- Wolverfrog
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- Fabled Legendary Member
Part 27 : Behind enemy lines
My eyes flickered open, the onslaught of darkness falling to the vibrant light. I could hear harsh breathing, and with a start noticed the oxygen mask strapped to my mouth. I was horizontal on a firm, yet comfy bed, and a whole array of tubes were attached to my arm. My garments consisted of a simple hospital robe.
"What's going on?" I tried to say, but my speech wasn't working properly, so what came out was a sting of nonsensical words. Suddenly, I heard footsteps to the right of me, and a women who looked like a nurse entered my field of vision. With a note of relief I saw she was human.
"Ah, excellent, you've woken up, I'll go alert the Doctor and Commander Mains. Don't go anywhere!" She tittered at her own joke, I was strapped down with tight, rough bands.
I heard her walk down a hallway, and began to think. She had said Commander, so I must have been in a UNSC outpost. I tried to remember what had happened, the Elites surrounding me, jumping into the water, Blade grabbing me as I faded into unconsciousness, shouting at me to stay with him.
Blade! Remembering the veteran ODST, I turned my head around with extreme effort, and with no small amount of relief so him laid on another bed, still blacked out. Those waves must have been rough.
After a few minutes, voices could be heard from down the hall, and two men came striding in, one in a grand, white coat, concern present on his face, and another who was dressed in smart military. attire, the unmistakeable mark of a commander pinned to his coat. I presumed him to be Mains. Yet it looked different than ones I had seen before. The Commander had short, dark brown hair, a thin stubble, and a large smile upon his face. He looked to be in his late twenties, which seemed much too young to be a Commander.
"Ah, so good to see you awake son. You and your friend gave us quite a scare when our patrols found you washed up on the shore, in nothing but a few thin clothes. If we hadn't seen you when we did, you'd be dead by now." He had a strange accent, it sounded like he had descendants from Ireland.
"But I can see you cant talk right now, so I'll do all that for us eh lad? Now, I'm Commander Mains, you'd do well to remember that for the future. I oversee the operations of this army on Harvest."
Now I was really confused. I'd heard that all military activity on Harvest was overseen by a Colonel Banks; but I couldn't as much say hello, never mind voice my query.
"Now, I'm not sure how you got here, but I would like to ask you to join us. I know it may be hard for a mere civilian to embrace the way of a soldier, but we have expert training facilities, better than the ones they have" He spoke the word they with distaste, "And each and every one of us will be behind you every step of the way. When your friend's arm heals too, we'll ask the same of him."
With effort, I removed the mask covering my face, and managed to utter a few words.
"Join you sir? But I'm already-" I broke off into a fit off coughing, and Mains broke out into a sympathetic smile.
"Hush now lad, all will become clear soon, for now I just suggest you get some rest. We've got big plans for the future, and you shall be part of it."
"Part of what? Fighting the Covenant?" I was extremely confused.
Commander Mains scoffed.
"The Covenant are nothing lad, those idiots at the UNSC just made a mistake in negotiations is all. It'll be over before you know it, no worry. Now I'll be back later, as will Doctor Bairns over there. Just rest, and take it easy. You'll be safe with the URF lad, you both will." And with that, he turned his back and walked off, his long trench coat adorned with medals scraping along the floor.
"Wait, the URF? What's that?" But he had already gone, closing the door behind him. I noticed with annoyance he had locked the sliding door behind him.
I laid back and looked at the ceiling. I couldn't go anywhere, I was trapped. Who exactly were these people anyway? Were they the good guys? At least they weren't Covenant, if they were; I doubted I'd be still in one piece.
Suddenly, I heard coughing to the side of my, and craned my neck. Blade was regaining conciousness.
"Oh my head..." He groaned, bringing up an arm to cradle it. "What the? Why am I strapped down?"
"Don't worry Blade, it's fine. We're with Humans." I assured him. Blade looked to the side, and just noticed me.
"That you Farm Boy? Ah, good. Damn it, my arm hurts, I think I broke it. You okay?"
I brought my own arms for inspection, they seemed to be fine.
"I'm good. So, what happened back in the water?" I queried of the disgruntled Sergeant, who was still rubbing his head.
"Well, those Elites surrounded us and we jumped in the sea...Then everything was just chaos. The wind was battering at us, and you kept going under. Meanwhile, I was losing strength, fast. Our armour was weighing us down, so I had to strip us both down..Yeah, not the most pleasant of things, but I had to. Then I hit my head on a rock, and woke up here. Where is here anyway?"
"I'm not exactly sure.." I replied, thinking hard. "A guy named Commander Main came in here earlier, talked about recruiting us into something, I tried to tell him we were already ODST, but he cut me off. This must be some branch of the UNSC of something, he called it the URF."
Blade froze, his face a picture of surprise.
"Did you just say the URF?" He asked in horror. I nodded. "The URF? The URF? Oh God, we're in trouble. Just count yourself lucky you didn't tell him who we were. God damn it we're screwed."
A familiar sinking feeling rose in my gut, the kind that came before trouble.
"Why, what's so bad about the URF?" I asked in concern, not seeing what the big deal was.
"Do you not know what those initials stand for Farm Boy?"
I shook my head dumbly.
"United Rebel Front son. And if they find out we're UNSC, we're screwed. Don't tell them anything you hear?"
I paused for a few moments in disbelief, then replied.
"Ah, I see. Holy crap."