Down Time
[August 7, 2551]
[UNSC Stardust; Sahara-class heavy prowler]
[Ongoing transit to Hestia star system]
[1058 Hours]
————
Lieutenant David-B114 reread the After-Action Report for the 17th time today, a smirk tugging across his lips each time doing so. He was curled back into his bunk, inside CROW Team's personal crew quarters aboard the UNSC Stardust, joyfully invested in the tunes of times long since gone.
"I'm Still Standing," was the name of the song if he recalled correctly, a classic from the 21st century. That must've been a wildly different time, when humanity had barely even entered the age of starfaring and were stuck on their one sole planet: Earth.
When they finally managed–for a time, they were giants–but that age was over as soon as it began. Now, we were pests in an old man's garden. And we were slowly dying out.
Overhead in the upper bunk, Chief Warrant Officer Ichika-B153 didn't say a word–as usual–invested in the tales his little novel had to tell. They weren't preparing for any sort of combat situation at the moment, so neither David nor Ichika were adorned in their armour. Instead, they lounged peacefully, only hugged by a black skin-tight techsuit that made up the under components of the armour. And honestly, whenever they were at a moment like this, David always felt that he was missing something. That suit of armour was vital to his duty as a Spartan, so not having it on always felt like missing a limb especially since he spent 86.9% of his tasks inside that thing.
It was certainly a lot better than that low-budget SPI armour he and Ichika used to operate in before their reassignments. David didn't know whether to feel relieved or nostalgic. Ichika and David? They knew each other longer than they'd known Marley.
Ichika was the resident quiet kid with a sharp eye and a levelled head who was always somewhere close, but you never ever exactly where. His skills in recon and marksmanship were a notable asset to the rest of Beta Company, and he was arguably one of the best sharpshooters of his detail. David could recall an instance where he shot the eye out of a bird from ten meters away, with a magnum.
That's the shit that made him a notable exception for Naval Intelligence's Asymmetrical Action Group. Having a guy like whilst undergoing covert black operations would be a godsend for the department, and everyone would kill to have a force like that ready at the snap of a finger.
David placed his hands beneath his bunk and pulled out a small box of electronic components, brushing aside his slightly unregulated dark brown hair. Like Ichika, his skin was rather pale in comparison to other UNSC personnel, and their faces were younger too for reasons pertaining much to the Spartan program's dodgy origins.
He idly kept himself entertained with the jettisoned circuits as he was known for doing, sticking them together and pulling them apart. He had several components that belonged to both UNSC and Covenant, and he deeply studied their intricacies with every touch and feel. Understanding tech was the key to being what was, the combat engineer and technology specialist of CROW Team. David didn't want to toot his own horn, but he was pretty bloody good at what he did. There wasn't a single piece of human tech he hadn't been able to crack, and hell, not even the Covenant could handle what he could. His intelligent skillset was always usually brought up by the big boss, and when in a position of command, he would be put in charge of cluing in local troops due to his expertise with mission intel, something even their Staff Officer could vouch for that.
As the door to the Crew Quarters hissed open and another young man stepped, cracking his neck from side to side, David came face to face with Marley and shrugged his shoulders at his presence.
"So?" David anticipated.
Marley threw down a DATAPAD onto the small center desk, and took a seat on his bed opposite to the Betas.
"We did good. The techs are examining the AIs intel as we speak. Care to join them, nerd?"
"Nah, not this time." David flipped out his combat knife, making Ichika cringe topside at his cheery British attitude. "Another fine job we did, innit?"
He jabbed the tip of the knife against the wall and cut away, adding another tally mark to the already vandalized metal.
"I thought the Technicians told you to stop doing that," Marley noted as David straightened out the tally mark a bit more, being the artist he was.
"Eh, they did. Never said I would, though." David sat back down straight, showing off his composition. Several tallies ran along the wall, each scratched in one-by-one after every successful operation since their reassignment. This would be the ninth one now.
Marley scoffed at the sight, sitting against the bunk bed across from the two Beta Spartans. Of all the men he had to take under his wing, his feelings of comradery were mutual to these two. He was skeptical at first about Beta Company, not sure how they'd fare compare to his own but he was able to work well him, even if they were opposites, David being a motor-mouth and Ichika as quiet as a mouse.
That was Lieutenant Commander Marley-A079 of course, the authorized leader of the CROW Team who commanded them on the field. In spite of the difference in company origin, their bonds were long-since forged in battle. He was like an older brother who wanted the best of them while also being a hardass at times. He was always ready to bring the fight, eager to get this team's trigger time whenever it got thrown. During his time in the original Alpha Company, he had an additional background with demolitions and high explosive ordinance, able to jury-rig the smallest component into a deadly charge, and combined with David's knowledge made for a deadly storm to chase. But these. skills were only brushing the tip of the iceberg, needless to say, his "other" past with operating under ONI made him more of a dog to them due to their closeness.
David could feel the bed above him rustle as Ichika put his book and leaned back comfortably.
"What're you reading this time, mate?" David stuck his head out of his compartment, staring up at him.
"Something Flerring recommended. More methods on stealth." He replied in his usual monotonous fashion which made David smile.
David scoffed at the thought, "Please. Jot down some notes, why don't you? We could certainly use that for next time."
Ichika just rolled his eyes.
For a unit based around covert infiltration and official deniability, CROW Team was mostly lacking in that part. They could get into bases just fine, but getting was the hard part. Something, always something would slip up and get them caught, but it would always happen after the objectives were complete so ONI never judged them on it as long as everything else was fine.
Asymmetrical Action Group Team 3: CROW Team was a three-man-team embedded within the Office of Naval Intelligence's Beta-5 Division. They would operate wherever the top dogs would send them and carry out whatever schemes they had in stock to halt the Covenant in their genocidal path. Sabotage, final desperation raids, special reconnaissance, et cetera. You get the picture. The team's formation was decided shortly following Beta Company's full-length deployment, with David and Ichika being two of the lucky handful to be pulled for Category-2 reassignment. And while others got put on more adequate teams in Army Special Warfare Groups, others were left with duties a lot dodgier than average, this being one of the most prominent of that bunch.
Half of the things David-B114 had witnessed in battle would certainly never escape into the eyes of the public, every ONI plot they had to put in motion. Being under their authority predominately meant that they got deployed alone, with additional elements like ODSTs and Rangers playing lesser roles. It's a given that Spartans were usually never sent into something that was way beneath them, and were always usually and sufficiently equipped to deal wherever they did get sent.
CROW Team was still ONI's baby, and they were usually very picky about when and where they got deployed. If a WINTER CONTINGENCY was ever called, you can bet they would be on the reserve due to how selective those shadows were.
Even that previous mission on Krione was being viewed among other ONI operatives as a misallocation of the team's time and presence, with the common consensus being that a full strike force would've best suited the raid, not a three-man-team with a Black Cat.
In David's personal opinion, he didn't care where got dropped so long as he was able to contribute to the war effort in some way. Knowing ONI's tendencies, he knew just what to expect from their men in black. The recent operation was more of a sign, that their status quo as a last resort team was going to change soon and he hoped to God it did, because having it went against everything he wanted to live for.
So with the present downtime, it was safe to assume that they simply be chilling out on deck until the music started again, and that should arise when they finally exit slipspace near Meridian's orbit.
David placed his box of electronics beneath the compartment of his bunk, then adjusted it comfortably against his mattress. He let out a deep, drawn-out breath, rolling onto his side to face the wall.
Honestly, he couldn't remember the last time he had slept, outside of cryosleep. Maybe it would be best to try and fill those hours now.
David shut his eyes, longing for a time of rest, to take him out of this cruel galaxy and into a faraway land without the war.
————
[April 2, 2535]
[Argyle, Jericho VII]
————
But the only place he'd find himself was back to a familiar world, where fate was there to show him it again.
"David..?"
Alexis' little hand tugged on the end of David's sleeve, slipping down to take ahold of his hand fully.
They were only children.
Bubbling in the air, lighting up the orange skies which were meant to settle down in dusk. The center-heavy ships loamed over the entire city, painting their own darkness in the skies.
It was a moment that would never leave David's mind.
"David... What is all of that?"
There was someone that he promised never to forget.
Alexis continued to tug away at her friend's hand, snap him out of his digressive alarm and point up at the worst things that could've appeared on that day.
Then the skies lit up, hundreds of violet lights sparkling from beneath the ships like a light show had begun in the clouds. For a moment, it reminded Alexis of a firework show she had seen with her aunt in Damask, a beautiful sight that she could still see clearly. But this wasn't beautiful, it wasn't even close.
Beauty shouldn't cause pain.
Because soon enough, those same lights came shooting down to the earth like spears and lighting.
The kids braced and people screamed. Alexis coughed profusely when the dirt and smoke which had gotten finally cleared away.
It didn't stop there, however. It never stopped, as the lasers continued to hammer the town, painting it black with soot and ash.
The kids gradually made their way back up the hill, clutching each other's hands every step of the way until they reached the small fence.
Chunks of buildings flew everywhere and shattered against surface. The concrete below roads was blown apart, shooting rocks into everyone and everything, and any building that had dared to build a couple stories higher came timbering down like an axed tree. There was fire, and the cars spun out and lost control until they shattered and brutally piled against one another, catching pedestrians in the turmoil.
"My... mother," David muttered, his eyes bulging out of his head as he looked toward the distant chaos.
"Wait!"
Alexis couldn't hold him back as they hopped the fence, into the utter insanity which was their hometown.
"Stay close to me!"
The duo darted through the streets, tunnelling through the cruel chaos. People scoured to try and dig out anything that remained, sounds of wailing and shouting filling the air. The kids stopped dead in their tracks as they neared an intersection, several UNSC Army vehicles zooming through at full speed, loaded with armed men who frantically deployed to the streets to assist.
David should've been in awe at the sight, but at this time he couldn't care less.
"David... wait!"
"We have to go!"
The kids took a turn through a crumbling alleyway, passing through all the hoboes who were too afraid to confront what was going on out there and as they neared the other end, there was another cacophony of loud rumbles, but these ones were closer.
David looked back for a moment and saw things plummeting from the ships above. They weren't lasers, but they were larger and thicker and the entire town was soon covered with them.
As the kids looked outside, Alexis squeezed his hand tighter and looked at her friend with worried, watering eyes.
"We'll be okay..." David tried to assure, putting on a weak smile.
She returned his gaze, squeezed his hand again and nodded slowly. But the two of them were nearly thrown to the ground as something impacted down the road across them, and without a second thought David shoved Alexis into a ditch beside the road. They were small enough.
David took a peak and gasped, lowering himself with the girl who was trembling from the tension. It was like some sort of metal egg, covered in solid purple material smashed into the center of the once-smoothed road.
It hissed, hot air spewing out as it seemingly peeled its door, then with a startling explosion, the door just blasted off like a bullet being fired, stabbing into several buildings and kicking more dust into the already smoke-abundant city.
The saurian creature who was hidden inside leaped out into the roads, snarling like a wild dog with its mandibles clicking. It was fastened in a ceremonial burgundy armour, clutching a purple weapon in the palm of its fist. And it was nothing any of kids had ever seen, nor imagined.
David grabbed onto Alexis, who didn't want to move and scooted his back against a garbage in as it stamped around eerily, taking a scan of the chaos its ships had inflicted. Seeing it act blazed a fire within David's eyes, but he flinched as one of the hobos from the alley came sauntering out.
Within a flash, the alien whipped its weapon around and ruthlessly tore into the poor old man's flesh, his skin blackening as he screamed into the air and then fell with a sizzling cry.
David's heart skipped a beat, and not in a good way. The alien stomped forward, then dashed and blasted through the wooden door of a building. There were screams inside, then blue flashes from the interior followed by laments and wails before nothing.
They had to go. They had to go now!
David glanced at Alexis and the two scrambled out of their hiding spot, scraping their knees into the dirt before reaching the top and making a sprint down the road, not looking back or making a halt. Alexis reached and failed to grab her friend's hand again, but there were more pressing matters to deal with.
Unless his ears deceived him, the entire city was rhythmic with gunfire and explosions, not from the ships the anymore. Without realizing it, the kids were passing through several smoke screens and gasping for air, but they had to keep pushing forward.
"My house... Over here!" David emerged from the smoke, Alexis at his side, falling to their knees to catch a breather.
His watering eyes slowly whirled forward, to locate the place that he called home.
But there was nothing.
Did he make a mistake? A wrong turn?
What was home, was now just a ruin. The roof was caved in, a large steaming hole burning through the shingles. And everything below was shattered, scrambled all around him. David stumbled his way toward the mess, releasing Alexis' hand. He didn't say a word, his mind barely able to register all of what was going on. The only thing that could get him back to earth, was that muffled voice beneath the rubble.
He gasped as he soon heard a voice call out from underneath the rubble, eyes filling with genuine tears of sorrow. Desperation took over as he scrambled forward, ripping and clawing through everything to free who was trapped underneath. His nails chipped, and his palms were shredded with sweat and blood.
The girl stood behind him, watching with intent, every bit of pain that he inflicted on himself out of desperation.
David flashed a forlorn glance at her, "Alexis... Help!"
She flinched up, balling her hand before eagerly throwing herself against the ruin and began to pick away alongside him, though a lot more gentler. Rock after rock, shingle after shingle, he finally unearthed the upper half of someone he wanted to comfort him.
It was an older woman, long brunette dirtied hair with scrap and skin cut and peeled. She slowly held her head up, eyes squinting at the sunlight, as a trail of blood poured from her forehead through her lazy left eye.
"Mum! MUM! I've... got you!" David grabbed her by the hand, yanking to help her get loose but ignorance was bliss, and he hadn't yet recognized the severity of the collapse.
Despite her son's despair and the crumbling city around them, Juliet Whittle smiled softly, displaying a motherly expression that the boy didn't want to leave behind. Rather than speak, she slowly and gently softened her hands against his until he gradually quit trying.
And was like that, that the concept of not being able to get her out finally crossed the young's innocent mind and fingers slowly started to twitch with emotional agony.
"No..."
"David..."
"No!"
Juliet smiled, staring deeply into her son's leafy green eyes.
"Don't worry, my son... I'll still be with you."
Alexis cried out in surprise as the neighbouring was struck by something, scattering dirt everywhere all while this family had their moment. Neither batted an eye, focused on each other, and solely at each other.
"Find.. the soldiers." His mother coughed with her voice scratchy. "They can save you... The both of you."
"No... no, I can save you! I can!" David stood up to clasp the large wall slammed against her legs, but his child-like was no match for the two-meter-long slab of the house.
"Take Alexis... You need to protect her, David..."
David stopped, tears finally rolling down his cheeks, and looked back at the two of them, both Alexis and his mother. He didn't know what to do anymore, but Alexis did.
Alexis rushed forward to try and grab his hand, but as it interlocked the boy aggressively ripped away in still denial.
"NO!"
The force of pulled cause the girl to stumble onto her bum, and a small piece of debris sticking out from the ruin ran across her thigh and scraped it hard. David's eyes widened with shock then his heart was overwhelmed with guilt, but the girl just picked herself back up and held out a shaky, dusty hand.
"David... please," Alexis implored. "I promised to be safe... help me be safe?"
He looked back down at his mother, gulping with uncertainty and Juliet smiled to watch her son take hold of Alexis' hand once more.
Suddenly, several chunks of dust burst across the road by the intersection, and there was a loud, monstrous gurgle.
"David... Alexis! GO!" His mother began to shout and plead, her voice raising to desperation.
"Wait–"
"GO! GO, NOW! Please!"
David curiously peered down the road to see who had begun approaching them and he froze like an ice sculpture, his skin turning as pale as a ghost to meet the alien monster that came from above.
12 to 13 feet bigger, standing tall in blue armour carrying an enormous shield on its arm and some sort of cannon on the other. The two green eyes on its "face" glowed down at kids as it like a zombie toward their position. Each stomp was like an earthquake that got more powerful with each gap it closed. And as if to speak, it produced a low rumbling sound similar to a gurgle before flicking its cannon forward.
Alexis gasped and tightly clutched their hands, her eyes furrowed and furiously began to tug David with her.
"No!" David tried to resist, as foolish as it was, but his strength had become as weak as his will and despite being a boy, Alexis' grip was much stronger.
He outstretched his hand to his bone's limit, fingers as wide as they could've been at the image of his mother still crushed beneath his house.
"Run away... live!" Juliet pleaded lastly with hopeful tears, as the large alien plodded directly in front of her.
"No..." David looked back.
It raised its shield.
"No no no no..."
It let out another gurgle.
"NO NO NO! WAIT–"
Then the edge of the shield slammed into her nape, and everything around her suddenly stained with a dark red paste. The creature ripped the shield out, splashing additional blood all over its armoured foot before it looked back and just gleamed at him.
"David..?"
David didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't have anymore things to say. All he could do was stare in silence as the image of his loving mother drew farther and farther.
————
David's breathe hitched, not realizing he had awoken. He sat up, cracking his neck forward with groggy sight which almost immediately cleared up as he rubbed to eyes to glance around the Crew Quarters which he had rightfully awoken in. For a moment, he was confused over his lightweight, but he realized he obviously wasn't in his MJOLNIR.
"Rise and shine, sunshine." Marley was slouched by the center table not too far from him with a DATAPAD in hand. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah.. like a baby." David scoffed as he looked up the time to see that it was 1630.
To say the least, he was pissed. Now he understood why he rarely slept outside of cryostasis. What was supposed to be a relaxing nap was rudely soured by a dream too close for comfort, about something he hoped to have gotten over by now.
Marley stood up with the datapad in hand and stepped closer to David, holding it out for him.
"Just in time for the latest Intelligence Report too."
David snatched it from his hand and began to grumpily read through it. His irritable expressions shifted to intrigue and curiosity the further he went down, and by the time he finished, he was well awake again.
'Well, this is something.'
He passed it back to Marley, who then passed it to Ichika above him. David kept his hands close, performing some routine meditations to get his head in the game after that knockout. For a moment, the Spartans felt the UNSC Stardust spring from side to side as it finally completed slipspace transit and the datapad hummed in Ichika's arms.
Marley took it back, and selected "open" on the sensitive topics notification which had popped up on the screen.
"Looks like we're up. Get armoured and meet at the hangar bay in 45 mikes," Marley advised the Betas, as he waited beside the door. Ichika hopped down from his bunk, going into the restroom to fix some stuff before David shortly followed. When it was his turn, David splashed some water over his listless face.
He held out his hand, curling all of his fingers but the pinky.
She's still out there somewhere.
Hopefully, she's safe and sound.
Just like she promised.