After Max touched down and opened the ramp, there was a team of medics and one Major there to collect Mark, who had radioed ahead and let Williams know he was injured, since the King-to-be was actually up at 3 in the morning. He was also there, but staying out of the way for the ponies to do their thing.
"… Yeah there's no saving his leg." Blackjack stated after staring at the stump for half a second. "Unless you're hiding the other half somewhere on here, I doubt we can reattach it."
"Well, it was worth a shot." Jeremy sighed, before waving at the others. "Come on, Luna and I are gonna debrief you all while Mark rests."
"In all due respect sir, just seal off the leg. I can get a prosthetic later." Mark said, before looking down at BJ. The unicorn shrugged, started up her magic, and did her best to heal the stump to where Mark wasn't going to bleed out if taken out of his suit.
"There you go sir." Jeremy was just shaking his head.
"… Fine. Someone carry his stupid ass." Major shook his head and lifted the man like it was nothing, considering that the armor alone was probably close to 50kg. And a Xenomorph went through it like butter. Jeremy lead the group down several halls, corridors, and staircases, before stopping at a nondescript doorway. "Step in, and wait for us to get back." Major unceremoniously dumped off Mark and left with the other human, leaving the squads alone.
"So, wonder how long we'll be waiting here." Gunny muttered as she took a seat.
"Not too long, Sunbutt's the one who enjoys making people wait." Mark said, grimacing as he shifted in his own seat. "Fucking… feels weird, like if its still there."
"I've heard that people who are amputees can sometimes feel the missing part years after the fact it was removed." o'Drake said. Mark simply shrugged and they waited in silence, for about ten minutes, before Jeremy came back with Luna.
"So, let us start at the beginning, shall we?" Luna sat down in a chair as everyone turned to Mark, who was in the process of injecting a syringe of morphine into his thigh.
"… What?" He finally asked. "This fucking hurts, sealed off or not."
"You're the highest ranking personnel that went on the mission, boss." Gunny pointed out, causing him to grumble.
After a lengthy explanation to the princess and prince about what happened on the Argonautica, Mark was finally allowed to be taken to the hospital, where he was wheeled into surgery to save the rest of his leg. And have measurements taken for a prosthetic. While I watched a couple of Dawn's guards wheel him off, Luna came up to me.
"I'm assuming that the UNSC has been sticking to similar chain of command structures that we have, am I correct?" She asked as we stood in a room overlooking the operation room.
"That is correct, princess." I stated, giving her nothing more than a glance.
"Until he is properly up and walking, you're in charge of the human branch. I hereby promote you to brigadier general, Major." I simply nodded in understanding. "You also never told me your name."
"In due time, princess. You can keep calling me Major for now. Or General, I guess." I gave her a shrug and walked out, thinking on how my new rank would affect my missions. Especially with that world summit coming up in a couple weeks, being a general would hinder my intelligence gathering significantly. With a sigh, I went off to my office to begin making preparations and adjustments.
"Ah have half a mind to beat the hell out of ya." I cracked open my eyes to see AJ standing next to my bed, a heart monitor beeping next to me and all manners of tubes running into my body. "But whatever it was that y'all went to fight beat me to the kick." I couldn't help but find that funny for some reason. It was probably the morphine.
"Howdy ho, AJ." I mumbled, shifting around. "Where's Apple?"
"That's half the reason Ah want to beat ya." Before she could continue, I pressed a finger to her lips and made her quiet down. I ran the risk of getting it bitten off, but I was too high to care.
"I've already grounded her for the next month." I stated tiredly, adjusting myself before continuing. "You get the other half of the punishment." Seeing her confusion, I chuckled quietly. "She stowed away in my pocket, I didn't want to take her because it was practically suicide."
"That's the other half..."
"Regardless of her hiding away or not." I grunted and slowly sat up. "The only reason I didn't go full nuclear is because of her. She saved my life, and I'll at least give her that. Even if she disobeyed me twice."
"So, what are y'all gonna do?"
"Honestly, I suggest banning her from that summit I am legally obligated to attend." I shrugged and gave AJ a smirk. "We both know how much she wants to go, and she'll probably actually listen to you when you bar her from going. Lord knows she'd hide away again with me."
"Who's all going to that shindig, anyway?"
"Well, Celestia, Max, Major and I..." I pursed my lips, attempting to think through the morphine fog. I hated the stuff for a good reason. "… Can't really think of who else would be attending. The CMCs aren't, that's for damn sure." We got a chuckle out of that, thinking of the many ways that the trio would fuck up relations.
"So, how long do they think y'all will be holed up in here?" AJ got up on the bed and snuggled up to me once I laid back down.
"Hell if I know, before we leave I guess." I muttered, closing my eyes and rubbing her side gently. "How much do you wanna bet they'll stick a prototype prosthetic on me and call it a day?"
"Twenty bits says they won't."
I got twenty bits. Thanks Major.
When I got used to my new leg (which took about a week), courtesy of Major and the eggheads, I was allowed to get out and walk around. Which meant that I immediately stumbled across a lightly heated argument between Celestia and one of the older guards about her chosen mode of transportation to the summit.
"Because, Captain, we will not be in any danger and there aren't enough of us to justify the use of several chariots." She was explaining, before noticing me. "Ah, Mark! How's the new leg working out for you?"
"Eh, it feels stiff and metallic." I shrugged and meandered over. "So, what's going on?"
"I was just telling her Highness how much most of us distaste the idea of her escort being one of your machines." Aegis stated, straightening up a bit. "Of course, there's no disrespect, but with the current tensions with the gryphons, and the fact that there's hardly any security on them once its in the air..."
"Aegis, rest assured if anyone boarded our pelican with the intent of assaulting any of us, rest assured they'd be forcibly ejected out the way they came in with a big ass hole in them, courtesy of the new general." I gave Celly a bit of a look at the fact that Major was promoted without at least informing me beforehand. "14.5x114mm rounds tend to make people regret everything." I do wonder how the hell he managed to keep a fucking SRS-99 hidden for so long, but I didn't mention that. After a bit more talking, Aegis finally relented and went off to reassure the concerned troops that the royalty was not in danger.
"Thank you for coming in and helping, Mark." Celestia sighed as we went towards the throne room. "Faust knows he's stubborn as a rock when it comes to our protection."
"He's just doing his job, Sunbutt." I avoided the wing. "Frankly if it wasn't for the fact that we would easily kill any fucko trying to kill you all, I'd agree with him. The whole pregnancy and all." She just rolled her eyes as we started walking. "So, on Major's promotion..."
"Blame Luna and Lunacae, not me." She said, shaking her head. "I had no idea until I was informed as well." I just shrugged. "Does anyone else want to come along, or will it just be the four of us in Luna's pelican?"
"Nope, Apple's still grounded for that shit she pulled, and even if she wasn't, school's started a week ago."
"Did she not save your life, Mark?" She rose an eyebrow.
"That's why I only grounded her for a month."
"You humans are weird."
I won't jot down anything related to getting to the Versailles Summit, because goddamn was it boring, the only high point of the trip was Major picking off a couple harpies to show off his big ass rifle. I really wanted to kick him in the head but I stopped myself. I couldn't hate him for having it, but I could be annoyed that he refused to let Xerox clone the damn thing. Anyway, it took us about a day to get from Canterlot, all the way over to Prance.
"C'est mon honneur d'accueillir la princesse du soleil pour le sommet de Versailles," a snooty looking pony in fancy dress and pantaloons announced, bowing as Celestia stepped down from the ornate carriage. "Nous avons déjà préparé votre villa."
"Merci," the princess responded as Max and the rest of the delegates from Canterlot joined her. "S'il vous plaît nous montrer le chemin."
"What going on," Max asked as he watched the fancy pony whistle, instantly 4 unicorns came trotting up and floated their luggage.
"He welcomed me to the Versailles Summit, and that our rooms have already been prepared," Tia smiled as they began to walk across the palace of Versailles' huge courtyard.
"Oh..." he blinked. Growing up in Kentucky all his life, Max had never needed nor cared to learn French, so had to take her word for it.
"Here, allow me help you," she said, her horn began to glow and was followed by a slight popping in his ears. "That should help you understand whatever language is spoken around you."
"Mind if I get in on some of that?" Mark asked, only to get a sly smile from the princess… though her horn did light up. Major just shook his head when she offered to spell him.
Max was about to question how said magic worked when their guide waved them towards a large building, "Please, this way," he smiled. "As requested your party has been assigned the entire west wing of the south villas."
"And whom may I inquire, is in the east wing," Celestia turned her attention back towards the guide.
"With regards to what happened last year, and the treaties your kingdom has with theirs," the pony was fidgeting as he spoke. "It was decided that the east wing would go to… Them!" His last word held a lot of contempt in it.
"And who would they be," Mark asked, however the odd look the guide gave him told the general that while he understood the pony, the pony had no clue as to what he asked.
Interesting thing was that Mark's question was soon answered another way.
"Why, greetings neighbor!"
"Chrysalis," Mark quickly stepped up and gave the changeling queen a hug.
"Will you be okay with the arrangements?" The guide asked, not looking at Chrysalis.
"It will do just fine," Celestia reassured him. "Chrysalis and I have long sense buried our differences… though it is nice to see that she has arrived on time for once."
"And I love you to," Chrissie giggled while sticking her tongue out.
"Well then, that is good to hear," the guide chirped happily before trotting off again. "Come now, let's get you settled in…"
"So, did you happen to bring that cute little farm mare with you," the queen wondered of Mark. "Or do I get you all to myself?"
"I'm afraid Applejack couldn't make it," Mark sighed as they fell into step. "Winter wrap-up is in two days and she's in charge of ground clean up."
"Such a pity, and here I was hoping for a threesome," Chrissie ribbed him, knowing full well that the human was totally loyal to his pony wife.
Though if AJ offered... "And what of little Apple?"
"She has school and was sentenced to death by grounding for disobeying me and joining in on a pretty dangerous mission." Chrysalis knew he was joking about the whole death thing, but nodded.
The large building that had once (a long, long time ago) been the northern and Southern Minister's wings to the palace, was transformed some time ago into diplomatic suites. Each building was divided into two sections, with kitchen, dining hall, and guard rooms on the first floor and several rooms for visiting nobles on the second.
"This is your suite your highness," the guide nodded to her room. "While the next two are for your delegates, and the last is for the hairless Apemen."
"They are called humans," Chrysalis clarified.
"They are not
a subspecies of Opars from the Congo kingdom?" the pony blanched.
"Opars..." Mark asked, slightly confused.
"Descendants of the Silverback Gorillas and the nearest thing to humans our world ever saw," Chrissie told the general. "That is until the real thing came along."
"So we have relatives attending the conference," Max asked in wonder.
"Actually, you do… just not the Opars," Celestia replied, chuckling at her consort's bewilderment. "In actuality, the Minotaurs are the last living
descendants of what was the human race."
"Well, if everything is to your liking…" the guide started, only to be stopped by the sun princess.
"Actually, if you could have Max's things brought up to my suite."
"You wish to have him stay with you," the fancy pony was suddenly taken aback, his wide eyes darting between Max and Celestia.
"Well he is bucking her after all." Chrysalis shrugged her wings.
"He likes royal plot and he can not lie…" Mark started to sing, butchering the song.
"Come along Max," Celestia ignored the taunts as she ventured into her room. "It was a long trip and I need to relax."
"See," both Mark and Chrissie chuckled after Max closed, and locked the door.
It wasn't long after that the gossip of the sun princess' odd taste in lovers quickly spread throughout the conference.
Mostly by Chrysalis.