Master Chief

Posted on Mon Oct 13th, 2014 @ 10:50pm by Lieutenant Colonel Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan

1,555 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 86 - Discovery
Location: Hanger Nineteen - Starbase 400
Timeline: One day after "Shards and Smoke"

"Master Chief"

Lieutenant Siaxx 'Echo' Dvald
Major Jillian 'Phoenix' Sullivan

Soundtrack: Halo 3 - Wake me when you need me.

***** Hanger Nineteen - Starbase 400 *****

Lieutenant Siaxx 'Echo' Dvald raised an eyebrow as she did a walk around on the shuttle she had booked for this trip to the planet, she had also decided to call in a week of her leave time which was already over the one year mark as she never took time off, as a result she had managed to build up a massive amount of leave time which she had never used until now.

She took her time as she crossed her arms under her breasts, a frown marring the beauty of her looks, recently events had convinced her to go out and sort a few things out.

She had her shuttle certification and she had gotten so angry with Phoenix after the human woman had beaten the living snot out of her that she had decided to go out and get her re-certification in a half dozen items she had let slip, one of them was her pilots license while the other one was her sniping certification.

She might be a Doctor but she was unusual in that she had a rather explosive temper, now she was finding more and more ways to become angry at the universe, she suddenly heard footsteps and without turning her head, she knew exactly who was approaching her. "This Shuttle is ready to fly." she commented quietly.

"...Don' look a nice as the others," Phoenix noted wearily, a huge duffel hanging over her shoulder.

"She's in acceptable shape... " and with that she gently grasped onto the starboard nacelle strut, she then tugged on it with all of her strength, it didn't even budge. "Good... I see they fixed that problem."

"Uh..." Phoenix was a bit speechless. Normally she was the one doing preflight ship checks. But they way Siaxx spoke about the ship made the pilot think something bad was going to happen.

Siaxx then hauled off and kicked the side of the shuttle, the resulting clang echoed throughout the hanger yet the Bolian didn't seem bothered in the lest.

"I hate second hand metal crates. Ill maintained and not very well looked after.." she paused. "I need a ship of my own." she thought aloud. "Then I won't need to worry about pieces of shit like this..." she turned to regard Phoenix, there was a darkness in her face and form that wasn't there before. "Shall we go?"

"It don' look like it's been in use in the last six months," Phoenix noted as she ran her hand across the hull to make sure there were no other imperfections.

"Oh she'll fly. The screaming I gave to the Hanger Chief will see to that."
The Bolian didn't seem to care that she was slowly slipping from the happy person she used to be, now she was becoming something... else.

"Ya don' wanna go makin' enemies with tha deck bosses, Dear." Phoenix sighed as stress was already starting to hit her. "If you piss'em off, they wont put any of my birds ahead of the fleeters' shuttles, next time I need ta go on a mission."

Dvald turned her head. "I wouldn't worry about that... the guy in question was a Bolian who wants my body." she answered quietly. "It was more my asking him to check the shuttle over for me, I was polite..."

"Polite, with you, has taken on other meanings lately," Phoenix noted with skepticism.

Siaxx raised an eyebrow. "Well... shall we go?" she inquired before reaching down as she plucked her duffel up off of the deck where it had been sitting next to the Starboard nacelle's engine manifold. She slung it over her shoulder as she slowly made her way into the shuttle.

"Sure," Phoenix agreed as she lugged her duffel as well into the shuttle.

"I need stick time...I'll fly." she commented evenly before sitting down in the pilots chair as she sucked in a lung full of air and then slowly, she let it out before turning to Phoenix. "Would you mind getting us clearance to depart?" it would be one less thing Siaxx herself would need to concern herself about.

"Sure," Phoenix agreed as she sat in the operations chair. Then she began calling flight ops for authorization. She looked to Siaxx wearily with the doc's need to fly, ever now and then.

"Alright.... I had my flight certification while serving on the USS F Scott Fitzgerald." she commented evenly. "We actually ran out of certified pilots because we needed to evacuate a Colony before the star in the system collapsed into a black hole." she smiled. "the Captain stuck in a call for volunteers to learn to fly quickly. He laid it out in no uncertain terms that it would be exceptionally dangerous." she checked the systems as she explained. "Considering it was Gaius Reyth asking, nobody refused him.... we saved thousands of lives... and being that close to a supernova when the star finally collapsed reminded me of a certain order to this universe."

"Departure granted, Phoenix," came a young female voice, and Phoenix motioned for Siaxx to get them off.

It felt weird not flying. So it took a lot for Phoenix to sit still and relax. Then again, she was not sure what to say. Siaxx was taking charge a lot, which was good. But then Siaxx also seemed too angry at the universe. It was humbling, to see a mirror of herself. To be honest, Phoenix could not understand why Siaxx loved her and her aggressive personality.

Try as she might to start that conversation, each attempt her mouth would open, but find silence in return.

Siaxx gently activated the engines as she almost without effort guided the small shuttle up off of the deck and out the hanger into the massive enclosed spacedock area where several dozen ships were tethered up. "Heading out."

"I think I'm gonna pull out my alpha wave inducer an' pass out on tha bench a while then," Phoenix suggested, for she honestly had no clue how to handle all the emotions running through her.

It was no secret, inside her family, that Phoenix slept with a dreamless sleep aid - Something given to her by one of Tressa's doctors, whhe she was released from her unwanted dialysis treatment. It was meant to be a temporary fix, but Phoenix kept putting off the day of returning it to the doctor.

Siaxx turned her head. "Is that wise?" she inquired. "If I were seated there with a new pilot next to me, I'd be scared witless.." she commented as she talked, Siaxx was guiding the shuttle effortlessly around all of the traffic and within minutes they were out in space.

"Unless your math sucks, I don' see us crashin' into a star," Phoenix pointed out mildly. "An' if your math sucks, you'd not be a doctor... So since we aint flyin' all over tha map, I'm pretty sure you can handle it."

Siaxx nodded as she turned her attention to her piloting before she softly started to sing. "Far over.... the misty mountains cold...... two dungeons deep... and caverns old..." she slowly started to smile, something she had not done in quite some time.

As Phoenix sprawled out on the bench and turned on the inducer, she listened and relaxed upon hearing her girlfriend sing. It was nice seeing Siaxx like this.

Siaxx sang softly as she flew the shuttle. "We must awake.... err break of day..." as she turned the shuttle towards Kaleb IV, a world she had nicknamed 'Reach' as she put the shuttle on a straightforward approach vector.

"I don' wanna see ya lose this side of ya, Siaxx," Phoenix admitted very groggily.

Dvald turned her head as she smiled at Phoenix. "I'm trying not to lose my sense of perspective but its hard to do at times.."

"If I could, I'd take your pain away. Ya know that..." Phoenix yawned, "right?"

"I know... I've gotten used to it." she said quietly. "but... I can't help you with your problem.... Yeager." she said his name like it was a curse. "I'd like to ensure he never leaves the Starbase alive.... I don't know anything about him and I hate him.... I hate his living guts for what he did and, he's doing and what he's going to do..."

"I never said ya couldn' hurt'em... I just said I wanted ta put'em in his place too," Phoenix corrected, fighting the urge to sleep as her eyelids threatened to shut permanently.

"Oh good.... no worries then." Siaxx responded. "Go on. sleep.... I'll wake you when we get there."

"He took a lot... from me," Phoenix yawned as she began to relax. "Just wanted ta... punch'em one last... time."

"He did.... I want his heart....." Siaxx commented as she sighed softly, she closed her eyes as she sought to regain her emotional control.

"If it brings ya peace..." Phoenix paused, yawning hugely. "You can' have it, My Love."

Siaxx slowly smiled. "Good." she commented.

"I love ya, Siaxx," Phoenix spoke softly before finally drifting off.

"I know..." she said quietly. "I love you too..." she added quietly.

***** Here' where the fun begins - Anakin Skywalker *****

RSS Feed