Chapter 6
The Game Plan

“Where are they?” Terrance groaned. He was tired of being lookout.
“How should I know?” Sam replied “They’re already an hour late. Do you think they got lost or killed?”
“They would be dead either way.” Kaiser growled impatiently. “Being late for a rendezvous was never tolerated on my Elite cruiser.”
“Hate to break it to you Kaiser,” Jeddy snapped “but you’re not on an Elite ship, you’re with humans.”
“Still being late should not be tolerated, what do you think Yuki?”
“Well, things were different on my ship because it was multi species. There were Elites, Jackals, Grunts, and three Hunters.”
“Impressive.” Reggie mussed “I know Hunter pairs are formed from colonies split into two units of armor, it must have been a massive colony to have to be split into three.”
“What?” Yuki laughed a little “I said we had three Hunters but not all of them are from the same colony. Two for a Hunter pair and the third is its only colony that fits into one unit. We think its some rare form of pigmy Hunter.”
The whole group just stared at Yuki and asked “A pigmy Hunter?”
Yuki just nodded in response.
While the rest of the group continued to inquire Yuki about the pigmy Hunter Diana stood on top the Elephants and stared at the horizon in the direction that Tanya and Frag left. After John 117 had died she had a deep fear that another one of her friends would die when she was not around to protect them. If Tanya had died she would never forgive herself for not being there, even if it was not her fault. Sighing, she once again scanned the horizon with her sniper scope. This time she saw something, a large cloud of sand and dust was rapidly approaching.
“I see something coming!” she cried.
Sam grabbed a high power scope and quickly climbed up to meet her.
“Where is it?” he asked but all he got for an answer was Diana ripping the scope and staring off into the distance.
He however didn’t see anything, but it was to be expected so Sam wasn’t surprised. Diana had the best eyesight of the group so it was not uncommon for her to see something before the others did.
Diana stared out into the dust cloud and her spirits were lifted to see that Frag on his Mongoose was the cause of the dust cloud.
“It’s Frag.” she announced as she looked out further.
What she saw made her spirits drop further then they rose. She had hoped and prayed to see Tanya on her Mongoose following him but what she saw was the ghostly outline of a Chopper.
“Tanya is not with him,” She sighed “but a Chopper is.”
She paused for a moment, hoping that she was just dreaming and that her closest friend was not dead but she knew that was just wishful thinking.
“Get on the turrets.” She ordered a mixture of anger and sorrow in her voice.
Frag’s voice came over the radio. “We’ve encountered the enemy.”
“We can see that.” Diana replied taking aim on the Chopper’s rider with her sniper. “Now move aside just a bit so I can blast that S.O.B. off your tail.”
“Now why would you do that?” A familiar voice asked.
“Tanya is that you on the Chopper?”
“Of course it is, you know me. There is no way I’d buy it out here. Now please point your rifle’s barrel away from my head. I can’t see it but knowing you it’s probably pointed right for where the Brute’s head or in this case where my head is.”
Diana quickly put down her weapon.
“Frag said you encountered the enemy.”
“We did. We were going to tell you when we found them but they attacked us first.”
“Tanya.”
“Yes”
“You’re right I do know you, now stop lying, it’s bad for your health. I know you two just wanted the kills.”
“OK but keep that our secret.”
“Of course”
“Now as I was saying we encountered the enemy and there is some good news and some bad news.”
“The fact that you’re alive is good enough news for me, now unless this news is another secret let’s just wait a bit until you are back here and everyone can listen to you in person.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll be there before you know it.”
Within a few minutes the two returning Spartans were parked alongside the Elephants. Frag dismounted from his mount and threw his spoils of battle onto the ground; several deployable cover, two radar jammers, and a flare.
“Here.” He grunted.
“That’s very nice Frag but where is the other Mongoose? Lord Hood put me in charge of vehicle maintenance.”
Tanya sighed and leaned back in the seat of her new Chopper, kicking her feat up on the wheel.
“Relax mechanic. I told the bad news was we lost a crummy little Mongoose and the good news was that I got this badass Chopper. Oh, and even better news we found the direction of the enemy.”
“This is still unacceptable.” Kaiser grumbled to himself “If she were on an Elite cruiser she-“
Tanya had heard enough and cut him off.
“News flash for ya’. I’m not an Elite. I’m Tanya, a tired, sweaty Spartan who doesn’t want to take any of this piss at the moment.”
Reggie still had to request something of the two who fought but he did not want to annoy Tanya any further so he spoke cautiously.
“Sorry if it bothers you but I just finished a scan of your armor and both you and Frag need to remove it. It took damage from when the grenade blew up. Frag took less damage from that but he was pierced with spikes. I would like to work on repairs as soon as possible.”
“Alright.” Tanya mumbled as she removed her helmet. Her light brow hair fell out and rested on her shoulders. Her face and hair were both drenched with sweat. She looked up at the sky and groaned.
“I feel like I need to kill some one for this. Even with the suit’s cooling system it’s still burning and now the heat is burning directly on my skin.” As she spoke more sweat rolled of her face and dripped onto her armor leaving silver streaks on the black surface.
“Careful Frag.” She continued “It’s hotter then you think, I’m going inside to finish changing.”
“Yeah, sure.” Frag replied not really listening. He removed his helmet to reveal his short dark hair sticking in clumps, bonded by sweat.
Tanya stepped inside the Elephant 2’s living quarters with Diana following behind. She sighed sat on her bead slowly began to remove the rest of her armor starting with the boots. Diana bent over and began to help remove the armor from her friend’s shins.
“I’m glad you’re alive, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I’m glad to. I don’t even want to think about the trouble you’d get into without your ‘guardian angel’ here to protect you, especially after that incident at the bar.”
“Come on Tanya, I was … upset!”
“Upset! Upset, you were drunk!”
“I was upset!”
“That was no reason to go and get drunk and not to mention drunk around the guys. I shudder to think what Jeddy would have done to you if I hadn’t intervened.”
“Tanya…” Diana sighed as she removed a shoulder guard since the legs were finished
“Don’t ‘Tanya…’ me, you know you need me. You have since we met in training, oh I don’t know, fourteen years ago. You were always getting into trouble.”
“I know, I know, I need you but please don’t talk about the past I was...”
“You were upset.”
“Yeah but Tanya…”
“Oh right, I’m sorry.” Tanya placed her hand on her friend’s helmet over the right eye.
“I know what they did to you, I’m sorry.”
Diana stood up and walked across the small room.
“I’m more of a monster then the rest of us.”
Tanya lifted off her chest piece and walked over to her friend to comfort her.
“You are not, you’re beautiful and kind. If anyone is a monster it’s me. You hear Jeddy, he keeps calling me a Brute. Come here.”
Diana turned and looked into Tanya’s brown eyes and walked into her open arms and hugged her.
“Thanks.” She whispered as a single tear rolled down her cheek unseen under her helmet.
The two stood there comforting each other till they heard a knock on the door and Yuki’s voice interrupted them.
“May I come in?”
The two released their embrace
“Yeah” Yuki entered the room and began to speak. “We’re having a meeting outside; Kaiser has plans for our next movements.”
“Diana, Yuki you two go wait outside, I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
The two blue-clad warriors stepped outside the Elephant so Tanya could change. Tanya sighed and stared at the door.
“I worry about you more then you know Diana, you and that eye of yours.”
Several minutes later Tanya stepped outside in a black sleeveless shirt and her favorite pair of worn out jeans. Frag had also changed into a plain white t-shirt with army cameo pants and black boots; something you’d expect to see a Spartan wearing in his or her downtime. Tanya happily thought about how she was an exception to the normal as she wiggled her toes in her sandals. She was even smiling until she stepped off the Elephant and the burning sand brushed against her skin. But she would not let this stop her she just grit her teeth and continued to walk, pain was only for the weak and she did not consider herself weak. By the time Tanya had made her way to where the group was meeting the ops of her feet were a bright red color. Yuki stared down at her feet amazed by her toes. Annoyed Kiser began to speak weather or not Yuki was paying attention.
“Alright, thanks to Frag and Tanya we now know the direction of the enemy. We will travel in that direction till we reach those mountains.” Kaiser pointed to a small blurry figure on the horizon. “Once we reach them we will travel in the Warthogs, Ghosts, and other vehicles. The Elephants will be picked up and we will hopefully receive back up. I’m not going into much more detail then that till we reach the mountains.”
“Ha!” Sam laughed. “You’re just saying that because you don’t have any real plan. I bet that I could come up with a better plan then you.”
“Are you saying that you are a better leader then me?” Kaiser spat back. “Lord Hood put me in charge and you just need to deal with it!”
Before Sam was able to make a comeback Jason stepped in.
“Don’t be ridiculous Kaiser, Sam could not be a better leader then you. He’s not better then and I’m better then you.”
“But I have the largest kill count.” Frag shouted. “Therefore I’m better then you.”
“That’s not fair.” Terrance complained. “You and Tanya were the only ones to encounter any enemies so far.”
“Your opinion doesn’t matter here.” Frag shot back.
“And why not?”
“Because you are a pirate supporter.” Sam cut in.
Kaiser sighed. “Here we go again, prepare to take score Reggie.”
“All right, I’m on it.” He responded.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing ordering my AI around like that split lips?” Jeddy shouted.
“SPLIT LIPS!” Kaiser roared.
Sighing Yuki and the women left the men to squabble and returned to their Elephant to plan their own strategies.
“Any ways Tanya what are those things on your feet called?”
“Those are toes Yuki.”
“Ooo~ and what do they do?”
As Tanya began to explain the function of toes to Yuki the shouts of the men grew louder. Eventually Kaiser lost it and started shouting.
“Everyone shut up! I’m the leader.”
This was followed by all the Spartans mimicking him in various obnoxious voices. It was painfully obvious that none of them cared about what Kaiser said or thought.