Rise of Evil Part 1

319 17 19
                                    


Inside the base, Chief, Alyosha and their respective teams waited for Snow White, Linda and the Rookie, one private Johnathan Doherty, to start explaining the situation. The eerily mistfiying beauty of the Pilgrim Nikke seemed to have taken a hold of a couple of male Marines, who were staring. Chief, Sam and Will, meanwhile, remained composed. Snow's auburn, glimmering eyes swept over the present soldiery, then stopped and widened as her gaze locked onto Pinne. She even mumbled her name, "Pinne...?" which caused the blonde shotgunner to slightly twitch, surprised.

"I-Is something wrong?" The girl asked awkwardly, cradling her shotgun. Snow White thought to herself that if it was Pinne, she would probably remember her. If not her name, then her face and gear at least. The deadpan face Snow White wore was probably unnerving enough to the Product 23 as it was, plus the fact that most Prod. 23s looked alike, being Mass Production models...

So, Snow, shook her head, "No... You just remind me of someone I knew..."

"If I had a credit for every time I heard that from a Pilgrim, I'd have two credits," Pinne chuckled awkwardly, garnering a few laughs from her comrades, some of which were scrutinizing Snow White right back. The Pilgrim hummed and furrowed her brows, but decided against pressing the matter further, simply turning to the Master Chief and Commander Harris.

She spoke, "I'll admit it's good to see more of Linda's and the Rookie's friends up and about."

"Yeah," John replied, "Thanks for the rescue back when we were fighting Chatterbox, by the way."

Waving it off, the girl told him, "Don't mention it. We're all after the same goal here..." then hummed and scratched her chin, "I know you were looking for me. Decided it was better not to lead any of you on a wild goose chase while the situation in the North is developing. I came here to ask for your help after witnessing firsthand how capable all of you are at fighting. And after Linda vouched for all of you."

John looked over to Linda and gently tilted his head to the right, as if asking Linda a question. Snow White, meanwhile, made mental notes to herself in regards to each of the Spartans' minute movements. Each twitch and micro-shift in their position tended to denote their emotions where faces concealed by helmets couldn't. Gripping the dog tags wrapped around her neck as she watched the Chief, she could feel the strength and experience of the man.

The Sniper beside her shrugged, "I merely told her about our work."

"Even that's enough to start up a legend for a Pilgrim, eh?" Alyosha snorted. He looked over to the Rookie, who was sat with the Marines and exchanging small-talk with them. The ODST turned to face them and sat down beside Snow again, while the young woman was scrutinizing them again. The good Commander, however, decided to be smart and push things forward, "So, what do you need our help for?"

"... As I'm sure you've all probably guessed, Chatterbox is here," The Pilgrim replied as she straightened up, leaning her back against the wall and crossing her arms to her chest. She told them, "I'm gonna ambush it and get some info out of it before I put it down for good, but I'll need the help of you and your Nikkes to do this, provided you want to remove one of the enemy's assets from the field."

She was more military-minded, thankfully. She did seem to have a want to remove it more out of a personal gain than anything, too, but nobody commented on it. Niner, however, stated, "We'll be able to take it down, though if I can suggest the Chief and his Spartans stay in the rear..." only to get a look from them. She raised her hands defensively, stating, "We've nearly lost you once, sir..."

"A fluke, Niner," The Spartan shot back, then sighed and looked over to Snow White. The girl cracked a slight smile that she hid quite well behind the collar of her armored poncho. The other girls of LUCKY STRIKE chuckled at the sight of Niner being a lil' embarrassed thanks to her concerns, but she was less than happy to be joked about. Snow sighed, then looked to the Spartan.

ARES:Gods of WarWhere stories live. Discover now