said.
"So, who would go on this mission then?" Zatanna asked as she looked at everyone.
"The team needs to be small, but able to pack a punch," Cortana stated. "As much as I'd love to suggest you go, you'd bring more attention than you already do, Chief," she said with regret at John who looked at her.
"She's right, Chief," Shayera said agreeing with Cortana's words. "You might be the best suited for this operation, but given your status, you'd draw more attention than absolutely needed," she added.
John stayed silent. Everyone felt uncomfortable at the Spartan's silence which they took to mean that he wasn't pleased about being left out of a mission, so Hawkgirl said, "But, if anything does go awry, and it likely will, we'll call you in and let you do what you do best. Is that fair?"
The Spartan nodded at this. Nodding back at the Spartan, Shayera then looked at everyone else and said, "So, we need a small team able to get into Corto Maltese and take the robot out. But where would they be hiding it?" she asked.
"I've one possible location," Cortana said. "My research of the country led me to Jotunheim," she stated.
"Jotunheim? When did this turn into Vikings?" Stargirl asked.
Cortana then brought up an image of a large towering structure and spoke, "Jotunheim, formerly a prison/research complex built by the Nazis during World War 2. After the end of the war, the complex was repurposed into a scientific research facility by the government of Corto Maltese. Our best bet is that Ivo's android is somewhere in there."
"Okay, so we got one possible location where the droid is," Hawkgirl said with a nod of her head. "Who should go on this mission?" she asked Cortana.
"I think you should ask the Chief," the AI said to the Thanagarian who then looked at the Spartan who appeared to contemplate the question.
"We need those who are able to blend in with a crowd and can go about largely unseen and unheard," the Spartan began. "Those suited for such things would be Huntress, Black Canary and Batgirl," he then said. The three in question sat up and nodded at this. "But if on the off chance, the android has been assembled and activated, the team will need someone who can take the android on in a head to head fight and bring it down. Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Power Girl easily fill that role." The Amazon and the two Kryptonians nodded at this.
"So, maybe Huntress, Diana and I go on this mission?" Dinah asked.
"Possibly, but I would suggest Batgirl take Huntress's place for her technical expertise and computer skills," the Master Chief replied.
"Good call. I can hack a computer system well enough on my own, but I'm nowhere near as good as Batgirl," Helena said.
"Is everyone in agreement?" Shayera asked and everyone nodded at this. "Alright. Batgirl, Canary, Wonder Woman, prepare what you need for this mission. We'll start the mission tomorrow morning," she said.
Everyone rose from their seats and prepared to get a good night's sleep. Barbara rose from her seat when Dinah stopped her and asked, "You gonna be okay for this mission?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Barbara said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"You sure? You've never done anything like this before, have you?" Dinah asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, I haven't," Batgirl admitted. "But if Batman could do stuff like this with the Justice League, then I can do it too," she said in an upbeat manner.
"Well, if you want to talk about it and if you need help, don't hesitate to ask," Black Canary said kindly.
"Thanks, I will, but I'm sure I won't need to," Batgirl said with a smile before heading to her room to prepare for the mission.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: There! Kept you waiting, huh? I do apologise for the long wait, but real life and other projects got in the way, which led to many of you wondering if this story was dead. I know this chapter isn't as long as some of you would like it to be, but I hope this makes up for the long wait and shows that this story is not dead. Hopefully now, some of the more persistent followers of this story will get off my back about wanting me to update this.
So, next chapter we'll see the team heading into Corto Maltese and try and bring down Intergang's operations and hopefully prevent Amazon from being brought online, but Murphy's Law and all that jazz may see the mission go really FUBAR to use a military term loosely. I know some of you will say that Chief should've gone on the mission, but given his status as the New Father to Mankind in this story, he would draw unnecessary attention from the many factions of Earth and that could prompt Intergang into stepping up their operations against the Justice League and accelerate their plans and tighten their grip on the regions and countries they've effectively taken over.
In other news, I've just watched the Xbox Showcase and my god, some of the stuff they've shown of games coming out soon have gotten me really hyped for them. Starfield, Phantom Libtery, a Fallout 76 Atlantic City expansion, the new Fable game, Avowed, my god what a time to be alive! I just wish I had the money to pre-order them all at once…
But, apart from that, that's about all I have, so I'll leave this here and see you all in the next one.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.