"What?"
Halsey doubled over from Kuribayashi's statement, concerned that this was some kind of prank or sick joke. The fact that Cortana, the Chief and Sergeant Kuribayashi stared at her and didn't flinch or let loose a laugh(a fairly rare feat coming from a Spartan) told her it was true. She blinked, taking her glasses off, her voice bearing a combination of shock and some slight hint of anger, "Our history is known to your people... And it's a piece of virtual entertainment?!"
"I... I know how this must sound to you," Kuribayashi rubbed the back of her neck, somewhat frightened, "But I just... Couldn't not say anything to the Chief and Cortana, or to you and your boys and girls," and she looked over to see the dumbfound Lieutenant Richard sitting at the doctor's side, brows furrowed and arms crossed to his chest, while Queen Tyuule, her mouth agape as she looked between the Spartan and her.
Halsey sighed deeply, still unsure of whether to believe this. It was a nigh-impossibility for this to be the case, that some random bystander in another universe would be aware of the reality of the UNSC and its brutal Great War. She put her glasses back on and pushed them onto the bridge of her nose, before asking with an edge to her tone, "Just how much is known about our operations?"
"Well, it's mostly focused on the Chief, but the latest piece of info we have is The Battle for the Ark in Halo 3... With that one added spinoff, Halo 3:ODST, about Buck and his team. That's latest chronological. We also know about Noble Team..." Kuribayashi stated, her voice cracking. She knew Halsey wasn't a woman you wanted to piss off. Behind her, the other three SPARTANs of Blue Team. Fred removed his helmet, showing his own face as it wrinkled in confusion, his eyes locked onto her. Kelly and Linda meanwhile, seemed a combination of amused and severely concerned, though Linda was far less openly showing it. She seemed to be thoroughly digesting the information.
"The last events before we found John," Halsey murmured.
"Yep," Cortana offered, "Trust me, I was spooked when Kuribayashi explained it to us... She told us everything in vivid detail, including our little Warthog Run to get off the dying Halo ring..."
"Favorite part of the game, by the way..." Kuribayashi whispered, smiling at Chief and Cortana. The AI chuckled at the girl's statement, while Kuribayashi turned back to the worried-looking Doctor Halsey as she bit her lower lip, seemingly in deep thought about the matter. Kuribayashi raised her hands defensively and said, "L-Listen, doc, I'm a big fan of your work. We also have book on the matter of the series, explaining a few things... I know this must sound stupid, but-"
"Books, too?" Halsey raised a brow, "Oh, just how deep does this damned rabbit hole go...?"
"Deep enough, I'd say," Cortana stated, "She showed us one book, ma'am."
"You have one book with you?" Halsey inquired, looking to Kuribayashi. The girl nodded rapidly, then looked to the Chief. The Spartan lifted the book, a rather thin and small paperback item. Its cover displayed the title 'Halo:The Flood' in a stylized font and represented Chief in his MARK V Armor, surrounded by and under attack from the Flood's Pure Forms on Installation 04.
Halsey took the book and started rifling through it, reading accurate descriptions of the Flood's beast-like behavior early on, sickening descriptions of their transformations, Private Jenkins's last few moments and other various points of interest. She stopped short of the scene she did not want to read, growing pale, then looked to the Sergeant. Shino simply said, "It's a novelization of the first game... Fun to read and see what people added, but..."
"Hm..." Halsey sighed deeply, then rubbed her temples, "That would explain the warm greeting of some of your troops..."
"Yep!" Kuribayashi grinned, "Some of the Marines are fellow Halo fans! Surprised not a lot of'em came to ask you for autographs! Uh... Speaking of..." Her face immediately tinted to a tomato as she handed the doctor a pen. Halsey raised a brow at her and she backed off, smiling the most awkward smile she must've ever smiled, before whispering, "Bad time... Right..."
Richard leaned forward and whispered, "What's this mean for our operations here, Doctor?"
"We may be compromised..." Halsey murmured, then pocketed the book and said, "I'm keeping this for further research. There must be inaccuracies in here I can find through cross-referencing with mission reports."
"Fair enough. I can procure the games, too, and a console to play'em on. If you want," She suggested, "Have them shipped from home with my books. Figured you'd want everything we have on ya."
"I'd appreciate it, miss Kuribayashi..." Halsey sighed deeply, then looked to Richard and said, "Go to the base, Lieutenant. Take BLUE team and miss Tyuule with you. I sense I may be stuck here for a few days, so I'd like the Major, Admiral and the rest of our staff to be aware of it," and pondered just what this meant as the Lieutenant departed with the team. Kuribayashi, however, stopped the Chief and raised an empty notebook, handing him the pen he'd have given Halsey.
While the Chief was actually giving an autograph to the nerd, the doctor continued to process this information. She'd need to write a report on everything she found, so it was a good thing she brought her tablet with her as well. She paused, watching Kuribayashi bouncing up and down and thanking the Chief like a schoolgirl who'd just gotten her first crush, or a child in a sweets store.
It was pure, unfiltered joy that even Chief and Cortana could see, with Kuribayashi smiling and thanking John an exhaustive amount of times. Richard patted her on the shoulder and signaled the Chief, BLUE and Tyuule to follow. She wondered how familiar Shino Kuribayashi was with her work on the Spartans, if that was even something covered by the series.
It was a terrifying subject, but several ideas formed in Halsey's mind to lessen the impact of this information leaking to the public via direct contact with the UNSC. Several excuses of the excuses were worthy of ONI's top dogs when it came to cover-ups. But right now, a most pressing matter was finding the men and women who wrote the series and going through the series itself.
Shino could presumably help, seeing as the Doctor was no adept at video games.
Richard and Tyuule, meanwhile, walked out with the Chief and his team, with the queen stating, "That was a strange thing to hear..." to which the man nodded, still slightly dumbfound. She looked to him and the Spartans, then asked, "Are you all okay? It... Must be strange for all of you to hear that your War has become entertainment for another version of humanity."
"We're alright," Kelly stated, "Most we're surprised by is that someone could even tell the stories."
"Maybe they got lucky," Shrugged the Lieutenant, "We don't even know the full extent of how accurate the stories are, but if Doc Halsey's reactions to that one book she showed her are accurate..." She looked to the Chief and Cortana in hopes of some confirmation he was right. The Spartan and AI looked to one-another, before she turned toward him, arms crossed.
"Oh, it's accurate," Cortana replied, somewhat amused, "The book she showed us? It recounts the Battle of Installation 04 to a damn T. Like the author was there."
"Bollocks..." Sighed the Lieutenant, rubbing his eyes, "That ain't good..."
"No, no it really isn't. If one book was that accurate, I dread how the games are," Cortana firmly said, "But we're going to have to wait for her to tell us her notes. She is probably going to binge the whole thing with Kuribayashi for the coming days..."
A Marine ran up to them and saluted the group, to which Chief said, "Report."
"Sir," The UNSC man nodded, then began explaining, "There's a report that the town of Ratiarius came under attack from a squadron of enemy troops, including something the local squad of Warrior Bunnies called 'Mages'. Half the town got burned to the ground, but they managed to kill all attackers," all the while being listened to by the Spartans and Tyuule. The queen herself gasped, but seemed thankful to know her soldiers proved themselves useful to the UNSC...
"I guess the Imps finally decided to act," Murmured Richard, concerned.
"That's not all, sir," The soldier spoke. The group turned toward him, worried, to which he finished, "They found an M5 grenade on one of the mages..."
"What?!" The entire squad balked, while Tyuule stood there, confused. Richard hummed, scratching his chin, then said with the most glum look on his face ever, "Could it be that Slipspace echo command picked up some time ago?" and praying to himself that it wasn't the case. The soldier, however, confirmed with a slight nod, causing him to scoff. He shook his head, then said, "I'll go rally our squad. We have to talk to the Doctor about this, too..."
"We'll go," Cortana said, "May be a good idea to let her know. We do need her approval before conducting any kind of ops."
"Alright... Thanks," He nodded, then turned to Tyuule as she grabbed him by the arm.
"What is going on, Richard?" She inquired, worried, "If this is a new threat to my people..."
"It's possible it is," He replied with a sigh, "UNSC standard-issue fragmentation grenades are the M9s. M5s are decades, if not a century out of date at this point. We've known of Insurgent groups still producing them due to the fact they're cheaper and easier to stick into stuff like IEDs and some planetary Militias still carry the M5 over the M9, out of some sense of nostalgia, or because their governors are cheapskates."
"Oh, hell," Tyuule murmured, "I need to go warn my people..."
"We'll go together. We grab our wounded, fly back to the FOB..." He paused, then looked to the Marine and asked, "Have you told the rest of my squad about this?"
"Sir," He nodded again, "Sergeant's already started prepping the bags to head on out. Asked us to give'em our spare long range radio."
"What about Delilah and her squad?" Tyuule inquired, crossing her arms to her chest. The man jabbed a finger back toward the UNSC Pelicans on the landing pads, where Delilah and her team were already carrying their own supplies and tending to some of the evacuees. She nodded approvingly, before hefting her rifle by the strap and onto her shoulder again.
"If it's Innies," Kelly started, some venom in her otherwise incredibly calm voice, "We'll find them. Chief?"
"Mount up, Blue Team," The leading Spartan ordered, then turned to Richard and said, "We'll see you at home, Lieutenant..." before he and his team departed for their personal Pelican. The Lieutenant nodded to the Chief before they left, then turned around to face Itami and Torres as they approached, with the two men immediately noticing something was off with him.
"Hey, Richard. You alright, man?" Torres inquired while tugging at his vest.
He shook his head, stating, "We got some news. Part of me's hoping they're bogus..."
"Oh?" Itami raised a brow, "What?"
"An old enemy may be here," Tyuule joined him in explaining, "Insurgents the UNSC has faced even during their war against the Covenant."
"Oh, boy," Torres hummed, "We talking Afghan-style Insurgents? You know, IEDs, missiles, RPGs, that kind?" and he caught his fellow Lieutenant's shake of the head. With a sigh and concern behind every word, the man stated, "So, proper military, considering an interstellar human country has its own little rebel problem and has to deal with a multitude of planets where they could be hiding and/or planets they're supported by... Great."
"Pretty much..." Richard replied, then exhaled, annoyed, "Which is why I hope they just happened upon a random ship of ours and stripped it for weapons..."
"We'll deal with it as we go," Itami offered, ever the optimist. Torres couldn't help but chuckle, while Itami continued, "C'mon, how bad could it be? We've got each-other."
"Most of the vets used to fighting the Innies are dead or AWOL, sadly. Few if any survived both the Innies and the bigger fish that we had to fry," Richard replied, "I should know. The major that commanded my battalion during the waning months of the Human-Covenant War's just completely off the radar. Tried calling him a couple times, to no avail..."
"Think he got reassigned?" Torres suggested with a shrug, "Maybe he's on some planet he ain't got the ability to send correspondence from."
"Nah," Richard shook his head, "Asked a few friends in HIGH-COM to keep me posted about him. They lost any contact with him several months ago. Don't know if he died fighting some of the Covenant Remnants, like the mad fuckers in Didact's Hand, or if he just up and deserted for some reason. Latter's really unlikely, though. He loved the UNSC and humanity to death..."
"Do you think he could be with Sapien Sunrise?" Tyuule inquired, raising a brow. Richard scoffed, then shook his head.
"He may have had a hate for the Elites, but even he seemed to accept the fact they helped us near the end. And helped us a lot, too..." He replied, then bit his lower lip, "Don't matter. No time to speculate, quite honestly. We'll take a Pelican ride and head on home with our wounded, check the dead mages and then move on back here with our kit..."
"Y'all seem a bit more off than just that, though," Torres remarked.
Tyuule nodded, "Well, they were just told that, in your world, their lives are represented in a Video Game."
Torres and Itami both paused, with the former doubling over. Itami blinked, then looked to Richard, who nodded and said, "Kuribayashi's apparently a 'big fan' of the series depicting the Chief's escapades in battling the Covenant. Halo's the game's name, probably based on the Rings we ran into and fought on during the last months of the war... Not gonna lie, I'm not sure whether I'm happy or just downright fucking scared that someone did this."
"Oh, I have to find out about this one," Torres murmured, "Where is Shino?"
"Inside," Tyuule nodded toward the building, "With Doctor Halsey. Presumably talking to her about everything."
"Well," Itami hummed, "Guess that makes sense...? Would also explain why some of the others on the base greeted you folks, the Chief and his teammates the way they did."
"Yep," Richard replied, though he had to wonder just how much of their history and ONI's operations had been revealed to the public by the story. If all of it was even accurate in the first place, admittedly. Halsey was hoping to find some form of failure or another. It was worrying that it may not have been a possibility, but alas, she knew what was best for them. She might've even had a plan.
"That's gonna be fun to talk to her about," Torres smirked, then he paused and remember, "Oh, shit, yeah, Halo! Taylor played it a bunch while we were just lounging around in Okinawa. Surprised he didn't say shit..."
"And I take it you caught some glimpses of it, at least?" Offered a familiarly sassy female voice. Richard and Tyuule both turned to see Rory smirking at them, her halberd leaned onto her shoulder, "Pardon me, Lieutenants, but I have been busy exploring the facility of the United Nations mission here," before turning to Torres and stating, "Your compatriots from the East are a hint strange and obnoxiously loud. Not to mention tailing after a skirt like it's a message from your god."
Torres winced, while Itami snorted. He said, "Yeah, sorry. Russians aren't known for manners. Especially not a bunch of conscripts fresh off the ass-end of a farm."
"Some of your Marines were no better," She remarked, looking at both him and Richard, "But at least they learned to settle down after a while. These 'Russians'," and she did the air quotes, "Continued pursuing me... Well, until I up-and-punched one of them hard enough to knock his teeth out. They got the message then, thankfully... Else I might've had to skewer a few of them."
"Ah, sweet catharsis," Murmured Torres as a few of the others who overheard this chuckled.
"Don't really recommend killing potential allies there, Rory. Makes for bad publicity," Richard quipped, "Even if they're twenty-first century Russians," and he smirked. Rory chuckled, then nodded, before looking at Itami and raising a brow. She still wore that obnoxiously smug grin of hers, but she had clearly learned to settle down when faced with the UNSC and with Richard. Itami, however, suddenly felt a chill as he noticed her staring at him. She smiled, her eyes glimmering.
Torres walked up to him and whispered with a hint of concern, "She usually like this?"
"Our dear Apostle of Emroy seems to have a knack for pissing people off at a first meeting," Richard whispered back, grinning, "But she kinda grows on you."
"I meant ogling Itami, man. Not the whole Ruski Punching," Torres snorted. Richard chuckled, figuring Rory had gotten a fancy for the mister, but not willing to voice it. Torres sighed, then grinned as he looked at the two, before noting, "Not even sure if he's lucky or unlucky. Rory looks like a goddamn kid, but I've seen what she did to back us up during the Dragon fight..."
"Yeah, she may seem small and dainty, but she packs a mean punch from what we've heard," Richard replied calmly, then looked to Tyuule, who chuckled. He elbowed Torres, taking the man's attention to him before stating, "We're gonna head on out back to the FOB, let the Major know the situation and come back with our luggage, if you'll have us, lads?"
Torres smirked, then extended his hand and said, "An extra fella to talk to isn't something I'll mind. Just be careful with Itami and Kurata."
"Why?" Tyuule raised a brow.
"Bastards watch anime..." He paused, then clarified, "I mean, I do, too, but it's part of the reason I'm qualified to warn y'all about it," He flashed a grin right back at them, before feeling Richard firmly grip his hand and shake it. He said to the two confused ones, "Guess we'll introduce ya to it! See you when you swing back around for your homestay with us, ladies and gentlemen. And yell if you see any more flying lizards."
"Will do, man," The UNSC Lieutenant smirked.
The two Earth military members watched the aircraft lift off with the crew aboard, wounded Marines included. They had, however, left behind Rory, much to Itami's presumed chagrin and that of Torres. He sighed, then looked to Itami and asked, "You gonna be alright with the goth lolita, my guy?" before tilting his head toward the girl. She was also scanning the place, seemingly, taking in the sights of the military engineers building up the base's many structures, including the habitation spots for the villagers that would stay there.
"I'll try," Itami stated, both happy and worried, from his tone.
Torres chuckled, patting him on the shoulder, "There, there, bud," and turning to see the Doctor exiting the building. She looked up, to see the aircraft already leaving, then murmured something to herself. Torres turned toward her and waved her over, while Itami was forced to deal with Rory. The doctor and Torres met in the middle, with him asking, "So Kuribayashi told you your lives are represented in video games?"
"Yes," Halsey sighed, "And she's provided proof with this book," and she lifted the item out of the pocket she had stowed it in.
The Lieutenant read the title of the novel, then said, "Was always more of a comic book guy myself, doc," before crossing his arms to his chest. Halsey rolled her eyes, then sighed, while Torres explained, "Any ideas or theories as to how this was possible in the first place? I mean... It's unlikely someone just came up with a whole universe that we just happened upon..."
"I have a few, but they're conjecture without any real proof," Halsey said, pocketing the paperback book yet again. She sighed deeply, then approached the two men, asking, "Taken an interest in the place, miss Mercury?" as she saw Rory still looking around at the concrete constructions. She hummed questioningly, turning toward the doctor. She then smiled and shrugged.
"She seems to have taken an interest in my friend, Itami," Torres whispered to the doctor.
Halsey nodded, murmuring, "Then god help your friend," before returning inside the building. Torres had wanted to ask her what she meant before she'd left, but couldn't. He sighed, then watched as Rory gave them both a once-over. She noticed it, smirked, then looked back to Itami as the man watched their teams approach. Taylor, meanwhile, was wearing a wide grin on his face, signifying that he did, in fact, remember something.
Torres had no time to ask what. He was considering the possible situation with insurgents on this planet and having to deal with an actually-equipped armed force. He wondered just how bad they were going to get. This mission was already caked in several layers of What the Fuck. It didn't help to know that a more highly-advanced insurgency was on the platter as well.
"For whatever it is worth, Lieutenant," Rory started, garnering his attention, "I'm fairly certain the UNSC would find no reasons to be upset over something like their tales being represented in entertainment. I mean, is that not how ancient and even modern men represented the tales of their Heroes? By showing them to the world in one form or another?"
"I'm not the one you should be telling that, miss Mercury," Shrugged Torres, "And nor is Itami."
"True," Itami stated rather firmly and happily, "Also, Torres, we should probably head to the General. Tell him to request extra reinforcements from the US and the others... If an Insurgent force is heading our way with proper equipment, I don't think the expeditionary force we brought in is going to be enough to deal with them... Sure, the UNSC might have what is needed to fight the Innies, but I'd like ti play good neighbors."
"Yeah, I getcha. We'll go to the general ASAP. Talk to him and get the UN to approve further troop deployments..." Torres sighed, "Man, you do know it's gonna take more than supposition for the USA alone to approve deployment of extra troops, right? Actual, tangible proof we may be facing not just the Imps, but some sorta Innie force soon might be nice to help us convince'em."
Itami shrugged, a gesture which somewhat aggravated the American Lieutenant. Was gonna be a cold day in hell before he got through to Itami in regards to the fact things don't work like in Anime, honestly. It was what he dreaded the most about working with the man at times, but he still knew when Itami was right and when he was in the bloody wrong about something.
This was one of those latter times...