Mythic 2

Kai yawned. It must have been at least several hours since he arrived at the empty base. He assumed that the occupants of the post were on some mission not too far from this location, and so decided to wait. He must have dozed off, however, because when he opened his eyes he realized that the makeshift garage was not empty. In fact, there were four soldiers surrounding him, all with some weapon aimed directly at him.

Unfazed, he pushed away from his leaning position. This action made Viper jerk, his stance made it clear that he could, and surely would, fire.

“Who the hell are you?” snarled Eagle. His sniper rifle was so close that the end of the barrel was only centimeters from Kai.

Kai turned to his speaker, in a slow deliberate manner. Viper noticed that on this person’s back held a brute shot, a vicious but antiquated grenade launching unit that the jiralhanae used to use.

“I am Admiral Oregon Valence, from the Office of Naval Intelligence,” the odd man stated. “You may call me Kai. Please, lower your weapon, Lieutenant Mike Foxtrot.” Eagle looked away from the scope, lowering his rifle in the process. His impression was lost behind the polarized faceplate of the ODST-variant helmet, but it was evident that he was stunned to hear his own name and rank.

“You two,” Kai continued, rotating to see the soldiers hefting a fuel rod gun and needle rifle, “must be Lieutenant Commander Leviathan Vass and Lieutenant Mipsacri Marc Rey.” The two lowered their weapons, and turned, as if to exchange looks. The grenadier helmet on Bertha glinted light away as she turned toward Crackshot, who preferred the reconnaissance helmet herself.

“The one farther away must be–“

“Ensign Sera Verano Rey, reporting for duty!” The soldier, who had continued to unload gear from the lead warthog, waved dramatically at the Admiral. She unpolarized her EVA helmet, revealing a smiling face, hair trimmed to regulation standards.

“Okay…” Kai muttered. He was, actually, somewhat surprised that someone had reacted to him in such a manner.

Finally, he turned back to Viper, who still had his shotgun aimed at Kai. “Captain Jorge Breaker.” Viper, however, did not falter from his stance; if anything, he seemed all the more wary of this newcomer, as he stared back from his S-variant headgear.

“You do not believe me.” Kai stated flatly. “Given your past record, I cannot say that I am surprised. Here is my identification.” Data began to scroll across Viper’s faceplate.

Viper did not care for the Admiral’s credentials; he already knew that the person was UNSC material, and an ONI agent to boot. But there was something familiar about this person… a distant memory nagged at Viper… His voice… ‘You know this person,’ Viper thought…

Eagle took the opportunity to ask, “so, what brings you to this part of town?” Bertha and Crackshot had gone back to the warthogs and continued to double-check their ammunition.

Kai responded, “We are here for an inspection. Satellite and such gear do not last long around this Halo, especially with the brutes blasting anything with ‘UNSC’ pasted on it. So, we suggested to HQ to allow a human personnel to keep an eye on you. The information that we gather here will be sent back to ONI for analysis. After all, we cannot simply send men and women to far-flung parts of the galaxy into unknown territory without a care in the world, can we?” He helped Aura heft a crate full of grenades out of the passenger’s seat.

Eagle shrugged. “Can’t we?”

Viper suddenly looked up from his train of thought. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘we?'”

“Ah, yes, I almost forgot.” Kai stood from his position, having placed the box on the ground, and produced a holopad. It warmed, and from it sprung an AI. It looked almost mechanical to Viper; a sleek metal casing that was spherical in shape, and a single eye housed in the metal body. In fact, it looked like a Forerunner monitor.

“This is Corey.” Kai said. “He is my personal artificial intelligence unit. He specializes in science and artifact analysis. He can also function as an on-mission tactician, and has limited knowledge of combat situations.”

“Hello.” Corey said with an cold metallic voice. “It will be an honor to work with you.”

Corey winked away as Kai put away the holopad. Having finished removing the necessary equipment from the warthogs, the five squad members gather around the Admiral. “So,” Viper said, “how will this inspection take place?”

“Why, the best way that I know of,” Kai replied. “In combat.”

~Edit: Almost forgot to add in this little footnote.

The names of the characters of the story were generally supposed to be an homage to life around me, not necessarily reflecting VuTales or MMOTales exclusively.