Jeanette didn’t know what to do, or say. Didn’t know how to react. She was, for all intents and purposes, on autopilot as she followed alongside Kurt, all but hiding in his shadow. His armored bulk shielded her from view, and his skillful silence aided them in slipping under the radar as they fled.
She couldn’t help but flinch at his words, shrinking in on herself despite his gentle tone.
How could he speak to her like that.
And nothing he said made sense. He should have been happy to see her penned up, content to let ONI spirit her off to whatever fate they’d planned for her… shouldn’t he?
He was beholden to ONI. He belonged to them, much the same way she had before she’d escaped. He’d known her for all of two years at most, and had been ONI’s subject for longer than she’d even been alive… Why should he want to turn on them for her?
But she kept those questions to herself as they finally boarded his dropship and made ready to leave this prison.
Instead, she just found a place to tuck herself into, curling into the space and turning to look past the boarding ramp one last time as it closed. Was she really free?
“…I don’t… I don’t understand…”
“What is there to not understand?”
The Condor rose from the deck, and swished out of the hangar bay, before swirling out into open space, fitting in among a small group of Pelicans that were on patrol. The dropship then slipped beneath the Infinity’s belly, gliding along until popping out on the other side of the moon that the supercarrier hung above.
Once they were safely out of the warship’s sight, a hole to Slipspace tore open, and the Condor nosed through. Soon there was nothing out of the viewscreen but the inky blackness of Slipstream space.
“I’m a Spartan, and we protect our own. Whether it be from the enemy, or from those who are supposed to be our allies.... the UNSC, or ONI. I may fall under the UNSC’s jurisdiction, just like the rest of my brothers and sisters. But I’ve come to find that my loyalty lies with them, first and foremost, more than it does the UNSC.”
A grim smile echoed in his voice.
“I suppose it’s something Kelly would be proud of.” He then sighed, wearily. How he missed his fellow Twos. He hadn’t seen them in so long. Oh, he’d caught glimpses, seen them from afar. But his work had kept him busy, as theirs did for them. He’d not seen them face to face for six long years. It hurt, and he missed them, but they had their jobs to do. John, at least, would have understood that.