[Thread] ' 'No More Dead Heroes ' '

[sierra_058]

Characters: OU Linda-058, OU Captain Keyes, Open to Halo characters
Where: the park/wandering around, the cafe
When: noon/early evening
Summary: Linda and Keyes arrive at just about the same time. Linda investigates the call for aid from a dead captain. Old friends unite. / Keyes, with Linda trailing, explores the new facility he finds himself in.

Comments

[tactical_loop]

That most definitely took the captain by surprise. It was odd enough when he had just suddenly arrived in this unknown environment, and at the worst possible moment at that. (Or was that the best possible timing?) He had no idea what happened to his men back in the Forerunner complex. On top of that, now he was talking to a Spartan whose serial number matched the one Keyes had thought more or less dead and frozen in an induced coma by the Master Chief after a desperate mission.

You’re dead, she had said. The phrase rung in his mind for an impossible second of eternity before he recovered and stared up at the stoic faceplate in front of him with a slight frown. “I could say the same for you,” he tried with his own bluntness to equal hers.

Spartan-058. That was Linda. He remembered the month long ago when he had met Dr. Catherine Halsey and had proceeded to hop around the galaxy interviewing various children for a secret project. He hadn’t been told the details but now it hardly mattered. Even then he had slowly begun to learn the nature of the mission and began to grow worried. Now he knew the truth, more so than the general public was told when the Spartan’s were revealed, and he sometimes wished he didn’t. The fact that he had never, could never, forget each and every child’s number and name attested to the fact of just how much that month had affected his life.

If it were possible, Keyes saw the Spartan stiffen further within her green, all-encompassing armor. He gently clasped his hands behind his back and projected a relaxed calmness as he waited for her response.

“Explain.”

Keyes stared at her blankly and then gave her what she wanted. “Master Chief came back with your body in critical state. In hopes of later saving you he put your body in a cyrogenic state.”

Seemingly satisfied by his response, the Spartan seemed to relax. “Captain Keyes--it is good to see you again.”

Keyes tilted his head to the side and regarded the Spartan curiously. “Linda?”

He knew it had to just be his imagination, but he could almost swear he saw the Spartan start at the mention of her name. There was probably no one outside of their small group that referred to any of them by name. He noted this and decided to, maybe, bring it up later.

“Likewise, Petty Officer.” He said to make up for her reaction. “Now. What did you mean by I’m dead?”

“Sir. You were no longer amongst the living when I was awakened by Dr. Halsey. Master Chief said you died on the alien ‘Halo’ construct. He said--that he saw it himself.”

Keyes had no reason to doubt John’s words, even being relayed through an entirely different Spartan. It was unthinkable to consider a Spartan that would lie--and yet… No. Linda wasn’t like them, and even that team of Spartans had been perfectly content to follow regulations when confronted with an odd situation. He shook his head to himself.

“On Halo?” he repeated. She nodded. He fell silent and it was easy to tell that he was contemplating deeply on her words. What it meant. What it all meant. What happened--where were they now if--

Could it be possible they were from two different times?

Keyes shook his head and looked up at the Spartan as if she might hold his answers. But, whether or not it was true, he wouldn’t ask. If he had to guess, she didn’t have any more clue than he did. It was time to wake up and get back in shape. It was time to be the leader.

Keyes squared his shoulders and straightened his uniform in an absent gesture. “Very well,” he told the Spartan, and his tone was all that was needed to inspire confidence; he was in control and there was nothing to worry about now.

[sierra_058]

Linda recognized John immediately--and returned his smile with a simple swipe of her own. Even she was hard-pressed not to admit that the sight of her fellow Spartan excited her. John. The one Spartan none of them knew what happened to him. He always seemed to disappear off on his own. It was good to see him again, and to know that he was save. But now she had more questions: like what was he doing here?

She glanced at Keyes briefly. What were they both doing here? --Or maybe the more accurate question was: where was here?

Keyes turned when the other Spartan appeared. Either he was getting old or he needed to start paying better attention--that made two times a large, armored soldier had sneaked up on him. Linda's gesture and attention were the only things that alerted him to the other Spartan's presence.

The captain again responded to the salute with a curt nod. But he hesitated this time and finally snapped of a crisp salute of his own as well. Keyes had seen more of this Spartan than any other--could his guess be right when he thought this one actually was the Master Chief? He couldn't really be sure.

"Welcome to the party, soldier," Keyes said in as relaxed a manner as he could manage. He wasn't sure where else to begin without demanding another status report, and he'd already gotten one of those through the communicators.

[tactical_loop]

"Just what you and Dr. Halsey have told me so far over the communicators," Keyes replied. He ignored the look Linda gave him at the mention of Halsey. She was going to find out one way or another eventually, and he didn't need to waste time addressing it.

"That this is Earth, a separate universe, and we've been 'drafted' here to--" he trailed off with a frown. The obvious answer was "war" but he hadn't gotten an exact answer off of the doctor--and maybe if he didn't say it aloud it wouldn't be true. He mentally snorted at the idea. He knew better than that. "--And that a lot has happened in my absence," the captain finished.

[tactical_loop]

Keyes shifted his position and stood in an approximation of parade rest with his hands lightly clasped behind his back. He stared up at the unreadable visor that was the Master Chief's 'face.' The captain's expression could be read as thoughtful.

"Cortana and the Covenant said as much. But I take it you found the control room? How much did you find out?"

[sierra_058]

Linda stared at John with a fixed gaze, and something in her body language--as still and immovable as it was to the outsider--told of her sympathy. Yes, she heard the nearly inaudible emotion in his voice. No, she hadn't had to put up with the Flood--yet. But she had encountered the Forerunner remnants know as Sentinels, and she knew what it was like to watch friends and 'family' die. She had thought Kurt dead--only to find him still alive, and then loose him again. She had seen the new generation of Spartans give it their all--and watched them die, too.

It was not something she would have found comforting to speak of. Her biggest saving grace at the moment was that she hadn't been around the captain long enough to get attached. That--and her unnatural talent and practice of the Zen arts.

Keyes couldn't help but to pause as he considered the Chief's words. And frown. "'Those things I found'... you mean the squishy looking pods?" He'd only seen them briefly before being brought here. Yet just from the sound they made and their erratic movements combined with their hideous little bodies--that alone made him instantly distrust, dislike, and almost unnaturally fear them. The simple mention of them nearly sent a chill down his spine. But he was more controlled than to let it show.

He paused, briefly looking down and back. "What were creatures meant to be killed by the weapon doing on it? And when you destroyed it--I assume you made sure every last one of them were destroyed as well? Something like that getting back to Earth..." He didn't need to finish the sentence. He didn't even think he needed to ask--he had a lot of faith in the Master Chief. The boy--no, man--had saved his life after all.

[prophets_blade]

Thel seriously asked himself if he was completely losing his mind. This new Spartan hated him and Miranda's father was hardly a fan. Why had he decided to introduce himself? An apology of sorts, perhaps. He did, after all, order his ships to glass Reach. It was the only home the Spartan's had known and while at the time he couldn't care less, when you are seeking redemption, you suddenly care much more.

He would count it yet another stroke of luck if the Spartan didn't end up treating a nasty bullet wound by the end of the day. "The Forerunners," the Arbiter began as his Active Camo wore off, "were trying to study the Parasite to find a better way to destroy it that would not kill themselves. As for it reaching Earth, I can tell you what happens. I have to convince an overzealous Shipmaster to not glass the entire planet and focus simply on half of Africa while trying to stop the Prophet of Truth from firing all six Rings." It suddenly sounded rather impossible, now that he said it outloud.

[sierra_058]

Captain Keyes had his measly pistol up and ready in twice the blink of an eye--fairly quickly when it came to reflexes, especially for his age. But he was nothing compared to the Spartan next to him who, while he still was reaching for his holster, had already unslung her sniper rifle from her back and aimed it dead spot-on at the Elite's head. By the time he had raised his weapon and took careful aim the Spartan had taken two steps forward and shoved the barrel of the rifle practically down the Covenant bastard's throat.

Linda's reflexes had failed her only once, and that was simply bad luck more than anything. And in the end she hadn't succumbed to her ill fortune. Now she proved that as she readied her rifle in the blink of the eye and bore down on the "sneaky" Elite before her. She ignored its words, though a portion of her mind committed them to memory without her having to tell it.

If there was any hesitation in her movements it was only visible to the other Spartan. (She had heard the lies this Covenant soldier had wanted her to swallow whole. But she ignored those, too.) Her trigger finger squeezed the weapon's release without a second thought as she moved forward to impede its movement with her barrel. The cold, icy logic of her no-Zen practices had instantaneously switched on as her eyes first made contact with the enemy. There was no emotion to plead to even if the thing had wanted to.

((Unfortunately I do not have a sniper rifle aiming icon--yet.))

[prophets_blade]

The Arbiter quickly made a mental note to 'Never uncloak myself around a Spartan. It always ends with a gun getting shoved in my face.' Unlike the last time this happened, however, the Sergeant wasn't here to save him and he had a sinking feeling that this Spartan was even more unwilling to listen to reason. He had never been so thankful for John's quick reflexes.

After extracting himself from the Rifle, he smirked at the Chief and playfully bit at him. "Were it so easy." Thel glanced over at the new Spartan then back over at John. "If you are the lucky one and Kelly is the fast one, then she is the...?" Part of him wanted to finish the sentence with a 'crazy one that clearly does not pay attention when someone is talking' but he was in no mood to stare death in the face twice in one day.

[sierra_058]

Linda's finger stopped a threads breadth away from triggering the rifle into firing its 14.5x114mm AP-FS-DS round into the Elite's head. The only factor keeping that less-than-millimeter breadth from being breached was the Master Chief's words. She took them as an order, but that didn't mean she had to like them.

The rifle did not waver much less lower from its position. As the Elite moved, the barrel followed in perfect aim.

"Explain," she asked John. The pure emotionlessness of her tone spoke volumes of her state of mind at the moment. Anyone but John, in fact, would think she was demanding an answer, or even speaking down to him--but in fact it was merely a polite question before she decided whether to blow the alien's head off or not.

[prophets_blade]

"The Prophets also felt it was within their rights to convince the Brutes to kill my entire race. I disagreed. And the Brute's Chief threw me down a hole." Thel turned to Keyes. "Which is when I first met your daughter. And Sergeant Johnson, but he is hardly relevant at the moment."

The Sniper Rifle was making the alien understandibly nervous. He glanced over at the Spartan weilding it. He couldn't even remember the last time he was actually worried a Spartan was going to shoot him. "Put that Prophets damned thing away, Demon. If I was going to kill you, I would have done it while still cloaked." After those words left his mouth, the Arbiter could swear he saw that gold visor glare at him. He decided to glare back.