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Undeniably a Tragic Universe of Tie-died Proportions by Grantix Techno
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Undeniably a Tragic Universe of Tie-died Proportions, Chapter 1
Date: 16 May 2008, 8:21 pm
I was staring at the ceiling, rather sure that a river of crimson was snaking its way down my forehead. I hadn't, before that moment, considered what I'd do in a fight. In that moment though, when Jack's clenched fist slammed into my body at well over twenty miles per hour, I knew that I didn't much care what happened to me.
"Stand up you pussy," Jack said, in the triumphant tone which he usually used.
I continued staring at the ceiling though, the blood pooling audibly under my left ear. The dripping sounds had intrigued me and had won my attention over Jack. But then hand swung into view again, this time with an open palm.
"Take it and stand the hell up," he said, his voice rising. He emphatically wiggled his hand in my eyes, motioning for me to take it.
"I'm good," I whispered, still staring at the ceiling.
"You need medical." I just barely heard Lucy say that. She was always concerned with others, always suggesting medical.
"It's just a cut," I replied, my eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"Stand up Max," Lucy said. I felt, just barely, her feet brush against my pants. Then her hand waved in front of my face too. Now I had two hands waving, almost bodiless, in front my face. Gestures of goodwill, I know, but they seemed more like vultures, floating above me, waiting for my death to tear me to shreds and eat any available meat.
"I'd prefer not to," I told her, this time more forcefully. "It's rather comfortable." Jack's hand, weathered and calloused by work on his father's farm, disappeared. He worked on the farm as a child, helping bring in enormous crops to be sold to other colonies.
I heard him walk away, soft footsteps making their way through the white tiled hall.
"Stand up Max," Lucy repeated. Her face suddenly floated above my face, her eyebrows bunched together and her face in clear concern. Her blue eyes, the color of tropical seas, stared down at me, her pupils adjusting to the change in light. Her blonde hair fell down, straight as always, nearly touching my face.
"You need medical," she said in a soft voice, nearly whispering.
"I know," I replied, moving my elbow slowly to lean up. "How bad's the cut?"
"You're bleeding rather heavily," she replied.
"I figured." I turned, after achieving a sitting stance, to look at the pool of blood. It was larger than the diameter of my head.
"You can't go around getting in fights like this, Max," she said, placing an arm under my shoulder. She then pulled up and helped me get to my feet.
I chuckled a little and then stared a moment into her eyes. "You know, I really do care about how much food I can eat in the mess hall."
"That's fine Max, I'd like more too, but you can't have fighting in such a tight quarters space. It's a small station," she whispered, her hands running along the side of my face.
I could feel my own rough beard as her hand pulled on the small whiskers. I sighed, closing my eyes for an extended second before staring at Lucy again.
"Alright, let's get this patched up," I told her, starting off towards medical.
Sweat was pouring off my forehead like a water fountain when I woke up that night. I stared, yet again, at the ceiling before me. My heart was pounding, which was unusual. I was normally a calm, too calm, person. But at that moment, waking up in near complete darkness, I was afraid.
"Lucy," I whispered. I heard no response. The sheets didn't rustle, no mouths moved, in fact, I couldn't even feel her breathing next to me. "Lucy."
I sat up, forcing my feet out from under the sheets and down onto the floor. The floor was cold, as always. I hated it and it was another complaint I often forced into discussion. Damn UNSCDF couldn't afford any damned floor heaters.
The door slid open, off to my right. Bright light poured in, nearly blinding me. My hand shot out, straight to the night table. I gripped the pistol tight and pointed it at the door.
"Max!"
I recognized the voice immediately. "Don't scare me like that Lucy."
She walked in, the door sliding behind her. I heard her fingernail click on the plastic light switch and a dim light slowly came to life. She came into view now. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were red. Her skin seemed a bit pale too.
"What's wrong?" I asked, placing the pistol back on the table.
She walked over too me silently. An almost emotionless stare pierced me. "The Covenant."
"What?" I asked, standing up. The comment had confused me and scared me. How could they be here? How could they have found it? I thought.
"A small force, just whispers, they just blew by us. They're headed for Earth," she whispered. She nearly collapsed into my arms. Tears started pouring from her eyes. Instantly I grabbed her, wrapped my arms around her, and held her tight.
"Who picked them up? Who's telling the Defense System?" I asked.
"Jack got 'em, tagged 'em. Darcy sent word to Admiral Hood," she whimpered.
"Lucy," I said, firmly. I pushed her away a little, my hands gripping her shoulders. "Listen…"
"There's nothing we can do Max!" she screamed. The tears spurted out of her eyes, pouring all over her face and her shirt.
"If they're invading Earth," I started. "…then there's going to be more than just a small force!"
She stopped a moment and stared into my eyes. "All those civilians."
"You're a civilian," I told her.
"All those children."
"All those children will not die," I told her. "Not if we tell them what to expect. I mean, sure enough people are going to die because of this small force, but you can be sure as hell that a small force isn't all their sending. If we do not let them know that more will be coming… then Earth is doomed."
"Don't you think Hood could figure that out?" she asked.
"Fuck Hood!" I yelled. "Damn bastard can't tell his nose from his toe anymore!"
"Then who the hell is going to save them?" she cried.
I sighed and stared into her eyes. What am I trying to prove? What the hell am I saying? I thought as tears started to form in the corners of my eyes. "I… I don't know."
She fell into my arms and embraced me and I her. We stood there for a long time, crying and hugging, thinking of all the doomed souls on Earth.
"Fucking A!" I heard Jack yell.
"What's up?" I asked, walking into the control center. Jack was sitting at the main radio display cursing as images floated across the screen.
"These are images from the battle," he said, his face lit up by the screen.
"What battle?" I asked, taking a seat next to him.
"The one over Earth. Damn Covenant blew right through the defenses. They damn near destroyed an entire defense cluster. Fuck Max! I don't have time to explain this shit to you. You shouldn't have taken the hit like a fucking pussy, wouldn't have had to take a damn nap and miss your shift!"
"What are you still doing here?" I asked, looking at the screen.
"It's too damn interesting to not watch."
Spacecrafts soared through space, dodged debris and crashed into bombs. The footage was from a personal camera, as the footage wasn't too great. Suddenly a Orbital Defense Platform exploded, it was like watching a miniature super nova.
"Damn…" I whispered.
"This is the fifth film I've watched," Jack stated. "I saw one earlier where a couple of marines shat their pants when the cruiser rolled in."
I chucked a little. But as soon as I did I wished I hadn't. Laughing about war? I asked myself. I shook my head a little in self disgust, but I couldn't turn away from the scenes.
"How long ago did this all happen?" I asked.
"It's gotta be two hours now. Word is that one cruiser made it through and made landfall. They're in some hell hole in Africa."
I sighed, once again, and closed my eyes in contemplation. I felt reassured knowing Lucy had gone to sleep and couldn't think about the war from a sleep state.
"So, we just gunna sit here and watch the shit hit the fan?" I asked, opening my eyes to the screen.
"I don't fuckin' know," Jack replied, his voice a little disturbed.
"There's gotta be more comin'" I said, my speech starting to slur. I turned to him then.
"Yeah…" he said. "You on something?" he asked, finally turning away from the screen.
"Nurse gave me something for my head," I told him, pointing a finger at the bandage fixed over the cut on my head.
"Yeah… Sorry about that," he said, looking down at his hands.
"I don't give a rat's ass about it Jack, all that maters now is this damn war," I told him, looking at the screen once more.
"Regardless, you can't be here while like that, you could jeopardize something," he said, his eyes looking back up to mine.
"Bull shit, I am not going to stand by and sleep some more. Hell, I can hardly stand it just sitting here and watching that screen," I said turning back to him.
Jack had opened his mouth up to speak when a buzzing rung out over the radio. Suddenly a voice started patching through.
"This is ODP Sahara to Station 7, do you copy?"
The voice had a thick Texan accent. The man sounded calm, a little too calm for my taste.
Jack leaned over to the radio system and keyed the microphone. "This is Station 7 to ODP Sahara, we read you loud and clear."
"Copy that. Good news boys, you're in for some hurtin'."
"Whatchya mean?" I asked.
"You navy guys are being shipped right over here to fight this fuckin' war head on. Hood's supposing more could comin', plans on assembling a larger defense force."
"Well what the hell are we going to fly?" Jack asked.
"We got some spare ships lyin' around… You know… ONI shit," the voice said, an audible laugh finishing the sentence.
"What? Why the hell would we be doing Black-Ops? We're a group of fuckin' screw ups!" Jack said, his voice rising in irritation.
"Not my decision boys. Gather your bags, you'll saddle up on the FFG Titus at 03:00 hours tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Jack asked, obviously infuriated.
"Not my decision."
"Fuck…"
"Yeah… ODP Sahara out."
"Wait a second! What about civilians?" I asked quickly.
"Ahh…" the voice said. The rustling of papers came over the radio loudly. "Says here they'll stay on board and keep watch for the next Covenant force."
"Son of a bitch," I said, standing up.
"Alright, I'm out for real this time. G'luck boys. ODP Sahara out."
The radio fizzled to silence as I walked out the door. The bright lights of the white hallways stung, but I didn't care. I walked so fast that my blood pressure changed rapidly and caused my vision to go away for a second. I stopped rapidly, once I could see again, and stared at the door to our room.
I walked in quickly, seeing Lucy sleeping on the bed. Fuck, I thought. The shit's really hittin' the fan. I sat down next to her, staring at her face, her wonderful hair and pretty lips.
Goin' lose it all Max. Nice job watching stars, great girl, life. Fuckin' A.
The sheets rustled as she turned from her side to her back. Her eyes opened slowly and sleepily. She stared at me a moment, a slight smile gracing her lips. I tried to smile back, but just couldn't bring it on my face.
"Max…" she asked, her eyebrows rising in concern.
"Bein' shipped to war…" I said, grabbing her hand.
"What?" she asked in a near whisper.
"Tomorrow… I gotta leave. You've gotta stay here baby," I said to her.
How much pain does she need to endure?
I could see the tears forming in the corners of her eyes and eventually stream down her cheeks. "You can't leave Max…" she whimpered, falling into my chest. "What am I going to do?"
What am I going to do?
"I'm sorry baby, I can't…" I couldn't finish my sentence. I didn't know what I would have said.
She looked up at me with a wet face. She slowly came up to the same level as me and placed her lips on mine. The gesture was enough to have me a little assured that nothing bad would happen. But in the back of my mind I couldn't help but think that some major shit was going to go down and that I'd end up in a worse state than I was then.
Undeniably a Tragic Universe of Tie-died Proportions Chapter 2
Date: 29 May 2008, 8:52 pm
Smoke clouded my lungs as I stared at the ceiling. My breathing, and that of those around me, was sharp and raspy, tearing at my ears. The ceiling, here, was a dark grey and was barely lit by the blue tint of the numerous screens in the frigate's control center. I sighed, tilting my head forwards to look at the rest of the crew. My hand dropped, lazily, towards the makeshift ashtray, the sole of a boot.
"Max," one of the shadows started. "Where'd you get this stuff?"
I stared talking, trying to figure out who spoke, but colors flashed before my eyes and I couldn't tell light from dark. "I got it while on leave on Reach…" I said, taking another slow drag of the joint in my hand.
A face suddenly appeared over me, with scrunched eyebrows and piercing blue eyes. I stared a moment, a smile creeping across my face. I could tell, by the reflection in his eyes, that mine were bloodshot.
"Captain?" I asked, blowing smoke into his face.
"Smith!" the captain yelled, grabbing my collar and pulling me to my feet.
"Sir?" I asked, dropping the joint into the boot's sole and letting my face's expressions drop completely.
The captain stood before me, still grabbing my collar, with a face so angry that it was unrecognizable. I thought I could see spit peeking out of the corner of his mouth and a blood vessel burst in his eye.
"Pack your fucking bags," was all that he said.
The memory stopped and I found myself staring into a screen. A wire frame representation of Io floated across, with the listening station circling it. I stared at the screen, wiping the drool from my chin.
"You okay?" The voice, clean and crisp, rung out in my ears for a moment before I realized I actually heard it. I spun around, facing Darcy with a confused face.
"Yeah…" I said, dropping my gaze to the ground and letting my voice trail.
She had combed her black hair neatly behind her head and then tied it in a bun. She was always orderly and prepared. If anyone had been given the change to leave the station on good behavior, it was her.
I continued staring at the ground until she spun around. "You've been awfully silent," she said, her face showing concern.
"I…" I looked up at her eyes, which always shocked me. She had two different colored eyes, something I couldn't get used to. "I was thinking about how I ended up here," I finally said, straightening my face.
"Yeah?" she begged, her eyebrows rising.
"I… I just wonder where I'd be if I hadn't been a junkie," I told her, turning back to my work.
"Maybe you'd be a commander," she said, sighing.
"Yeah right," I replied, disbelief flowing through my words.
"Who knows…" she said as I heard her chair swivel around.
Silence permeated the air once again, leaving me to stare at a screen which never changed much. Io floated around Jupiter and Station 7 floated around Io. Something caught my eye though, something irregular.
"Rad…" I started.
"Ahead of you," Darcy replied. I could hear her fingers tapping at the keyboard.
"Any idea?" I said, spinning around to her with one raised eyebrow.
"It's the frigate. They're requesting a docking order," she replied, furiously typing.
"Dock Two's full," I told her. "Jack's supervising an EVA in there. The frigate's gunna have to use Dock One."
"Got it," she said.
I listened carefully as muffled voices came through over her ear piece.
"Get their code first," I ordered, turning back to my screen. The wire frame showed it as having a frigate's shape. Nothing was certain though, given the Covenant's position.
"Code confirmed," Darcy said, almost mechanically.
"Let 'em in. Radio Jack, inform him, I'm going to assemble a defense party," continued, standing up.
"Aye sir," she replied, tapping at the keys still.
I moved towards the door, hearing the air hissing in expectation.
"Max," Darcy started, spinning in my direction. I turned to her, raising my eyebrows at her. Her face surprised me; I had never seen such a mixture of fear and uncertainty in a face before.
"Yes?" I asked, half of my body out of the room.
"No one's going to be able to help you. There are only ten people here. You and I are here, Lucy's asleep, Casey's a medic and only used a gun in basic, and the rest are in Dock Two. You're the only one who will be there, unless I leave post," she explained, standing up and offering me a sincere look.
"Well, fuck me sideways," I said, spinning around and heading out the door.
My hand was shaking, it was shaking too much. Am I nervous? I'm never nervous, I thought. I stared at the docking bay doors. They were white, like everything else, but they had a large black "1" painted on them. They, just like every other door on the station, opened via compressed air.
I am going to die. Whatever, I don't care if I die. Shit! What about Lucy? Fuck. I couldn't stop thinking about all the worst case scenarios. Covenant aboard the ship. The newly seen "Elites" would pop out and slaughter me and everyone else aboard. Jackals and grunts would pour out first though and I'd be able to kill one before being wiped out by plasma fire.
I stared, nervously peeking at all the corners over and over to see when the plasma torch was going to start cutting. Shit, shit, shit! I thought, keeping the assault rifle's barrel in line with where I looked.
My earpiece yelled in my ear as Darcy's voice came over. "They docked. I'm tapping into their onboard sensors."
"And?" I asked, dragging out the "d" to show my ignorance.
She sighed, too loud, obviously annoyed that I didn't understand her plan. "I'm checking their thermals. If their signatures line up with normal human temperatures then we should be good."
"Okay. I see," I replied, more confident in myself now.
"Can you get cameras too?" I asked, kneeling down. I reached around to my back and grabbed a small metal object out of a pocket on my bandolier. I unfolded the small HUD display and attached it to my helmet.
"Working on it. Thermals check out though sir."
"Alright, don't open up the doors until I get visual on my HUD."
I heard, through the earpiece, the keys click as Darcy stroke each one precisely.
"Got it. Patching it through," Darcy said, resuming her normal orderly behavior.
Images started appearing on my HUD. The bridge came up first, with the crew surrounding the captain's chair. "Next," I said. The image changed to the cargo hold, where nothing but a slew of crates was resting. I watched a moment, staring at each crate intently. My suspicious started to rise. "Keep a feed on those crates open. Make sure nothin' gets out of 'em."
"Aye sir."
The image changed again, this time to the crew's quarters. All rooms were empty.
"Alright, open the doors. If those crates budge I want these doors closed and the bastards dead. Open all ports on their ship if the crates move, have 'em suffocate in vacuum."
"Aye sir."
The doors hissed in front of me. I held the rifle up again, aiming at the center of the doors.
"Sir," Darcy said.
"Yes?"
"What's a spare frigate doing out here?"
I thought the question over in my head for a second, decided I didn't know and that I didn't want to know. "Don't know Darcy. Does it matter? Hood knew about it, obviously it was here for something."
"Sir…"
"What?" I asked, my voice rising in irritation.
"What's the name Hood gave you?"
"Titus. FFG Titus," I replied, not understanding what she was getting at.
Suddenly the doors started to close and the hissing sound changed tune as it started sucking in air instead of releasing it.
"That ship is the FFG Archimedes," Darcy said, her voice shaky and contorted.
"You're tapped into the frigate; turn all power off except life support. I want the crew alive," I ordered, backing away as the doors slammed shut. "Get Jack on his way right now, I want them all in a defense right now!" I stormed down the white hall, slinging the rifle quickly.
"Sir, your finally acting your rank," Darcy said, her voice still shaky.
"Damn it, Darcy! Stop wasting time! No one on the frigate touches the damn dock doors, got it?" I was screaming into the headset now.
"Aye sir," Darcy replied, nearly whispering in fear.
Suddenly Jack's voice patched through into my ear. "What the fuck is going on?"
"Shut up and listen Jack. Get their asses to Dock One with some fucking rifles. Meet me in Control once they're situated. No one passes through the Dock One's doors, if they see anything, and I mean anything, they open fire," I ordered, finally reaching the control center.
"Aye sir," Jack said. His voice was calm now. He was quieter that usual; I hoped it was because he realized who was in charge now.
"Darcy, crew status?" I ordered, taking a seat.
"Ours or theirs?"
"Theirs."
"They keep trying to radio in, but I've been shutting them out. I'm trying to keep our lines clean and secure. They're all in the bridge."
"Alright," I sighed, looking at the screen. "Patch me in to the captain."
"What the hell is going on?" the man yelled.
"Captain, listen. I was given word that the FFG Titus would be arriving at this time, but you're here with the Archimedes. Given the current situation, I have little to no trust in you being the ship scheduled to arrive. I want those crates in your cargo hold opened within five minutes… or we're going to eject them," I explained, keeping my eyes fixed on the image of the cargo hold.
"I can't do that," the captain said, sighing afterwards.
"Very well," I replied, nodding at Darcy. The radio connection sizzled out and it was just Darcy and me. "What do you think?"
"Eject it," she said, matter-of-factly.
I sighed, burying my head in my hands. "Why me?" I sighed again and lifted my head to Darcy. "Do it," I ordered, letting my face drop all emotion. The video feed showed the crates and the cargo hold's doors. Suddenly a man appeared on the screen, walking to one of the crate.
"Hold it!" I ordered, moving closer to the screen.
The man proceeded to open the crate.
"Zoom in." The camera zoomed in, revealing a metal device inside the crate.
"What is that?" I asked, turning to Darcy with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm searching the database. It seems to be a bomb," she replied.
"Patch me in again," I ordered, falling back in my chair.
"What is this?" I asked. "You showin' me this 'cause I asked you to, or because you wanna blow us up?"
"This is supposed to be classified information…" he sighed. "You were given an incorrect ship name on purpose."
"What?" I asked in disbelief.
"This is ONI shit after all," was all he said.
"Fuck…" I laughed. "You had me scared shitless." I turned to Darcy and smiled, "Open the doors."
"Aye sir."
"Hey captain," I said into the headset. "Welcome aboard Station 7."
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