Chapter 12: Argus - Part IV
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The sound of a child crying out tore him from his already fitful rest, the Arbiter rising on the couch he'd gone to sleep on the night prior. Blinking away the sleep in his eyes he scanned the dim room, the lights left off and the sun only beginning to peek through the windows of the home. For it, he saw the young woman holding the baby, watching him with tired eyes. Seeing him awake she sighed, turning for the kitchen, and, awake and thirsty, he rose to follow.
"Didn't mean to wake you up. Sorry." The woman murmured tiredly, giving him a small, apologetic smile and setting the youngling on the counter. While she reached up to dig what looked like food out of the counter, the child clung to her robes. "I've been working late for the past few weeks," the woman explained, "so he's really clingy in the mornings. And if Terra tries to feed him he just screams, so…"
"It is understandable, and you are forgiven for waking me, if such a thing was a concern." He murmured, filling a glass with water and tilting his head to the side to tip it back and into his mouth for a drink. Sated, he turned as she shuffled out, taking the apples he had saved from the night prior with him to eat and reattach his armor to his under-harness. As he dressed, he added, gently, "I do not believe we were introduced properly. You came in late, ate in the kitchen, and retired."
"Curious?" She smiled, her glasses catching the light as she looked to him, feeling the child on her knee with the other hand.
"Chronically, I'm afraid." That, at least, earned a little laugh from the clearly tired woman. A laugh the child mirrored, looking between her and him with bright eyes. Laughing quietly and armored once more, he took his seat on the other couch and reached for an apple. "My people have a saying. 'A leader without a dose of paranoia and curiosity is one deserving of the blade between his shoulders'."
"Kind of a grim saying…"
"Mine is something of a grim people, I have come to realize." He nodded, pulling apart the crisp little green and smiling at the satisfying sound it made. "Are your own not just as grim, though?"
"Are we?" She asked, sounding genuinely curious while she absently spooned up some of the food the child had dribbling down his chin, tucking it back into his mouth adeptly. He smiled for the familiar sight. "You're the alien, so you're the most objective opinion on the matter we're going to get."
"If you truly want my opinions…" She nodded and he sighed, pulling a hunk of the sweet thing into his mouth to mask his grimace. Finally, he answered quietly, "Yours are a people who hide and shelter behind high walls and towering mountains. A people who fight and die for even the barest scrap of land and safely. Against each other as well as the hazards of the world you call home. You arm children and send them to battle, you victimize your own to feed the machine of war…"
"Well, I did ask, I guess." She chuckled, the Arbiter only humming in answer. "Ugh, it's too early for this…"
"Do not mistake my words for condemnation, Miss." He assured her, bowing his head at the woman and turning a gaze on the child. Looking to him, he cocked his head, chewing on the food the woman had given him. "Tenacity is something beautiful to behold, the will to fight and claw for your survival graceful, to the Sangheili. At least to my people. The unbreakable will of Humanity is something to be praised, even for the darkness it brings. A grim and beautiful people."
"So, you're talkative in the mornin' looks like." A more familiar voice called, Yang shuffling down the steps behind him, running a brush through her hair and shooting him a smile when he grunted in response. Holding up a hand she asked, "Mind if I steal an apple?"
"No, I do not." He grunted, pitching one to her and watching her take a bite as she plopped down beside him. He hadn't bought them, after all, and so hoarding them would have been quite rude. "Good morning to you, Yang. Did you sleep well?"
"First good night with a shower 'n a bed after a long ass time out in the sticks so yeah." She yawned, waving him off and smiling, speaking with a strange twang as she went on, "Now unless I was quite wrong I do believe you were heapin' compliments on me 'n mine, so do go on."
"I was talking about your race, actually…"
"Hey you don't know what the 'mine' there was, big man." She chuckled, taking a hunk out of the apple and laughing at his rolled eyes. Swallowing she gave the little boy a wave and smiled, speaking to the woman. "Didn't notice last night as fast as you ducked off to catch your z's, but little guy sure does have your eyes."
"I carried him, yeah." She chuckled, giving the Arbiter a look when his brow furrowed in confusion. Smiling teasingly, but with a curious, almost testing look in her eyes, she explained, "It's Missus, by the way, Arbiter. Missus Terra Cotta-Arc. The other 'matron of the house', I think were the words you used."
"Oh." He blinked, "Oh, I understand, you two are- I see, yes. Ah, forgive my words, if they caused offence, I did not know."
"It's fine as long as you don't mind it." She shrugged, smiling politely and turning to dab her son's face clean while she spoke. "Terra mentioned last night that you didn't seem to have a good grasp on Mistrali or Vale customs. Or, well, Human ones I guess. No, that excludes the Faunus, maybe Remnant customs works best?"
"It is… Strange to me, yes, and I mean no offence in saying so. But then, far be it from my rights to say that strange is wrong." The child seemed happy and well-cared for to his eyes, and the women seemed happy. So of what concern was it to him, really? She was smirking, though, and he sighed for it, bowing his head knowingly. "You are teasing me, are you not?"
"Just a bit." She laughed, Adrian joining her after a second. "I was a bit worried, alien and all, but you seemed nice enough so I didn't think you'd care even if you cared. You know what I mean?"
"I believe so, yes." He did not, in fact, understand her meaning, but he was more than happy to simply move on.
"Good. Glad that's settled." She smiled, standing and setting the child on the floor amidst a handful of his toys. He whined as she turned away but, without looking, she set a foot on a toy truck and made a sound like an engine roaring. Son suitably distracted, she went on, "You two mind watching Adrian while I get food ready? I need to get ready for work."
"I do not think that is a good-" A tiny something banging against his toe drew his attention down and he blinked, watching the young one run a little red truck up his shin. He looked up and blinked, smiling at him and holding the truck up for him. "I don't…. Understand. What does he want?"
"Sit on the floor and play race cars." Yang suggested, hopping over the table to do just that, grabbing a little blue box car and circling it on the floor, imitating the engine the way he had. The child left his knee to join her, rumbling along in a pretend race that went nowhere. Giving him a look Yang flicked a green one through the air and nodded to the toddler's other side. "Pop a squat and play. Not like we have anything better to do so damn early in the morning."
"Language!"
"Sorry, Mom!" yang called towards the kitchen, turning back to him and raising an eyebrow. "Or is the Arbiter too good to play with a kid?"
"...Hmph." He grumbled, picking the little car up off the couch where it had landed and setting it on the table. "Um, well, vroom vroom?"
"Ah!" He cheered, standing and putting his little truck on the table, giggling, "Vrrrrooom!"
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"Watch out, the Seraph is coming in for a bombing run!" The Arbiter warned playfully, running the spoon around in lazy circles in front of the child while he bounced on the couch eagerly and laughed. Knelt on the floor in front of him he dipped it down and towards him, letting the boy catch the morsel in his mouth and smiling as he giggled. "Good job, child. You staved off the bombing run, the Keep lives another day!"
"Weird game ya got there."
"Perhaps, but he enjoys it." He murmured, turning to set the fork down on the plate, holding it up for Jaune to carry off towards the kitchen as he made his way by. Standing, he lifted Adrian and set him back on the floor so he could play now his early lunch was out of the way. Turning an eye on the man on the other couch he huffed, "Must you drink in front of the boy?"
"Why wouldn't I…?" Qrow sighed, sipping from his flask and setting a foot on the table.
"He's impressionable." The Arbiter, Jaune and Saphron all answered at once, the blondes settling in on the couches beside either of the older men. Saphron, beside him, turned an eye on the Arbiter and smiled. "I have to say, though, I didn't think you would be so good with children, though, Arbiter."
"And why not?"
"Dunno, you don't seem the type to have had a family." The question was clear, and he felt both Jaune and Qrow's eyes on him for it too.
"I have given life to no young, no." He'd been too busy taking the lives of the young to consider doing so, though the Keep would soon demand he would. As was his responsibility, to carry forward the blood which had done so much for their people. "I have, though, aided in the communal care of the Keep's children. The duty of all young Sangheili, in the years before their true training begins, so that they might keep their love of the Keep."
"So, what, when you have a kid you just…"
"It is given over to the Keep as a babe, and raised among all the Keep's children and under the Kaidon and the Council's tutelage and training." He answered simply, the blonde woman grimacing at the thought. He already knew why, though, and thanked the few Humans he had spoke to for explaining the oddity they saw. "Our ways are strange to you, I can tell. But they are ours. Judge us not unless you wish to invite judgement unto yourselves."
"Glass houses and rocks, eh?" Qrow grunted, "Not my favorite defence but it works, I guess."
"Is there a reason for it?" Saphron asked, watching her son play and smiling sadly as she considered the idea. "I couldn't imagine giving Adrian up, a-and he's not even my own blood. He's my son, of course, but… You understand what I'm getting at?"
"I do, I believe." The value of blood was something he as a Sangheili understood greatly. And, ironically, it was that which built the reason for the practice. "The reason is to prevent nepotism and corruption. It is, after all, difficult for one to favor their son for prestige and duties when one doesn't know which is their son. As such, in all things only the best and brightest rise naturally, for merit not name."
"Still…" Whatever she wished to say next, though, was silenced by a distant drone. Standing, the woman's brows furrowed, "The gate's sounding its alarm? Why is it-"
More cut her off, cascading in from every direction save for the ocean itself. Grabbing Adrian and starting to gather his toys and a small black bag, the woman explained quickly, "That is the Grimm alarm, I have to get Adrian to a shelter."
"We'll head for the gate." Qrow grunted, standing and rolling his neck until it popped. "The girls are all out, but they'll figure it out and head for the walls to fight, too. Arbiter?"
"With you, Branwen. To the gate, to answer the first call to arms." He grunted, rising to his full height and yanking his armor in a last check of his harness. Turning a look on Adrian, who looked frightened now for their own tension, he smiled and laughed brightly for the child's benefit. Prodding his belly when he turned in his mother's arm, the Arbiter, "Fret not, Youngling. All will be well, you have my word. We shall play race cars by the evening, I am certain."
"Rar rar!" The boy cheered, accepting the little red truck when he offered it to him.
"Thank you." Saphron murmured as he left, calling as he and Qrow approached the door, "Be safe out there! Steaks for dinner if you win!"
"I will look forward to it." He called back while he pulled his cloak on and snapped the Bane to his thigh. For a moment he considered leaving it, but then decided that it would be safest with him and clipped it onto the back of his waist for safekeeping. To the woman and her son he called a final, "Be safe. I will see you when the battle is done."
Outside of the home, the sirens were louder, carried more easily through open air than through brick and mortar. He had expected as much, and the chaos he had seen so often on worlds he laid siege to. Men and women carrying what they could, and what they shouldn't, and fighting back and forth in confused, terrified throngs of people. Often, he had seen people crushed under their fellows in their desperate flight from his Phantoms and Spirits, and the Covenant wrath they carried. Humans could be brave if disciplined, he knew, but the UNSC's military might was always busied facing them rather than properly caring for their frightened people.
Here, such was clearly not the case, and he found himself impressed by it.
Few vehicles traveled the road, mainly towards the walls and ferrying soldiers piled into white and silver trucks that reminded him of warthogs, their riders riding to where they were needed as swiftly as they could. On the other side those same trucks returned, the old and weak on their backs now as they returned for more soldiers and supplies. On the sidewalks, and even in the little lawns before the buildings, people walked in an orderly, swift fashion, watched over by uniformed soldiers directing them into the city and towards the shelters Saphron had mentioned.
"Don't space out." A hand on his bare left arm drew his attention to the side and down, the older Huntsman beside him, giving him a narrow-eyed, almost knowing look. Why, the Arbiter couldn't guess, but the man jerked his head at the street either way. "Follow the trucks or hop on one and they'll get you to the gate. Kid's gonna find one headed to the walls and link up with his team and I got my own way there."
"I understand." The man's speed of wing would see him to the gate even before the Arbiter himself could get there. Planting a fist against the man's chest and then the blonde's as well he grunted, "Good luck, my friends. May the gods guide us to victory today."
"Keep your gods away from me, big man." Qrow grumbled, turning and dipping back into the house.
��We should get going." Jaune added, leading the way through the crowds of people.
Finding transport was easy, they simply introduced themselves to one of the soldiers trying to make way for the trucks and went to where they were directed. Two soldiers saw him coming and stood, one offering him a hand up while the other shuffled to stand at the front of the truck, one hand gripping a little rail on the top of the cabin while the Arbiter took the vacated seat. A quiet sort of camaraderie, to be sure, but one that he had never expected to receive from a Human.
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
As they trundled along towards the gate he turned his gaze skyward, watching the Atlesian airships engage the aerial Grimm trying to assault the city. Grimm were ripped apart by missiles and heavy weapons, while shuttles and interceptors were punctured by feathers. Or, in some cases, Grimm simply rammed into the craft headlong to destroy them, or handfuls of them clustering on shuttles to force them down by sheer weight. The Grimm suffered three, maybe even four, times as many casualties as the Atlesian defenders.
But the Grimm didn't slow, swarming madly and happily throwing themselves to their deaths. But the Atlesians didn't slow either, fighting doggedly despite high casualties and an enemy which would neither slow nor hesitate. So Human tenacity truly wasn't exclusive to the UNSC, then...
Excellent.
"Word from Garrison Commander Cordovin, Sir." A soldier reported as the sounds of small arms fire reached them. He nodded and the man went on, "Grimm are assaulting the other sections of the Argus wall, but garrisoned Specialists are holding them with your bodyguards. She's asking that you help us push the White fang back out of the settlement, though."
"Back out?" He growled, "They are within, then?"
"Yes, Sir." He nodded, turning his head slightly as he listened for something in his helmet's communicator. "They blitzed through with an armored car rigged with explosives, killed the garrisoned squad and set up a holding pattern there. Only a few are holding the gate now, but we're spread too thinly to push out."
"Why are they only holding?"
"We don't know, Sir." The man answered, "We only know that they are. And they have a Huntsman with them, who is currently being engaged by one of your companions. The older man."
"I see…" But something felt foul, here. Something felt foul about that but a distant, muted explosion back towards the bay stole his attention away. Their truck slammed to a halt and he stood, looking towards the water. Smoke trailed up and into the sky where only one thing could be its origin and he asked, quietly, "That is from your base. Is it not?"
"Yes, Sir."
"A bomb? But why attack the base directly? The men and supplies could have been turned on taking the city..." The answer came swiftly and terribly. Crim. They wanted her silenced and wanted to bloody Atlas' nose twice-over in the process, once for killing someone under their charge and the second for such an attack occurring at all.
What they likely didn't know was that they would bloody his nose as well, and that was something he would not stand for.
"Trooper, take heed and send word to your fellows." He grunted, rounding on the soldier as the truck began trundling forward again. "Ask Qrow Branwen to rush to the Atlesian base and secure our White Fang guest. If they are so intent on her death then she is of value and must be defended."
"Understood, Sir." the man nodded, "I'll relay the message immediately. What about you, though, Sir?"
"I will be retaking the gate alongside you all." He answered with a wave and a laugh, "Or was that not obvious?"
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John's eyes snapped open and, in the same moment, he went from on his back to on his knees, a hand snapping to his thigh to snatch up his Magnum on raw, ingrained instinct. Aside from his fellow Spartans, all of whom read on his HUD's squad status display as unconscious but unharmed, the hallway was empty and undamaged. Rising, he traded teh Magnum for his sturdy Assault Rifle, sweeping the hall once swiftly, looking for anything amiss, and then again more slowly.
After a moment he relaxed, at least enough to speak even if he kept his rifle at the ready, "Roland, status report."
"All systems are reading as operable, but power failed unilaterally for forty-three seconds. Including my own powers reserves." The AI reported, sounding as confused and tense for it as the Spartan himself was. "I haven't finished rebooting memory and data storage yet, so I don't know for sure what happened leading up to it, but we aren't under attack. And we don't have anyone on board, either."
"You're certain?"
"Within a few decimal points of one hundred percent, yeah." The AI answered, "Internal and external sensors were right after weapons and propulsion in my list of power priorities. I'm working on subsystems now, but everything is functional."
Hearing the words the Chief relaxed, returning his rifle to his back and turning at a groan to offer a hand to Linda. She took it without a thought and he pulled her up, explaining both for her and the other two that were coming around as he had, "All green on sensors, power and ship status."
"According to the AI?"
"According to the AI." He nodded at the man's question, looking over each of them and his status reports in his HUD in the same moment. "We're sweeping the decks either way. Linda, Fred, Engineering. Kelly with me, command and crew decks. Assume hostile presence until verified. Rally to the bridge if all's green."
"Yes, Sir." The Spartans answered, their duos splitting off to see to their tasks.
"Master Chief I need you on the bridge to reinitialise supplementary data storage access. You're the only one with the clearance, as mission lead." The AI reported a few minutes later, as he and Kelly swept the barracks. Nothing yet, as he'd expected, but he wouldn't risk stowaways on his ship whether or not the sensor scan was clear. "Records I have access to already say we approached the Arbiter's last location in space, but then something happened in the minutes leading up to reaching it."
"Theories?"
"None until I get that access."
"Understood." He grunted, turning and giving his partner a nod. She returned it and he left her to continue her sweep alone, headed for the bridge himself. As he went, he swept the hall, noting it on the squad's shared map as clear, until he reached the bridge and did the same. "Roland, tag the console you need me at."
"Can't, the access I need will give me comms, too. I need that if I want to access your HUDs like that." The AI answered, voice echoing around the empty, very stereotypical ONI bridge. Small, compact, and without any viewports that looked out into space. The forward section had three consoles for various roles, while the back had two. "I need you at the front left-most console, forward section. I��ll walk you through access and system initialization, you'll be hard starting it all."
"Understood." He answered simply, pacing around the deck and kneeling in front of the console to work under the AI's directions. He knew most of it already, of course, but then he also knew better than to ignore an AI's directions. After a few minutes, the screen lit up a confirmation and he asked, "Roland?"
"Systems are green, I'm scanning the memory files and data packets as they process." A heartbeat or two passed and the machine sighed, appearing on one of the series of AI pedestals scattered around the bridge. "All files within a few seconds of the incident are corrupted, somehow."
"All files?"
"Yep." He nodded, bringing a live feed of the files up on the terminal for him as he went on. "External passive data, radiation detection, ladar and radar systems, communications, I mean, it's everything. Top to bottom. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was scrubbed."
"By who?" Roland only shrugged and the Chief sighed, thinking for a moment. "Scan the system. Are we still in Sangheili space?"
"No, I can tell that from passives. But I'm launching a full system sweep on your order." The AI answered, giving him a look, "Should I go the whole nine or restrict myself for security?"
"Do the full sweep." The Black Sun could outmaneuver anything that came looking for their pings, if Roland found anything. And right now, they needed the information.
Another few minutes while the AI worked and the Master Chief waited, fielding the periodic, expectedly clear reports from his sweeping team. Finally, Roland spoke up, his little avatar smiling brightly. "Everything's quiet, Chief. But there's a nearby planet, and long distance scans picked up two things worth talking about. It's life bearing, and has signs of having been settled, and a single source somewhere on its surface is broadcasting a weak, partially corrupted signal in a Sangheili code system."
��The Arbiter?"
"Won't know until I get closer and run a more intensive scan, Sir." He answered, "Should take an hour, if you give me permission."
"Granted." He stood, turning for the door and opening comms to his squad. "Blue Team, report to the Armory and get yourselves supplied. We have a lead and may need to head ground-side."
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Kpmh2001 :
Exactly! Understanding the realities of your career is a thing all young adults come to. And THESE ONES have been preparing for it for likely almost their entire lives. Ruby lost her mom, she knows that dying and killing is part of her chosen life.
She doesn't care in-canon or here because she's doing what's right.
Might steal your line, though, if you don't mind and I get a chance. XD
Blaiseingfire :
Oh I has ideas about all that~
Combine 117 :
Undetermined on whether Crim will become a recurring OC. Probably not, not really something I wanna do with all the moving pieces already being dealt with, but we shall see.
Cmedina :
Oh, if/when he gets orbital support will indeed be a crazy, fun time for all involved not black and furry.
Muse of Schleissheim :
It was a shock to see, that was all. Ruby herself has dismembered someone. It's never shoved in your face in the show since that would be silly to do, but she understands her lifestyle. The risks on all ends.
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