A Game of Gods: A Multiversal Challenge

—PHANTOM scowled, then cycled through a few screens before settling on modern Greek, some errors in the syntax, but displaying all of the information gathered thus far on the Nomads.—

Kat looked up at Carter as she listened to Ravage. The Commander simply shrugged. "Well," She began, "That's impressive. Costly..." She said as she looked over the damage wrought by the crash, "But very impressive."

"Anyone who takes down somethin' that big," Emile replied to Craft, "Deserves my respect. Good to have you on board with us, whoever you are."

Jorge cursed under his breath after Ravage listed the casualties. "I had a feeling we'd lose a few men in the process...we lost a man on our side as well. Gordon." He didn't mention that it was friendly fire that killed the physicist.

"Sierra 259, this is Holland. Do you read?" Another voice said over the radio. Carter was quick to respond.

"Here, sir."

"Thank God, thought we lost you when those cruisers hit the ground. Give me a SITREP."

"We've evacuated the civilians and troops taking cover under ONI HQ. We're moving to link up with the nearest outpost."

"Good, good...'cause I've got more news. It's insane. Dot?"

"Affirmative," A mechanical female voice replied. It belonged to Auntie Dot, the AI providing overwatch for Noble Team. "'' I have detected an anomaly. It seems that the enemy fleet's communications grid is being jammed. Reports from the defense fleet support this."

"The entire grid?!" Jun asked in disbelief.

"That is correct."

"What's jamming them, Colonel? Unless ONI's developed some sort of secret weapon, there's no way we can cover a whole fleet."

"They haven't. I am just as confused as you are, Spartan, but this may allow us to turn this battle around."

"I think I know what's jamming them," Jorge said. Noble Team stared at the SPARTAN-II.

"Damn, Jorge, what else have you done?" Emile asked.

"Ravage? Have you succeeded in scrambling the battlenet?" Jorge inquired.

edited 2nd Jan '11 2:02:06 PM by Nimitz

"Indeed," the Predacon replied. "I cannot be certain how long this will last now that the Absolution is so much debris and wreckage, but my estimates posit that the Covenant Battlenet should be scrambled for approximately half a stellar cycle, local time, at least."

edited 31st Dec '10 7:22:26 PM by SullenFrog

Rey moved closer to the front, trying to listen in and get an idea of what was going on, but at the same time, trying to stay out of the soldiers' way.

"Half a stellar..." Jorge repeated. "What does that mean?"

"My appologies, I meant solar cycle. In your terms, that would be half a day, so...thirteen-point-five hours, give or take."

"Thirteen-point-five..." Jun muttered. It took a few seconds for Holland to break the silence.

"Son...I don't know who you are," The Colonel spoke, "But you have done the UNSC a great service. Thank you."

"Yes, thank you," Carter repeated after Holland, "I honestly can't say if you've saved Reach or not, but...you've done damn good work. It'll be an honor to fight by your side."

Jorge felt the urge to chuckle, but he restrained himself. Ravage had always stated that he despised humans, yet he just saved them from total annihilation. Oh, the irony.

"So we did it?!" Blink's cheerful voice cut in, plenty loud enough to be heard through the comms. "That's amazing! We get to meet back up with the others and stuff now, right?"

Ravage growled deep in his throat, irritated by the humans' compliments. "That I would live to see this humiliation," he muttered under his breath. "Please, don't thank me. I am simply doing my job. Now then, do we have a place to set down, or a destination in mind?"

Rey winced, hearing Blink's voice come through the comms. "Well, I'm glad she's okay..." he said softly.

Yuuka's wound began to heal, the flesh returning, skin beginning to cover it.

Mal-Keshar stopped juggling, letting the shadowstuff balls sizzle on the Pelican's floor. He slithered closer to Rey and looked oddly at him.

"Oh, almost forgot! Hi Mister Jorge!" Blink called into the comms. "Long time no see! Well, talk to, in this case!"

Rey looked to Mal-Keshar, blinking. "Uh...what is it?"

Craft supressed the urge to shove the Predacon back, but he got some minor schadenfreude from seeing Ravage in obvious discomfort.

"Nothing. You just remind me of someone I know."

"Know...do you mean like someone from your world that you know?"

"Yessss", he hissed. "He is an... elf. A most special elf."

Though it probably wasn't evident with the mask over his face, Rey raised his eyebrows some. "Well that's new. I've gotten the leprechaun comparisons before but I usually only get elf comparisons around Christmas time."

"Leprechaun? What is that? No, I meant an elf. Do you not know what an elf is?"

"I...know what my world's interpretation of an elf is. I imagine it's not the same as what elves in your world are like. I'm kind of starting to notice a lot of the things I thought I knew about from my world aren't quite like I expected them to be..."

"An elf... they look like you humans, but thinner, shorter, and much more graceful; they are master bowmen, and have an odd connection to the faerie as well. They have pointy ears, and can live for quite a time, though not as much as ones of my creed do."

"...okay, so they're almost exactly like what my world's interpretation of them is. At any rate, I remind you of one you know? How is that?"

"Yes... he and his friends... they invaded my lair, and the next thing I knew, I went with them to topple the Chaos Empire. You have a similar influence on me."

Rey smiled faintly. "Don't feel bad. I have that influence on a lot of people. It's one of the things that's kept me alive all these years." He shrugged a bit. "Besides, I think you're...you've got a system of the way things work that I don't understand, but...I think you're an okay guy overall. That's the important thing."