Army Troopers held the line as NOBLE pushed in, guns roaring at midday in the courtyard. Two Troopers waved them all over, as well as their reinforcements, as the last of the Covenant's troops outside were cornered and killed, with one of the troopers calling out, "Sammy! Fuck me, I'm glad to see ya!" her smile hidden by a balaclava. The Lieutenant paused as she saw the Polish flag patch on the girl's shoulder.
"Hah! Hey, Katja!" The young woman greeted, bumping fists with her, "What's the sitch?"
"Outer team was just the group designed to split us up. Most of my squad's holed up in the underground parking lot... Pair of Hunters got their asses pinned, though," The Polak replied as she checked her kit. She called out, "Na litość boską! Pavel, I'm low on fucking 40mikes!" before pausing and grabbing four fragmentation rounds out of thin air. She nodded in thanks to the trooper as she dropped the spent casing of one from the underbarrel launcher of her MA5 and slid in a fresh grenade.
Kat hummed, "I thought Army only had MA37s."
"Put in the Requisition form for an MA5B with a UBGL myself," The girl quipped, grinning, "Gotta up the firepower of the squad without having to switch between weapons like some other Grenadiers," before looking to Pavel. The man rolled his eyes and patted the single-tube handheld grenade launcher on his back. Kat gave an approving nod, then looked to Elster and motioned to her to open the door.
To the sight of two hulking beasts of flesh and alloys. With one arm protected by a thick-enough shield made of alien alloys and another mounting a strangely-shaped cannon with various emerald-shining tubes poking out from the top, with armor plates that covered most of their bodies, save for the exposed, fleshy, eel-like midsections and the antennae on the backs of their armors twitching, the Mkgalekgolo, or Hunters, thundered toward the UNSC troops in a pair, one of them charging its cannon.
A baleful projectile left the maw of the weapon and struck a chunk of concrete some of the Troopers had taken cover besides, taking a good chunk of the concrete and two of the dozen Troopers present in the parking lot with it. Elster took cover behind a forklift as the other troopers poured in with her and NOBLE. The second of the pair turned toward them, its cannon charged.
The ball of energy shot out of the cannon flew right by Elster, causing her Geiger counter to flare up and click like a mechanical keyboard during a report writing session, before the concrete floor behind her exploded into superhot, molten fragments. One hit Elster's armor shield and almost broke through before evaporating. She grit her teeth, then started moving and firing at them.
Bullets sparked off the shield as Six, Kat and Elster, plus the troopers, focused on killing the bastards. Their armored hides were too thick to pen from the front, though. Another aimed its cannon and charged it, the radioactive particles making Elster's eyes 'water' with the granulation and static. The bolt of energy flew too close for comfort again, this time hitting one of the multitudes of military equipment boxers in the room. It melted the pallet and its contents.
"Christ all-fucking-mighty, I hate these things...!" Katja murmured as she aimed her grenade launcher and fired. She seemed to have caught one of the monsters by surprise, it being too focused on Elster. The grenade detonated off the top plate of the monster, staggering it and washing the ground in orange blood. The monster roared in pain, slamming its armored shield arm into the ground hard enough to crack the ground.
Its sibling, or bondmate, turned toward her. Katja's eyes shot wide open as she saw the arm cannon charge...
Before it could fire, though, Kat charged the monster and kicked the cannon hard, deflecting the creature's aim into the ceiling. The emerald cannon shot slammed into the ceiling above, destroying one of the light fixtures and raining shards of concrete and molten steel reinforcements down onto them. Kat ducked under a swing from the monster's shield arm and rolled away, drawing her pistol and firing into its back.
Six followed up by engaging the monsters from behind, pouring lead down onto their exposed orange eel midsections with his assault rifle. Kat, meanwhile, tossed Elster a plasma grenade as she took cover beside her and said, "Stick them! Two plasma grenades should do one in according to simulations!" before she cocked her robotic arm back, thumbed the activator of the plasma grenade and threw it.
Elster followed up by doing the same motions, just a hint slower. She threw her activated plasma grenade at the same monster as its feet thumped against the floor. It aimed its cannon at the SPARTANs, but was met by both plasma grenades sticking to its body and the cannon itself. After a short hiss and a chirp of the bombs charging, both grenades detonated only milliseconds apart from each-other, washing the monster in plasma and detonating its main cannon. It collapsed, its insides splayed out by the plasma detonation, the scent of burning sulfur filling the air.
Its bondmate saw the death, before turning to face the SPARTANs and Elster. It let out an angered roar, before charging Kat and the Replika, closing the distance even as a dozen rifles and pistols poured lead into it. It backhanded Elster hard enough for the girl to feel the air knocked out of her artificial lungs as she flew and slammed through one of the windows of the security booth.
Her head spun as memories played back of a similar encounter. A Mynah? No, a SAPR, the Schnapper or Sapper, depending on how a person wanted to call it. Bulky, tall, heavily armored and armed. The deadliest biomechanical beings in the arsenal of Eusan and the Empire. She jumped to her feet as her shields flared back to life, watching as the monster swung its shield and aimed its cannon, firing wildly. The bigger they were, the harder they'd fall.
Jumping over the console and back into the parking lot, Elster pushed up behind it and opened fire, bullets piercing the rear armor and the flesh of the multitude of eels in the colony, spraying orange-red fluorescent blood on the floor. She skidded to a halt as the monster turned to intercept her, aiming its cannon. A beam of radioactivity lanced out at her, cutting through one of the support beams and melting a good chunk of it.
She swore to herself in Eusan Standard, or German, as the UNSC called it, then combat rolled out of the way. She grabbed a plasma grenade off the floor, armed it and cocked her hand back, before throwing it. The beast tried to swat it out of the way as the rest of the Army and SPARTANS inside peppered its body with bullets. It staggered as Kat fired a full magazine of her pistol into its back and the grenade stuck itself right on its abdomen.
The detonation split the monster in two, melting a bit of the stomach and chest armor and sending the upper body tumbling onto the floor. Surviving eels tried to scramble out of the corpse, but the Troopers stomped them down into fine, orange mush. Lieutenant Lee breathed a sigh of relief, then murmured, "That was too close..." before looking to Katja.
"Seven, you good?" Kat asked as she reloaded her pistol. Elster looked to her, took her helmet off and revealed that not much had changed. She gave an impassive nod, to which Kat replied, "Good to know. Let's move it, people. Carter needs us in the Atrium ASAP..." before marching toward the booth. Six, Elster and a slew of the Troopers followed, with Six placing a hand on Elster's shoulder. The girl looked to him as she slid her helmet back on, before getting a nod of approval from the SPARTAN. He then closed his fist and bumped her shoulder in a friendly manner, before putting his index and middle fingers up to his face plate and sketching a smile.
Elster didn't know what it meant, but she replied the same, a hint happy at the sight. Kat let out a short chuckle at the sight, before marching onto the elevator. The Troopers joined them, a whole squad kindly cramping up a wide elevator with two exits. Elster hit the button for the Atrium and the elevator's doors closed, a single Platoon left behind to keep the courtyard secure. An explosion rocked the building and the elevator ground to a halt for the moment, lights flickering, before it started back up again.
"Corvette's hitting this place hard!" Emile called out over the com, the audible roar of a rocket launcher firing echoing.
"What stupid directive said we can't use Orbital Support...?" Kat murmured, "Gotta be four guns in orbit that could take this thing out in a single shot..."
Both Six and Elster kept quiet. ONI probably didn't want to lose whatever was in this place. Elster had learned not to rely on ONI that much, not after everything that was said to her about them. Halsey had been careful enough not to bring their wrath down upon her, though. She shifted on her feet, feeling a hint of creaking in her titanium bones. She hummed and gave herself a quick diagnostic, but found nothing wrong. It was likely that that Hunter's hit reset something in her skeleton.
The elevator dinged and stopped and the infantry poured out first, forming a perimeter. Katja and Sammy looked to one-another, with Sam noting, "The others should be backing NOBLE up. We're all yours, Strike..."
"Kat, Six, Elster, we're pinned down in the Atrium. We're gonna need the Backup and someone to go help Emile upstairs... Clear the airways," Carter stated as the group stepped out into the greeting area. Two wide corridors, one of which had a scanning system for contraband, greeted them. Between them, against the separating wall of glass and white steel, was the receptionist's desk. A corpse lay behind it, blood staining the wall.
"We're on our way, sir," Kat replied, "Let's move it, Troopers..."
"WELCOME TO THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. AN ONI REPRESENTATIVE WILL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY." An automated machine voice greeted them.
Kat snorted, then replied dryly, "I doubt that very much, as she gazed upon the suit-wearing corpse that was bled dry behind the desk. She then watched Six take a squad of Troopers down the right corridor, through the scanner. She followed along with Elster, while the Dumb AI that must've been running the greeting op spoke something relating to Six. Right, ONI Reaper.
They pushed forward and around the right, veering with the corridor and arriving at the wide-open atrium. Ahead of them, taking cover behind some structures, Nobles One, Three and Five held position as bolts of plasma, needles and even beams of energy struck around them, cutting into the black marble floors and the steel walls behind them. Carter looked to them and Jorge called out, "Spartans! Over here!" as the Troopers scattered to meet the Covenant and reinforce dwindling squads.
Kat took a knee in front of Carter as the man reloaded his rifle, then told him, "We've made it, sir. Reinforcing Trooper units should be ready to help push.." And she ducked under a plasma bolt, drawing her pistol and snapping off a shot. It missed, but got the Jackal on one of the upper gangways to take cover as it pierced the glass under the railing. Carter gave her a nod and stood up.
"Six, we'll take care of the ground of the Atrium! Take a strike team and go assist Emile! Jorge, go with him! He'll need the backup!"
"Bet on it!" Jorge nodded as he fired his LMG, pushing forward. He raked a Covenant Elite's cover, punching through the thin sculpture sat in the middle of a pool of water in the middle, before filling said Elite with lead. Six looked to Elster, who gave a nod and reloaded her rifle as if to accentuate the point that she was right behind him, then she rallied up Katja and a few other Troopers.
The Polish soldier pushed up next to them, firing her rifle down at the Covenant below as she advanced. She joined up with Elster, telling her, "I'm sticking next to the girl I'm almost at the same height with..." as she watched Jorge stomping by. Ahead of them, in one of the hallways, plasma rained against a platoon of Infantry that was returning fire from the bottom of a stairwell.
One of them looked back and called out, "SPARTANS! Just in fucking time!" as Jorge pushed around the corner and lit up the top with Elster and Six's help. Elster pulled a fragmentation grenade off her belt and threw it at the enemy. A loud thump from above and a Grunt's corpse tumbled down the stairs, while an Elite roared in anger from up above. Pressing the advantage, the two SPARTANs and Replika pushed, with Katja close behind them.
She looked to the trooper and called out, "C'mon, Victor! We got asses to kick, brother!"
"Coming up! Let's go, Troopers!" The man barked as he lifted his DMR. The group pushed further up the stairs, using Jorge as cover while he was laying down the hate with his .50 caliber MG. Elster pushed past him, bursts of fire escaping the barrel of her weapon. Grunts collapsed and the Elite that had been hit by the grenade had his shields fail again before he kicked Elster down and aimed his plasma rifle at her. He opened fire into the woman, her shields taking the brunt of the hits as she stood under-heel of the monster.
Six came in clutch, though. Just as her shield broke, the SPARTAN slammed the butt of his rifle into the Elite's face, causing it to stagger, before putting the barrel of his rifle into the alien's stomach and pressing the trigger. The bullets tore through the Elite's midsection while Six pushed it forward with each step. As the last round in his magazine was spent, he kicked it over the railing, sending it tumbling to the floor with a wet crunch. He then marched up to Elster and extended his hand.
The girl took it, getting herself lifted to her feet(or stuffed boots?) by her comrade. She gave him a nod of thanks, then the trio continued pushing alongside the Troopers, up the stairs and through Covenant attempts at making defensive positions. Jorge maintained the frontline, pushing into the enemy while his comrades and the Troopers escorting them hosed anything that moved.
From one of the upper catwalks, a Skirmisher snapped off a shot with his needle rifle. The round pierced through the top of a Trooper's helmet and killed him on the spot, still travelling through his body before punching through the glass below. Katja saw the dead soldier and aimed up, firing a full-auto burst at the creature, forcing it into cover. With a growl, the girl reloaded and motioned to one of their designated marksmen.
When the Skirmisher poked its spiky head out again, it lost an eye and its brain. Katja followed it up with a grenade launched from her underbarrel launcher toward the Covvie position higher up. The group continued their push, punching through crowds of Covenant and all the way up to the top, where Emile was. The scent of missile exhaust and the breeze outside filled the place.
The marks of plasma damage were visible on the superstructure. A massive hole had been left by the Covenant ship's plasma bombardment, a gaping wound through which Covenant vessels seemed to try to assault. Covenant Banshees swooped in ahead of them, their twin plasma cannons raining a flurry of shots toward the Troops. Elster sidestepped the strafing run and looked to the left.
She ran and plucked up a Jackhammer rocket launcher, tossing one of the twin-tube missile launcher systems to Six while Jorge and the Troopers utilized their Firearms to shoot down the enemy aircraft above. Elster aimed and fired the first rocket of the game, nailing a Banshee flyer dead-on. The vehicle shattered as the tandem warheads of the missile struck true, parts falling over the edge.
Six followed up with his own kill, then another, and reloaded, dropping the empty tube off the weapon's frame and putting in a fresh one from one of the boxes below. The Troopers around them shot lead down-range as Covvies approached with Gunships from afar. They could see Phantoms coming in even through the smoke trails of their missiles. Meanwhile, in the distance loomed the very threat they were trying to destroy.
Elster and Six fired a pair of missiles at the incoming Covenant dropship, but one of them connected with an escorting Banshee instead, as it flew ahead. The girl sighed and both she and Six dropped their launchers, drawing rifles as plasma rounds lanced toward them from the side-mounted turrets of the vehicle. Emile growled and fired at one of the platforms on the side of the Phantom, missile connecting with and destroying the plasma turret.
It didn't matter, however. That side popped open and a squad of Elites in black armor dropped in, firing their plasma weapons and activating their camouflage as they landed. The girl, Jorge and Six all aimed up and fired at the Elites' supporting Grunt troops, filling'em full of lead before focusing on finding the enemy. Their motion trackers were useless, currently being jammed by what she presumed to be the enemy's active camouflage.
Six and her went back-to-back, rifles at the ready as they looked around. Six told her, "Disturbances in the air. Look for them..." as he aimed his weapon. He hummed while the Troopers around them also took steps back, covering each-other's angles and making sure to have their backs against something solid. Jorge and Emile busied themselves with either keeping the enemy's few remaining Banshees away, or with destroying them.
Elster hummed, watching as the air ahead began to ripple a little. Smoke plumes lifted to the sky, cinders still burning from Covenant plasma weapon shots. She hummed, glaring around as she waited for the enemy to make a move, before staggering as she saw one of the Troopers get grabbed. She heard his neck crack and saw the body go limp. It was thrown at her and she barely caught it mid flight, before feeling a hoof slam into her face.
She grunted, falling onto her back and drawing her pistol. The Troopers opened up, bullets pinging off the walls and hitting the less-protective shield of the Elite Special Operations member ahead. His bird-like mask appeared, translucent, as the bullets struck his general area. Enough for Elster to aim her pistol. She got it swatted out of her hand as the Elite grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the wall.
The girl squared up, though. She grit her teeth and charged the camouflaged Elite, adjusting her vision. She focused her eyes on the ripples in the enemy's camouflage, to tell where he was. She saw a plasma bolt reap a Trooper right next to Katja, before a second bolt struck next to her head. She charged the Elite that'd fired at the Trooper and grabbed onto his hand just as his plasma weapon's barrel flashed with the launch.
The round narrowly missed Katja this time, the Trooper watching with muted awe as someone that was not a SPARTAN was fist-fighting an Elite. Elster threw hands, a punch connecting with the Elite's jaw. She felt her hand stop in the helmet's alien steel and felt a slight surge of pain. Reeling back her hand, she slammed the Elite with a headbutt, pushing him back.
She was, however, definitely not a proficient Melee fighter like Six was. She watched the man duel the Elite, knife in one hand. The Elite grabbed the knife hand, pinning the SPARTAN against the wall before being kicked off of him. Emile and Jorge wanted to intervene, as did the Troopers, but most they could do was fire a few shots before the Spec-Ops camouflaged again.
Elster yelped as she received a gut punch which sent her staggering back. She grunted, then gasped and ducked under another camouflaged punch, but felt the brunt of a full hoof making contact with her abdomen. Following up, a punch hit hard enough to knock her helmet off her head and cause her to bleed from her nostrils. She collapsed onto the floor, grunting and in pain. Six, however, seemed to have noticed this, because just as the Elite was decloaking to stab her with its energy dagger, a Knife flew into the side of its neck, stunning it.
The girl, despite feeling like one of her artificial lungs had just collapsed, jumped to her feet and grabbed onto the knife and the Elite's breastplate. She roared a battle cry as she dug the Knife deeper into its flesh and sliced downward, ripping its throat out and spattering purple blood on her face and armor. She watched the monster collapse. Heaving and breathing heavily, the girl glared at the dead monster, a hatred bubbling up inside her that she never thought possible.
Sighing deeply and taking three heavy, long breaths to calm down, the girl wiped the oxidant from her nose and mouth with her gauntlet and sighed, marching to grab her helmet. Emile whistled as he dropped his launcher, stating, "That was a damn fine teamwork kill there, Six, Seven. That's how we get it done, Spartan!" before jumping off the box he'd used as high ground. He walked back to the Troopers, while Six and Seven both went up to look at the Corvette turning.
"Noble Team, Longswords are inbound and ready to push. Orbital defenses standing by to take the shot... You saved our collective Bacon back there," SWORD Control came back over the radio. Elster hummed, then sighed, relieved that the man was still alive. She watched with muted awe as two UNSC aircraft about the size of the Penrose, black and delta-wing shaped like she and Ariane had seen in space above the planet, banked toward the enemy ship. It powered its engines to full, fleeing up over the water.
Elster watched, her face filled with awe, as a burning white streak came down from the heavens, piercing through the clouds first, before punching clean through amidships. The vessel banked and buckled under the impact, its engines and plasma conduits blowing outward across the hull. Its nose banked down hard and it entered a steep descent as its antigravity engines failed.
Diving headlong into the cold waters below, the vessel sent shockwaves rippling into tidal waves across it, before breaching the surface and slowly, slowly disappearing beneath the waves themselves. Jorge appeared behind them, stating, "Beautiful, ain't it? Someone should take a picture..." before placing congratulatory pats on their backs. Elster hummed and looked back at Jorge, offering a half-smile, before looking ahead as he said, "Nice work, by the way. Both of you."
"We aim to please," The two of them said in unison, before gazing at one-another. Six hummed and crossed his arms to his chest, watching as the enemy vessel buried itself deeper in the sea, before humming as he listened in to the com. Elster quickly slid her helmet back onto her head and listened in while making sure all her systems were functional. She ran another quick diagnostic on herself and was thankful to find no permanent damage to be had, just a minor crack in her nasal synth-skin which somehow sealed itself.
"Five, Six, Seven," Carter began, his voice its usual stern self, though intermixed with a hint of surprise, "Get down to the science wing. Doctor Halsey wants a Debrief and Command's saying we're all hers..." Words which caused Elster to pause. All that came to her mind as she looked to her newfound teammates was:What was Halsey doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be at CASTLE?
"Repeat?" Jorge sounded enthusiastic, "Sounded like you said Halsey."
"I did." Carter replied in a deadpan.
"Copy that, we're on our way," The man replied as he and the two other NOBLE members marched forward. He spoke jovially, "Don't need command to tell me;Been all hers half me life," as he led them toward SWORD Base's science wing. Several Troopers gave the group passing salutes, while Katja and Sammy both grinned at the SPARTANs as they passed by and clapped for Elster.
Entering the Science Wing, the least damaged section of SWORD Base, the trio was met by Doctor Halsey herself speaking, her voice coursing through a microphone and filled with an unusual(to Elster) snide sense of scientific superiority as she spoke, "I requested your assistance, commander, and do not need a report of events right outside my doorstep. What I do require is a detailed account of your previous mission-" and she paused as she saw Elster and Jorge. A faint smile crossed her lips and Elster soon noticed Ariane right behind her.
The white-haired beauty waved to them, beaming as she saw the SPARTANs for the first time in her life. Elster took her helmet off and smiled at seeing Ariane, then hummed as she heard Halsey continue, "Jorge..." while gazing upon them. Her, Jorge and Six, to be exact. She then looked to Elster and gave a calming nod, before focusing on Jorge again, "What have you done with my armor...?"
"Just some..." Jorge looked at himself, "Improvements I've made."
"Indeed," She replied kindly, then looked to Carter and continued, stern, "Visegrad Relay. Its data center was home to one of my Xeno-archaeologists, professor Laszlo Sorvad," And she let the air in the room carry the words for a little longer, before adding, "Perhaps you could shed some light on his demise..." and looking back to Ariane. The girl was holding a tablet which she lifted to make notes.
"If he was a civilian male in his mid-sixties, he died with a Covenant Energy Sword through his abdomen," Carter replied calmly, stunning Ariane. Halsey's facade cracked for a moment, but soon reformed. Poor Ariane, meanwhile, frowned and wrote it down on the Tablet. Elster sighed deeply, disappointed that they couldn't get to the professor, or to Travis, in time.
Halsey spoke, "Elites, then...?"
"They engaged us as well." Jorge butted in, then added rather sadly, "It was just, uh, just after we found your scientist's daughter, ma'am. She was hiding in the-"
"Irrelevant," Halsey sighed, surprising both Elster and Ariane, "The Elites. Tell me more about them."
"Three, Zealot-class. One got by us," Jorge explained as he gazed back at the others, "The leader, from the looks of'im..."
"Zealots," Halset pressed the word, "Are you sure?" and she leaned against the pedestal that sat as a 'bridge' between them and her, seeing as she was behind a thick layer of presumably-bulletproof glass. Elster didn't know why that was important, but she felt like she was about to be told in this little debrief. Ariane, too, seemed very curious about the matter, waiting to write.
"Armor configuration matched," Jorge replied certainly.
Six added in, "Shield strength, too." while Halsey took a minute to process this. The woman stroked her own chin, considering possibilities.
"Why's this important, ma'am...?" Elster inquired, wanting to get to the bottom of things. Ariane was surprised by the fact that Elster had spoken out of turn for once in her life. Seemed much like the SPARTANs in the room were in agreement as they looked at her. They must've read the manuals, too, or at least gotten them from ONI through some tomfoolery from Kat.
Carter, however, stated, "I gave the order not to pursue. Our primary objective was to get the station's relay back online."
Halsey blanked, then hummed and replied derisively, " "Your primary objective? Commander, are you a puppet or a Spartan?" making sure to accentuate the words for the difference to be clear. Ariane covered her mouth and let out a short giggle, while Elster rolled her eyes and noticed Kat and Emile staring indignantly at Halsey. Jun, meanwhile, was just hanging out in a dark corner by himself.
"Ma'am?" Carter looked more confused than annoyed, thankfully, both brows arched up in a fit of surprise.
Halsey began to explain sharply, focused on Carter and on Elster, "There are those at ONI, myself included, who believe the Covenant dispatch Elite advance teams to hunt down artifacts of value to their Religion. Survivor accounts suggest such teams are small, nimble, and almost always Zealot-class. No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there. And you let them get away."
The Commander shot back sharply, "Data retrieval was not a command directive," Before locking eyes directly with Halsey. He was starting to reply to Halsey with the same coin, Even had we known, we had other, more urgent matters to attend to." making this entire conversation a series of gut punches for both Elster and Ariane. The young woman wanted to butt in and say something, but Kat was the first...
"Like warning the planet..."
Halsey sighed and rubbed her eyes, before stating rather bluntly, "Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a "latchkey discovery." Latchkey... not a word he would use lightly." She accentuated the point, before glaring at Kat and adding a low, definitely irritated, "So let's hope that the data module your Lieutenant Commander stole contains it." while Kat pulled the drive out of one of her armor's multitude of pouches and dropped it in an extended transparent basket in the pedestal.
"Kat?" Both Elster and Carter stated, watching as the girl dropped the drive in.
"Before you ask," Halsey hummed, pulling the container back toward her while Ariane looked on, surprised. Halsey added, "I was warned the moment you attempted to access its contents, as I am with any unauthorized tap..." then lifted the item, a small, thin strip of plastic, metal and crystalline fibers. She looked at Kat and growled, "I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work."
Carter didn't seem to take too kindly to that, following up with words that further stunned both Ariane and Elster, not to mention Halsey and his team. "Maybe you'd like to join her."
"I'm sorry?" She arched a brow at him.
"We're under emergency planetary directive, 'WINTER CONTINGENCY'?" He asked rhetorically, causing Ariane to give a short giggle, while Elster crossed her arms to her chest. Six hummed, Jorge hid his grin behind his helmet, Jun snorted and Emile was inches short of laughing. Carter continued, "I'm sure you know the punishment for civilian interference in a SPARTAN deployment."
"Are you threatening me, Commander?" She replied semi-venomously, but more-so clearly impressed. The man did have the spine to call himself a SPARTAN, at least, Halsey thought. Ariane seemingly felt the woman's thoughts, flashing a smile at Elster, who gave a smile back. Six snorted at the sight, while Jorge patted him on the back and simply offered the brightest smile he could at the sight. He was still a SPARTAN, so the self-control needed to remain professional was taught from the earliest days of training.
"Just making a reading suggestion, ma'am," Carter joked, his voice softening upon him noticing that the situation had been defused. Halsey rolled her eyes and gave him an approving nod as the SPARTANs started departing. She pocketed the data storage device, looked to Jorge and gave him a nod of understanding, before stepping off. She stopped next to Ariane and whispered something which caused her to blush, before both she and Elster walked up to the window.
Both put their hands against the glass in the same spot, facing each-other. Ariane's mirthful smile vanished for a second as she noticed the injuries the girl had sustained via the blue light around the glass, but Elster shook her head and pointed at the purple blood, stating, "Not mine, don't worry. As for everything else, I got a few bumps and bruises from the fights, but I'll be alright."
"Okay..." Ariane nodded, her smile returning, "I miss you... Stay safe."
"I will... I miss you, too..." The Replika replied. Jorge hummed as he saw Doctor Halsey walk out with a smile. Ariane nodded, then sighed deeply and turned to leave as well. After giving Elster a quick wave, she blew a kiss her way, causing her to blush a little, before scratching the back of her head, slightly embarrassed. She waved goodbye back and watched Elster disappear down a hall with Halsey, then turned to face Jorge and Six.
She blinked as she saw Jorge's grin and Six with his arms crossed to his chest, asking them both, "What? What's wrong...?"