noble six-2-old friends, new friends, friends with benefits
The sea is a blue blur beneath me. The shuttle makes a slight wrrrrr sound as we fly. I press my face to the window, wishing I could open it and stick my head out, feel the wind on my fur. I sit back down in my seat. I take a sip of my drink.
'Ugh, I hate coffee.' I mutter as I put the cup on a tray in front of me. I slouch back in my seat, and ask for the hundredth time:
'Are we there yet?'
'Yes.' My ears prick up as I quickly sit upright. The shuttle slows down. I manage to get a glimpse of the hulking grey ship we are approaching. As we near, the shuttle slows down more, and suddenly stops with a small jolt. I pull off my seatbelt and jump out of my seat. I stand by the shuttle door, panting slightly in anticipation. The shuttle pilot stands and approaches me by the door.
'Are you ready boy? Are you ready?' He says playfully. I stare back at him.
'Shut it Wilton.' I say. Wilton. What a gay last name.
'Somebodies being a bad boy.' He says in the same infuriating tone while he wags his finger. I turn towards him and step close to him. I am about thirty centimetres shorter than him, but I still stand there, staring.
'Listen kid. I will not be patronized by some freckle-faced pre-pubescent teen with genitals as diminutive as his name implies, so get out of my way before I kick your ass all the way back to grade school.' He looks away and quickly with an embarrassed look opens the door before making a hasty retreat to his pilot chair. I step out of the shuttle into the airlock.
'No hard feelings!' I shout back as the door closes. The airlock closes and the shuttle lifts off. A helmetless Spartan dressed in standard issue ODST gear stands just outside the airlock.
'What a nice kid.' I say as I approach. The man and I salute as we meet.
'You're the new guy?' He asks. I nod.
'Yeah. The new addition.' He looks me up and down.
'I'm Buck.' He says. 'They tell me you volunteered for this.'
'They told you right.' I say. He nods.
'Well follow me and I'll show you the others.'
There are several men in the room we enter. One is sitting on a bench with a Spartan laser on his lap, another is cleaning a sniper rifle, one is leaning against a wall with a rocket-launcher beside him and the last is sitting quietly on a bench with a SMG in his hands. Buck points at the one with the Spartan laser.
'Dutch. Heavy weapons expert.' Dutch looks up.
'Hey kid.' He says. Buck motions toward the one near the rocket launcher.
'Mickey, explosives.' Mickey waves. Buck then points at the sniper.
'Romeo. Sniper.' Romeo looks up from his gun.
'Hey, look here! A fur, well isn't this going to be fun.' He mutters the last sentence.
'Do you have a problem man?' I ask accusingly. Romeo shakes his head dismissively.
'No, as long as you don't eat anybody.' He says it with just enough humour that I forgive him. Buck looks at the last one, who is sitting silently.
'That's rookie. He's the rookie.' Rookie looks up briefly, then back down at his weapon. 'He doesn't say much.' Buck says. 'Also there's-' There is the sound of a door sliding open.
'Oh, please no...' No, way. A huge smile crosses my face. I turn around and see the surprised figure behind me. I wink at her.
'Hey Tory-baby, how's it going?' The woman buries her head in her hands in embarrassment as buck looks from her to me with a look of shock.
'Ooh, this looks interesting.' I hear mickey say from behind me. Buck stares at me.
'Do you two know each other?' He asks demandingly.
'Yeah, we were in the academy together and we-'
'-trained together.' Victoria cuts in. I grin slyly at her.
'All right, if that's what you want to call it. Training. We trained every night for a week.' I said. When buck looked away from Victoria towards me, she mouthed something angry looking.
'What are you saying?' Buck demanded. I hold my hands up in front of me innocently.
'Hey chill out man, I'm just being a dick. We ran some simulations together, sparred a few times, that's all man.' I say in my usual "I'm-just-kidding-i-didn't-actually-have-sex-with-her" voice, one I have a lot of practice with using that has got me out of trouble a number of times with parents.
Buck turned slightly red.
'Yeah, ok then. Never mind.' He said apologetically. 'I'll go get you some armour to wear. Hopefully we have something your shape.' He said changing the topic and quickly leaving. Victoria approaches me slowly.
'What the hell are you trying to you idiot!' She whispered loudly.
'I'm a lovable idiot.' I say with a smile.
'Lovable? Lovable my ass!' She hissed.
'Actually your-'
'Don't even say it Ajay.'
'Aww, come on tory, you love me.'
'Not after what you did.'
'Whatever.'' I say dismissively, and then smile. 'It probably turned you on.' Victoria opened her mouth to say something, and then stopped.
'Give me one reason why I shouldn't kick your ass right now!' She demanded, probably a little too loud. I smile warmly.
'Because I'm adorable.' I say with a small flick of my tail.
'You are not adorable.' She says staunchly. I cock my head to the side.
'You know, you have a tendency to nod your head slightly downward when you lie.' I tell her. She squints at me.
'Well you blink more frequently when you're horny. I remember.' I blink a few times to make a point.
'Stop being a dick Ajay.' I open my mouth, but then suddenly shut it. No...
'Yeah, that's what I thought.' Victoria turned around and took a step away. ...Yes...
'You used to love dicks.' ...no! There is a quick flash of movement. I see it but don't move.
</////////////////>
The light hurts my eyes as I open them. Everybody is standing over me with looks of varying concern. Victoria is crouching beside me.
'Oh, god Ajay! I... I'm sorry, I didn't-'
'Jeez victoria, you weren't actually supposed to hit me.' I say as I wipe the blood from my muzzle. 'It's just sparring; you don't have to beat the crap out of me.' I sit up.
'You were sparring?' Buck asks. I nod slowly.
'Yeah, just like... a warm up before we jump. You know, gets the adrenaline flowing.' I stand up and stretch off.
'Well no more. It's fifteen minutes till drop and we can't have anyone unconscious.' Buck says. He hands me some pieces of armour. 'These should fit. Go try them on, then meet us in the next room.' Buck picked up his weapon and headed towards a doorway. I go the opposite way to find a room to change.
I stare at my reflection. He stares back. I turn around to get a look at the back of my suit.
'Ajay.' I look at the door.
'Victoria?' I ask.
'Yes, are you dressed? Can I come in?' I shrug.
'Would it really make any difference?' The doorknob turns slowly and Victoria pokes her head around the doorway. She opens the door fully and walks in.
'Victoria, it's like ten minutes till drop. I don't think we have time for this now.' I say. I ease off the suggestive tone a bit. Victoria walks towards me and sits beside me on the bench. I pull my helmet off and sit it on the ground. 'Sorry about what I said earlier. I went a bit far.' I say. She makes an mmm sound in her throat by way of agreement. Its sort-of forgiving sounding. She changes the topic.
'Why are you like this Ajay?' She asks. I shrug.
'Like what?' I ask.
'You're always so happy, so flirty, you're so...playful. Why? This is a warzone, there war, death, depression everywhere. But then there's you. How are you always so positive?' I lean back against the wall with a sigh.
'You know victoria, I was treated like shit in school.' I said. 'I obviously had a very charming personality, but that wasn't enough.' I close my eyes and think for a while. 'The kids there hated me. They hit me, called me names and all sorts else. Because I was different.' I look deeply into victoria's eyes. 'Do you know what I did for the first ten years of my life? Nothing. I felt like I was a flaw, a problem, like... like I was wrong. I didn't try anything because I thought I would fuck it up. I moped around everywhere and always felt like shit.' I look down at my hands. 'Then one day, a marine came to school. He was like me, but they didn't call him names, or hit him, they respected him. He was a great guy. He was funny, cool and he always seemed to be happy. That's when I realised. I wanted to be like him. Respected, cool, happy.' I look back at victoria. 'So I went for it. I tried to find positives in everything. I enjoyed it. It became easy and fun for me to be positive. From that, I discovered myself. I discovered other things I enjoyed doing that I had been afraid to try, I created my personality.' I smile. 'And it turns out; I am a happy, flirty, playful person. That's me. I enjoy behaving like that. So, I behave like that all the time, to the fullest extent.' I smile at victoria. 'Now are you just going to sit there and try understanding what I just said, or can we just assume it was really deep and emotional, and make out?' Victoria shakes her head and giggles slightly.
'No Ajay, we can't.' I shrug.
'Whatever. At least you didn't hit me.' I say as I stand. 'And just for the record, you love me.'
<////////////////>
'Just run this by me again.' I say into my com unit. It crackles to life as the response comes.
'Well, we're going to drop down, land on the covvy ship, blow a hole in the side of it, go inside, and blow heaps of other shit up.' Mickey, of course. I smile at the thought.
'No mickey, we are going to infiltrate the ship, undetected.' Says buck. I grunt into my com unit.
'I like mickey's idea better.' I say.
'Hey, I think I like this guy!' Mickey says.
'Shut up you two, countdown!'
'Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one'......clink... My tiny metal death-trap suddenly begins falling. Amongst the feeling of... whatever force it is, I almost forget to look at our target. It's going to be pretty hard to miss that. The ship is huge, like... really...fucking huge! It's the usual covenant blue/purple colour, and... and really big!
'Wait! I'm detecting some kind of energy fluxuation!' Victoria's voice crackles over the loudspeaker. Blue-white light begins to gather at the end of the ship.
'Is it some kind of weapon?' Mickey asks.
'Negative! It's engaging its warp drive! Hold-' The ship seems to stretch out for a few milliseconds, then disappears in a flash of light, accompanied by a deafening boom. I can feel my pod shaking more vigorously as the shockwave approaches.
'Oh shyiiiiiiiiiiiit!' I yell as the shockwave crashes into me. My pod goes tumbling out of control in a spiralling motion.
Boom!
<///////////////>
The sound resounds in my ears; my vision sways and spins as the world comes into focus. Dull but unmistakeable sounds are filling my ears. I frantically look around my pod. I pull the three safety levers and the front of my pod flies open, propelled by a little explosive force. I unbuckle myself, grab my Assault rifle and jump out. I see buck to my left up a set of stairs, shooting at some covvies I can't see around the corner. I dash towards the corner and flatten myself against the wall. Specks of yellow/white light flash past towards Buck. I attach my rifle to my back and take out my shotgun. Its custom made, with a wicked-sharp bayonet on the end. It swing around the corner straight into the brute. I swing the shotgun up before he can react and stick it into his throat. His head explodes with red as I fire, splattering the veranda above him. I duck back behind a pillar as a few searing bolts of plasma fly past.
'Buck!' I yell as I switched my guns around. 'Where?' Buck stops firing for a second.
'Eleven low!' He shouts back. I swing around the corner. The road dips down to where the two brutes are. A grunt is at the top of the dip firing at Buck. I run out from my cover towards it firing. It stumbles backwards as I fire at it. I stop firing as I continue to run, a fusillade of spiker rounds and plasma bolts flies past. I draw my knife in my free hand and stab it into the grunt, who throws his hands up in defence. It looks up as it realises it missed it. I stare back at it maniacally; it looks up at the knife lodged in his life support system. I kick my foot forward with full force and yank my knife away. The grunt flies backwards and spirals out of control as it's propelled through the air by the expelling gas from the tank rupture. The brutes leap out of the way as the grunt circles towards it, and explodes in a green flash. The blast knocks them both to the ground.
I charge at one of the downed brutes with my shotgun. I blast it off its feet as it tries to stand, and run towards the second. It is already on its feet and holding its spiker in a threatening way. I approach it quickly and raise my gun. It leaps at me as I frantically try to work the jammed trigger in panic. I step back and raise my gun in front of me as the blades of the spiker come down. I feel my arms flung aside as the blades break through the centre of my barrel. I lie on the ground in front of the enraged brute; he lifts his arm to swing again. I kick my legs forward and roll between his legs. One of the advantages of being only 1.50 tall. I jump to my feet behind him and look at the broken pieces of my gun in my hands.
'You bastard...' I say with gritted teeth. I spin around and face the brute. 'I put this together myself...' I say as I look down at the broken pieces in my hands and toss them aside, drawing my knife. I see buck approaching from behind the brute, but hold my hand up and shake my head. I hold my knife like a dagger, so that the blade is facing downwards. I motion with my hand to the brute.
'Come get some.' I remove my helmet and bare my fangs as it lumbers towards me. It swings the spiker at me. I sidestep right and nick its arm with my knife. It swings the spiker in a backhand attack. I see it and duck under his arm, stabbing the knife into its foot, It grunts in pain. I pull the knife out and slide it up its leg and up its stomach, to Its shoulder, making one huge gash along the way. I step back as it clutches at its stomach. I leap towards it with a growl, bowling it over on the ground. I punch it in its already bleeding stomach as it thrashes about beneath me. I lunge forward and sink my teeth into its throat. It thrashes a bit more, I twist my head violently, snapping its neck in my jaws, and then it stops. I stand up and put my knife away. I turn towards Buck with a little smile.
'You... err...' Buck says points to where his mouth probably is through the helmet. '...you have a bit... you know...' I lick my lips with a satisfied mrrrrr, savouring the flavour. Buck seems to be looking at me strangely.
'Dude, I'm an animal. Its in my nature.' I tell him as I replace my helmet.
'Huh, what else is in your nature?' He says rhetorically.
'Shit loads and shit loads of sex.' I look over at the huge security doors that blocked the road. 'You do have a way to get through that don't you?' I ask. The com unit begins crackling.
'...zzzzzzzz...ello? Buck-zzzzzzz...jay? Ar-zzzzzz...them out-zzzzz...I thi-zzzzzzzzzzzzz...don't make it out-zzzzzzzzzzz...I love you.'
'Victoria!' Buck and I say simultaneously. We look at each other.
'We have to find her!' Buck says. I nod agreement. Buck breaks into a sprint towards the security gates. I turn around to and scoop up the spiker behind me, weigh it in my hands and sprint after Buck. He heads to the centre of the gates and begins punching at a keypad on the door. 'We have to move quickly! She's in trouble!' He says. The gate shudders as the opening mechanism activated. Buck moved across to the gap where the two doors met. I stand behind him as the whirr off the gates begins. Bu there is another sound... something unmistakable. The pitch is so high I don't think Buck can hear it, but I can.
'Buck... step away from the door...' I say warily as I step away slowly.
'No, I have to find victoria! We have to hurry!'
'No I'm serious buck, get the fuck away from that door...' I warn.
'Don't tell me what to do kid.' I grab buck and pull the struggling marine away from the door. 'Let go of-'
'Hunter you idiot!' I toss him aside as the door opens slightly. A searing ray of green energy flies through the gap and explodes with an enormous green flash. We run away from the door and jump behind a nearby low wall.
'Shit! I don't have time for this!' Buck yells as he looks over out cover at the hunter. 'Turn around you fat bastard so I can shoot you in the back!' He ducks back down as the hunters response flies overhead. 'Are you familiar with tactical hunter takedowns beta-three?' I nod my head.
'We need to take this guy out before we have a beta-four.' Buck nods in agreement. 'Shotgun beta-three-one!' I say with a grin. 'That means your beta-three-two.' I tell him. He blinks in confusion.
'You're volunteering for beta-three-one?'
'Yup. I'd do beta-six-one, but you probably don't know it, so it's three-one. You ready?' I ask as I hold out my spare clips to buck. He nods and takes them.
'Let's kick ass.' I vault over the wall and face the hunter. It growls as it stares at me with its many beady little eyes. I hold my spiker in one hand and fire at it, running around it and making sure to aim at the neck. It turns around as it follows me, tracking me with its beam. I see buck jump over the wall and fire at the hunter from behind. I keep up my fire to ensure it remains distracted. although, my shots don's do much more than that due to the heavy armour. That's why buck was attacking from behind. I jump behind a car as the hunter stops and charges up its beam. The car explodes, knocking me back a few feet. I am lying on my front. I look up at the hunter, it charges at me with its spiked shield ready to strike. I finger a plasma grenade as it approaches.
Jamie holds it in one hand, a blue orb with three little green spots, like a tiny bowling ball. He stands calmly as the hunter charges. I can't see much more, the hunter is in the road.
'Jamie!' I yell. I look at the body of my brother lying on the ground, dead. I look into the hunters eyes with a little fear. It turns toward me and charges it's beam. I leap behind the nearest cover. An odd noise sounds from over my cover. The hunter lies dead on the ground.
'Oh yeah!'
'Jamie! That was dumb! Why did you do that?' I whine as his body rematerializes beside me. 'You lost us points.'
'Hey, it's a 2500 point profit! Quit your whining. It was cool wasn't it?' I smile and nod. 'You want me to show you how to do it? Though, I'd like to find a way to do it without dying...'
I stand quickly as the hunter charges. I hold the blue orb in one hand as it approaches.
'Jamie, don't screw me now...' I whisper to the plasma grenade. At five metres distance, I run at the hunter. I throw the grenade straight upwards a little. I flick myself backwards as the black, spiked mass swings over my head. I slide between its legs. I jump back as the plasma grenade, that has attached to its neck explodes. My hearing is nullified by the high-pitch blast. The shield comes swinging over the hunters left shoulder. I dodge to the left and stab my knife into the exposed skin on its back. It lifts its shield again and twists to the right. I stab my knife into the hunter again and jump onto its back, trying my best to hold on. It spins left and swings its shield around; I cling to its back as it spins. I grab hold of one of the long black spines protruding from its upper back and pull myself up. It thrashes about, trying to reach me between its shoulders, but fails miserably. I stab at its neck with my knife viciously, twisting it as I do so. The hunter leans over forwards suddenly, then throws itself backwards. I step up onto its shoulder and flip forward as the hunter crashes down on its back. I land on its stomach and jump off. It stands again. Then I see buck. The hunter is too preoccupied with me and doesn't notice buck, who runs behind it and does something, then jumps away. The hunter starts turning as buck runs around the side of it towards me.
'Beta-four!' He yells. The hunter's torso explodes with a shower of red. I turn and jump aside as a second hunter fires a blast. I get my assault off my back and fire at it for some reason, and quickly run out of ammo. I realise I lost my spiker somewhere in the fight with the first. A glowing green thing arcs through the air towards the hunter and explodes with a familiar green blast. I turn around and see buck. He twists one of the green vials sticking out of the dead hunters cannon and pulls it out. He throws it at the second hunter. I run towards the hunter with my knife out as Buck continues to throw the fuel cells at it. I run as I approach, a brute comes around the corner and surprises me. It hits me in the face with a lethal (almost) spiker clothesline and i hit the deck. It picks me up by the collar and tosses me aside. I land on my back and roll over onto my feet. It hold up its spiker. I sidestep the first few shots and toss my knife at it. It clutches at its face as buck runs up behind it. He tackles it to the ground and stabs it with his knife a few times, then stands up. He passes my knife back to me.
'All that fancy shit with that hunter and you can't even beat up a brute?' He says. I am confused myself.
'Well I'm full of cybernetics and shit now. They can't have rebuilt my muscular system correctly.' I tell him. 'So what did you do to that first hunter?' I ask.
'You remember when you stabbed it in the back heaps of times?' He asks. I nod.
'Well, I just stuck a frag in one of the wounds. Boom.' I smile and nod again.
'Nice.' I look around me. Everything seems to be dead now. It's sort of empty feeling. I feel a rumbling and swear.
'What's wrong? Buck asks.
'Nothing. Let's go find victoria.' Buck holds his hand up to stop me.
'If it's something important I need to know.' He says. I shake my head.
'No...it's just...' I look at my feet. 'I'm hungry.' He looks at me strangely, then sighs.
'All right, just cut a bit and let's get going.' I scarper towards the hunter as Buck looks away.
I tear half the meat off the chunk and chew it happily, holding my helmet under my arm and running after Buck. He runs around a corner and holds up a hand in my direction. I drop my precious meat and pull my helmet on. I stand beside buck and look down in the plaza. A couple of brutes and grunts are standing outside a drop pod; one brute is trying to rip the door off.
'Victoria.' I hear buck say. I waste no time and charge down the stairs towards the group with buck behind me. We take out the grunts first with concentrated fire and duck behind cover as the brutes fire back. I toss a frag over my shoulder and step out from cover firing. Buck runs out and stabs the last remaining brute. Buck immediately heads to the door of the drop pod and punches on some numbers in a keypad on the side. I watch eagerly. The pod door hisses as it depressurises inside, jets of air burst out from the door. Buck and I stare open mouthed.
'It's empty...' I say as I move in for a closer inspection. There is a sudden second of silence. I spin around with my gun ready. A plume of blue blood erupts from the side of the things head, and it crashes to the ground with a squelch sound. A mass of bloated blue skin and a couple of triangley things stick out from its back.
'Romeo?' I hear buck say.
'Get away!' I push buck away from the thing and leap aside.
'What's wrong now?' he demands. I hold up four fingers, then three, two, on- The thing starts vibrating violently and promptly explodes itself. Romeo runs down the steps towards us, careful not to trip over.
'You're welcome.' He says to us.
'What was that?' Buck asks as he shakes his head bewilderedly.
'Dunno.' I say with a shrug. I walk over to what is left of the thing and look at it carefully. 'I saw them on reach.'
'You were on reach?' Romeo asks.
'Yeah. Some crazy shit went on there. Got killed actually.' I say. Romeo stares at me. I wish I could see the expression on his face through his visor. 'They found my body and somehow managed to put me together.' Romeo continues to stare.
'I heard they sent a team to look for the last of noble team.' He says. 'I heard they only found his helmet, and his body was gone.'
'Well you heard wrong.' I tell him. I look down at the scorched remains.
'They usually shield the covvies, so we shoot them down.' I say. Buck is crouching down, looking at something. He picks it up and turns around to show us.
'The blue thing had it...' He says quietly.
'I wouldn't worry buck. Those things can't do anything to kill you. They have no weapons. It's more likely that she just pulled it off because it was damaged in the crash.' I point at the damaged visor.
'He's right buck.' Romeo puts his hand on bucks shoulder. 'Victoria's tough. She'll be fine.' Buck stands up.
'Yeah, ok.'
Buck looks at the two of us. 'All right guys. We're heading for the NMPD HQ now. I nod.
'Let's kick ass.'