Chapter 18
Robo Reader 21- Eh, I suppose that makes sense about the speech being broadcasted all throughout the ship. I'll change the sentence.
Oh yeah, I know where Lilith lives. It's just that I'm thinking that someone will still nearly throw up at the sight of a alien eating a child's arm.
All other criticisms have been taken in and considered. Thank you.
Dragon-XZero-
I honestly don't think if Gundam beats Halo technology in anything but beam weapon technology and miniaturized nuclear reactors. We know next to nothing about UC Gundam's medical technology. We know for certain they beat in ships in all aspects. Communication I feel is drastically better in Halo. Then there's FTL and we all know Gundam UC doesn't have any FTL capabilities in canon. Honestly, I actually don't see Gundam having better tech in UC beyond what Beam weapons, mini nuclear reactors, and Mechs obviously. If you can give me examples of Gundam having better tech in Halo, please either PM it or post it in your next reviews because I legitimately don't see anything else Gundam has over Halo in terms of technology. At least compared to humans. Like you can't compare Gundam technology with Covenant beyond the mech field and nuclear technology. And I don't think anyone in their right mind would say Gundam UC has anything over the Forerunners.
Yeah, honestly, I can see that because Master Chief in all the Halo games, even Halo 4 and 5, spoke in short and straight-to-the-point sentences. Even to Cortana he rarely made a sentence that was more than ten words. In fact, I think in Halo Infinite he spoke the most words in a sentence in the entire game series with Fernando. So, I can see the problem with that. Also understandable with the whole training thing. It's always so weird when you see a character, especially a popular one, do something new. Even when its in character for them.
I know Gundam UC advances a lot, but I don't think it can advance to the point they just beat the Banished on a tech level. Like they don't suddenly get energy shielding on their warships and Mobile Suits along with plasma weapons and tech in a span of a few months without getting some Banished tech. I know this is probably an exaggeration, but I think you get my drift. Besides, I don't just want the Banished to auto-win just because of the technological advantage because that flies in the face of the Halo series, where Humanity stood its ground and even won against the Covenant many times throughout the Human-Covenant War. Like I want the Banished to be a threat, but I also want them to win, not just because of the technological advantage, but also because they play smart. I want them to actually think. To have them actually know what they're doing tactics-wise.
Warmachine375- I think you need to read the lore of the Banished again because that doesn't match what the Banished are supposed to be in Halo. They're supposed to be a mercenary/raider organization that cares little about who made a gun or how advanced it is. They only care about if it kills and if they can get more. Heck, even Escharum's Banished were using human guns, like the rocket launcher and shotgun.
Dragon lord Syed 101- You'll see in this chapter.
9/2- Updated slightly.
Master Chief
"So, what do you think about that speech, Chief?" Asked Fernando as he did a system check of their Pelican dropship. "I heard about it over the intercom, and it sounds like a load of crap." It had been a day since Gihren's speech was heard on the White Base. Since then, the White Base was speeding towards Odessa to help with the operation there. Along the way, Fernando and the other engineers had managed to fix the engine problem from before. However, they had told Bright that the engine required a few replacement parts soon or else it'll suffer a performance drop at best. A full-on replacement at worst. It was during that time that Fernando learned about the speech and was asking Chief's opinion on it.
"It's propaganda." Said Master Chief simply. "It's meant to rally support for the war. Nothing more."
"I see." Said Fernando with a hint of disgust in his voice. "So he used his own brother's death as a rallying cry for a war that killed billions."
"Affirmative." Said Master Chief as he looked at Fernando.
"*Sighs* Guess we should be glad that we're with the Earth Federation then, huh?" Asked Fernando. "I heard what this Principality of Zeon did during the war, especially at the beginning. Those bastards really are something, huh?"
"I heard." Said Master Chief. He heard it all from Lilith. The woman, after hearing about Gihren's speech, wanted to know more about the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. She got information from various people, mainly Bright Noa and Mirai Yashima, about the war and just how devastating it was and how it started. Needless to say, she was horrified beyond belief at it all. The amount of death. The amount of environmental destruction and loss of homes for people. And it was all done in the name of securing the independence of a single nation. She passed along this information to both Fernando and Master Chief after recovering from the horrific news she received. Fernando reacted with disgust to it all while Chief just reacted stoically with a shake of his head. Lilith had frowned at the display of disapproval, her own curiosity of his own coldness intensifying further, before leaving for her own in order to recover from all the news she received.
"Like, don't get me wrong, this war is similar to those wars we humans fought way back when, but those wars were hundreds of years ago." Said Fernando, recalling the various wars back when humanity was only living on Earth and had no access to FTL speeds. "Like I don't think the Insurrection in its worse days would do something like what this Principality of Zeon did in this war. Right, Chief?"
Master Chief just stayed silent at that. Having fought against the Insurrection during and after the Human-Covenant War, he can attest that certain groups would.
Contrary to what some people thought, the Insurrection of the outer colonies wasn't a united rebel front. It was more akin to a loose coalition of terrorists and rebels that were only loosely connected with each other. Some didn't even know about the existence of other groups of Insurrection rebels or terrorists at all. Some were even hostile towards one another for one reason or another.
Having fought against various Insurrection groups in the past, Chief could attest that some were just as extreme as this Principality of Zeon while others would be appalled with them. Regardless of that fact, Chief saw Fernando's point, but said no more, focusing on inspecting a UNSC BR75 for any faults.
He had been inspecting it for a good minute when both men heard some knocking from the Pelican doors. Hearing them, Master Chief had Joy open the doors, revealing Lilith with a worried look on her face. Upon seeing that, Fernando asked her what was wrong.
"It's Amuro." Said Lilith with worry clear in her voice. "He's gone missing." That caused Fernando to stop what he was doing and look at her in shock.
"What?" Asked Fernando as he placed down his datapad and walked over to her. "What do you mean he's missing? How did that happen?"
"He had been training with Ryu concerning that giant robot he calls Gundam when he suddenly left. I heard it was something concerning someone in distress, but that was hours ago, and the crew has been getting worried." Said Lilith, remembering how she learned about this. She had been eating some carefully picked food from the mess hall when Fraw Bow had come running towards her, tears in her eyes. The girl had explained the situation to her and begged Lilith to use her magic to find Amuro, thinking that she can use her magic to find Amuro but they failed. Ryu had tried to find him, to no avail. Lilith, feeling sympathetic to the poor girl and worrying for Amuro herself, promised to do so. She then instructed Fraw Bow to go get some of Amuro's belongings and then to meet her at the hanger bay where the Pelican was as she needed the ship, which meant she had to get Chief's help as there was no chance at all for him to let her take the Pelican on her own.
"And you need our ship in order to find him and get him back safely." Said Master Chief, connecting the dots.
"Correct." Said Lilith with a nod. "I can fly with my staff, but I have no idea where he is and if he needs medical attention beyond what I can offer. Plus, there may be danger where he is and while I'm certainly capable of defending myself, I think it best to have friends around to provide help when I need it." Looking at Lilith as she finished her explanation, Chief asked her a question.
"And you're positive that you can find Amuro with your magic? We may not have much time to waste if Amuro is in danger." Said Master Chief. Upon hearing the question, Lilith brought out a brown bag.
"Positive." Said Lilith with a confident smirk. "I know a few tracking spells that can easily pinpoint his location with a few ingredients. Just give me a few belongings of the boy and I can easily point you in the direction location of the boy." Hearing the confidence in her voice, Master Chief decided to trust her and thus accepted going after Amuro.
"Alright, we'll all go together to find him." Said Master Chief as he got up. "Fernando, prepare the Pelican for takeoff. I'll talk to Bright and get approval for a rescue operation. Lilith, use your magic to find Amuro because if you can't, this mission is a wash. Because we'll just be wasting fuel and power by searching for him blindly. Not to mention putting us in danger to Zeon patrols. Understood?" Lilith nodded in understanding. She was about to reply when Fraw Bow made herself known, running to Lilith with a few of Amuro's belongings. Mainly his civilian clothes.
"Here is what I could find." Said Fraw Bow as Master Chief got out of the Pelican to find the nearest radio so he can speak to Bright, who should still be up. "You really think you can find him with these?"
"Correct." Said Lilith as she took the clothes from Fraw. "Even the most basic of tracking spells require a trace of the quarry in order to work." She then placed the clothes on the ground before bringing out some strange ingredients from her bag. She crushed a weird fruit-looking item, spilled its essence on top of Amuro's clothes before placing the rest of her weird items around the clothes. She then casted a spell circle with her staff on the ground. "It's quite a simple thing, really, All I need to do is cast this spell, sacrifice a few key items, and…done!" A brief flash later and a bright blue ball appeared and floated towards Lilith. "This will tell us where exactly Amuro is. We just need to follow its directions and it'll lead us straight to Amuro." Upon hearing that, Fraw sighed in relief and was about to respond when Master Chief came back.
"We're free to leave." Said Master Chief before looking at Fraw Bow. "You're staying here. We can't risk endangering you or anyone else." Fraw Bow frowned at that, but nodded, knowing her place. "We'll him back. I promise." With that, Chief entered the Pelican with Lilith in tow. After giving Fraw a smile along with a wave, Lilith watched as the Pelican's doors closed and they began taking off from the ground. At the same time, someone was opening the hanger bay doors to allow the Pelican to leave. Once the doors were fully opened, the Pelican flew out of the White and towards the night sky.
"Where's Amuro?" Asked Master Chief, causing Lilith to look at him before looking at the blue ball near her head. Grabbing it, she consulted its colors and complexity before giving Master Chief some directions. Wondering how she can give instructions with a blue ball that didn't seem to be telling him anything, Master Chief relayed the directions to Fernando, who was piloting the Pelican. After the human adjusted course, Master Chief sat down on a seat before looking at Lilith consulting the ball.
As much as this was a rescue mission, Chief also saw that this was a golden opportunity to see how capable Lilith was in battle. Throughout the time he knew her, he knew that she was capable of using magic, but he didn't know the extent. He also didn't know how competent she was when in battle-related scenarios. As in actually fighting. All she had done so far was entertain the children and provide motherly comfort to everyone on the ship when they were forced to be trained under him. So, to him, this was as much as an observation of an ally as much as a rescue mission.
That being said, he wasn't going to put her in unnecessary danger just to satiate his desire to understand how she fares in battle. She claimed she used to be a law enforcement agent but that wasn't battlefield experience. He was going to have her with him at all times during this mission. He wasn't going to risk her life. No, even if she wasn't human or part of the UNSC, she was a part of his team now and he was going to make sure she lived through this if there was any danger. Same with Fernando and Joy.
It was then that Lilith spoke, telling them to readjust their course a little to the left. This caused Chief to relay those instructions to Fernando, who proceeded to follow them. As he did so, Lilith looked at Chief and thought about her desire to understand why he was the way he was.
"This is it. This is my chance to understand why he's the way he is now. Why he's so different than Luz and every other human I meet" Thought Lilith as she watched Master Chief give orders to Fernando, telling him where to go.
As selfish as it was, another reason that she had wanted to bring the Pelican and asked for his help was that she saw an opportunity to learn what caused Master Chief to be as stoic and cold.
She had tried, by herself, to figure out why he was so cold, only to come up with nothing. The best possible explanation she had was that he suffered a tragic incident, but that usually led to people becoming angsty and angry. Not abomination levels of stoicism and detachment of emotions. Plus, he was just so calm about everything, no matter how horrid something was told to him, like when she told him about the sheer brutality of the Principality of Zeon and what they did to achieve victory in this war. Like that awful Operation British or Battle of Loum, where they used the homes of people as weapons of war. When she heard that and found it to be true, she literally collapsed in horror at what she heard. Horrified that people would go to such lengths to win independence. Fernando also reacted in horror, his face frozen in disbelief and shock at hearing the lengths Zeon went to. Even more so when he heard about the Three Second Warning, which Zeon literally fired the first shots of the war after officially declaring war on the Earth Federation. He later reacted with disgust at the information, using a few swear words that Lilith didn't understand, but could see that they weren't nice at all given his facial expressions.
But Master Chief? He just stood in place, his body language not giving away what he thought about all this. The fact he just took it all in stride and as stoically as he normally does leaves Lilith even more stunned and perplexed with him. It made her want to understand what he was and why he was just so…stoic and cold. After all, these humans lived through the tragedy of losing their homes to these Zeons, and yet they still act like human teenagers and children, yet Master Chief doesn't? It made no sense to the Witch. And it had heightened her want to figure out what made him this way. Almost to the point that she wanted to cure her sister of their shared curse.
However, she wasn't going to use magic to do so. No. Not when it could damage her relationship with everyone on the White Base, including Master Chief. While she knew a few magic spells that can enable her to peer through his mind, she refused to use them for several reasons.
One of those reasons was that they were made illegal to cast on account of their intrusion of one's privacy. Even the Oracle Coven, the organization of Witches responsible for that particular branch of magic was unable to know such mind intrusion spells despite it falling into their specialization. It was simply too dangerous of magic to know. It was a rule that was enforced by Emperor Belos, who decreed that such magic would spark too much distrust and paranoia between the various Covens.
Belos, however, being the bastard he was, enabled his most trusted followers to know such spells in case they were needed. Lilith, much to her shame, was one of those formerly. As much as it can be useful here, she refused to use it. Not only because of its association with Belos, but also because it could ruin the trust that she built with everyone if she cast one of those spells on Master Chief just because she wanted to satiate her want to understand why he's the way he is today. And given she had no other friends in this alternative universe besides them, it wasn't a good idea to do that. No matter how tempting it was to her.
No, this is something that'll have to be done with finesse and slowly. She'll have to slowly earn enough trust with him to make him tell her of his own accord and free will. It'll be a long process, but it'll be worth it to her.
"Whatever it is that made you this way, I'll find it today." Thought Lilith as she looked at Master Chief getting out a gun and checking its magazine. Thinking now was a perfect time to strike a conversation with him and start the process of getting what she wanted, Lilith opened her mouth to speak when Fernando suddenly spoke via the intercom.
"We're approaching an island now." Said Fernando from the cockpit. "Any more directions?" Cursing at Fernando for his bad timing, Lilith gave him further coordinates that placed them closer to Amuro's location. As they flew towards the new coordinates, she looked at Master Chief getting out several guns and placing them around his body armor.
"Is that really necessary?" Asked Lilith, seeing the number of guns that he was bringing along.
"Yes." Said Master Chief as he went to the Pelican doors. "Once we set down, stay close to me. Understood?" Lilith sighed, realizing her opportunity was now gone, before nodding her head. Walking behind the Spartan, Lilith wondered if Amuro was alright as the ship landed near a waterfall and the two disembarked after Chief told Fernando to go up in the air for his safety.
"Where's Amuro?" Asked Master Chief as he looked at Lilith after seeing Fernando take off. Lilith consulted the ball near her should before frowning and pointing at the waterfall behind them.
"It says that he's past there, but how?" Asked Lilith upon consulting the ball for directions on where Amuro is, only for it to point to the waterfall.
"Must be a cave hidden there." Said Master Chief before raising his right arm and firing some sort of metal object past the waterfall. A few seconds passed before Master Chief responded. "There's a cave hidden there. Keep close and keep that object hidden. It's our only way to find Amuro." Lilith nodded at that before shrinking the ball with her hands and placing it in her hair, specifically the poofy part of it. Finding that acceptable, Master Chief walked towards the waterfall, where he soon spotted the cave it was hiding. Seeing a small space between the water and the cave, Master Chief walked through the small space with Lilith in tow. The two then walked deeper into the cave, where Lilith was clutching her Witch's staff, ready for a fight in case one occurred.
Taking a deep breath, Lilith wondered if she could fight as well as she used to. It had been a while since she actually fought and she worried that she got rusty to the point that she wasn't going to be that much help for Chief when they find Amuro. She was about to relay that concern to Chief, as she was pretty certain he wasn't the type to tolerate such information being kept from him when Chief stopped causing her to bump into him. Before she could complain to him about this, Chief spoke.
"We have a situation." Said Master Chief before grabbing Lilith's hand and dragging her over to a cluster of stalagmites. She was about to ask what it was when she saw it. Some distance away from them, she saw Amuro being held hostage by a group of bird-like aliens with big eyes, all of which were munching down on meat near a campfire. Meat that almost looked human-like. Too humanlike.
She then gasped in horror when she saw one of those aliens go over somewhere and grab onto something. There was a sickening pop before it came back to the fire with a childlike arm, roasting it. Feeling sick to her stomach, Lilith almost regurgitated her dinner when Master Chief grabbed her shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze before speaking.
"Take a deep breath and count to three." Said Master Chief as he made Lilith look at him with his other hand. Seeing his golden visor staring her down, Lilith felt a sense of safety around him that she never had before with him. His stoicism had gotten a bit nerve-racking for her, especially recently with how calm he was to everything, no matter how horrific something was. But, seeing what she just saw, was comforting. Even with the emotionless helmet that Master Chief always wore around her and everyone else.
Heeding his advice, Lilith took a deep breath before counting to three. She did this several times before she calmed herself enough to feel a matter of calm after what she witnessed.
"Amuro is in danger right now." Said Master Chief. "He needs our help and we need to be at our best if we want to rescue him. To do this, I need you at your best. Understood?" Upon hearing all that, Lilith looked at Amuro, tied up with some ropes, before looking at Master Chief and nodding, realizing that he was right.
"Good." Said Master Chief before explaining his plan to her.