The MAC gun orbital station. A place run by the UNSC to help defend Earth. It was also a place where a group of ONI officers were looking at the data and records that were created over the time that we were missing. And, of course... They found out about John and Cortana finding out about my true identity.
I was pulled immediately into a trial, where if I messed up... Goodbye Elizabeth.
Why did this remind me of something I watched in my off time... A show called Danganronpa?
(A/N YES I KNOW. I'M SORRY FOR BRINGING IT UP ITS A GOOD SERIES OKAY)
"Elizabeth. You stand here on trial for disobeying orders and allowing John-117 to know your identity."
"Sir, if I may interject?" I said.
"What Elizabeth?"
"Thank you sir. I must ask you to listen, as I was told something else. My orders, as I was told, were not to stop him from learning my identity. It was to not tell him anything myself. I have no control over what John-117 or Cortana do."
"She is correct sir." My aide, who had also looked at my and Keyes logs, said.
"Alright, so the facts are skewed then. The prosecutors all gave me evidence that you broke an order that was not true. Prosecutor?"
"We didn't know that Keyes had logged the rule..."
"You didn't think to check from one of the biggest sources?"
"No."
"Elizabeth? There is one question I must ask. How did Cortana and John come to want to find out more about you?"
I paused, and thought. I was on trial here, but the truth would probably be best.
"Sir, may I speak freely?"
"Yes."
"Thank you sir." I paused, and breathed in and out deeply. Smiling, and looking over at the prosecutors, knowing that as soon as I said something, they were going to be scrambling to kick me to the curb.
"I did what I was told. When asked where I was from, and other questions like that, I told them that it was classified, and I wasn't allowed to talk about it because I wasn't supposed to tell them. After we crashed on Halo, I had to dodge questions and told him vague information to keep John-117 from finding my identity. It only made his curiosity, and Cortana's, grow. I was not trying to make them think about it, but they decided to find out anyway."
"So you put subtle hints to try and get them to find out about you?!"
"No, actually. I wasn't even going to tell him. Ever. If he didn't look at the information himself, he wouldn't have ever known."
A recording played from John's camera.
"I can't tell you Chief, I'm sorry."
"Why?"
"Because I can't."
The video ended, and the judge looked at me. "I can see what you mean. Now there is the problem of you staying on his team with the conflict of interest."
I nodded, and was escorted out of the room. Heading back to my room, John was waiting there for me.
"I heard it went well." Cortana said from a nearby holo-projector.
"Yeah. I'm not in trouble, but they might split us up."
"What?" John said, facing me. His face was contorted into one of anger.
"John?"
"He's been thinking a lot. I don't exactly know what's going on with him..."
"I'm not going to let them split us up. You're staying on my team."
"John... I might not-"
"I don't care."
An officer walked in, and smiled at me, handing me a datapad. "The results of the trial. If there's any issues, please come and talk to us." I saluted, and he left the room.
"So.... Do you want me to look first?" I asked him.
"What does it say?"
I scanned the document, and smiled. "They knew that you'd get upset I guess."
"What?"
"They put on here that I'm to stay on your team."
John breathed out in relief, as if he had been holding his breath. I noticed his behavior, as it became stranger and stranger from what it should be.
"Are you okay John? You've been acting sort of strange..."
"I'm fine." he said with his old monotone voice. I shrugged, and sighed.
"Well, if you act weird again I'll probably ask again."
"I know."
Laying down on the bed provided, I stared up at the ceiling.
"Are you okay Elizabeth?" I heard from the voice that Star put into her translator.
"I'm fine... I'm just tired because of the day."
Star sighed, and smiled again, becoming excited. "They gave me a box with a lot of tools and materials to look at today! I was able to tinker more too!"
I smiled, the excitement of the creature making me feel happy. "That's awesome Star!"
"Yeah!"
I giggled, and yawned. "I think I'm gonna take a nap Star."
"Okay!"
She floated off, and I closed my eyes for a few moments, taking in the peace and quiet, the perfect tranquility.
A few days later, John was getting fitted for his armor again, as they were testing the shield capabilities, which were better than before. I just wore dress clothes, as I was going to be walking with him on live camera to be commended for our actions on Halo. Inside, Star helped with the fitting, her tentacles going over the metal plating. I said hello to the Engineer as John went towards the shields test. She showed me another weapon, this one for my brother. He was doing a shields test right then.
"This is cool Star, really."
"Thank you! I also helped improve his armor and shields, though I could only do so much since I had to ask."
"I'm still proud of you for doing so much!"
"Thank you!"
Johnson came over, with his white navy uniform on. He smiled at myself and Star, and nodded for us both to get into the elevator. John joined us, standing next to me and looking at Star, who was floating happily.
"This facility is beautiful..." I said, looking out to the stars. Star nodded, looking with me. "Earth is really pretty too... I've only ever seen Harvest and Reach..." I added, awestruck.
"On the ground, it's got really pretty sights as well. Maybe if there's time you all can have a tour." Johnson replied, smirking. He, as a constant companion to myself and John, knew of the relationship we had and how I seemed so young.
"I would love to do that! Maybe even go to some amusement parks!" I said, giggling. Johnson also really liked my positive energy and overall joy filled nature.
Stepping onto a monorail from the elevator, I listened to Johnson talk about the station itself, and how powerful the MAC gun really was. Of course, stepping out, we had to look at cameras and flash. In my uniform, which was the same type of thing as Johnson, I walked along behind the older guys, and Star floated with me. We met with the admiral, Star floating in the background while we received medals of honor and service for what we had done on Halo and Reach. I took it with a little smile, but still. I felt like I didn't deserve it.
Before it was over, Covenant just had to ruin the moment- They appeared in the system, and the MAC guns fired. I watched the battle, and John ran off to help. I went to the armory with Star immediately, grabbing armor and such as quickly as possible.
I saw battle outside of the armory, and I decided to help the person in charge defend it. Two elites came in, and I killed one, stepping in front of the other before he stabbed the armorer, my gun at his chin and arm holding back the sword in his hand. Star cowered a little, but while I struggled to pull the trigger of my gun, she had grabbed one and put it to the elite's head, shooting. Brain matter spread on my face, along with blood, which I looked away from. The armorer thanked us as John walked in, seeing the engineer with a gun, and the elites dead. She dropped the gun, and floated back.
"Never thought for a moment that I would be doing that..."
I threw the corpse to the side, and went over to the floating creature. She was shaking in fear.
"Hey... It's okay sweetie... You're gonna be fine. Don't worry. They were trying to kill us. You saved me, okay?"
She nodded, and hugged me. Looking back at Chief, I got a call.
"Meet Captain Miranda Keyes in the Amberclad."
"Got it."
I ran to the elevator, and moved up to the docking bay where it waited. Entering with Star, we headed straight for the Amberclad's bridge, where we waited for Chief. He had a different objective, and because I no longer had armor, it made it harder for me to come with. Johnson met us in the room, and tended to Star while I talked to Miranda about why the Engineer was hanging around me.
After hearing John land on the roof like a brick, we continued on to Earth to try and defeat some of the forces that were trying to infiltrate an African city. Getting in a Pelican after becoming close enough, John tapped me on the shoulder. "Ready?"
"Yup."
We were joined by Johnson, who took my shoulder before we flew off. "Kid, you're definitely something."
"What do you mean?"
"You're different. You're young, yet you're up here with the best of us. You take one of the hardest jobs in the universe, and are doing it effortlessly. Seriously, I respect you for talking to him all the time."
I shook my head from side to side, rolling my eyes. "Really Johnson? It's not that hard. He's just super serious all the time."
"And I respect you for putting up with that."
I laughed, and rolled my eyes. "Don't you have to address the troops?"
"Yeah... Well, I like talking to you. You're like if I had my own kid, and what I would want them to be like."
I smiled, and replied happily, "Well thank you! But go deal with your other kids first." The joke made him laugh, and he moved to the front of the pelican. We had just got a call from Miranda.
"The message just repeats, "Regret, Regret, Regret." Cortana said.
"Catchy. Any idea what it means?' Miranda replied from the ship.
"Dear humanity..." Johnson began. I was so ready for his interpretation. "We regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to earth. And we most definitely regret the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!"
I started to laugh, rolling my eyes. Cortana explained that it was actually the name of one of the prophets that lead the Covenant.
As we neared a couple of the larger office buildings, a giant Scarab came from the side. I held on as the Pelican swerved, but it was still shot down. Bracing myself, I felt John's hand on my shoulder when we finally crashed, and him helping me out of my chair, since I was stuck on one of the bits of the ship. After getting out. I took a bag that contained everything I needed, including my weapons. I held it close, opening a slot in it to put a few of the weapons on my belt, including my energy pistol-sword.
"Let's go!"
I followed John, keeping close and getting into a central building. I switched to my sniper rifle, laying down on the roof and sniping out the remaining enemies.
"Move from the windows! Take cover!" I heard from below. I looked up, seeing a dropship inbound. My eyes widened, and I decided to take the easier way out- I jumped down a floor, swinging down to under the eave.
"Holy shit that was impressive." Johnson was right there as I landed, moving against the wall. I chuckled, and smirked in response. John was there as well, and looked at me- his helmet keeping me from seeing his face.
"Well, it's not everyday we see someone jump down a floor and slide against the wall." Cortana said sarcastically.
"It was honestly fun, and now that the dropship is gone I'm headed back up. See you all afterwards." I said, running upstairs again. I continued to snipe people, using the explosive rounds to destroy several enemies at once.
"Thank you Star..." I mumbled, the engineer back with Miranda. I really wanted to thank her now that she told me how to get the batteries out of the covenant weapons so that I could have a constant charge. It honestly wasn't too hard or time consuming either. A few minutes passed while Johnson was getting more information, and a couple of doors began banging. I readied myself, and took aim, hitting a Hunter as it exited the door. I gagged a little in my mouth, I couldn't hold it in again, so I vomited to the side while John killed the other one. Over comms, I heard an "Are you okay?" from John.
"I'm... Fine. I'll be there in a minute."
He could tell as soon as I came down that I had thrown up again, giving me a pat on the back. We continued on, and I had switched back to my energy pistol-sword again. Letting Johnson go back to the ship, I continued on through the city to intercept the Scarab with John. Moving through large building areas, and defeating large amounts of alien life.
"Alright.... Through the highway we should be able to meet everyone else on the bridge."
"Yeah." I replied. I jumped into the driver's seat of the Warthog we had found in another crashed pelican's area, and John jumped into the gunner seat.
"Ready?"
"Let's go."
And that was the next chapter of this story! At least that should work for a while lol.
I'm sorry I'm terrible at updating lol