A Strange World
#2 of Heart Of Iron
The next part in my budding series, as usual I would love to see feedback!
Heart Of Iron
Chapter 2: A Strange World
Six had slept for hours. His slumber was undisturbed, no one and no thing wandered into his camp during the night. Now came the boring task of preparing for his excursion into the city. First things first he began the process of curing the rest of the meat from the deer. He would need the supplies in the days to come.
Once that was done, Six made sure his rifle, shotgun, and pistol were in top form. He spent the better part of an hour oiling and reassembling his firearms. With a clang of metal he pulled back the slide of his magnum, now ready for use. He was loathed to leave the Sabre and his extra weapons and ammo behind, by he knew he couldn't feasibly take them with him where ever he went.
Six left the meat to smoke, he doubted the forest would burn to the ground in his absence, and sojourned into the thick foliage. He had a rough estimation as to where the city was, if he was right, it was twenty to twenty five kilometers distant. A lite jog for a spartan, Six made good time, running at 50km an hour, he would arrive in thirty or so minutes. When he stopped at his destination he would begin to gather intel, discovering if they were humans or any other species they had encountered before. Then, if need be, he would abduct one of the inhabitants gather what he needed and then...remove them.
That option bothered Six, he had done it before, but it always made him feel sick. He was a soldier, not a murderer. He settled on leaving that as a last resort, he hoped that it wouldn't come down to that. His troubled mind let the time fly as he sprinted through the massive green forest. The spartan deftly dodging branches and bushes as he navigated to his destination. He was so distracted he almost ran out into the open, he stopped swiftly, leaving a ruined trail of dirt. His momentum and weight plowed a furrow in the ground. Six activated his MJOLNIR's vision mode. He began to study the metropolis he planned to infiltrate.
The spartan was, for the second time in as many days, baffled. It seemed that the people of this world were....cats....yeah....cats. Bipedal felines draped in the trappings of twenty fourth century humanity no less. Six watched these...people, go about their lives. He had stopped outside what looked like a public park. Kids...or kittens?, ran and tumbled playfully in the grassy plains, parents watched from the benches. It reminded the spartan of the vids he had scene of the garden worlds of the UNSC, all you had to do was replace the humans with anthropomorphic felines.
The Spartan was stumped, this was easily one of the last things he had expected. Luckily he was still concealed by the closely intertwined trees of the forest. All he had to do was survey the area, and then wait till nightfall and make his move. None of the cat people would venture here, he was sure of it.
"Hello mister monster, your awfully tall!" A young voice exclaimed in wonder behind him.
Six drooped his helmet and sighed, the chin clanking against the titanium alloy of his chestplate. Why was his luck so poor? He turned his huge frame reluctantly to see a little feline child staring at him, the grey kitten's big brown eyes gazed at Six unblinkingly, making the spartan uneasy. Judging from the proportions of the body, the kid was around seven and was a boy. Six was frozen, what should he do?
"Are you gonna eat me mister monster?" The kid asked innocently.
That surprisingly forced a chuckle out of the solitary spartan. "I don't eat little kids, even if they are animals." The first words he said in along time, made his already deep voice sound rough and menacing.
The little Kat flinched and whimpered, the small stuffed Kat animal he was holding fell from his grasp. Six began to feel a tiny bit bad. The spartan picked up the the plushie and gently returned it. His gauntlets eclipsed the minuscule kids paws. "Here kid, you dropped this."
The child hesitantly retrieved it from the spartan's giant hands. "T-thank y-you mister m-m-monster." The scared Kat stuttered.
Six sighed again. "Look kid, I'm not a monster."
"R-really?"
"Yes." The spartan grunted.
"What are you then?" The Kat child was no longer scared, he was now curios, a prospect that Six was not pleased with.
"A traveller from the stars." No need to go into detail he thought to himself.
"Like an alien!" The kitten yowled excitedly.
"Don't you have parents to go to." Six muttered, this small fry was trying his patience.
The kid began to mewl again. "I-I I'm lost." He sniffled.
Six exhaled heavily once more. Spartans are engines of war, not goddamn daycare employees. "Good luck finding them." He grunted dismissively and began to tread away, boots thumping softly at his passing. He could always recon another day.
"Wait mister alien!" The kid cried out running up to cling to the spartan's tree trunk of a leg. "Can you help me?" The kid looked up into Six's midnight black visor and gave him the most pathetic and pleading eyes he had ever seen. It eroded his stoic spartan mentality.
"Ugh fine, but how?" Six caved in.
The kid beamed happily when he heard the alien's response, and then his face fell. "Uh I don't know."
"Great, what were your parent wearing?" Six grumbled, stomping back over to the tree-line.
The kitten stumbled after him, Stumbling over the unearthed roots and rocks. "Well mommy was wearing a purple dress and dad had a brown coat on." The child said helpfully, desperately trying to keep up with the spartans wider steps and grueling pace.
Six used his visor mode to run a cross pattern, looking for the colors purple and brown together. Usually that function was for singling out Covenant HVTs, now it would be used to find a Kat kids parents. Once more Six was reminded of how ludicrous his situation was. It took him only moments to find the kids parents, honestly he didn't even need the visor, he could see two kats panicking and running around the park. They were almost certainly looking for the kitten standing next to him. "There're your parents kid." The spartan pointed them out with an ebony gauntlet.
The kid scrunched his feline eyes and leaned forward ridiculously, as if that would actually help. "Yay!" The kid yipped and began to run out of the forest when he recognized them. Six turned to walk away, before he could disappear into the foliage he heard the child's voice again. "Hey! Mister alien?"
"What?" He growled, turning back around.
"Thanks!"
"Oh...well...uh....your welcome." The massive spartan said awkwardly. He didn't know how to respond to gratitude, no one had displayed it to him before.
"Good bye!" The kitten ran out of view. Six resumed leaving, this time a tiny bit thoughtful. He didn't stay to watch the kid go back to his family, why would he? With one last look back, the spartan faded into the forest.
Jake and Chance were walking in the park. They had returned the truck to its owner and stopped at the Megakat City Park. The truck had taken all of yesterday to fix, now they could relax. It was nice to get away from the stress and pressures of being the SWAT Kats, and mechanics every once and awhile. "See Jake, isn't this nice?"
"Yeah, you were right Chance." Jake agreed. They were walking the trail on the outskirts of the park. Both were wearing their casual clothes, shoes, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt.
"Back when we still worked for the enforcers I used to come down here and relax, look at all the people. It helped me remember why we joined when Feral gave us a tough time." Chance explained walking with his muscular arms behind his tawny furred head. His expression was one of remembrance, as he fondly returned his mind to those long passed days.
Before Jake could tease his friend, he was bowled over by a couple running by. Jake sat up indigently and was about to go off when he saw the two kats pick up a kitten. Both of them were crying tears of relief.
"Where did you go?" The grey pigmented mother demanded, eyes still leaking.
"I got lost in the forest mommy." The child answered hugging his mother tightly. "But then a big monster helped me!" He added excitedly.
"What do you mean Jeremy?" The white furred father asked, baffled.
"Well he said he wasn't a monster but an alien! And then it was walking away and I asked it to help me and it did and it showed me where you guys were so I left and here I am now!" The small child blabbered not stopping for even a moment.
Jake and Chance froze. Monster? Alien? That must be the pilot of the mysterious craft! But what was it doing in the forest? Maybe he was hiding out there. "Hey Jake, you think we should go looking for it?"
"I don't know chance, seems like a bad idea. We don't know where it is or even how strong it is. Rushing in blindly would do us little good."
"Makes sense, I guess we should call it a day." Jake and Chance walked back to their tow truck and climbed inside. It would be pointless to worry about the stranger right now, as they couldn't do a thing about it. "So, where do you wanna eat?"
"How about Katline's Dinner?"
"Alright, I could use a burger, or four!" Chance said, his stomach growled its agreement.
Jake chuckled as Chance drove the truck down the street. "Sometimes I wonder who is really in control of your body."
Callie Briggs was in her small apartment in Megakat tower. The Calico Kat was nibbling on a sandwich with her needle thin teeth. She was watching the news. The female feline brought the sandwich halfway to her muzzle and froze when she looked at the tv.
There was a female reporter standing at an intersection somewhere in the city regaling a ground breaking story. "This is Ann Gora from Kats Eye News, reporting live in the streets of Megakat City. Earlier today the SWAT Kats battled with the Pastmaster once again over the skies of this fine city. Only this time, something new occurred."
They cut too an amateur's phone video, the rendition was blurry and out of focus. The Pastmaster's portal opened and instead of the usual ancient creature, a huge fighter craft emerged. Ann Gora narrated while the shoddy recording continued. "The SWAT Kats were seen chasing the unknown craft through the air until they lost its trail. That begs the question, who was piloting this mysterious plane? How could they have escaped from the SWAT Kats? And perhaps the biggest one, where is it now?" The news switched to commercials leaving the questions as food for thought.
Callie still held her lunch in her paws, she set it down and got up leaving it unfinished. This was serious, an unknown player had entered the game, and they were skilled enough to outrun the SWAT Kats. This was bad news, the city had enough problems, and the mayor never bothered to worry about them. Callie sighed, it looks like this would have to be handled by her, like all the other ones. She grabbed her purse and keys as she walked out of her apartment. The determined feline had work to do.
Six arrived back at his campsite. He cautiously entered the clearing, magnum drawn. After accessing the area and coming to the conclusion that it was secure, he returned the huge handgun to its mag-locked position.
The day had only just begun and the spartan was already troubled. His life had turned to the bizarre. Six was starting to wish that he had stayed on Reach. It would have been the easier option. But it didn't matter, he was here now so he would just have to cope.
The spartan made his way over to the Sabre and lugged out a large trunk. The chest was filled with sensor beacons and other things, it was a relatively new addition to Sabres. The scientists in their infinite wisdom decided that fighters would need things like this, ironically Six did need them. He flipped the latches and raised the lid. Gently, he removed the first sensor, the small angular devices would be placed in equidistant locations around his camp's perimeter. Once linked up to his MJOLNIR, they would warn him of any breaches. They would allow him to rest easily.
Six took almost no time to set up the small gadgets. When finished he returned to the fire, the deer was almost done. When it finished he would store it. The extra food would go along way in extending his survival on this foreign world. The spartan sat near the fire, his armored legs tucked under him waiting.
As he waited for nightfall and the smoked deer, Six started to feel weird. What was a spartan to do if he had no enemy to fight? That was his purpose, why he was changed. Now that he was stranded on this strange world he had no commanding officer, no one to guide him. Neither did he have any men to lead, no brothers in arms. That last part didn't bother Six much, he was always a lone wolf. It was the absence of a command structure that was the kicker.
What was a spartan to do when he had nothing but himself? He realized that even if he returned to the UNSC, the war would end eventually, wether in extinction or victory. And loath as he was to admit it, he wasn't a valuable resource to them. The spartan III's were expendable fodder for humanity. They weren't as valued as the II's. Even he, Spartan-B312, the most lethal and dangerous of all the III's was considered lesser then his progenitors. It didn't show, and he probably didn't even know, but it hurt him, deep inside buried under all the psycho-indoctrination, was a cavernous hole, filled with pain.
It didn't matter if the war ended with humanity as the winner, Six didn't have any family, all III's were orphans of the war. He didn't remember his family, his parents or even if he had siblings. Six didn't even remember his own name, it wasn't on his armor. The only identification was his ID: Spartan-B312, NOBLE SIX. A serial number, his designation. The spartan gently traced the studded title on his chestplate, armored digits shaking imperceptibly. Spartans, the sacrificial saviors of humanity, forever lost to their commitment to a people they would never be apart of.
Six dragged himself back to reality, spartans didn't pity themselves. They were made of sterner stuff. He needed to return his focus to his predicament, he had work to do.
He looked back to the fire, the deer meat was done. He wrapped it up in some large leaves from a strange plant he discovered and stored it his barren cabin. Soon night would be upon him and he could take a closer look at the city of felines, wow, it was still hard to believe. Six almost expected that when he returned that he was hallucinating and that the Kats were really humans. It was a hopeless thought so he didn't invest much into it.
Six let the fire die out. He was about to head into the city and didn't know how long he would be gone. He wasn't worried about his camp. The sensors would alert him if anything approached it while he was out Intel gathering. Six checked his weapons again, (it was a habit that would stay with him for the rest of his life), and marched into the forest.
This time he arrived at the city's edge in only twenty minutes, causing him to grin. It seemed that he was still one of the fastest. Night had fallen sometime on his journey to this outlandish metropolis. Not a single thing moved in the park, it was as lifeless as Reach now was. Six felt a pang of sorrow in his heart, but he brushed it off and with hesitant steps, walked into the open.
The spartan stealthily prowled onto the emerald grass. Despite the tremendous weight of his MJOLNIR, he didn't make a sound. Swiftly, Six crossed the wide open spaces of the park and into the city proper. As he crouched in the underbrush right outside, he couldn't help but watch its inhabitants as they went about their lives.
It was odd, they all seemed to be in such high spirits. Families walked, most likely to their homes, laughing and talking animatedly amidst themselves. He could also detect some strange music fluttering through the air. The lone spartan felt a twinge of...something, longing? Loneliness? He didn't know. As he sat their in the darkness away from the bustling life of the city, he did know one thing, he didn't belong here.
Callie stomped out of Enforcer Headquarters. She had just finished a shouting match with Commander Feral. She growled as she thought back to it. What a pompous ass! She had gone to talk to him about this worrisome development and he had brushed it off. She fumed as she remembered what he said.
"If the SWAT Kats hadn't ruined everything, the enforcers would have taken care of the Pastmaster, and that strange ship!" Feral had growled.
She had really gone off on him then. By the time the 'conversation' was over they both had agreed on nothing. Callie stormed off into the street and headed back to her apartment, her foul mood was abated by the holiday music floating in the air. It calmed down the disgruntled feline. She felt a little wet spot on the bridge of her narrow muzzle, her vertical slitted eyes studied the object, it was snowing! She smiled happily and let her concerns drift away for the moment, now she would just listen to the pleasant music and head back home.
Unfortunately, she was so distracted she didn't notice that she took the wrong way, going down an unfamiliar alley. It wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the seven malevolent looking Kats that followed her in.
Six activated his cloak and covertly stalked into the city. He knew that the best way to get around would be on the rooftops. So still concealed, he climbed up one of the vertical faces of a brick building. He dug his gauntlets into the mortar and made his own handholds. Effortlessly he surmounted the structure. Once on the roof Six began to head further into the city. First he would scope out any military or militia forces and gauge their strength, the he would find out who was in charge of this place. Before he could continue he heard a feminine cry of pain, Six froze mid step. He turned to look down into the refuse filled alley that he heard the shout originate from.
There was a female of this strange feline race, she was cornered by seven males. It didn't take a genius to figure out their despicable and vile plot. He had no investment in this world, but his honor would not stand such an injustice.
These were the things that unleashed his inner pent up rage. Six had seen more then enough of this type of sickening business in his black-ops operations during the insurrection. Those times though, he had to let it go unpunished to remain undetected, it had inflamed his impotent fury to let those crimes go unavenged. Now, he could do something, so he took a running jump off the building to his prey.
She was terrified, these Kats had snuck up on her while she was distracted. The leader, a huge tabby Kat, walked up to her slowly arms splayed unthreateningly. "You look lost little lady." His voice was oily and cruel. She backed up further, pressing her carmine coat against the grime of the wall, her triangular ears pressed flat agains her head. "What's wrong girl, do I scare you?" The last part was flecked with sarcasm and a disturbing darkness. His goons chuckled maliciously at his wisecrack.
"S-s-stay a-a-away." She stuttered in fear sliding further away from them.
"Oh look boys she is scared!" The leader smirked and pressed forward, fully intending some unspeakable evil. He took another step to his unlucky prey.
The entire alley shook with a thunderous boom as something impacted the pavement in front of her. Callie fell down from the shockwave and crawled backwards. Whatever landed had shaken up a cloud of dirty dust and debris, when it cleared, a massive armored figure was in a kneeling crouch. It had a huge gauntleted fist cratered in the ground, the cement around him was ruined, pulverized by the strength of his arrival.
The armored stranger slowly rose up to his almost eight foot height and looked down menacingly at the Kats in front of him. His armor was the same shade as the reaper of souls, it was not really black, it was the absence of all light. It even seemed to dim the tiny fluorescent bulbs decorating the walls. The ebony giant growled menacingly at the cowering, once intimidating thugs. It was like watching an apex-predator stand among the lower echelons, the dregs. Callie was so terrified she almost fainted, was she now in more trouble then earlier?
"What exactly....were you going to do?" It snarled in a rough hissing growl. At the sound of it Callie felt shivers go down her spine and through her tawny tail, making it bristle. The thugs had a much more visible reaction.
The leader tried to turn tail and run, emphasis on try. The giant grabbed the fleeing coward two-handed (by the tail), and slammed him into the wall with a stomach curdling crunch, letting him fall to the cold hard pavement.
As the others tried to flee the thing quickly caught up and tore them apart. It swiftly wrenched the farthest two back and onto the floor heavily with duel thuds, they stopped moving. Now only numbering four they pushed each other in their desperation to escape. It rammed a fist into the closest Kat and lifted him into the air with the force of the blow. Not wasting a move, it dragged its elbow back down to pile-drive it into the next victim. The poor Kat was smashed into the ground.
The last two cowered and fell to their knees and began to plead. The living embodiment of darkness strode over and picked them both up off the floor by the throat as easily as if they were infants still wrapped in swaddling. He brought his solid obsidian death mask to their muzzles and growled like a beast. "You filth sicken me!" The thing barked in its bass toned articulation. "Your deaths will make this world a better place." It hissed, all the while squeezing its gauntlets, tightening, slowly and meticulously. Soon their pleas for mercy chocked off into gasps for breath.
"Please stop!" Callie looked around to see who had dared to speak in this demons presence, and was horrified to realize it was her.
The creature halted its murder and looked over to the person that had interrupted its dark justice. "You would have me spare this trash?" It asked in wonder, shaking the two in his grip like lifeless rag-dolls. "These rapists, and those no doubt responsible for many more heinous crimes?"
"Yes." She said, surprised at her own conviction.
"Why?" The creature begged, sounding like a child in his confusion. It reminded her of when she saw parents smack their child's paw and scolded them for doing something they believed was right.
"They should get a fair trial." She answered firmly.
The creature chuckled grimly. "Fair trial? Is not the evidence here damning?" He gestured around the alley, still holding on to his struggling victims, using them as macabre pointing tools. "Why wait when I can dole out the sentence here and save the system trouble?"
"I-I-I..." She began to stutter, not finding an answer.
The monster chuckled again, now rueful, and tightened his grip suddenly, the two Kats went limp and it tossed them to the ground. "They still live, as do the others. I hope you enjoy your victory." It turned to walk away, but not before shifting its charcoal black helm to gaze at her. "I though, would not forget this was your decision." It growled and disappeared into thin air.
Callie fell back onto the wall and let go of the breath she had not realized she held captive in her chest. Then she gathered up her tattered courage and dialed a number on her phone. "This is Callie Briggs, the mayors aide, I would like to report a mugging."