The Song of Infinity

Travel Time

The soldiers sat together, both watching the display of space's weird nature outside and simply chatting each-other up. Vic and Vesna were on the catwalk next to the windows, having taken Sergeant O'Niner's place as they peered through binoculars at some of the meteoroids that were landing around them. It was a beautiful sight, if a little concerning, but, well, kinetic energy wasn't much of an issue, since the moon supposedly had some sort of specialized defenses.

In the meanwhile, they listened in on Paul and Katja talking with the squad below. The Dominoes and Nub seemed to be getting along well with the entire group, thankfully, though that was a given since these guys were apparently Rookies among the ranks of the Clones. One of the reasons they were even put up in this outpost was to make sure they earned some experience before they were cycled out with the next platoon. The group, however, talked to the muffled tune of Russian band 'Agata Kristi's' 500 year old song, 'Like In War'.

"... And the she drove us over a BROKEN BRIDGE and managed to flip the vehicle!" Paul described the battle of Szurdok Ridge, a major part of the campaign on Reach. He was laughing loudly, as were the Clones around him and Katja. He continued jovially as he arranged his rifle strap, "I still don't know how I survived, but I've since sworn to never get in another car with Spartans!"

"Yeah, it was something!" Katja chuckled, then flashed the lads a grin as she leaned her back against the wall. The clones continued to listen, laughing, while katja joked, "You'd think they give you a driver's test before letting you behind the wheel of a 'Hog, but not for Spartans, apparently!" and yet more laughs filled the room, even from the folks sat at the top of the catwalk.

"You're kriffin' kidding me, man. Supersoldiers that can't drive, heh," Hevy shook his head, arms crossed as he shot a glance every once in a while toward the screens. He looked over to one of his brothers and asked him, "You hearing this, Fives?" as said brother was watching the hologram screens with Echo. Cutup, who had brought some food, sat himself down to keep listening to the story.

"I heard it," Fives replied, rather unimpressed with the shenanigans when his mind returned to some of the bantha crap they'd be doing in training.

"Hey, Paul..." Cutup started, looking over at the guy as he handed him a drink, then started on his own. After taking a sip, he asked the Hungarian soldier, "If ya don't mind us 'Regs' askin'... This where you also got those prosthetics?" and he tapped the metal arm he had. Ves and Victor up above looked down from the catwalk, a bit sad at this memory being brought up.

"Same battle, yeah. Well, part of them anyhow, like the arm being taken by a Covvie Elite during CQC. Same planetary defense... My home," The Hungarian replied in a low murmur. He lifted up his mechanical hand and looked at it, clenching and unclenching the mechanical fist that now acted as his own hand. He was thankful for UNSC procurement getting them the stuff necessary for him to still feel pressure and some other sensations through the fingers, but...

Echo, suddenly curious, turned to ask, "What happened?" only to feel the room temperature drop.

At first, it was a frown on Paul's and Katja's faces. The Reach native started describing, "The Covvies emerged with a small group during the early days of the invasion. The Battle was going well at first. We were winning on the ground, fighting hard. Hell, even space didn't seem to be that big a problem..." And he sighed deeply, rubbing his face and trying to contain his anger. Katja nodded, looking at her own drink as she listened.

The Hungarian descendant's voice grew low, angry, "Then the Covvies just started throwing more and more assets. The Spartans and we destroyed one thing one day, they'd appear with two of the same thing or worse the next. Six weeks of continuous fighting and all of it went to hell the last fucking days of the fight. Entire Covenant fleet, five hundred ships strong, bore down on Reach while we were evacuating..." Then he sighed, noting the surprised looks on the boys. He explained and motioned to Kat, Vic and Ves and stated, "I, Kat and the other Misfits barely got out thanks to NOBLE Team."