Menagerie's Falling Star

Part Two: Familarization

2 hours after the Drop
Sienna's room,
"Sienna's Residence"

   Frost inspects his bandaged knee, as Sienna's voice is barely audible through a door outside. It was a decent walk, which gave the Helljumper time to process the situation he's in and decide to question everything as much as possible. Mainly, the large palace-like mansion he's in and who exactly Sienna is. Her sneaking him past the guards gave him more red flags to be aware of. Once back in their room, Sienna tended to Frost's wounds before the communication device, called a scroll, started ringing.

   Sighing, Frost took a look around the room. What his eyes landed on sparked his interest. It's a photo of Sienna and what's presumed to be a black cat-eared couple. From the looks of it, they seem important. Frost gazed at it for a while, before shrugging it off and sitting back down onto the bed.

   The door finally opened, and Sienna stepped through. She seems calm, but fear and confusion fills her eyes. 'Something about that call got her unnerved.' Frost thought, as he stood up and cleared his throat. He then asked, "Alright, Sienna... what do you want to know?"

   Sienna sat down next to him, asking. "Are you alone?"

   Knowing what she meant, Frost replied, "I guess. My squad and I were together before I came here. Who knows what happened to them. I might be the only one left..."

   It was silent until Sienna again asked, "Explain your weaponry. I don't see how it can transform or use Dust?"

   Earlier, before they left the crash site, Frost had searched through his pod. For his bullet count, he has twelve sixty-round magazines worth of bullets for his M7S, if he were to exclude the mag that's in the gun. For the M6C, he has nine extra mags but has one less bullet due to his wound. The weapons and the bullets became a part of Sienna's curiosity ever since.

   Frost raised an eyebrow at the question. "Transform and dust? Lady, there's no possible way a gun can transform and there's no possible way that dirt can be used as a propellant for bullets. Also, why do you have cat ears and stripes? What is this planet like?"

   "Some of the weapons on this planet can transform into other objects like swords." Sienna replied. "Dust is the major power source we have but we aren't able to get into space with it."

   "Then what about the people and technology, especially when you have cat ears?" Frost asked.

  "There's humans and I am what's called a 'Faunus'." Sienna explained. "We're basically humans with animal characteristics but my stripes are just tattoos. However, we Faunus get discriminated against by you humans despite the long ago promise of equality made by your kind."

   "I'm sorry to hear that..." Frost said, "I'm ashamed of these people... Who's the powerhouse here and are there any dangers to know about?"

   Sienna then stated, "The Kingdom of Atlas is the most powerful kingdom there is, but their security is poor to the point that their military property gets stolen near regularly. The best they did for us all is the Cross-Continental Towers, where they communicate around the world but one tower down brings the rest with it. To make things better, the Atlesians don't care about us, Faunus."

   Frost calmly asked, "And the dangers we have, if any?"

   Sighing, Sienna replied. "We have these creatures of the Darkness called Grimm. We have specialized individuals, called Huntsmen, but they mostly only cared about the money and the fame. However, there's way more Grimm than there is Human and Faunus combined. Yet, we're so focused on each other that someone today crashed an underground train into the walls of the kingdom of Vale and unleashed a swarm of Grimm there."

   As she said that, Sienna muttered, "And luckily Atlas brought it down."

   With no warning, Frost stood up and started pacing around. Sienna watched him from her bed as he paced back and forth, mumbling to himself. "How. Fucking. Wonderful. I'm stuck on a planet that has barely even attempted space travel, the best communications system is international but very fragile, and they haven't heard of the Covenant- or the UNSC!" He then frustratingly punched a wall, before pulling his hand back and shaking it.

   "Quiet." Sienna told him. "You might alert one of the guards."

   He sighed and said, "Okay, Tigress."

   She groaned and said, "Don't call me that."

   Frost stared for a moment, before a smug smirk reached his face. "Okay, Tigress."

   Sienna clenched her fists and held herself back from attacking him, as he returned to his self-ranting.

   "Not to mention that there are these shitty demonic ripoffs that might be in the trillions or so- and incompetent 'huntsmen' assigned to take care of them. A shitty leading country in security- Hell, even the marines back home would have gotten the job done much faster." With the last part, he remembered what Sienna told him of what went down in Vale.

   "Well-" Frost continued. "Maybe it's better than the war- no. Don't be a coward, Frost. The Covenant will probably find this place and glass the fuck out of it." He clenched a fist, but sighed and fell to the floor on top of a sleeping bag Sienna gave him.

   "Glass?" Sienna raised an eyebrow at him, one of her ears twitching.

   "Scorch the entire surface of a planet- turning the sand and dirt into glass. My home planet, Reach, went through that..." Frost solemnly said, as he leaned against a dresser while Sienna stepped over and rested a hand on his shoulder.

   "I'm sorry... I can't imagine..." She trailed off, gazing at the floor before shuddering at the thought of every kingdom- continent- every inch of Remnant, being burned to nothing but glass. That's what Frost is thinking that Sienna's doing.

   "It's..." Frost stated, "It's just a lot. I was supposed to be dropping into New Mombasa. Next thing I know- I see you standing over me, having ripped me out of my pod. Now, I'm on a planet that I had no idea existed." He sighed and heard Sienna stand up before she started walking away.

  'My squad's probably dead- they needed me...,' Frost thought to himself, 'They needed me, for fuck's sake! And where was I? On some God forsaken planet- talking to a woman with cat ears- Get a hold of yourself, Frost... You just gotta adjust to all of this... You are a Helljumper, after all. The best of the best...'

   "You should get some sleep- before your emotions get you in trouble." Frost heard Sienna say in a demanding voice in her bed. "With the guards- and yourself." She then sighed as she curled up in her bedsheets.

   Sighing, Frost laid inside the sleeping bag and settled in. He thought, 'Well- shit. This is actually pretty comfortable compared to other things I slept on.'

   The Helljumper shuddered and then closed his eyes. What came to him was the thought of his squad. Juliet Nine was not the best squad there is- but they were pretty good. They grew on him like family... until an accident ripped him away from them and cast him aside. An image of his squad mates celebrating at the sight of a downed Covenant supercarrier remained in his mind- before he drifted off to sleep.