No Gods, Nor Masters

For Earth And All Her Colonies

Manhattan, New York City, New York State.

En-route to the United Nations Headquarters

The National Guard had been called to help ensure the safety of the travelling motorcade alongside Police and EMT services. Several more Humvees had been called up to the boulevards of New York to escort the Motorcade from the Hotel it had arrived to in the middle of night to the UN Headquarters. Even so, the National Guard had to deal with an influx of several million people on the streets of New York, many of them fans of the series that had found out just in the morning, via a photograph of a Warthog circulating on the internet, that the UNSC's representatives have arrived.

Halsey stared, almost bug-eyed, at the sight of the many people lining the streets of the city, waving banners from the tops of houses and wearing bright smiles. Some had climbed lamp-posts to greet them, waving with their hats. Others had simply shown up in what was called 'cosplay' of UNSC troopers and even SPARTAN armors made of cardboard and various other materials. The good Doctor was tense enough about the CODE VERMILLION on this planet as it was...

The one thing these men and women all had in common, it seemed, was the fact that they knew of the Halo series, its characters and people. The cheers that filtered through the bulletproof glass of the limousine caused the vehicle itself to shake very lightly. Meanwhile, on the Warthogs, the Chief, his SPARTAN comrades and the people driving the other vehicles around them had to contend with people throwing flowers and petals their way. There were also people of all races and creeds among them, clearly, since Chief could see traditional headwear from various religious groups among them.

"Steady," Chief spoke from the fifty-cal gatling on the back of his 'Hog, which he kept pointed up at the sky and on safe...

"Good lord..." Cortana murmured as she looked through the Chief's HUD. The man panned around, to the sight of the many thousands lining just this street alone. It was, surprisingly, not a disproportionately-male crowd as the nature of the video game would've suggested. Rather, it was a nearly-even split down the 'middle', so to speak, with many girls greeting the SPARTANs ear-piercing cheers. The AI added, "This is one hell of a crowd. Even thicker than in Japan..."

Chief linked to the radio network of the New York National Guard, only to hear the boys and girls aboard the Humvees and the one LAV that had joined them talking. The commander of the LAV spoke to his men calmly, "Jesus H. Christ, I haven't seen this many people since the President's inauguration speech. And that was two fucking years ago, goddamn..."

"Nerds do have a big coverage, man. I hear that, not only do we have a shitton of fans of the games in our fair state that came from across it to see this, we got people from all across the country. Shit, I'd probably be out in the crowd, too, if I had Shore Leave today... But it really ain't every day you get to escort the motherfuckin' Master Chief and his team to the UN," Quipped one of the HMMWV drivers up front, his buddies letting out hollering laughs. Two of the Humvees were unarmed up front, with only troops poking out of the top. They had M32 rotary grenade launchers lent by US Marines draped over their shoulders, most probably loaded with crowd control grenades, like CS Gas.

Kelly looked up as the chop of rotor-blades filled the air. Above, Army helicopters, including Apaches and Black Hawks, flew in formation. Police helicopters flew low, while police cars held the corners of the streets with armed policemen carrying pistols and more tear gas out on patrol. They'd fenced-off the sidewalks as well, she then noted. She quipped, "It's almost as if we're in an impromptu 'welcome home' parade..."

Linda hummed as she held position, mounted on the Gauss cannon. She listened into the crowds, listening various cheerful cries ranging from "Welcome to Earth!" and "God bless the UNSC!" to directed calls, girls calling out to the Chief, "We love you, Master Chief!" and boys yelling out, "You're all fricking heroes! You're our generation's heroes! We're all so happy you're real!" as they held up a banner with the same writing as the Japanese had. "WELCOME HOME, UNSC!" This banner, hanging off the fences, had various artistic pieces representing Chief, Cortana herself and various other scenes from their lives that were represented, sometimes erroneously, in the games.