Party Crashers

{|style="width:100%; color:#FFF;" "Noble Team… my, it's good to see you in person instead of on a screen," Colonel Urban Holland mused, his hands clasped behind his back as all seven Noble personnel stood at attention. He eyed Kat and Six's non-military attire with surprise, but did not say anything about it. "I must say this is a rare and unusual treat, but after so many months in the field, a good meal at Christmastime sounds like something I can't afford to pass up."
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"Sir. We're honored to have you with us, as always," Carter replied.

Holland indicated his three guests and they stepped forward. "I'd like you all to meet Commander Jacob Keyes and his daughter, Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keyes." The elder Keyes had salt-and-pepper hair trimmed very short and a thoughtful, almost sad look to his angular face. His daughter had regulation-length dark brown hair and keen green eyes that swept over the Spartans with interest.

Kat and Carter relaxed somewhat, since these individuals matched them in rank. "Good to have you joining us, Commander Keyes," Carter said, stepping forward to shake the man's hand.

"I'm glad to be here, Spartan," Keyes replied.

Miranda and Kat shook hands and greeted each other, and Jun let out a barely audible whistle. "Do you see that?" he whispered to Emile, who elbowed him just hard enough to get the message across: shut up.

Jorge saw Commander Keyes and could have sworn for a split second that he'd seen the man before, decades ago, but the feeling died and he squelched it. "Sir," he said, saluting when the Commander passed.

"You're a Spartan-II, aren't you?" Keyes asked, as if he knew already.

"Yes sir. Chief Warrant Officer Jorge-052, sir."

"At ease, Spartan. This isn't an introduction, it's a reunion." Keyes glanced around as if unseen eyes were watching and added, "You may not recall, but we met once before. That's all ONI will let me say, I'm afraid."

So he had remembered! It hadn't just been a sense of false déjà vu after all. "I understand, sir." Part of him was burning to know how and why, but another part was content to remain in the dark because it was the will of ONI.

"What's that noise?" Six frowned, cocking her head. Her acute hearing had picked up a strange noise, probably because she was the only one not doing any talking. "Does anyone else hear that noise?"

The chatter ceased and all the Spartans flinched, hearing a strange sound that clashed horribly with the peaceful setting. The Keyes duo and Holland had arrived via Pelican, but even that didn't sound so awful. All the Spartans immediately began to shift on the defensive, spreading out and looking around, trying to find the source of the ruckus.

"There! Look, an Albatross!" Jun said, pointing. "Achoo!"

Sure enough, it was an Albatross dropship. Much bigger than a Pelican, and much clumsier, too. And it was on fire.

"Uh-oh," Emile muttered.

As quickly as it had appeared, the dropship zoomed overhead, heading on a downward incline toward the forest. It disappeared over the treetops, then a loud BOOM sounded, following by the worst scraping noise any of them had ever heard. After that, a long silence followed, punctuated by one brief, loud cry from the Albatross's direction…

"BUUUUUUUCK!" a woman's voice screamed, full of rage. Every Spartan winced; their enhanced hearing picked it up much louder.

"Looks like we got company," Carter mused darkly. "Emile, Six, you're with me. Assume the intruders are hostile until we can confirm otherwise. Commander, Lieutenant Commander—you may follow Colonel Holland inside and wait until we have a definite ID on whoever this is. Jorge, Rosenda, Kat, Jun, make sure nothing unauthorized touches this base. Clear?"

"Understood," the remaining Spartans said in unison.

"Good. Let's go," Carter said grimly, pulling his M6D sidearm out and checking the ammo. He then started toward the tree line, with Emile and Six bringing up the rear.


 * At the crashed Albatross…

"Run, Gunny! Run!" Lance Corporal Kojo Agu cheered, watching as his team leader ran in hectic circles with a blonde-haired woman in hot pursuit. Agu, or "Romeo" as he preferred to be called, sat back on a fallen log and laughed to himself. It was actually kind of funny to see Dare the Almighty losing her cool… and at Eddie Buck, of all unfortunate people.

"I'll kill ya, Romeo," Buck yelled, jumping up onto a small tree and climbing to a safe distance. The fully-armored ODST cut a comical figure, sitting on a low-hanging tree limb. "I swear, I will kill you."

"Not until I've killed you first," Dare spat. She kicked the tree, and snow fell from overhead and splattered all over Buck's helmet. "That was the stupidest thing you could have possibly thought of!"

"We made it, though, didn't we? I mean, you're obviously not dead, or else you'd be quiet," Buck pointed out. "And hey, don't blame me for freak malfunctions. I just happened to get us on the ground before the thing could, say, overheat and explode, killing us all instantaneously, or crash straight down with similar gruesome results."

"This was supposed to be a field exercise, not a demonstration of your somewhat questionable survival maneuvers," Captain Veronica Dare muttered, shaking her head.

Corporal Taylor Miles, callsign "Dutch," finished gathering his gear from inside the heavily damaged dropship and grunted as he heaved Mickey's unconscious form from the Albatross's interior. "PFC Crespo bumped his head, but his bio signs are A-OK. He'll wake up soon enough," Dutch reported. He slung his buddy over his shoulder and watched, amused, as Dare further berated Buck, who took off his helmet and sat up in the tree looking bored. "Come on out and watch the fun, Rookie. You won't get another chance to see anything like this in a long, long time."

The Rookie poked his head up from behind a clump of snowy bushes and observed the increasingly argumentative exchange between CO and Gunny. He cocked his head, but said nothing, just clutched at his BR-55.

"Identify yourselves at once!"

All five of the conscious Marines turned at once to see a tall man in an unfamiliar black dress uniform standing among the trees, flanked by an equally tall African-looking man and a similarly-statured blonde woman in a dumpy cream-colored sweater. They all had M6D pistols and looked capable of putting up a rough fight, even without armor.

"I am Captain Veronica Dare, Office of Naval Intelligence," Dare announced. She blinked, then realization dawned on her. "You must be Spartans. I heard rumors you were operating out of this sector."

"Indeed we are, ma'am," Carter said, instantly deferring to her command. He holstered his pistol and stepped forward. "Are there any wounded among you?"

"Just one, and he may have a concussion," Dutch said.

Six and Emile stared at the Helljumpers, and the Helljumpers stared back. There was a legendary rivalry between Spartans and ODSTs, and if things got iffy, there was no telling what would happen.

The moment of tension passed when Buck put both hands together and looked at Carter imploringly. "Please, just do whatever she wants so I can climb down from here. This is degrading," he complained. "And for the record, I'm the one who saved everyone from a swift and explosive death!"

"Oh, come down already," Dare sighed, exasperated. "You'll have to forgive me… Commander," she said, taking note of the insignia on Carter's uniform. "We were running a simulation of a top-secret insertion op when our Albatross malfunctioned. And yes, Gunnery Sergeant Buck's piloting skills very well may have saved our lives." She shot Buck a look that said happy now? and he smirked, beaming, then jumped down to the snow.

"Emile. Go back to base and tell Holland we got friendlies, six of them." Carter thought for a moment, then sighed. "Guess this means we have six more guests for Christmas dinner."

"Dinner?" Mickey's eyes popped open and he sat up, looking around expectantly. "I was having a great dream about a topless beach, but hey, dinner's great. Where is it?"

Dutch grunted in disgust and dropped the Helljumper into the snow, then stepped over him and walked off. "Pervert," the older man muttered.

"Dinner's at our base," Carter said. "If you wish, you may join in. There are already three guests in addition to my team, but I'm sure we can accommodate you."

"That won't be necessary," Dare said. She pulled a familiar brown packet from a pouch on her belt. "We have plenty of MREs and protein paste to go arou—"

She suddenly became aware that several grown men were looking at her with puppy dog eyes, begging her to give in and let them go eat with the Spartans.

"Ma'am," Romeo said, shifting his weight uneasily, "No disrespect intended, but that protein stuff… tastes like Grunt butt."

"It does!" Mickey insisted. "It's like, torture food meant for death row prisoners!"

"Even Covies won't eat it, ma'am," Dutch said. He pulled out a data chip. "Here, I have video evidence…"

"FINE!" Dare spat, stuffing the MRE packet back into her belt pouch. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm in charge of a unit of 'the UNSC's finest' or a pack of yammering five-year-olds!"

"YAAAY!" the men cheered, not even hearing her desultory remark.