#noble five

15 minutes have already passed, since we started in New Alexandria. We left the heavy rain clouds in the city, and I can finally see a few sunrays again. Two weeks I haven’t seen the sun anymore. The feeling that I’ll never see the sun anymore, grew bigger, minute by minute as I waited in my apartment for pick up.

But being now with Noble Team, makes me believe that everything will be fine. Carter explained me the situation, we are meeting rest of the Noble Team at a safe zone camp. 80 click souths from my home city. Once we arrived, we will be heading 20 click west to an old military facility for pick up of an ONI squad. With this squad we will leave fly all the way to Reach and head towards Quezon. West of New Alexandria, behind the ocean. Once we arrived, Noble Team will drop me off and I will get escorted by a UNSC special forces squad to earth.

Then I will just wait for the war to be over before I can return home? Somehow this doesn’t go well with me. I trained years of my life; I have been in different wars myself already. Against Rebels, Terrorists and others. So why am I not allowed to fight now. Its my home as well. I should fight with my brothers and sisters.

“We are landing in 2 minutes.” Says a pilot over the radio, what rips me out of my thoughts. And as we are descending, I can see how the sun slowly sets itself behind the thick clouds and mountains. I’m looking at Carter, who gives me a nod to get ready. Emile on the other side had said nothing. Not a single word, for the 15 minutest as we are in the sky. He just sat at the edge of the helicopter, scanning the area with a heavy machine gun. He seems more professional than I thought in the first place. Maybe I got him all wrong.

The helicopter eventually landed, and I followed Carter into a little tent. Four Spartans were looking directly at me as I entered. Spartans can be really scaring sometimes…

“Noble Team, this is Miss l/n. Ma’am, meet Kat, noble two.” A woman in light blue Armor nods at me. I try my best to nod with a serious face back. Trying to hide my nervosity. As Carter continues: “Jun, Jorge, Noble three and Noble five. And Lieutenant Sixx, obviously he got the callsign Noble six.” He pointed at everyone, while walking towards a simple build contact station. I looked at each of them, “It’s an honour to meet you. You can call me y/n. I don’t really like those formalities.” It sounded a little more desperate then I hoped it would, but maybe it helps me to stay calm.

Kat turned to me and gave me a light smile: “I’ve read your file Ma’am. You are more tough than you look. No need to feel intimidated by us. We don’t bite. Well, almost all of us don’t.” With that, she lifted her head and looked behind me. “You should just stay a little alert around our Grim Reaper.” She chuckled and turned her attention toward the contact station. A little confused I looked behind, seeing Emile standing at the tent entrance. Of course, he bites. I’m not even surprised; he looks like he could and probably would at one point. Quickly I turn my attention to the rest of the squad. Jorge was once a commander of the squad I served with. Against Insurrectionists, here on Reach. “Sir, it’s good to see a familiar face.” I said to him. He smiled softly, as he came a little closer to me. With his heavy hand on my shoulder he said: “Y/n, I’m glad to see you are in one piece. Your father was quite worried as he heard about the covenant. We will bring you to safety as soon as possible.” I smiled back. “Yes, thanks for that, I guess. Even though, I should fight for my home, not run away from it.” With my smile fading into a face of self-disappointment, he just let out a laugh. “I didn’t expect anything less from you. You will get a chance. But your father gives and order, and we all, just as you, are supposed to follow it.”

He's right. “But I hope I can at least kick some ass before leaving Reach.” I replied.

“Alright, attention Team.” Carter interrupts our little, small talk. And everybody pays close attention to the contact station. A hologram map shows up. He points at an ONI facility; “20 clicks west, we will meet a backup squad and secure the facility. Taking down all covenant and bring the facility back online.” He picks up a small P.a.d. from the table and hands to me. “Make sure to stay in contact at all times ma’am.” A quick nod from me as response as I fix the p.a.d. on my wrist.

Kat looks at me, “She needs some weapons, or do you want any of us to play babysitter?” She clearly won’t take the job, that’s the tone of her voice saying. Carter points with his thumbs at a weapon chest next to the station. “Take what you are most comfortable with.” He says to me. I response with another nod. As he continues: “Anyway else, I want that one of you stay full time with her. She is a highly important freight. We can’t take any chances.” He looks at each of the Noble Team members. I hope he picks Jorge. He’s the only one I know and to be honest, he’s the only next to Carter who I’d trust.

 But he had other plans. “Emile, make sure she doesn’t get a single scratch. Team, we’re leaving in 10 minutes. Get ready.” He just dismisses us and is about to leave the tent. When Emile finally says something: “What? Sir with all due respect, you gotta be kidding!” He sounds angry.

Kat comes next to Emile: “Sir, I must agree with Emile, for the first time ever. I’m sure that Six or Jorge would be the better candidate for the job.” She really argues with the commander. I’m curious if she tries to protect Emile, or me? But it seems that Carter won’t budge. “My decision is made. No discussion. I need your skillset to make sure she will arrive in Quezon alive.” He says with a stern look, then he looks at me: “Ma’am. Take the weapons of your choice, vest, night vision and get ready to move.” With his final words, he leaves. And so do the others one by one. Kat looks one time more at me, “Good luck.” She smiles at me with a concerned face and leaves. While Jorge comes past me, he pats me on the shoulder, before leaving the tent as well. Now it’s only Emile and me. This is going to be great. Really great. I let out a sigh as I look at him. Then, there it is again. That feeling. He looks at me, and I can feel how he tries to kill me with his piercing stare. I turn around, trying to ignore his death threat and walk towards the weapon chest, short after I turned away, Emile left the tent as well. I survived. For now.

Now let’s pick some toys. There are not many weapons in, but I quickly made my decision. I take a MK50 Sidekick, a great sidearm that's ideal for finishing weakened enemies off. As I trained for the Airforce, I worked mainly as sniper and medic, so I’ll chose the S7 Sniper. Light and compact. The exact model I trained with, from the beginning of my time in the UNSC Airforce.

Even though I was categorized as too small for the UNSC to join in the first place, it gave me many opportunities to take down enemies in close range, while I could move faster around them and take them down with a combat knife. So of course, I’ll be taking a M1 combat knife, as I used back in the fights. A bullet proof vest and a night vision device. Ready dressed and packed, I make my way out of the tent. As I turn the corner to meet rest of the team at the landing zone, my soul leaves at the second I get yelled at, by a certain skull visor. “What the hell? You are dum?!” Emile yells at me from behind as I get shocked to the core and jump around, I see how he stomps towards me. That’s it. I’m going to die. What have I done to deserve that. I’m just praying to God, while he stops right in front of me, looking down on me, as if I’m a little child. Then he growls: “A sniper rifle? Do I look like I wanna sit in a corner drinking tea while the others dance with the covenant scum? Go pick Jun if you’re too scared to face the enemy directly, but I’m not taking care of you then!” He stomps past me.

Hold up. That’s why he is mad? God, he is the little child. I definitely will have a hard time handling him, but I’m not going to change my weapon. It will come in handy, and I still have my sidekick gun. I shake my head as if I try to shake his anger off me. Then I make my last steps to the landing zone. Standing next to Emile, I look up at him with a serious face: “Just for your knowledge, with a sniper rifle that size, I can easily take down any enemy who will come in closer range. Also I got a MK50 sidekick. Captain Obvious. In the end it’s going to be me, who has to make sure you don’t get a scratch. And probably will end up babysitting you then. So you better be more kind. Sir.” Realizing what I just said, I can hear the others giggle. The only ones clearly not laughing is me. Why do I have to push my limits always. He’s so going to abandon me in a fight. Or even push me off a cliff, should we come across one. I want to facepalm myself. But - Hold up! He is laughing himself. What the??

I look now even more shocked towards him, he is serious laughing. He turns his head to me, “You think I need back up from a tiny dwarf like you? Not even your wildest dream.” Is he insulting me now? Or joking? I’m confused! To my luck, I can hear Carter approaching from behind, with an amused voice he pats me on the shoulder: “I told you, you two will get along just fine.”

With the team in a good mood, we split up in two groups and jump on the helicopters. Kat, Jorge and Carter are in the other helicopter, while Emile and Noble Six sit on the opposite side of Jun and me. Jun, pushes me light at the shoulder: “I give you some advice.” He says while pointing at Emile. “Make as many jokes as you want to, but don’t be surprised if he’s coming after you. You can always hide behind Carter or Six. But don’t come running at me, I don’t want to die myself.” He says while laughing a little more. I nod with a awkward terrified smile at him. Does he want to tell me that he fears Emile?

Should I take his advice serious? Either way I say dumb shit to Emile, or even worse shit, that makes him angry. I will probably make him kill me. My face drops with the realisation that my life hangs by a threat. As Emile tilts his head light to the side and looks at me: “As long as I got orders to make sure you don’t loose a leg, I won’t rip off your head as well.” He says with a cool voice. Turning away once again.

Wow, how charming. I think ironically. But yeah, actually, his voice, is really charming. I hits me like a thunderstrike. Holy no! Pull yourself together girl! We are not falling for a Spartan! No No No NO! Instantly I turn my face away from the others, trying to hide my blushing cheeks. This is seriously no time to catch feelings. Also, he is so rude and reckless. And childish. And has probably many issues. No no. We don’t do love stuff here. We are professionals. So be one professional soldier. God damn. While discussing with myself, I just pray that this flight is over soon, so I can focus on the covenant instead of my stupid thoughts.

As the helicopter is turning around the mountain, we get a call over radio: “This is Carter. We get no communication with ONI. The plan changed. Jun, you stay in the helo, get up at that hill, right heading. Find a clear vision over the facility. Emile and Six, clear the left entrance area. Y/n, according to your record, you are a medic, means you go with the two and get ready for first aid, if you find any injured. All clear?” Carter gives straight instructions. Jun looks at Emile and Six, both are nodding in response, then they turn to me and I gave a quick nod as well. Jun answers over the radio quickly: “Affirmative, Sir.” With that said, we are starting to descend. I know what will come. War. But against the covenant. I never fought against any aliens before. Slowly my guts starting to turn. Then Jun pushes me once again lightly at the shoulder, I turn to him and he just gives me a thumbs up. It’s not much, but it calms me down a little, I give him a thumbs up back.

The helicopter touches the ground, and we hop off. Jun gives me one more thumb up as the helicopter rises again. Now it’s time to focus. So far, I don’t see any civilians, soldiers and no covenant. The sun has almost set completely. Taking a deep breath, I grip my rifle tight and follow Emile and Six. They give calls each other on where to walk, that the area is clear and where to move. I just follow Emile. Close, but so that he still can move free. We are approaching the left entrance of the ONI facility, and the bad feeling inside me grows bigger. I try to get a little closer to Emile and whisper to him: “Hey, Emile. I have a bad feeling. This is smelly.”, he stops in his tracks and turns his head light. “So what? You scared because your belly is grumbling? There’s no turning back now. Shut up and keep moving.” He harshly cuts me off and continues walking again. I let out an annoyed sigh and follow him once more, this time, I keep more distance. It’s a trap! I can feel it, don’t they? When the two Spartans reached the entrance gate, I walked a little bit further away, and hide behind a huge rock. It’s like a countdown ticking inside of me. Every second it could go down. I kneel behind the rock and set up my rifle, so I can assist the two when they will get surprised. And they will get surprised.

In the exact moment Six get ready to open the gate, the gate explodes and a bunch of Covenant storming out of the building. “Get to cover tiny!” Emile yells. He didn’t even realise that I wasn’t there anymore. “No shit, Sherlock. And who are you calling tiny here.” Is what I whisper to myself, while shooting one by one of the covenants. They are obviously too many to handle, even for two Spartans. Emile doesn’t think so: “What that’s all you got? Bring it on!” He yells while throwing them around like a freaking piñata. “Who’s next! Let’s dance!” He yells and laughs even more, while jumping on three covenants, blasting them to bits. Yeah, he’s nuts - That’s for sure. Six is skilled himself. Not a single enemy can get close enough to him, that he must draw a knife. While Emile on the other hand seems to have a lot of fun using his Kukri knife instead of his shotgun. And it doesn’t take too long and not a single covenant is standing anymore.

As they are about to move into the building, Emile calls over the radio: “You made it to a hiding spot in time?” I answered without even thinking “Sir, I was in a hiding spot already. As I told you, it’s smelly.” I responded. I should have just said yes and we would had no problem. But telling Emile, that I disobeyed an order, was not the smartest idea, because he was clearly not happy about that: “What’d you mean? You just decided to take a stroll around the base or what? Who gave you green lights for running off? Don’t fucking do that ever again! Now stay where you are until we call the building clear!”

After around 10 minutes, he calls over the radio: “This is Noble four. Left entrance clear. We have many soldiers on the ground. Get in here tiny, time to work.” Is all he says. Man, now I’m mad. “He can’t even say my name. And what does he mean, - time to work – I was literally holding his god damn back free, so he can have his fun in the crowd. “Arrogant ass.” I mutter to myself as I’m approaching the building. Entering, I see many soldiers, bad injured. “Ah hell.” I whispered while checking if any are still alive. These soldiers are clearly dead.

Emile was nowhere to be seen. Six came from across the hallway to me. I just shook my head. He let out a sigh and said “Good job. Out there.” He gave me a nod of appreciation. “Thanks Lieutenant. I’m sorry for the soldiers” I sighed and asked “That was the squad we were supposed to meet?” He looked at me and pointed to a door, signing me to follow. “You are right, it was them. It’s now just us. We must get the station online and then bring you to Quezon. With or without ONI.” He explained while walking ahead. Suddenly he stopped, so that I almost bumped into him. I stood behind him, a little confused. “Sir?” I asked quietly. He turned around. “You are a good sniper. For your size, surprisingly. Your senses are excellent as well. Emile said you had a bad feeling and decided to not follow the orders and hid. That’s good. But also, bad. Next time, give clear concerns to the commander. You can’t decide by yourself what to do. Other who are supposed to protect you, will get the consequences.” As he finished, he turned away and continued walking. I felt bad, he was right, but I had to make the decision. To not put the team in danger as they would have focused on protecting me.

“Sir, it won’t happen again.” I said while walking behind him like a stray dog. He chuckled “Good. And good luck with handling Emile. He’s mad.” As he said that, I was not even surprised. I let out a sigh, “Yeah, I deserve that, I guess.” We stopped in front of a big door. Six gave me a slight nudge on the shoulder and entered the room, right away, Emile came out of it. He packed me by the arm and pulled me further along the hallway. He’s probably going to yell at me again. Mentally preparing myself for what will come, he stopped and let go of my arm as we were close to an exit door. Then he turned towards me and pushed a finger against my forehead. “Listen here doll, When I tell you what to do, you shut up and do it. You can’t just leave the spot without telling anyone! Are we clear?” He wasn’t really yelling. Just a little louder, but his finger really hurts on my forehead. I pushed his hand out of my face and took a deep breath. “Yes sir. Won’t happen again.” I said with a serious look on my face to him. He wasn’t done. “Have you an idea how much trouble I get because of that!” Now he started yelling as he came one step closer. I couldn’t even said something, he came one more step closer and continued. “Not only from Carter. If your father finds out I can’t even handle a dwarf like you, I can forget staying in Noble Team.” He came another step closer. As he leaned down, his visor was almost touching my nose. But I didn’t budge. “Tell me Emile” I looked at his skull visor. “Do I look into your eyes right now? Or do I have to look more down or up?” I caught him completely off guard. He spun back and instead of saying anything, he turned on his heels and walked towards the exit door.

“That’s it?” I asked whispering but couldn’t hold back. “Emile.” I called him, he stopped and turned around. “What?” He was so pissed. Good. My face turned into an art of hell as I bit my lower lip to not laugh out loud. Another deep breath: “My belly grumbling, huh? Just admit it, I was right, and you were wrong.” Biting my lip even harder to not laugh out loud I waited for my end. But he just stood there. Saying nothing. Looking in my direction. I messed up, but it was totally worth it. It’s too much fun to piss him off. Until he started stomping towards me. “Oh shit!” I whispered. Should I run away? Too late, he was already right in front of me again. Now pushing me by my shoulders against the wall behind me. He almost threw me at that wall. Hands on my shoulder, his visor right in front of me again and his feet left and right next to mine, he was cornering me completely against that wall.

His voice, deep and filled with flammable anger “Do you wanna die?” He asked slowly. I shook my head light. “Negative, sir.” Only a whisper was what I was able to bring out. He took a breath as if he wanted to say something. But he didn’t. He was just standing there. Looking down on me, holding my shoulders and pressing them against the wall. I looked at him confused. Should I say something? Then he let go of my shoulder, cupping my face with one hand, lifting it even closer to him. With the other hand he pointed to his visor. “I you look there; you look me in the eyes.” I lost my breath at his words. His voice was now calm and soft. He was a completely different person. Nobody said anything anymore. We just looked at each other, standing so close, I swear he could hear my heartbeat.

Suddenly, out of nowhere Jun yelled: “Hey, Emile, get up to the power transmitter and check if the wires are cut! Oh, ah, Okey. Didn’t wanted interrupted. My bad.” He yelled from across the hallway. As he saw what must have looked as we were making out, Jun just left as quickly as he came around. Emile huffed and let go of me. He headed towards the exit. “You stay put. Otherwise...” He scolded. As he walked away. I followed him, as we left the building and climbed the fire stairs to the roof. I got curious. “Otherwise, what?” I asked dumb struck. He stopped in the middle of the stairs and turned around once more. “Otherwise, I’ll bite your head off. Now shut up.” He scolded once again.

Deciding to not bother him any further. I zipped my mouth with my finger and followed him further upstairs. Reaching the transmitter, it was clear that all cables were intact. He gave a radio call to Jun, saying that the cables are fine. I stood at the transmitter and looked at him. Something is weird about him. He’s rude, childish and has immense anger issues. But I can’t shake this feeling off, that I feel like starting to fall for him. How can I fall for someone I just met an hour ago. And who I haven’t even seen the face of.

He’s noble team. They don’t have a long lifespan anyway. And I’m going to earth. So, I will probably never see him again after we parted ways. Makes me a little sad. As I continue starting at him, with every emotion written on my face, I suddenly realised he’s looking back at me. Ah no, he’s going to be mad again. I smiled at him as if tried to convince him that I’m not hiding any drugs, before turning around and looking at the lake next to the facility. He was not saying anything. When I looked back at him, he is still looking at me. I narrowed my eyebrows: “Did you spaced out Emile?” I asked him. He stomped towards me, I was about to move back, but I decided to stand my ground. Would he come that close again? Is he actually starving for physical contact. The life of a Spartan can be lonely. He stopped right in front of me. Only a few inches were in between us. He took a deep breath and asked. “Why would you want to see my eyes?” – “Huh?” with my answer it was clear that I did not expected that. Emile turned away and shook his head. “Never mind.” He said and walked to the stairs.

“Wait.” I run at him and grab him by his hand. Regretting my move, as he looked down at his hand, I let go immediately. “I- am. I just try to understand you. And it’s easier for me when I can look into your eyes.” I smiled shyly and looked away. I was expecting he’d make a joke about me, but instead, he cupped my face with both hands this time, making me to look up at him. “If you be a good little girl and do as I say. I maybe take my helmet off.” Then he let go of me, and walked downstairs laughing his ass off. He made a joke about me.

“What was that?” I asked myself and rushed after him, before I get another scolding. Wait, was he actually flirting with me? With this thought I stopped in front of the door to the building.

“y/n. Station is online. Come to the main entrance.” Carters call over the radio ripped me out of my thoughts. I must stop thinking about Emile. He is just a Spartan. Doing his job. That’s it.