With Shawn anxious to get to Forge and keep him alive, he took the wheel of the Pelican and made it down in record time. The engineers were happy to be back on solid ground, no longer wanting to fly with the 'psycho' anymore. Even the pilot was ready to take his bird back.
"That was quick, that happy to see me, huh?" Forge laughed, seeing the engineers' faces as Shawn nodded to Red Team. It was time.
Back at the Spirit of Fire, Captain Cutter sent out a good portion of the Spirit's ODST complement to open up the six interlocks that kept them inside the planet. Serina had already marked the targets and the order in which they were to be activated; now she was making sure the men got there alive.
Anders entered the bridge at one point, dragging herself away from the screen monitoring Sgt Forge to see how things were going elsewhere. "How are things going with the other Professor? I trust you've kept an eye on them?" Captain Cutter said knowingly as Anders shrugged, gazing at the symbols on each of the locks, wondering what they would mean.
As they kept an eye on the slow-moving slipspace drive, Shawn and the other talked little, other than checking that they were alive, and making sure the drive wouldn't go off before it was supposed to.
As they walked in silence, Forge felt a question buzzing around in his head and decided to just spit it out. "So, where do you Spartans come from anyway? As soon as the war kicks off, you guys start showing up, wrecking Covenant and Innies. Kicking ass in armor, probably a decade more advanced than anything we got, and with training to boot."
Red Team all glanced at Shawn; they knew he was more of the secret type, so they'd let him answer that one. Feeling their gazes, Shawn shrugged and told Forge what he could. "What we are is a secret so buried, not even ONI knows everything, just a select few. What I can tell you is we fight for Humanity, that means fighting Covenant and Insurrection both."
Forge nodded, knowing there was more, but being smart enough not to dig where he wasn't supposed to. "What about you?" Shawn asked as Forge looked at him, "What about me?" Shawn went on, "Where do you come from? Why do you fight?"
"Just a nobody Sergeant from Earth, fighting to keep my family safe," Forge said, smiling as he said family. "I wouldn't say nobody, your family has a pretty good history of service going back pretty far, and plenty of instances of standing against superiors to do what's right."
Everyone just stared at Shawn, not expecting him to have researched a crew member. "Is he always like this?" Forge motioned at Shawn while looking at Red Team; they all nodded. "Yeah, it freaked us out at first, but you'll get used to it," Alice said as Forge wondered if he wanted to get used to this.
Seeing he'd made a mistake, Shawn steered the conversation towards Earth, and how he was also from there. This surprised Red Team as Forge and Shawn talked about growing up in different parts of the world. "So what do you have back home waiting on you, any lady you've been dreaming of?" Forge asked as Shawn shook his head.
"Well, we're gonna fix that once we get outta this mess, big guy like you will be a hit with the ladies!" Forge grinned as Jerome spoke up, "What's waiting for you back home, Sergeant?" Forge lost his grin, "My little girl, she's staying with her aunt right now." "No wife?" Shawn asked, confused.
Back on Earth, before he'd been thrown here. Sgt Forge had been one of his favorite characters, right up there with other legends like Buck, John, and Cortana. He remembered reading the entire wiki article about him, Forge being one of the few characters that had a living family, a wife, and a daughter.
"No, no wife. We split up about a year before Harvest; it was messy." Forge said as silence returned, blanketing them all as reports came in of heavy resistance at the locks.
After ten minutes of silence, they finally reach the spot, having to open a door to get the drive as close to the sun as possible. "Gentlemen, we're burning sunshine here!" Forge called as the engineers got to work, with a Marine Lieutenant going to open the door.
As Jerome and Forge check on the drive, Alice and Douglas are left alone as Shawn goes with the Lieutenant. As he opens the door, he's startled as Shawn suddenly roars something, nearly deafening him, though he realizes later that he wasn't speaking any human tongue.
"Face me, cowards! You bring dishonor, hiding from your enemy like vermin!" He roars as he ignites his energy sword, a clear challenge. Forge and Jerome run over to see several elite uncloak themselves as they roar a challenge at Shawn, before a massive silver Elite takes the first swing.
"Jerome, we got company!" Douglas yells as a dozen elite come running down the causeway, wielding energy spears as Forge tells him to go, saying he'll help Shawn. Jerome simply nods as he rejoins Red Team, and they get ready to beat alien ass.
As Shawn locks his blade once more with the Arbiter, he can't help but taunt him. "So this is the fabled 'Arbiter', just another lapdog for the Prophets!" This enrages the arbiter as he goes on the offensive, not paying any mind as Forge and the Marine start picking off the other cloaked elites, easier than usual since Spec-ops shields are weaker.
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"Your head will be my gift to the Prophet!" Arbiter roars as he grows tired of Shawn dancing around, going all out as he tries his best to defeat this lowly demon. The foul creature was clad in dark blue armor from head to foot. Locking eyes with it, he glared into the golden visor of its helmet as it slammed its foot into his chest, forcing them apart once more.
Again, the demon taunted him, but his mind was so consumed with fury that he was unable to realize that the demon had spoken his tongue, too busy swinging his blades to notice his companion being laid low as the other humans and demons cut down his allies.
'THERE!' With a lunge, Ripa cleaved through the demon guard and threw it aside, feeling glee as it staggered to its feet. "Not so terrible now, are you?" He gloated before a smaller voice rang out behind him, "Well, look at who came crawling back." It was the human that the female stopped him from killing.
Spinning around, Ripa was unprepared for the weapon that was slammed into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. Years of war and training kicked in as he lashed out, clipping the human as he rose once again, "Weak, and pitiful, like the rest of your accursed race!"
He stepped closer, enjoying the human's pained look as it slowly picked itself up, "There will be no female to save you this time." "Look me in the eye, and say that." The human said, sounding weak and breathless, 'The Prophets were right to condemn this pitiful race.'
"As you wish." He snarled as he deactivated one of his blades, grabbing the human roughly by its armor and heaving it until it was eye level with him. "My face will be the last thing your pathetic eyes would ever see." He relished the panic and pain he could see in the human's eyes, as well as the excitement?
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Everything hurt, the damn brute had hit him pretty hard, but now eye level with the thing, Forge felt something take hold of him, like it was meant to happen, as he drew his combat blade, stared the Elite in the eyes, and plunged the blade into its neck.
The Elite dropped him with a gasp of surprise and pain, dropping its sword as well. Forge hit the ground and rose in the same moment as he gripped the fallen blade and heaved upwards, slamming the blade into the alien's chest, all the way to the hilt.
The Arbiter roared in pain as it collapsed to the ground, two blade piercing it as Forge got the last word. "And for the record, I would have kicked your ass the first time, if the lady hadn't stopped me!"