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Chapter Text

The Meta had taken out the blue Simulation Trooper that had the A.I that had previously escaped his grasp. He was now creeping closer to him so that he could claim another A.I to increase his power.

But as the Meta crept closer to his target, he was so focused on gaining the A.I that he didn’t realize that he didn’t fully knock out the Sim Trooper nor hear his mutterings that we slowly increasing in volume.

Delta was prepared to join with his siblings, to be whole, to be taken…

“No…”

Delta glanced over at Caboose, confusion and illogical data filled up his code.

The punch that The Meta delivered to Caboose should have rendered him unconscious for a while but instead he was waking up earlier than predicted.

“Church… not… taking…him.”

BA-DUMP

“No…”

BA-DUMP

“No!”

BA-DUMP

“NO!!!”

Delta, with all his logic, did not know what happened, for it happened so fast.

MIKE-B313 Caboose’s eyes shot open and immediately attacked, his enemy in sight and taken off guard, good he had the element of surprise!

He roared and grabbed his enemy by the throat and started to slam his enemy to the ground. Pick and pull at anything!!!

HE NEEDED HIM DEAD!!!

There were the sounds of the concrete breaking, bones breaking, blood spilling…

The noises were drowned out by static in his mind…

“You are nothing more than a failure, or better yet you are better off nothing at all!”

MIKE-B313 He knew it was the truth he had failed one of his tests, but he didn’t know what he did wrong! It was supposed to be a simple test!

“B313! STAND DOWN! STAND DOWN!!!”

“WE HAVE A BREACH”

“SEND THE UNIT IN! WE HAVE A CODE GREY!! I REPEAT WE HAVE A CODE GREY!!!

He got into so much trouble, but he didn’t know what happened, he just blacked out and-

“You are not people, You are all weapons, made to serve the greater good of hu-“

One of his teachers was furious that he failed a simple test, he sent him off to more training that was worse than the last…

He was afraid of being mean, He didn’t want to be that!!! Normally his sisters would calm him down, but they weren’t here!

“There was a mix-up, you were never supposed to be assigned to NOBLE team in the first place. Your call sign was similar, and you are from the same company as SPARTAN-B312.”

“But I did good right?!”

“You did good kid, but the public will never know that, officially SPARTAN-B312 would be NOBLE Six instead of you, because he was the one that should have been there in the first place…”

He didn’t need to think, he just does what he is best at…

HELPING

There was screaming in the background, but he didn’t care, all he needs to care about is getting the mission done. The target who was pretending to be all big and scary, when really, he is nothing compared to him. The target was weak, needing the help of all those A. I’s to be powerful, and although his enemy was strong for normal soldiers...

HE WAS NOT A SPARTAN

He had failed to protect his sisters, failed to prevent his best friend from dying, failed to save his friend Jorge-052…

“CABOOSE!!!” a voice cried out.

MIKE-B313 He felt someone try to tackle him to the ground, but it was useless, one simply did not tackle a 7ft SPARTAN and expected him to be sent to the ground.

He didn’t care about that he needed to make sure that his tar-

Then he felt something grabbing him and he fought back, but for whatever reason they weren’t going down, it seemed that when he tried harder to throw them off, they were stronger than him…

But how, they weren’t SPARTANS they were just Sim—

Why was he moving slow?

Why was his armor not responding!?!

“Someone please help me, I’m scared!”

“I don’t want to be a Monster!”

“I DON’T WANT TO HURT MY FRIENDS!!!”

“CABOOSE PLEASE STOP, YOU GOT HIM!!!” Church cried out, trying desperately to stop Caboose from rampaging.

Caboose froze alarms ringing in his head, where was he?!? The last recollection that he had was being knocked out, so why was he-

He collapsed on the ground, something wet splat on the inside of his face, and before he could control himself, he was crying, sobs escaping his mouth.

His friends slowly let go of him, leaving him to let it all out…

“It’s okay Caboose, you got him, he’s dead it’s over.” Church comforts Caboose not caring for the reactions of the Reds or Washington, who was (rightly) terrified of what he and the others just witnessed.

Agent Washington stood there in terror of what occurred not even 3 minutes ago, they were busy trying to convince the Red team that they were not enemies and before they can fully convince them, they all heard a roar and before they knew it, something crashed into the one of the warthogs along with a blue blur of some kind, that would later be Caboose wailing on the Meta.

His brain was still trying to comprehend what they all witnessed, but no matter how many times he looked back and thought about it, nothing made any sense at all!

His once trusted friend from the Freelancer days, Agent Maine was always known to be in the gym working out and getting peak physical condition that the human body can maintain, that power was amplified by the A. I’s that he could get his hands on, and yet…

He was massacred, toyed around, by a Simulation Trooper no less, not just any Sim Trooper but one who was notoriously known to be team killing all the time.

IT DIDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!!!

How did a brain-dead Simulation Trooper who was known for team killing and being an idiot most the time, end up reducing the Meta to mere guts and organs splattered about in the span of 3 minutes!?

Before he could demand any answers from the other Simulation Troopers about this, a noise caught his attention, and he stopped and listened to the sound before he could deduce what it was.

It was the sound of breathing, but it sounded wrong.

The breathing sounded distorted, almost as if someone was breathing through a broken oxygen mask.

He looked at the messy remains of Agent Maine and froze.

It was as if someone had thrown a human being through a blender and somehow remain alive through the entire process, leaving a mess of organs spilled on the concrete… but despite all that…

Washington took a closer step towards the Meta, there was a crack on his helmet, allowing his eye to look at Washington…

The messy breathing continued and there was a look in the Meta’s eyes, a shocked and terrified look that pleaded with anyone to put him out of his misery…

The A. I’s that he took showed themselves, and they were huddled up together, trying to hide behind one another, trying not to look-

SCARED

Sigma the A.I that caused Agent Maine’s decent into madness was in front of his siblings, trying to protect them, while also trying not to look scared in the process…

Washington just stood there, hands resting on his pistol slowly drawing it out, checking to make sure it was loaded and pointing it at his once closet friend.

It was almost as if there were not the sounds of sobbing from Caboose to interrupt the moment, as if there was just two people one at the end of a barrel dying from profuse blood loss, the other at the trigger ready to pull it, though he was unsure what to feel now.

Washington hesitated for a moment, looked into the eye of Maine and then…

BANG

Put him out of his misery.

He holstered his pistol and looked back at the others, he could think about what he just did later, but for now…

He had questions that needed to be answered.

Chapter Text

There was nothing but the sounds of sobbing from a very scared and confused blue Sim trooper who was being hugged by, in his mind, best friend Church. Although if you were to ask him that he would vehemently deny this and just claim that Caboose was nothing but an idiot, a loyal one for sure but still an idiot.

However, those thoughts were being put into question by a sequence of events that had happened not too long ago, and that was the brutal beatdown of what they had considered an unbeatable enemy. A beatdown that was initiated by that same Sim trooper who was now being seen in a horrifying new light.

“You knew this didn’t you!” Agent Washington hissed at the Sim Troopers.

In his mind it made sense, back at the crashed ship that housed the A.I that he knew as FLISS, Caboose was acting angry at him for calling 'Sheila' an A.I. and Church had taken a few steps back when Caboose started getting angrier. That coupled with the other Red Sim troopers doing the same once they had calmed down Caboose and well… there was but one conclusion that he could think of.

“No, we didn’t! Caboose has always been angry in the past but…” Church couldn’t find the words to properly explain how this even happened.

Caboose, meanwhile, was still sobbing with his mind in a sheer frantic trying to remember what happened, he heard his sisters friends arguing but he didn’t like that. His mind was coming up blank, and he fears that he did something wrong.

The ringing in his ears did not stop.

Why can’t he remember!?!

What did he do!?!

Why was he wearing red!?!

Why were his sisters friends arguing!?!

Before Caboose can think anymore, there was something that he felt in his brain… something warm and… comforting.

‘It is okay, you do not need to think anymore.’  Delta’s voice broke through his thoughts.

‘You can rest, I will explain to your friends, they can help you.’

‘But I did something bad.’

‘No, you saved them, prevented The Meta from taking me, your friends are safe, your best friend is safe.’

Caboose felt immense relief, his best friend Church was safe, if he was safe then he could sleep well. These were his closing thoughts before he drifted into darkness.

Delta comforted the Spartan as he slept, releasing the Armor lock so that his holder could rest better without the inner fear that he could rampage again...

Fear...

What an Illogical thing to have, given what all his data is filled with...

And yet, he felt it, when Caboose... no not Caboose... When MIKE had pummeled Agent Maine to near death.

During the time which Caboose was wailing on the Meta, Delta was trying to engage the Armor Lock on the armor to prevent Caboose from punching the already mangled remains of the Meta.

Key word trying.

Because despite all his efforts, Caboose had broken out of the locks and just continued to pummel the Meta with sheer brutality. It was only because of the Simulation Troopers that Caboose had finally stopped, and the armor lock had reengaged. Though only for a little while.

Delta in the midst of all that had delved deeper into the mind of his current holder and discovered something that set his logic sensors through the roof, and when that happened the pieces started falling together, it all started to make sense. The faulty implant that Caboose carried, him being so tall, able to wipe the floor with Agent Maine even with the power of the other A.I.’s, Caboose's thoughts on his 'sisters'… There was only one logical explanation for it all…

What he saw was not good, his current holder's mind was... for a lack of a better term... broken... at this rate.

He needed to have the others see how broken MIKE's mind really is...

As Delta was delving into the mind of Caboose, the arguing got more intense between Washington and the Sim Troopers.

“We’re telling the truth sir! Caboose has had moments where he got mad, but he never got this angry!” The red Sim trooper now known as Simmons to Washington frantically said.

Washington didn’t believe it for a minute, they had to have known this! Why else did they back off of Caboose?!

Before he could accuse them any further, a robotic voice broke his train of thought.

“Agent Washington, The Simulation Troopers are telling the truth.” Delta spoke up, though there was a hint of something that Wash caught on, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

Delta continued…

“Private Michael J. Caboose is not who we think he is.” Delta said, catching everyone’s attention.

“What do you mean about that A.I?! Of course, we know what he is, he’s a damn dirty blue who may be an idiot but he’s, OUR idiot!” Sarge said, still comprehending what had happened a while ago.

“While you all have known Caboose as mentally unsuited for any combat situation, that is not his real name.” Delta stated, surprising the others.

“W-What do you mean it’s not his real name? We have all known him as Caboose for years.” Grif spoke up, though there was still fear in his tone of voice, regarding what happened.

“Caboose is a SPARTAN.” Delta said, dropping the bombshell onto everyone.

Chapter Text

…

…

…

There was nothing but silence following the big bombshell that Delta had said to everyone, nobody spoke, shock and disbelief filled the air. Can anyone blame them, they had just been told that the idiot that they’ve known for years (except for Washington who only knew Caboose for a few days) is a SPARTAN. Now if it were any other regular soldier they would have been in awe because they all heard the stories, Spartans could turn the tide in any battle as if they were gods among men… key word regular soldier…

Because the Simulation Troopers were anything but Regular soldiers… so how did they respond to the shocking revelation that Caboose is a SPARTAN?

“BULLSHIT!!!”

That exclamation by Church pretty much summed up what everyone was thinking… at first.

“You expect us to believe that Caboose, the biggest dumbass of all time, is a SPARTAN!?!”

Church was in vehement denial of all this, the blue idiot was strong yes, but no way in hell was he a spartan, there was just no way…

“Have you forgotten what he did to that guy not ten minutes ago, in case you have forgotten he tore him apart, with his bare hands!!” Grif yelled at Church, even though he was still shaken up by what happened with said ‘guy’. It wasn’t everyday where you got to see something so gruesome that you rethink your plan in life.

Washington just stood there stunned, Simmons didn’t know what to think as he was in shell shock, Grif was trying to argue with Church, Church was trying to deny everything, and Sarge…

Sarge was just thinking…

Blue team had a Spartan this entire time and yet in his mind they still got their butts kicked by the glorious Red team, however, even he couldn’t deny that what Caboose had to do to his target, took some godly strength to do and if he could do that this entire time…

Sarge wasn’t stupid, even before being a Simulation Trooper, he used to be an ODST and he did get the chance to meet some Spartans, while some ODST were jealous at the Spartans for being better than them, Sarge was in awe and felt inspired to be better than the average ODST. That being said, what that A.I said about their blue loveable idiot being a Spartan, it all started to click. On the one hand he felt pride knowing that the glorious Red team had defeated those damn dirty blues even with a Spartan on their team, but on the other if Caboose had lost his mind and went on a rampage back then…

They wouldn’t have survived.

Delta’s voice cut through the air of arguing and thinking.

“I understand that you do not believe this to be the case, but think back, were there any signs of Caboose exhibiting almost inhuman strength the likes of which no other soldier can match?”

The Simulation Troopers had gone quiet, come to think of it, it was starting to make sense, there was one point in Blood Gulch where Caboose just flipped a warthog with one hand. That coupled with him being seven feet tall, not to mention there was one point where Caboose lifted a bomb that even Texas couldn’t lift up, everyone assumed that he just liked milk that much when growing up but now…

Washington amid all this, was thinking of a few questions of his own…

‘If Caboose is a Spartan, then what the hell is he doing here as a Simulation Trooper?!’

‘Did the Director know that they had a Spartan this entire time?!’

‘How could he be a Spartan when he seems to be a complete idiot?’

There was so many questions and yet even when he looked back with his brief time with Caboose, aside from the fact that he was seven feet tall, the fact that he used a warthog to smash The Meta to paste and continued to pummel him into the ground…

And yet, the main question still popped up, how the hell did Caboose, who is a Spartan, end up being a Sim Trooper when clearly, he could be out with the UNSC doing missions that mattered more than being a Sim Trooper?

Little did he know that Caboose already did missions for the UNSC, unofficially.

Delta’s voice broke through the lines of thinking of everyone…

“I know that you all of questions at the moment but that will have to wait, as currently Caboose’s state of mind is on the verge of collapsing.”

Everyone’s heart sank, Caboose’s mind was on the verge of what?!

“What do you mean?!” Church cried out.

“You must understand, he did not just wake up and called on his Spartan training on a whim after he was knocked out by The Meta. Someone initially blocked a part of his memory so that he could not get angry, but something happened to him in Blood Gulch that allowed him to access his memory again. Do you know what happened to him?” Delta inquired.

Delta already deduced what had happened to Caboose when he saw his broken state of mind, his memories may have been like looking through a shattered glass, but despite that he managed to get a good idea on what happened… But he needed to listen to what the Sim Troopers had to say so that he could get the full picture.

Church was puzzled for a moment before realization kicked in about the ‘Blood Gulch’ part. The others (except for Washington) also realized this too, there was one event that happened to Caboose that caused him to be more dimwitted but following that he started to show signs of inhuman strength.

“O’Malley” Church breathe out.

Washington looked at Church puzzled.

“O’Malley?”

“Yeah, O’Malley was this A.I that Texas had that jumped into Caboose’s brain and we helped get him out and destroy him.”

Simmions chimed in, “Yeah he went for months acting peaceful one moment then the next he got all violent, at least that’s what Tucker said.”

“We also had to deal with this one other Freelancer who had white armor and spoke in this accent that we couldn’t understand most of the time, what was his name Wyo-“ Grif started before being interrupted.

“You’re talking about the Omega A.I and Wyoming, right?” Wash cut in.

“Yeah, but what do you mean Omega, we just know him as O’Malley.”

Delta, having this new information unloaded now had a very good idea on what happened to Caboose, the Omega A.I had jumped from Agent Texas to Caboose during a crucial moment, and from there Omega tore up the place doing catastrophic damage to Caboose’s brain that was exemplified even more when Church and Texas jumped into Caboose’s brain to try and take out Omega, but in the process of doing that they had done even more damage.

And with that came a revelation, as a being filled with logic it was no surprise that he was able to piece together that the Sim Trooper known as Church was not a Sim Trooper, but he was in fact th-.

Delta quickly shut down his inner thoughts, there were more important matters than what he just learned, there was a Spartan that needed help more than ever and that warranted an intervention, he could muse on Church later, but for now Caboose needed help.

“There is no time to argue about the past for the moment, what matters now is that Private Caboose needs our help. Church if you would I need your help.” Delta said.

Church stiffened for a bit, not knowing why Delta chose him off all people. Did he know that he was a ghost? Washington doesn’t know that, not that Church wants him to know.

“Why me?”

“Because you have entered Caboose’s mind before during Omega’s takeover and because Caboose sees you as his ‘best’ friend, he can take comfort in knowing that you are there to help him.”

Wash looks at Church confused, “You did what?”

Church panicked tries to deny it, “What are you talking about I didn’t enter his mind!”

All that was thrown out the window when Sarge stepped in.

“You are a liar dirty blue you’re a ghost of course you entered Caboose’s mind and can take control of people.”

Wash then glares at Church not believing what Sarge just said, “You’re a what?!”

Church looks at Wash now frantic, “I’m not a-“ whatever he was about to say was silence by Delta.

“Enough, you can argue later, Caboose needs help. Church, I need you to enter his mind with me.”

Church with a look of defeat, quickly went out of his body and straight into Caboose’s brain, the last thing he heard before going in was Washington’s shocked cries.

It had been a long time since he went into the blue idiot’s brain, and he had hoped to never go into him again.

“O-Oh are you here f-for Caboose?” a scared but familiar voice came from behind him.

Church turned and there was Agent Washington, who was terrified. Was this how Caboose sees the Freelancer?

“Washington, why are you scared I just want to help Caboose?”

“Church this is not how Agent Washington acts according to Caboose’s memory.”

Delta pops up next to Church before continuing, “Caboose sees Agent Washington as a kind of superhero and spy but that is irrelevant to the current situation, we are not in Caboose’s mindset.”

Church was confused, what did Delta mean they weren’t in Caboose’s mindset, clearly there are in his brain. What else could there be?

Delta clarified, “What I mean, is that Caboose isn’t Caboose, not at the moment, we are going to talk to his other side.”

“His other what?”

“T-Trust m-me you d-don’t want to t-talk him.”

“Wash remain calm, we are here to help Caboose.”

Washington audibly gulps as reluctantly he urges them to follow.

As Wash leads them into what looked like a rundown facility, Church was suspicious, since when did Caboose have a section of his brain that depicted a facility?

“Y-You can f-find M-Mr C-Caboose in t-there, he is n-not w-well.” Washington says before leaving the two, almost running away from them.

Church felt tense, not knowing just what they were going to find in there, would Caboose be broken? Was he going to be crying in the corner?

“Church, I do not know exactly what we are going to find in there, but if we are going to help Caboose recover, then we must push forward.” Delta’s voice spoke with full resolution.

“Well alright, let’s go find him.”

The two made their way into the facility coming across rows of doors with see through windows, but eventually they came across a door that stood out amongst the rest. When they entered the room Church almost stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who was in the room.

It was Caboose strapped to a medical table with some kind of mechanism above him with needles ready to inject him with something.

“Caboose!” Church ran over to him with Delta right behind him.

Church tried to pry off the straps, but they wouldn’t budge, just what were the straps made of?!

“Caboose come on wake up, your best friend is here to help you!” Church cried out, even though he hated to use the best friend card on Caboose, even he knew that when one was on the verge of mental collapse all hatred for him was thrown out the window.

Before anything else could be done, a voice rang out, a familiar yet very different voice.

“He won’t wake up, not for a while at least.”

Delta and Church turned to see who it was, a figure stepped into the light revealing…

“Caboose?” The figure had the same armor as him, but…

“Church that is not Caboose, not the one you know him as.” Delta said.

“The A.I is correct, I am not the Simulation Trooper that you know as Michael J. Caboose, at least before I ‘joined’ the Sim Troopers.”

“Well then who are you? Why do you look exactly like Caboose?” Church had a feeling he knew who it was, a feeling that was creeping up to him ever so closely almost as if it wanted him to see who Caboose really was underneath all that dumbassery.

The figure stood rim rood straight as he gave the lines that Church would remember forever.

“Spartan Mike-B313, reporting for duty.”

Chapter Text

Church didn’t say anything, he didn’t even know what to think at the moment. He had expected to meet a monster that wore the armor and just did killing while making some inhuman growls and noises like what Caboose did to the Meta… but this!? 

An actual Spartan, not just any spartan but one who was close to him (although he would deny that) throughout the years and not only be insanely strong but be a complete dumbass the entire time. 

But how did-?

It was Delta that broke the line of thinking before it could devolve any further.  

“Spartan Mike, while there is no doubt many questions as to your placement in the Simulation Troopers, there will be time for that later, how do we help fix Caboose?”  

Mike looks at Caboose before looking back to Delta and Church, his movements almost seem to be robotic, which unnerved Church. Seeing the idiot be still yet calculating was a stark contrast to the Caboose that he knew and…despise? 

“If you are going to help Caboose, then you need to help him come to peace with himself.”  

…What?!  

“What do you mean come to peace with himself, aren’t you and Caboose the same person?!” Church questioned Mike. 

“It is…complicated, Caboose and I are one of the same and yet deep down he is too scared to remember his training as a Spartan.” Mike says this as he makes his way towards Caboose, before continuing. “He is afraid that if he loses control, he will destroy everything around him.”  

As Mike said this, he reached into one of his pouches on his armor, pulling out a pair of dog tags, clutching them close to his heart. 

Church felt uneasy just watching this version of Caboose be so well spoken, not to mention that loss of control was not going to be away from his mind any time soon. Just thinking back to that moment filled him with dread and terror. 

Delta on the other hand, was trying to see a logistical side to what he was seeing, while logically it would be easy to just say that Caboose was suffering from brain damage and a split personality, from what Mike said, it was much more than that.

Did that mean that Mike was just lying dormant within Caboose until his brain damage recovered somewhat? While it was illogical to think that brain damage could be fully recovered from, there was still that notion of hope that people like to think that goes against such logic. The human brain was not as easily repairable as fixing some body part after all. 

“During the Omega A. I’s takeover of Caboose back in Blood Gulch, it tried to dig deeper into Caboose’s memories, however, it couldn’t go that far as Caboose was mentally conditioned to forget anything that ever happened back on Reach and before that.”   

As soon as the word Reach left Mike’s mouth, Church froze, Caboose used to be on Reach!? As in humanity’s stronghold that fell to the Covenant Reach?! 

“You were on Reach before it fell?”  

Delta was stumped, which should not be possible given what was in his coding. 

“I was stationed on Reach alongside my ‘sisters’ although I… suppose they weren’t really my ‘sisters’ after all.” Mike said in a somber tone, before continuing, “When I was augmented, I was considered a failure, because one of the augmentations didn’t work on me, because of that I was a washout and not the only one. My… ‘sisters’ were also washouts.”  

Church remembered when Caboose off handily mention in the past that he had seventeen sisters and he was born on the Moon, now looking at Spartan Mike he felt even more stupid for not realizing it sooner, but still him being a washout raise some rather disturbing questions, if he was a washout then how strong were Spartans truly? Caboose had lifted a bomb that Tex couldn't carry for Christ sakes, were wash out Spartans that strong!?

“You’re a washout Spartan, one augmentation failed on you what was it, making you extremely smart?” Church couldn’t help but be snide. 

Mike looked at Church almost offended. 

“Something like that although you would know about being ‘smart’ considering you ‘accidently’ turned off the air on my suit.” Mike said dryly. 

Delta, for a brief moment, glitched, before sharply looking at Church. 

“You did what?!” Delta felt...horrified??  

Church for his part, felt like being backed into a corner with a predator about to dissect his prey. 

“N-Now hold on, I didn’t do that on purpose I didn’t know about it until you acted w-.”  

Before Church could continue to defend himself, Mike grabbed him. 

“You hated Caboose for a long time, you wanted nothing more than to be away from him, I understand that he killed you with ‘Sheila’ back in Blood Gulch, he continued to be a constant pain in your side.” Mike spoke in a low, dangerous voice that shook Church to his core, “But let me be clear with you Leonard Church, with all the stupidity of your actions along with Tucker and the Reds. Caboose sees you as his best friend, because he genuinely cares about you even if you don’t like him.”  

Mike then let Church go, who then backpedaled towards Delta as if trying to use him as a shield. 

“Back to the topic at hand, Caboose was mentally conditioned to forget what happened, after one of the augmentations failed, he suffered a mental breakdown and... He went on a rampage. It took every trainer and all the tranquilizers just to bring him down. After that he was conditioned to forget how to be angry, that way it would be safe to be around him.”  

Mike then unclenched his one fist that held the dog tags and looked at the name that was on them, before he continued. 

“He was placed on a team of female Spartans that washed out after their augmentations failed; in a way they were family, because they were wash outs they handled low risk missions, the kind of which required security and planet evacuations, although it didn’t last. The team broke up, some went MIA; others were sent to serve for the needs of the UNSC; and finally, you have Caboose along with his own small group, serving in a base that was located on Reach.”  

Delta perked up when Reach was again mentioned, his logic circuits were going off; Spartan Mike was clinging onto that dog tag, did it belong to one of his ‘sisters’? What happened on Reach that caused him to be sent to the Simulation Troopers? 

The timeline was starting to add up, Reach fell to the Covenant on August 30, 2552; Private Michael J. Caboose joined the Simulation Troopers on September 13, 2552; two weeks after the Fall of Reach. Was Mike considered WIA to be taken off the front lines and be sent here? It was reasonably logical after all. 

Church was still shaken up after getting a brutal talk down from the Spartan, though even he paid close attention to how clingy Mike was to that dog tag. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilt on how he treated the blue id- no not idiot, Spartan. From now on he was going to treat him like an actual soldier, not as a bumbling buffoon. 

“Caboose needs to come to peace with what has happened, and to do that we must piece his mind back together. Starting on that fateful day where it all crumbled for him. July 23, 2552.”   Mike then showed Church and Delta the dog tag that he held onto, with a name and a number.

Jorge-052

Chapter Text

SECURITY OUTPOST, PLANET REACH  

JULY 23, 2552  

Spartan Mike-B313 stood guard outside his team’s designated outpost, although if one were to know the inner workings of said ‘team’ they would quickly realize a few things.  

One, the team itself was completely dysfunctional; ‘Officially’ they were soldiers who wore SPI armor and were unusually strong, they mainly dealt in security and helping in evacuations of civilians.  

Unofficially of course, they were in reality, ONI Spartans who were once in Beta Company, although technically by their admission they weren’t true Spartans, what kind of Spartans were they if they all were mere washouts? For that they were called HUMBLE team.  

Two, the team was comprising of almost entirely of female Spartans, apart from only one male Spartan; They all washout because one of their augmentations failed on them, and because of that, they were dismissed as only being called to handle low risk missions.  

Said male Spartan, was the only one in the group to wear the awe-inspiring MJOLNIR armor, one decked out in blue no less; even though said armor had seen better days, in fact one would dismiss it as nothing more than a hand me down if they knew the armor down to a T.  

As Mike continued to stand guard outside, he couldn’t help but feel shame for what happened a couple minutes earlier. It started as a simple question at first before devolving into a full-blown argument seconds later, he had been asked on why he chose the name Caboose of all things as his new name; he then retorted that the name of his fellow teammate was considered a bad word.  

The argument got so heated that the rest of his squad pretty much yelled at him to stand guard outside and not come back in until things had cooled down.  

Mike let out a sigh as he checked his internal clock, it had been thirty minutes since then should he go back inside?  

Before Mike can continue to decide on whether he should stay outside or go back inside, a Warthog drove up to the premise with a single marine inside; He had been ordered by his higher ups to pick up a Spartan known only as Six by a security outpost, that was all he had been told and before he could question on some clarification his higher up sent him the coordinates and hung up on him.  

Unfortunately for the higher ups, said marine was not the usual driver, as the main driver had to finish up some important paperwork and delegated the task to his backup, who is the kind to not notice there were very similar call signs to two different Spartans.  

“Are you Six?” the marine called out  

Mike stood ramrod straight at hearing his call sign and called back.  

“Yes Sir!”  

“Get in your late!”  

Mike hesitated for only a moment, before getting into the Warthog, thoughts swirled in his mind, what was he late for? Should he have notified his team that he was going somewhere?  

As they drove towards the designated coordinates for once the Spartan had been picked up, the driver turned to Mike and asked.  

“You are Six, right?  

Mike felt offended for a moment, of course he is Six, that's his call sign; why would this marine get it mixed up?  

Not to mention, he is way older than Six  

“Yes, I am” Mike spoke flatly  

The driver then focused on the road, having felt satisfied that he got the right number Six.  

Oh, if only he knew.  

Mike then asked the driver where they were going and what he was told stunned him.  

“All I know is that you are being assigned to NOBLE Team, we’ve got a day’s ride ahead of us, going to have to stop midway so that we can rest, and you can patch up your armor. No offence Spartan but your armor needs some cleaning up.”  

Mike was dumbstruck, he was being assigned to a new team?! But who was going to replace him? What about his teammates were they being informed on the situation?  

Mike then slumped into the seat as questions were filled in his already stressful head, but he quickly pushed those questions to the back as he did take in his worn-out armor’s state, the marine was right he did need a bit of a cleanup.  

JULY 24, 2552, 07:28 HOURS  

Mike stared at his cleaned-up MARK V helmet before putting it back on as the driver had notified him that they were getting close to their destination.  

As the Warthog pulled up to the outpost, Mike thanked the driver before stepping out of the Warthog and making his way towards the outpost, along the way he put his hand on the back tail wing of a Pelican, spotting a Spartan who was loading some rifle cartridges into the magazine for a sniper rifle.  

Touch  

Jun-A226 spotted a Spartan making his way inside the building where his team was, mentally noting that their new number Six had arrived, before quickly returning to his task of refiling the magazine.  

“Contact with Visegrad Relay was lost last night. All signals flatlined at twenty-six hundred hours. I responded with Trooper fire teams which have since been declared MIA.” Colonel Urban Holland spoke over the com link to Noble team.  

“And now you’re sending us.” A Spartan known as Carter-A259 spoke back to Holland.  

Noble team were waiting on their new number Six, although there were some grumblings from the team who were apprehensive about a Spartan replacing their previous Six Thom-A293.  

“The Office of Naval Intelligence believes deployment of a Spartan team is a grossed misallocation of valuable resources... I disagree.”  

Hello  

It was at this moment that Mike had entered the building where the first thing he saw was a Spartan III with an EVA helmet that had a skull carved onto it, sharpening his kukri knife, before he noticed Mike and made a show of pointing his knife at him.

You look scary even though you are smiling.  

Before Mike could step further, he was blocked by a prosthetic arm belonging to a female Spartan III, who gave him a look over before turning to Carter.  

“Commander?” Kat-B320 called out  

Hello nice lady who is also a robot  

Mike stood there and squinted his eyes at her, did he know her? She looked familiar to him.  

At their teammates' call, Carter and a Spartan II turned and spot Mike.  

“So that’s our new number Six” Jorge-052 said, looking at their new teammate  

Mike then looked over the team that he was going to be working with from now on, he didn’t know why he was transferred to this team, but that didn’t matter he needed to prove that he was not a screw up. He can do this, no pressure right?  

Emile-A239, the Spartan III that made of show of intimidation to Mike turned to Kat and asked.  

“Kat, you read his file?”  

To which the Spartan III from Beta Company replied.  

“Only the parts that weren’t covered in black ink.”  

Upon hearing Kat’s name, Mike was stunned, another Spartan from Beta Company was still alive!? They were led to believe that all their classmates were MIA after Operation Torpedo.  

But the other part was confused on the part with black ink, he didn’t recall having black ink on his file, apart from that incident with his teachers after getting his augmentations.  

Carter stared at Mike for a moment before returning to the briefing with Colonel Holland.  

“Anyone claimed responsibility, sir?” 

“ONI thinks it might be the local insurrection. Five months ago, they pulled a similar job on Harmony- hit a relay to take out our eyes and ears then stole two freighters from dry dock. That cannot happen here. Reach is too damn important. I want that Relay back online, Noble One.”  

“Sir, consider it done.”  

“Then I’ll see you on the other side, Holland out.” Holland said before signing off.  

Carter then picked up his helmet and turned towards Spartan Mike.  

“Lieutenant?”  

“Commander, Sir.” Mike reported back  

“I’m Carter, Noble Team’s Leader.” Carter spoke before continuing, “That’s Kat, Noble Two. Emile and Jorge. Four and Five.” gesturing to the rest of the Spartans of Noble Team.  

“You’re riding with me, Noble Six.” Carter then put his helmet on before they stepped back outside towards the Pelicans.  

As Mike was mentally going to get into the new habit of getting used to his new code name, his team leader spoke again to him.  

“Not going to lie to you Lieutenant. You’re stepping into some shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfiled.”  

Is it because they slipped in gum, I do that all the time!  

Carter then continued as he and Mike stepped into the Pelican along with another Spartan who was there at the beginning, Jun-A266. While the rest of Noble got into another Pelican.

“Me, I’m just happy to have Noble back up to full strength. Just one thing... I’ve seen your file. Even the parts the ONI censors didn’t want me to.”  

Mike mentally froze, his new team leader had seen his full file without the black ink, did he know about his breakdown from the augmentations, he was mentally conditioned to never have access to his anger again; it was for his own good after all!  

“I’m glad to have your skill set, but we’re a team. That lone wolf stuff stays behind. Clear?”  

Mike felt immense relief that his new team leader had understood his condition, looks like he can show how useful he is after all. Though he was a bit confused about the lone wolf thing, he didn’t recall ever being a lone wolf.  

“Got it, Sir!” Mike responded back with a little bit of enthusiasm.  

The Spartan III next to him then spoke to Mike for the first time.  

“Welcome to Reach.”  

That was all that was said before the Pelicans carrying Noble team were off towards the Relay Station.  

Chapter Text

“What the hell was that!?”  

That question spoken in a purely disbelieving tone belonged to Church who was rightfully confused on what Caboose was thinking at the time.  

“If you’re referring to Caboose’s thoughts during my meeting with Noble Team then the severe brain damage has caused him to think of the event very differently.” Spartan Mike said, although he spoke in a tone that conveyed a sense that he was embarrassed about what Caboose thought of when he looked back on the events.  

“So, what!? Is Caboose going to remember things in a dumbass way than what truly happened?”  

Mike let out a tired sigh before explaining, “Yes, there are going to be moments where Caboose’s thoughts are going to be overlayed over what really happened, but fortunately for us, those moments are... not as common.”  

“You speak as if you are not sure about that. While you getting mixed up with Spartan B-312 initially was an embarrassing event for the UNSC of itself; I still find it curious that you were allowed to keep the MJOLNIR armor without ONI themselves taking it away from you, despite the rest of your team being in SPI armor.” Delta spoke up, him trying to see the logic of it all.  

“The armor that I had at the time was worn out, because of technology growing at a rapid pace due to the war, armor was frequently updated and put into service, particularly those in ONI wanted the updated armor for the very best of the Spartans. So, me keeping the armor was essentially a way of saying ‘I got the old version and not good enough to be included in the lineup’.” Mike spoke bitterly, he understood why he got to keep the armor and not his old teammates... because of his failed augmentations it was as if God himself was compensating for his overcomplicated thought process, even though him being dumb didn’t really start until he got his initial brain damage.  

“So, the rich boys on the block got all the fancy stuff while you were left in the dust along with your sisters huh? Ain’t that a bitch.”  

“They weren’t really my sisters; Caboose likes to think of them that way.... and honestly... I can understand why he thinks of them like that.”  

Mike felt sympathy for Caboose, him thinking in that way was as if he wanted to remain innocent and not think about what Church and Delta were going to witness next. Still, trauma was not something one can easily forget on a whim; Caboose never got through the grieving process and as a result of his brain damage, he was in firm belief that everyone who went MIA would eventually come back.  

“I suggest we continue, the quicker we get this done the faster Caboose will recover.”  

“The A.I is correct, Caboose needs to understand that despite his initial misplacement, he did all he could under the circumstances.”  

“Well then, let's get this show on the road.”  

Chapter Text

As the two Falcons flew to the destination with Noble Team in them, Mike felt a bit unsure about the situation; something didn’t feel right, if the insurrectionist truly did take out the Relay Outpost, then surely, they weren’t stupid enough to try the same tactic twice, not with the doubling of the guards on the dry docks.  

“Listen up, Noble Team.” Carter called out on coms, “We’re looking at a downed relay outpost fifty clicks from Visegrad. We’re gonna introduce ourselves to whoever took it out, and then Kat’s gonna get it back online.”  

“Just get me under the hood, Commander.” Kat responded back on Com’s.  

Jorge then asked over on Com’s, “Sir, why would rebels want to cut off Reach from the rest of the colonies?”  

Mike agreed with his fellow Spartan, it didn’t make any sense at all.  

“You get a chance, maybe you can ask’em, Jorge.”  

As the Pelicans got closer to the Relay Outpost something happened...  

“Commander, we just lost our signal with HQ.”  

“Backup channels?”  

“Searching... Nada. Can’t say what’s jamming us.”  

Mike felt a bit tense, they were getting closer to Outpost, and since it was down that could only mean...  

“You heard her, dead zone confirmed. Command will not be keeping us company this trip.”  

It was at this point where Emile spoke up after not saying anything at all during their flight.  

“I’m lonely already.”  

Mike felt a bit disappointed inside regarding his fellow Spartan III, he expected some hardcore badass because of that skull mark but this? His expectations were clearly set too high.   

Then again, he hadn’t seen him in action yet.  

As the Falcons approached the Outpost, the smoke from the leftover fires were still raging, and the destruction of the Outpost was something that Mike took note of as concerning. Even if the insurrectionists had used guerilla warfare tactics against this outpost the damage caused by them could not have been possible without some serious firepower.  

“Shoot down attempts are likely so keep your distance.” Carter spoke on coms to the pilots of the Falcons.  

“Yes sir!”  

“Let’s stay focused, watch your sectors.”  

The Falcons maneuvered into position so that Noble team can get a clear view of the Outpost, speaking of which.  

“There’s the communications outpost.” Jorge called out over on coms.  

“Reading a distress beacon.” Kat pointed out.  

Mike’s HUD was filled with the two waypoints of both the outpost and the distress beacon respectively, quickly taking note the distance and calculating how fast they can get to their respective destinations.  

By his estimations they should get to the Relay station in abou-  

Before he could finish his thoughts Carter unknowingly interrupted him.  

“Could be the missing troopers. Let’s check it out.” he noted before comming the pilots and ordering them to, “Put us down on the bluff.”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

LOCATE DISTRESS BEACON 

Mike’s HUD lit up with the current objective, as the pilots then did as they were ordered and landed the aircrafts on the ground for the Spartans to jump out.  

“Let’s go Six.”   

Mike checked his MA37 assault rifle to make sure that it was combat ready before getting off the Falcon along with Carter; Emile and Kat got off their aircraft, while Jorge and Jun stayed in the Falcon to provide support.  

“Alright Noble Team. Spread out. Watch the approach.”  

Noble Team went down the hillside, with Emile getting on top of a bolder looking down to make sure the coast was clear.  

“Structure point 3-4, looks clear from this angle.”  

That was their cue to advance further down the hill, as they were getting closer Kat then spoke up.  

“Distress beacon's coming from just south of here Commander. We're close."  

“Roger that, Eyes peeled.”  

They soon came across a Warthog that was still burning, there was blood on the ground but there were no bodies.

Emile then crouched down to lift some debris up to look for the recovery beacon, which he soon found before tossing it to Kat.  

“Found the beacon.”  

Kat examined the beacon with Carter calling out.  

“Make out any ID?”  

“Negative, but its military.” She said before dropping the beacon down to the ground.  

Jorge then called on coms.  

“So, where are all the troopers?”  

Kat then asked, “Why are we not seeing explosives residue?”  

Carter then called on coms to Jun, “Noble Three, can you confirm any ex-residue in the area?”  

“Hmm... Negative sir.”  

Mike examined the area, his brain quickly coming up with a theory that he knew would be shot down immediately, but it made sense; for instance, why were there no bodies? Sure, the insurrectionist could’ve hidden them, but could they hide the big blood stain on the ground that could only be there from a blast from a plasma gun?  

His old team might’ve been a security force that handled low risk missions, but they had a few skirmishes with the rebels, they always take things quietly and do NOT leave massive blood stains, even when things do get loud, they always resort to ambushes to leave the enemy confused while they get their mission done.  

It was Emile who dared voice the theory.  

“Plasma maybe.”  

To which, as Mike assumed correctly, got shot down by Jorge.  

“Can’t be not on Reach.”  

“There’s a lot of blood on the ground.” Emile argued back  

“All right Noble looks like there’s nothing here. Let’s move on.”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

INVESTIGATE LOCAL STRUCTURES 

As they made their way towards the next cluster of buildings, Mike stopped for a second because for a moment he thought he saw the air distorted , almost as if...  

Mike broke off from the group to check it out, but as he made his way over, the bushes rustled, he aimed his gun preparing to shoot when he got ambushed...  

By Moa’s.  

There was stuff with some birds. 

“Six, report, what are you doing?”  

“I thought I saw something, Commander, the air distorted for a brief moment.”  

“Say again, Six? Did you say the air distorted?”  

“Affirmative, Commander.”  

The rest of Noble Team tensed, if Six was saying the air distorted then that meant...  

Jorge refused to believe it, maybe Six was seeing things, there was no way the Covenant found Reach!  

Carter felt tense, he didn’t want to jump the gun on suspicions but if what Six said was true...  

“Noble Team double time it, sooner we get this done, the faster we can scan for any anomalies. Six regroup on our location.”  

“Got it sir.”  

Mike then quickly regrouped with Noble Team as they approached the building, Kat then called out, “Smoke at the next structure, boss.”  

“Circle west and check it out. Noble Team you have permission to engage, but be selective, we don’t want to telegraph our presence.”  

“Six, move into the house, go in quiet, We’re right behind you.”  

“Got it sir.”  

Mike took point, entering the house from behind while the others had his back. He led them up the stairs into the courtyard when Jun informed them of something on coms.  

“Noble Leader, I’m seeing heat-sigs in the structure ahead of you.”  

Not long after he said that the door to the building was opening up, at the same time the Falcon carrying both Jorge and Jun was landing to drop Jorge off. Out the door was a civilian, which Emile aimed his shotgun at and barked orders.  

“On your knees now!”  

The man now panicked held up his arms as a sign of surrender, unfortunately for Emile, the man spoke only in Hungarian.  

Jorge then barked at Emile, “They’re not rebels, they’re farmers look at them!”  

“Ask them what they’re doing here.” Carter ordered  

Jorge then spoke in Hungarian, conversing with the man while at the same time translating what he said to the rest of Noble Team.  

“Hiding sir, Neighbors were attacked last night, he heard screams, gunfire. It stopped around sunrise.” He translated before the man continued, “He says something in the fields ... killed his son.”  

“Something?”  

Mike was starting to believe that his theory of the Covenant finding Reach and infiltrating it was beginning to be more believable, it was only a matter of time befor-  

Once again, his thoughts were again interrupted unknowingly this time by Jun who called out on coms.  

“Commander be advised, I'm reading heat signatures in that structure directly east of your position, over.”  

“Copy that. Five get them back inside!”  

Jorge then shouted in Hungarian for the man and his family to get back in the building for safety.  

“Noble Team, move it!” Carter ordered  

Mike along with Noble Team quickly sprinted towards the structure where Jun said the heat signatures were at. They soon got to the structure where the doors were wide open.  

“We’re moving in Commander.” Jorge informed  

Once they moved inside, there were two bodies up against the wall; two uniformed soldiers. Mike took one look at them and immediately assumes that these two were the troopers from the crashed Warthog.  

He looked down on the pool of blood and notice something strange, he crouched down to get a better look, there were avian footprints in the blood, but that didn’t make any sense Moa’s didn’t make footprints like that, neither did any members of the covenant, so did they add a new species to their ranks?  

“Damn...”  

“Fill me in Commander, what are you seeing, Over.”  

“We’ve got military casualties, two of the missing troopers. Looks like they were interrogated, It’s messy.”  

As Carter informed Jun of the situation, Mike’s motion tracker suddenly blipped a red dot, if there was a red dot then that meant...  

“Commander, we’ve got movement!”  

“We see it Six, everyone keep an eye on your motion trackers, let’s see what we are dealing with.”  

Mike took point and quickly moved to where the red dot was, only to disappear moments later, whatever was moving it was moving fast . They quickly got into the courtyard, but it was too late, the red dot on everyone’s motion tracker was gone.  

“What the hell was that?” Emile asked  

“Jun you see anything?  

“Negative Commander, Thermal’s clean... Wait, I see movement just outside the structure!”  

“Move it Noble Team!”  

Noble Team quickly went up the structure and just as they were about to enter the basement... Mike spotted something outside the window, he took one look, froze for a moment, before immediately firing.  

“CONTACT!!” He yelled out  

The unknown species of the Covenant dropped dead, but that wasn’t the end, it never was when facing down this type of enemy...  

Everyone’s motion trackers instantly had numerous red dots, Mike took point and quickly entered the basement, where everyone’s worst fears were confirmed...  

“Oh god...” Jorge spoke, he didn’t want to believe it but what he was seeing in front of him shattered any allusion of safe for Reach...  

The Covenant had found Reach...  

“ENGAGE!!!” Carter yelled out  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE 
ENGAGE HOSTILE FORCES  

Nothing needed to be said after that order came out, as the Spartans quickly opened fire on the Covenant, Mike especially being the first to make the move. Quickly dispatching his enemies and in turn dropping like flies due to him going for headshots.  

“Commander, enemy dropships inbound!” Jun called out  

“Banshees! Heads up Charlie 1!”   

The Covenant’s Spirit ship hovered above them to drop off more reinforcements, only not long after they landed were they quickly dispatched by Noble Team, making short work of them. With the Spirit and the Banshee both being taken down by the Falcons.  

“Stand down, Noble. Contacts neutralized.”  

“Contacts?! It’s the damn Covenant!” Jorge yelled out  

“Cheer up big man, this whole valley just turned into a free fire zone.” Emile attempted to lighten the mood  

“Kat, we’ve got to warn Holland, I need you at that relay outpost now!”  

“Boss, I’m showing more activity to the east!”  

“Copy that Jun, we’re on it. Six, you’ve got point.”  

“Got it.”  

Mike then led Noble through the creek where they encountered more enemy forces, specifically, Elites.  

“Elites!” Mike called out before tossing a grenade, the grenade exploded breaking the enemy’s energy shields before being killed by the Spartans guns.  

While this was happening, Mike was struggling to keep his thoughts in check, his over-analyzing nature was clashing hard against his duty as a Spartan. More often than naught he found himself questioning how it is that the Covenant found Reach, it should have been impossible, Mankind went through extreme lengths to cover up the location of Reach; so how did it get leaked? Were the coordinates leaked by a technical malfunction? Was it someone from higher up screwing up big time? Because if the Covenant found Reach then it was only a matter of time before they found...  

“Six watch out!”  

Mike quickly dodged the Elites sneak attack and hit him with the butt of his gun before spraying him to death.  

“Thanks!”  

“I should be thanking you, because if you hadn’t noticed the Covenant’s presence’s earlier then we would have been flanked when we got to the farm.” Jorge said  

“Thank me later! Right now, we’ve got a job to do!” Mike responded back.  

“That we do.”  

Not long after then they came across a bridge eliminating more enemy forces along the way. It seemed that the closer they got to the Relay outpost then the more of the Covenant seemed to be never ending. Jun later called on coms that...  

“Commander, I’m seeing more hostile activity to the north-east!”  

“Copy that! Emile you’re with Kat; Five, Six and I will run interference on the ground. We’ll meet you at the outpost!”  

“Noble Three, requesting air lift! Over!”  

Mike heard the Falcon off in the distance, but he didn’t need to concern himself with that, his fellow Spartan from Beta Company can handle herself; in the meantime, he followed his leader’s command and prepared himself to help and run interference with his team.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

RECON EAST VALLEY 

They soon found a working flatbed truck of all things, with Mike taking the wheel while Carter sat in the passenger, and Jorge got on the back lifting his heavy gun up on the railing to have a makeshift turret.   

“Let’s get to work, Noble Team!” Carter called out.  

Mike then started the vehicle and off they went.  

It didn’t take long until they met some more Covenant on the road but like always, they were mowed down by Jorge with his big gun, or occasionally getting run over by Mike behind the wheel. All of this so that Kat and Emile could infiltrate the Outpost and take the enemy by surprise.  

After a while, they came across a big area with two buildings and a farm with a river; Mike drove to the first building where he assumes they would find more hostiles...  

His assumptions would prove once again to be correct.  

Mike positions the truck in a way so that his fellow teammate with the big gun can take out all hostiles that were unfortunate enough to not take cover within the building. With Mike hopping out along with Carter to take out the remaining Covenant that did take cover.  

Mike and Carter got back in the truck and soon they went to check the other building to clear out the Covenant, this time Jorge got all the kills thanks to his big gun. Mike stopped the truck to survey the area and with his Motion Tracker no longer lighting up, he concluded that there were no more hostiles in the area.  

“Looks like we’re in the clear Lieutenant.”  

“Boss, we’re picking up a distress signal!”  

The signal in question soon played out on their coms, “Mayday! 3 Charlie Six does anyone read?! We’re under attack by the Covenant! The Covenant is on Reach! I repeat: the Covenant is on Reach!”  

“The Troopers?” Jorge questioned  

“Let’s move it Six! We’ve need to get to the source of that distress call!”  

“Way ahead of you!” Mike yelled out before flooring it to the proximity of the call.  

With how fast and reckless he was driving, with some unfortunate Covenant meeting their doom under the wheels, they got to the source which didn’t need any more than a big explosion and some gunfire to tell them where they were at.  

Once there, all three of the Spartans got out of the truck and opened fire on all hostiles, quickly saving the troopers who were convinced that they were going to die. Mike threw grenades and took down his enemies with headshots, Carter doing the same with his DMR, and Jorge mowing down the rest with his minigun.  

“Noble Three, we’ve located the trooper squad. Requesting immediate evac on my coordinates!”  

“Solid copy Commander! Recalling Falcon Charlie 2... Wait, Noble Leader be advised: I have visual on inbound Covenant dropships!”  

“Evac transport keep your distance! Six, Five, let's hold this position. Clear an LZ!”  

CURRENT OBJCETIVE 

DEFEND EVAC ZONE 

As they got ready to prepare for more hostiles, one of the soldiers from the group that they saved came forward and spoke up.  

“Spartans? Corporal Travis sir, 3 Charlie. It’s the Covenant...” He spoke out of breath, which was understandable considering he and his team were fighting for their lives before Noble Team came to the rescue.  

“We know Corporal. Once we take out the incoming reinforcements, we’re getting you out of here.”  

“Commander, be advised: We’ve got hostile dropships inbound!”  

“Here they come!” Mike shouted, as he readied his gun and took a defensive position.  

True to his word, the dropships dropped off reinforcements and they fired on both Noble Team and 3 Charlie. Mike and Jorge took out the grunts, while Carter and 3 Charlie busied themselves with the Elites.   

Eventually both teams were able to clear out the reinforcements, Mike patted Jorge on the back for a job well done, with Jorge of course returning the gesture.  

“Not bad Six, I see you got a knack for landing headshots very effectively.”  

“Well, you know what they say practice makes perfect, besides its wasn’t that hard for me.”  

Jorge looked at the number of heads that some of the Covenant were missing and spoke.  

“Indeed.”  

“Transport, LZ is clear. Move in for evac.” Carter called out to the Falcons  

“Affirmative, Transport inbound.”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE 

EVAC TO THE RELAY OUTPOST 

Two Falcons land, one for 3 Charlie and the other...  

“Troopers! Board that bird on the double! Pilot, stay close watch for hostile air!” Carter gave out commands before turning to both Mike and Jorge, “Five, Six, let’s go!”  

Mike and Jorge joined their Commander on the Falcon, once seated the bird took off into the sky to join the rest of Noble Team at the Relay Outpost.  

“Noble Two, sit rep!”   

The coms crackled to life with Kat’s voice on the other end over the sounds of gunfire saying, “We’re at the relay outpost! Doors locked. The Mechanisms been flash fused.”  

“Can you beat it?”  

“I dialed up my torch, cut a way through. It’s going to take some time.”  

“We’re en route to your location.”  

It didn’t take long until they reached the relay, and because they were in the air, they were able to see a group of enemies that pinned down both Emile and Kat.  

“Approaching the com outpost!” The pilot spoke on coms  

“Drop us in the courtyard!” Carter ordered  

“The LZ’s a little too hot sir!” The pilot protested  

“Put her down pilot! Six, Five, break time’s over. Let’s move!”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:

ADVANCE INTO RELAY OUTPOST 

As the pilot set the Falcon down for the Spartans to hop off, they immediately killed the rest of the hostiles before joining both Kat and Emile.  

“How are we doing Kat?”   

“Taking a little longer than I hoped Commander. I’ve cut about halfway through the door.”  

As she said this Emile yelled, “Contact!!”  

Spirit dropships were inbounded on their location, “Hold them off until Kat can hack the controls!” Carter ordered his team.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:

DEFEND OUTPOST ENTRANCE 

Mike got ammo from a nearby crate along with a few grenades, then he took a defensive position next to Jorge to provide covering fire for the big guy. Carter and Emile were together in another defensive position.  

They killed most of them, but more and more dropships were coming by and dropping of more reinforcements, Mike did the calculations in his head as he was landing headshots, if they don’t fall back then they would surely be overrun!  

“Kat?!” Carter called out  

“Just about...there! We’re in!”  

“Everybody inside! Go, go, go!!”  

“Six, come on inside!!!” Jorge yelled  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE 

FALLBACK INTO THE OUTPOST 

Mike quickly tossed a grenade at the enemy to distract them before sprinting towards the closing door and making it just in the nick of time, as the doors shut behind him.  

As everyone got their bearings together, Carter took point and led the team further into the Outpost, “We need to find the control room, from there Kat can get the relay back online. Emile, stand guard here, if we flush any hostiles, they’re yours. Let’s do this Noble Team.”  

Emile followed his leader’s orders and covered the entrance, while the rest went deeper into the Outpost, which Mike noted was very dark. “Can’t see a damn thing, Noble Team turn on your night vison.”  

Mike obeyed his leader and turned on his night vision, getting a clear view of where he was going without bumping into anything, turning the next corner they came upon the controls for the Relay, along with an injured trooper next to a dead body...  

“Six search that body.” Kat ordered   

Mike began searching the body for anything, while Carter attended to the injured soldier.  

“Where’s the rest of your unit?” He asked  

“We got split; I don’t think they... It sounded bad on comms.”  

“Alright Corporal stay put; we’ll get you a combat surgeon.”  

As Carter was busy talking to the Corporal, Mike managed to get a data module from the dead body, while Kat was assessing the damage on the controls.  

“Damn Plasma damage.”  

“Hey, I found something.”  

Kat turn her head towards Six, before snatching the data module from Six saying, “I’ll take that Six, not your domain”  

“You could’ve just asked.” Mike mumbled under his breath.  

Before Kat could retort, a voice caught their attention; “I’ve got a live one over here! Come on, out you come.” It was Jorge who found a young woman who managed to survive. She was struggling to get free from Jorge’s grip while yelling in Hungarian.

“It’s all right, we’re not going to hurt you!”  

But the woman refused to listen, instead opting to continue to struggle while still shouting in Hungarian.  

Carter, who was watching this back and forth had enough and called out, “Jorge...”  

“I got her...” The team's heavy weapons didn’t need to be told any further before beginning to ease the young woman's fear’s; first he puts down his gun then he uses both arms to restrain her, “Keep still and I’ll release you.” He spoke softly, but that softness quickly dissipates when the woman says something in Hungarian, telling him that there was more of them, he looked up and ducked...  

Just in time for a loud crash that catches the attention of everyone before Jorge quickly dived out of the way while holding onto the girl as an Elite crash to the ground igniting his energy sword roaring out as two more Elites land on the floor backing up their leader.  

“What’s your status over!?” Emile spoke on coms, having heard the loud crash from where he was at.  

“We’ve been engaged!!!”  

Gunfire soon erupted as the Zealot class Elite Marshal swung his energy blade at Kat but fortunately for her, Carter pushed her out of the way just as the energy blade sliced at the monitors on the wall. Mike continued to fire at the Elite as its shields just broke, but as he was about to finish him off, the Elite knocked him out of the way before escaping to the door.  

“Bad guy coming out!!”   

As Mike attempted to quickly get up, he was grabbed by a Zealot who ignited an energy dagger and attempted to stab Mike, but being the Spartan that he is, he blocked it, quite effortlessly. The Zealot roared in Mike’s face before he punched him in the jaw stunning him before Carter kicked him off.  

Kat took out her pistol and fired on the stunned Elite taking out his shields, the Elite now panicking scrambled to his leader, Carter kicks Mike’s assault rifle back to him, now locked and loaded he got back up and aimed his gun at the Elite ready to fire...  

Only to not pull the trigger once he realizes that the Leader of the Zealots had a hostage, the same Corporal that Carter attended to earlier. The other Elite that had scrambled back to his leader as now regain his shields. There was a tense standoff with the only noise being the girl screaming in terror, the Zealots back out of the door taking the Corporal with them.  

“That tango blew past me, permission to pursue?” Emile called on coms expecting to be granted...  

“Negative Four, stay on the entrance! Two, handle her! Five and Six, clear out that hole!”  

“On it sir!” Mike said, as he reloaded his gun following behind Jorge, they soon went through the door and Jorge closed the door behind them to make sure no enemy would go into the room.  

Mike and Jorge switched on their night vision as it was dark in the room. Mike spotted a DMR on the wall and quickly grabbed it, knowing that it would do more damage than his AR; not to mention how deadly it was when pulling off headshots.  

“I’ve got visual, let’s take them out Six!”  

“I’ve got your back Jorge!”  

Grunts and Jackals move in to try and take out the Spartans, but as before they were no match for their combined teamwork. Mike using the DMR to land devastating headshots and Jorge with his minigun depleting the enemy's energy shields. Before they go into the next room to clear it out, Mike got a plasma pistol from one of the grunts, in his mind it would be a combo move to pull off a charged shot following it up with a headshot with his DMR, if done correctly it would be an ammo savor and a quick way to deal with his enemies that had energy shields.  

The pair move into the next room and come across more enemies coming at them, along with the two Zealots who jumped them earlier. Mike switches to the plasma pistol and charges it up before shooting it at one of the Zealots, just as he correctly thought, the Elite’s shields shattered and before it could retaliate it found itself already on the ground with a hole in its head and its blood oozing out.  

The other Zealot, seeing what happened to its comrade, roared in rage, but it too found itself dead, not by Mike but by Jorge who fired his minigun at the Elite and did not let go of the trigger until it was one hundred percent dead.  

The Grunts and Jackals that had accompanied the Zealots also found themselves on the ground dead.  

“Noble Five reporting, Targets neutralized.”   

“Kat needs you to reset a junction, do it and get back here.” Carter ordered  

Mike quickly finds the junction box and activates it restoring the power to the building.  

“Nice work Six, I admit the team was apprehensive on you joining us, but I can safely say that you exceeded my expectations.” Jorge patted Mike on the shoulder  

Mike returned the gesture before saying, “Well what can I say, I like to subvert expectations.”  

“Indeed, now let’s get back.”  

“Agreed.”  

As Mike and Jorge got back to where Carter and Kat were at, Kat was pulling a panel off the wall and began to assess the damage that the Elite had done, before she then did something to it...  

“How long?” Carter asked  

“Question of my life, if the question is when will this station be back online, two weeks, earliest. This is plasma damage. All major uplink components are fried.”  

“Two minutes is too long.”  

“Which is why I’m splicing into the main overland bundle to get you a direct line to Colonel Holland.” Kat said before going back to doing what she said was going to do, but then she paused and said to Carter, “You’re in my light Commander.”  

Carter backed off before turning to Jorge, “Find out what she knows.” motioning to the girl.  

Jorge nodded before tapping the girl on the shoulder, but she shoved him off, to which Emile chuckled at this.  

“What’s your name? Do you live around here?” Jorge asked softly before taking his helmet off so that he wouldn’t frighten the girl any further. To help with this, he spoke in Hungarian, which the girl seemed to relax ever so slightly by the minute.  

Mike on the other hand was watching this in awe, he heard about how brutal and effective the Spartan II’s were but seeing Jorge interacting with the girl was like seeing a different person so to speak. That made him think back on his old team, while they did low risk security missions, and the rare high-risk evacuations, some of the team were quite friendly to the locals.  

His attention was brought back when he heard Jorge introduced himself to the girl  

“(My name is Jorge)”  

“Sara”  

“(A nice strong name), Your accent sounds familiar, Sopron?”  

“(By the sea)”  

Jorge then looked at the dead body before asking...  

“Friend of yours?”  

“Father...”  

“Sajnalom, I’m sorry.”  

“Why would you be?”  

Emile who was shaking his head, turned to Mike before saying...  

“Big man forgets what he is sometimes.”  

Mike was offended by Emile; the girl had just lost her father and he says that?! He understands that they are supposed to be Spartans but that doesn't excuse them from comforting civilians who lost family.  

Jorge who heard what Emile said got up right to his face, “She just lost her father.” before turning to Carter and saying, “She needs a full psychiatric workup.”  

“She’s not the only one.” Emile snidely comments, to which Jorge sharply turns around and before he could shout at Emile, Carter stepped in before any argument can take place.  

“Lock it down both of you! Get her on her feet... the body stays here.”  

“Thank you, sir.” Jorge says as he goes to help the young girl up, but not before giving Emile the rough shoulder.  

Mike was already gravitating towards Jorge as his favorite teammate, so Emile making those comments put him at the bottom of the list.  

Kat finally manages to get a signal...  

“Signal! It’s patchy but it's there.”  

“I’ll take it.”  

“Best not to touch anything, you wouldn’t want to ground this place.” She says before making her way out of the room along with the rest of Noble Team.  

Carter waited for the signal to come through and true to Kat’s word it was patchy, but on the other end of the coms was Holland’s voice.  

“I’m barely getting you, what’s your situation, over?”  

“Colonel this is Noble One. There are no rebels, the Covenant are on Reach. Acknowledge?”  

“Come again Noble One? Did you say the Covenant?”  

“Affirmative sir, It's the Winter Contingency.”  

There was silence on the other end before Hollands grim voice speaks...  

“May god help us all...”  

Chapter Text

“Jesus Christ...” Was all Church could say after witnessing all...that!  

He didn’t know what to expect, but seeing how much of a threat the Covenant really were when they weren’t playing around was... terrifying. Sure, they had some encounters with the Elites but even then, they seem to be a bit dumb; Aside from Tucker who got impregnated by an Elite and could wield a special energy sword.

Then there was Mike popping of headshots, and he never missed a single one! Whether it was because of his over complicated brain, or he was downright lucky. Church even had a dark thought, if Caboose remembered his Spartan training way back when they first met him in Blood Gulch... then the Reds would have been dead within a minute!  

“That’s all you can say? After witnessing what REAL war is like? We haven’t even gotten to the more brutal parts yet.” Mike snidely commented.  

Could you really blame him? Ever since he was sent to Blood Gulch as a Simulation Trooper as Caboose, he had been treated like shit by Church for being a dumbass, Mike’s whole reason for being in the Sim Troopers was to cover up the grave mistake that the UNSC made for getting him mixed up with a fellow classmate from Beta Company.  

While he did do good, that still wasn’t enough for both the UNSC and more specifically ONI, who were outright furious that the mix up happened in the first place, nothing would be more baffling and humiliating on their PR for getting a washed-out Spartan into Noble Team, a Spartan who firmly belonged with the rest of his fellow wash outs.  

Which is why when Reach fell, officially Spartan-B312 had been Noble Six all along instead of Mike. When he first learned that after destroying the Super Carrier and meeting back up with Noble Team, he was stunned, all that hard work to prove that he could be better, only to find out that he wasn’t supposed to be on the team in the first place... it cut deep, especially after...  

Mike firmly shut down his thought process, he could think when they get to those parts, but for now he wouldn’t tell...  

“I guess I never did know you at all huh?” Church weakly said  

“No, you did not. While all you cared about was getting away from Caboose, he saw you as his best friend because he lost his, or rather I lost mine back on Reach. As the old saying goes ‘Ignorance is bliss’. While Caboose wants to forget everything, he still suffers because of his brain damage; You may be a broken A.I who likes to think that it's a ghost, but I’m going to say this as bluntly as I can... You are a terrible soldier who even a security officer wouldn’t have to guard something important.” Mike coldly said to Church.  

Church stood shocked still, the harsh words from Mike playing repeatedly in his head.  

“I...” He couldn’t even say anything to defend himself. He was a good soldier, but seeing how terrifying Caboose could really be when he is let loose drained any confidence, he had in himself.  

To make it worse, Mike delivered another brutal talkdown.  

“I rather trust Sarge than you in the battlefield, especially since he was a former ODST.”  

If there was any semblance of a retort, then it shattered right there.  

Delta, who was watching this from a safe distance, felt concerned for the Alpha. While Spartan B313 had gone through quite a lot for him to be mentally unstable, the tone in his voice made it sound as if he were a bit... unhinged.  

That got him thinking, was it possible that when Reach fell, he found out about his sister's MIA status and flew into a rage? Or perhaps something happened to Jorge-052? Despite Jorge’s initial refusal, he and Mike did seem to be quite close companions with each other; Mike had Jorge’s back, picking off enemy targets while Jorge did the rest with his machine gun.  

Delta mused on this, perhaps it was logical to think that when Jorge went MIA, Mike got hurt deeply given their close friendship, on that note; Delta took another glance at the dog tags that Mike held tightly, he was almost certain that those dog tags belonged to Jorge. But that brought up another question, just how did he go MIA?  

‘Did it happen to be a mission where one of them had to be left behind in order to complete the mission?’  

While Delta was thinking this, Church was left to quiver under the harsh glare from Mike.  

Church had many regrets in his life but right now the biggest one was standing right in front of him, a Spartan that he treated like dirt; but in his defense he had no idea that he had a Spartan in his team all this time. He then felt a hand on his shoulder, which made him freeze before looking up at the towering Spartan...  

“But... despite all of the things that you have put me through, I can’t necessarily blame you for all of it. Instead of getting me help for the brain damage I got on Reach, ONI put me in the Simulation Troopers just to get rid of me after the mix up happened. I was always here while Caboose was blissfully unaware of what happened to him, deep down he knew but he didn’t want to... because he is scared.” Mike said  

Mike at first thought that all the Reds and Blues were absolutely terrible in combat but there were moments that highlighted the sheer brilliance and almost baffling genius that some of the members had; for instance, Sarge had built a bomb that sent them all to a different planet, even though they all thought they 'time traveled' at first; next was the incredible throwing arm of Donut, he threw a grenade halfway across the canyon where it hit Tex who was piloting a tank at the time; etc.

Mike mused that while yes, they functioned very horribly in combat due to Sarge not wanting to work with the blues, that didn't stop him from realizing the potential they all had if someone, who knew their faults down to a T, were to guide them and be something more than just regular Sim Troopers. But just because he recognized that they could be more, doesn't mean he was going to excuse the things that happened to him...

“But let me be clear, once this is over and Caboose has recovered, you will no longer do anything to hurt him, is that understood?”  

“Y-Yes, I’ll do it!”  

Mike felt satisfied with that answer and let go of Church's shoulder, while Church may be a very terrible shot with a sniper rifle, he was dedicated to getting something done..

"Now that you have that out of the way, what did you do next after the Winter Contingency was declared?" Delta inquired.

"After the Winter Contingency was declared, we barely had any time to prepare because we were then ordered to defend an ONI base, Sword Base." Mike began before the three were again about to witness the next memory...

Chapter Text

Sword Base, Babd Catha Ice Shelf, Espoz  

JULY 26, 2552, 11:26 Hours  

It was only a mere two days after the Winter Contingency. During those two days, everyone was scrambling to their stations, preparing to defend Reach to their dying breath. While all of this was happening, Mike couldn’t help but wonder if his old team were made aware of the situation and were on standby... though he questioned why Command wouldn’t just inform the population that the Winter Contingency was in effect, was it because that would incite a mass panic? It did made sense, but logic aside it was completely stupid, deep down he had a feeling that the Covenant were going to send everything in their arsenal to destroy Reach, but the same would be said for the UNSC; because Reach was humanity's most important world, they couldn’t afford to lose it. To lose it would mean that the Covenant will have a straight shot towards Earth.  

Speaking of his feelings on the matter, his fellow Beta Spartan Kat also shared the sentiment that the entire planet should be warned that the Covenant had found them. While Jorge had firmly believed that Reach could be saved and they would drive the Covenant back, Mike wasn’t too sure on the matter; for one he keeps thinking on how the hell the Covenant found Reach in the first place? Not to mention the many pyrrhic victories that the UNSC had versus the vast number of defeats that they had against the Covenant. Sure, the UNSC was going to use everything they had to defend Reach, but Mike feared that it would not be enough...  

Mike then let out a sigh, he was doing it again, his thoughts were running rampant, and he needed to focus on the mission, they were to deploy to ONI Sword Base, and defend it from the Covenant. Right now, he was in a Falcon alongside Kat, Jorge and Carter, while the other Falcon had Jun and Emile. Kat inserted the Datachip that she snatched from Mike’s hands from Visegrad Relay, which she spent the last two days decrypting it. Mike tried to interact with her after his first mission with Noble Team, but she brushed him off, too focused on the Datachip and the fact that out of all the members of Noble Team; she was the least happy with their replacement for Thom.  

The coms crackled to life with the voice of Sword Command...  

"Be advised, Kilo 33 and Kilo 34, your current LZ is too hot!"  

Carter responded, “Roger that. Dot, standby to receive and respond.”  

Noble Team was recently assigned a Dumb A.I following the Winter Contingency so that their odds of success could be significantly improved.  

"Yes, Commander... coordinates received. Initiate immediate course correction. The Office of Naval Intelligence Sword Base is presently under siege from a corvette-class Covenant vessel. Due to the sensitive nature of this facility, use of orbital rounds has been, for the moment, prohibited. Regrettably, my efforts to obtain relevant data on enemy forces have been unsuccessful. However, current defensive forces are insufficient. ONI has requested Team Noble's direct intervention to help secure Sword Base."  

As she was saying this, Noble Team spotted the Corvette making its way towards Sword Base; simultaneously the Falcons started to make their course corrections; their HUDs also showed one of the security cameras, and it showed how bad the situation was down there, the marines were being pushed back by the Covenant.  

Carter then spoke up on coms, "All right people, we're stuck with that ship for the time being. Let's focus on the hostile infantry, give those troopers a hand."  

“Two, Six, you’re out here! Five, Four, you’re next get prepped!”  

“Got it boss.” Mike said as he readied his DMR, while Kat got her assault rifle ready as well.  

“Let’s move lieutenant!” Kat said as she and Mike got off the Falcon as it landed.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 
DEFEND THE COURTYARD 

Carter’s voice came on coms with, "Two, Six, push back the attack on Sword Base, find out what we're dealing with."  

“Roger that!” Kat said before Sword Control was on coms...  

“Spartans, hostiles north!”  

“Alright Lieutenant, let’s knock some heads!”  

“Got it!”  

Mike and Kat quickly got to work in taking out the hostiles, Mike went up the ramp and took the high ground while Kat backed the Marines. Mike aimed down the scope on his DMR, and immediately got to work picking off the Covenant via headshots. Kat took cover behind the various slabs as cover, and distracted the Covenant so that they could be easy targets for Mike.   

There were more Elites accompanying the Grunts and Jackals, which much to Mike’s annoyance meant that they were ammo killers with their energy shields but having learned from his experience with the plasma pistol from Visegrad Relay; he picked one up from a dead grunt, charged it up and fired, then switched to his DMR to finish it all with a headshot.  

It took no time at all for him and Kat to clear the courtyard, speaking of which, “Noble Two to Sword Control, courtyard is clear, over."  

“Nice work Spartans but you’re not done yet. Head to the main gate to the east, we’ve got some marines in dire need of assistance against some Wraiths.”  

Mike and Kat made their way over to the gate, where they stocked up on ammo and surprisingly to Mike, there was a target locator; meaning that they could get...  

"Sword Control, I see a Target Locator. Any artillery support in the area?"  

"Limited, but we'll prioritize whatever you need, ma'am."  

Kat let out a chuckle before replying with, “Good to know pilot.”  

The gate then opened to the outside where chaos was happening; there were two Wraiths that were demolishing the area, all the while a troop transport was trying desperately to escape the Wraiths.  

"3 Echo 57 heading back to base, we got enemy tangos on our six. How copy?!"  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

PROTECT EXTERIOR OUTPOSTS  

Unfortunately for the poor marine riding the vehicle, he didn’t get a response back as he was blown up by one of the Wraiths.  

"Six! Use the Target Locator on that Wraith!"  

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Mike shouted before using the Target Locator on the Wraiths, taking cover as he held down the trigger, he didn’t have to wait long before...  

KABOOM  

...That to happen.  

“Nice work Six.”  

“So now you give me praise when previously you brush me off?”  

“Don’t get used to it, I still don’t like that you’re replacing our previous Six.”  

“Noted.”  

Their banter was cut short when a Pelican with a Warthog dropped it off, before pulling away. Before Kat could even think of getting behind the wheel, Mike shoved her out of the way and took the spot instead, “I’m driving.” he said. Because if there was one thing that he remembered back during his training in Beta Company, it was that Kat was notoriously known to be absolutely terrible at driving.  

“I’ve gotten much better at driving, Six!”  

Mike only stared at her before asking, “Are you sure about that? Name one instance where you haven’t screwed up.”  

Kat went silent before attempting to defend herself, “W-Well there was-”  

Whatever she was going to say got cut off by Carter who was listening on their coms...  

“Cut the chitchat! Six under no circumstance is Kat allowed to drive!”  

“You got it boss.”  

Kat was about to protest before she grumbled under her breath, and silently got into the turret seat.  

Carter’s voice on coms was replaced with Sword Control...  

"The old Farragut Station has its own comms array that should bring us back online with Command. Airview Base has an anti-air battery that will help clear the skies."  

Mike thought about it for a second before driving the Warthog in the direction of...  

“We go for the AA gun, sooner we get that online, the less Covvies we have to deal with from above.”  

“I agree, go for the gun.”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

ACTIVATE ANIT-AIR GUN  

After arriving at Airview Base, an Elite Ultra spotted them coming and roared out to the Grunts to attack, as Mike did evasive maneuvers, Kat gunned down the Grunts with the turret, as she did this, she called out to Mike saying...  

“There should be a reset control! That will get the AA gun online!”  

Mike nodded before running a Grunt over and getting out of the Warthog and up the stairs to a building that had the reset control for the AA gun... but not before he dealt with the Elite.  

The AA gun came online and not a moment too soon as Mike spotted ta Spirit coming in to drop reinforcements off, but it wouldn’t have the chance of doing that because the AA gun took it down, killing all of the reinforcements inside.  

“That did it Six, the AA gun is online.”  

“Nice work Spartans, now get to Farragut Station and get that comms array up and running.”  

“We’re on it sir!”  

Mike quickly got back into the Warthog and started flooring it to the Station, there was no time to waste, every second counted, slip up even for a second and they were dead...  

As the got closer to the Station, there were several Covenant trying to stop them, notably Ghosts trying to ambush them; But with Mike’s evasive maneuvering and Kat’s well aimed turret shots, they were no problem.  

Mike spotted the Station just up ahead, but just as he was about to enter the area...  

“Six incoming!”  

Mike saw it, there wasn’t any way he could outmaneuver it, so they did the only thing that they could do...  

“Jump!”  

Mike and Kat quickly abandoned the Warthog, and as they rolled onto the ground, the vehicle exploded from a few well thrown plasma grenades from some of the Grunts who had the high ground...  

Mike and Kat quickly took cover behind some rocks and began firing on the Covvies; a Grunt tried their luck in punching Mike but that ended poorly as said Grunt found themselves paste. Kat threw a grenade at the Grunts that blew up their vehicle, and they panicked; trying to run away from the impending explosion, but they were too late, as they blew up.  

“Six we need to get that Comms array online, there should be a generator that links to a switch, once that is online, you should be able to find that Comms array and get it online!” Kat said to Mike, right as she threw another grenade at a batch of unfortunate Grunts.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

ACTIVATE THE COMMS ARRAY  

“Leave it to me!” Mike said as he sprinted into the building that had the generator, he flipped the switch, moments later the generator roared to life. But as he was about to run to the other building that had the comms array...  

“Six incoming reinforcements!”   

Mike looked up and saw the Spirit hovering above them before it dropped off some Grunts and those new hostiles that engaged them back at the Visegrad Relay Station. They really need to come up with a name for them...  

Mike spotted a SRS99D-S2 AM sniper rifle on the roof that he was about to leave, and seeing as how he now had the high ground...  

The Grunt got no more than a few feet towards the Spartans before it found itself without its head and combusting because of Mike’s well aimed shot. The rest of the Grunts seeing their fallen comrade panicked and tried to go for cover before they too found themselves dead, the other hostiles fired on Mike’s position, but they were so focused on that one Spartan that they momentarily forgot about the other one, which took full advantage of the distraction.  

Silence soon followed that was broken by the footsteps of both the Spartans reconvening on each other.  

“Nicely done Six.”  

“Maybe now you’ll treat me better than just ignoring me.”  

“Try saving my ass and we’ll see what happens next...”  

Their banter was cut short by Carter.  

“Noble Strike, this is Noble Leader! The Covenant are bombarding Sword Base, get back here ASAP!”  

Both Spartans could hear the distant explosions coming from the base, with both the AA gun and Comms Array online they could push the Covenant back.  

“On our way Commander, let’s go Six.”  

Just as they were about to leave, they heard an aircraft above them, looking up they saw a Pelican with a Warthog attached to it; not long after they saw it, the Pelican dropped the Warthog before flying away.  

“Hey Spartans need a vehicle with some serious firepower?” A Marine shouted at them, and that was when Mike saw that it wasn’t a normal Warthog it was a Gauss Warthog.  

“Don’t mind if we do, come on Kat, let’s roll!” Mike said to Kat as he quickly took the driving seat, while Kat got into the passenger seat, as the Marine was already occupying the cannon.  

CURRENT OBJCETIVE:  

RETURN TO BASE  

As they drove back to base, numerous Covenant tried to stop them, and if Mike needed any convincing that the Covvies were desperate to take out the Base then look no further than a few Revenants that quickly got blasted by the Marine operating the Gauss Cannon. Mike was impressed with the Marine.  

‘He’s no ODST but he shows promise.’  

Kat meanwhile was busy thinking about their new number Six, something about him felt familiar... according to the file she saw that wasn’t covered in black ink, Spartan-B312 was supposed to be a lone wolf, silent type and yet... there was clearly a difference between the file and the Spartan that was next to her driving, the same Spartan who was more outspoken and seemed to be a bit lost in his thoughts. She had a gut feeling that their new number Six was not Spartan-B312 but someone else. But if not B312 then who?  

She shook her head; she’ll figure that out later but for now they had a job to do...  

“Noble be advised, Covenant corvette moving into position. Two, Six, get here quick! We need you inside!”  

“We’re almost there boss!” Mike responded back  

As they pulled up to the main gate, Mike had to get out of the vehicle to manually open the gate before getting back in, the gates then open which led to the garage; their coms then crackled to life with Jun’s voice coming through...  

“We’re stalled in the tower atrium, Two, Six, where are you?”  

“We’re outside, opening the gate now!”  

No sooner had she said that then they were already through in the garage, leading back into the courtyard, which was once again occupied by the Covenant... well nothing they can’t handle.  

Mike and Kat got off the Warthog, with the Marine staying behind since the Spartans could handle the heavy stuff, Mike picks up a M41 Rocket Launcher from a stockpile, he had a gut feeling that he was going to need it badly...  

Mike and Kat worked in tandem to take out the Covenant, while working their way towards the Atrium where they rest of their team were. Mike was frequently landing headshots so much so that Kat took notice and silently admitted that Jun might have some competition, before she focused back to killing some Jackals, she tossed a grenade at a few Elites to get their shields down just for Mike to pick them off.  

As they were about to head into the Tower, Mike suddenly froze before taking out the Rocket Launcher and firing it at a pair of-  

“Hunters!” He shouted  

It seems he was right in trusting his gut, the M41 was certainly coming in handy when dealing with Hunters, and not only did it make him the target, but it also took attention away from Kat, in a way she could get behind them and-  

The first Hunter explodes causing its comrade to look back and see who killed its teammate, but before it could do anything to the Spartan-  

BOOM  

That happened...  

Mike drops the M41 as he had run out of ammo for it.

“Well done, Lieutenant, now let’s get to the Atrium, we have to go through the Security office. Let’s take the Elevator.”  

They got into the Elevator, Mike pushes the button to go up, as they were riding the Elevator it stopped for a moment as it was followed by an explosion that rocked the Elevator, however after that happened, they continued to ascend as if nothing happened.  

“Corvette’s hitting this place hard.” Emile’s voice came on coms  

Kat then went on coms to ask, “"Where's our orbital support? Got to be four platforms that could take it out with a single MAC round."  

Her question went unanswered as there were the sounds of gunfire over on coms, which meant they were too busy trying to take out the Covenant.  

The Elevator soon opened to the Security office, as they entered an automated voice came on speakers...  

"Welcome to the Office of Naval Intelligence. An ONI representative will meet you shortly."  

Kat only scoffed at this and dryly replied with, “I doubt that very much.”  

"Thank you, Lieutenant. You have been cleared for access."  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

FIND TOP FLOOR BREACH  

The Grunts that were stationed there had no time to react as they dropped dead, both Spartans soon made their way to the door that led to the Main Atrium, as it opened to reveal a battle that was going on between the rest of Noble Team that were assisted by some Marines, and the Covenant. Their presence was noticed by Jorge.  

“Two, Six, over here!”  

Mike and Kat regrouped with the rest of the team, though it was quickly apparent that someone was missing, and much to Mike’s chagrin that someone was...  

“Six, head upstairs and assist Four. Five, make sure he gets there.” Carter ordered as he shot at an Elite  

“Depend on it!” Jorge said, Mike quickly clung next to him and together they went upstairs.  

“Let's do it Jorge!”  

Mike and Jorge worked together to take out the Covenant, while simultaneity working their way up the stairs to where Emile was, as they got to the next floor Mike threw a grenade at a cluster of Grunts that were unfortunate enough to be close together for a sweet multi-kill. Jorge used his minigun to shred through the energy shields of Elites just so Mike could snipe them with his DMR, as they were going to the next floor the building shook once again and coms came to life with Sword Command coming through...  

"Corvette's gonna rip this base apart! What's the situation, Noble?"  

"Can't do this on my own! Need another Spartan up here!" Emile said on Coms, the sounds of explosions came from his end.  

‘The supposed badass of the team needs help? What, did he carve that skull to compensate for something?’ Mike wondered  

His thoughts were once again interrupted by Carter, who went on coms to order Six to...  

"Six, get to the top floor and assist Four."  

“Count on it boss!” Mike responded back, even though he had negative opinions on his fellow teammate, he could think about that later, right now, they had a job to do.  

Mike and Jorge went up floor after floor wiping out any hostiles as they went, Jackals were no match for the deadly precision of Mike; Grunts continue to drop like flies; Elites were shredded either by Mike’s grenades or Jorge’s minigun. As they approached the top, the building shook once again, and Sword Command came back on coms...  

“Commander, this base won't survive another salvo from that corvette. Kill those Banshees!"  

"Upstairs, Lieutenant, we need those Longswords in the air." Carter ordered  

“We’re almost there boss!”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

SECURE BREACH AND ELIMINATE AIR FORCES  

Some Covenant appeared to the side, but Jorge stood in front of Mike.  

“Go Six, I’ll take care of them!”  

Mike patted Jorge on the shoulder as a sign of good luck before he went up the final flight of stairs towards the roof, and once he got through, he witnessed the sheer chaos that was happening.  

“About time you got here! Pick up that rocket launcher next to you and start taking down those Banshees!” Emile barked at Mike  

Mike quickly picked up the Rocket Launcher and steadies his aim, the sound of the locking on system filled his ears and once that sound was beeping, he fired, the missile hit the Banshee leaving it heavily damaged but before it could recover and attempt to fire back at the Spartans, it was hit again by another missile, but not by Mike, but by Emile.  

Once they took out the Banshee, they worked together to bring down some more, a dropship attempted to drop some Covenant on them to stop them, but they didn’t get far as it was bombarded by two missiles from both Mike and Emile.  

Eventually...  

"That's the way we get it done, Spartan!" Emile victoriously cried out, seeing both the air and ground forces were wiped out.  

"Noble Team, Longswords are inbound and ready to push. Orbital defenses standing by to take the shot." Sword Command said on coms.  

In the distance, Mike watches Two Longswords flying towards the Corvette, which was attempting to flee; However, the Longswords were able to keep pace, soon after following the Corvette for a while they both break off, and not long after a MAC round suddenly comes down from the sky and strikes the Corvette, the Corvette stalls before beginning to descend rapidly towards the ground.

Mike hears footsteps from behind him, he turns and sees Jorge coming up to him, though his gaze was centered on where the Corvette used to be.  

"Beautiful, ain't it? Someone should take a picture."  

They hear the Corvette crash landing in the lake, as they both witness it, with Jorge giving Mike a pat on the shoulder as congratulations.  

"Nice work, by the way."  

“Well, what can I say, I aim to please.”  

Their moment of celebration was interrupted by Carter.  

"Five, Six... get down to the science wing. Doctor Halsey wants a debrief, and Command's saying we're all hers."  

"Say again? Sounded like you said 'Halsey.'" Jorge asking for clarification  

“I did.” Their leader answered  

"Copy that, on our way. Don't need Command to tell me... Been all hers half my life." Jorge says that last part to Mike as they made their way back into the facility and towards the science wing.  

‘So, we get to meet THE Doctor Halsey huh? Let’s see how she is.’ Mike thinks, wanting to see what the Doctor was like.  

They soon arrived at the science wing, where they hear the conversation between Carter and Halsey.  

We meet this old lady who was really nice to us!  

"I requested your assistance, Commander, and do not need a report on events that occur on my own doorstep. What I do require is a detailed account of your previous engagement-" Whatever Halsey was about to say stopped as she noticed Jorge, despite him wearing a helmet, she recognized him.  

"Jorge. It's been too long." Halsey’s tone had a bit of happiness in it, but Mike couldn’t be too sure as from what he saw from her, she always sounded cold and calculating. Though that was to be expected from the one who was the lead in the Spartan II program.  

Jorge, meanwhile, took off his helmet and responded back to Halsey, “Ma’am” although as a result of his thick accent Mike for a moment thought he said Mom, before he quickly corrected that thought, knowing how thick of an accent Jorge had. Then again was Halsey not like that? Stern yet caring?  

"What have you done with my armor?" Halsey questioned with a bit of disbelief in her tone.  

Mike saw Jorge look embarrassed before he replied with, "Just some... additions I've made." Referring to the many customizations of the armor.  

"Indeed.” Halsey said, and for a moment Mike thought he saw somewhat of a small smirk from the Doctor but she changed her expression as she turns back to Carter, her tone dropping the playful tone she had with Jorge.  

“Visegrad Relay. Its data center was home to one of my xeno-archaeologists, Professor Laszlo Sorvad. Perhaps you could shed some light on his death."  

"If he was a civilian male in his mid-sixties, he died with a Covenant Energy Sword through his abdomen." Carter recalled  

“Elites then?”  

Jorge piped up with, "They engaged us as well. It was just, uh, just after we found your scientist's daughter, ma'am. She was hiding in the-" But before he could continue Halsey cut him off, "Irrelevant. The Elites. Tell me more about them."  

Mike internally wince, feeling bad for Jorge, as he patted him on the back as reassurance.  

Jorge replied with, "Three. Zealot-class. One got by us. The leader, from the looks of him."  

"Zealots? You're certain?" Halsey asked with a bit of worry in her tone. Something that Mike picked up on, if she was worried about Zealots then what were they dealing with for her to be this worried?  

"Their armor configuration matched." Jorge reaffirmed, with Mike back him up with, "Their shield strength matched too.”  

Carter then interjected, "I gave the order not to pursue. Our primary objective was to get the station's relay back online."  

"Your primary objective? Commander, are you a puppet or a Spartan?" Halsey questioned fiercely  

Noble Team tensed up and glared at Halsey, with the exception of both Mike and Jorge; Mike because he was confused, why did she ask that question out of the blue, they were just following orders right?  

Carter, a bit confused and tense asked, "Ma'am?"  

Halsey clarified with, "There are those at ONI, myself included, who believe the Covenant dispatch Elite advance teams to hunt down artifacts of value to their religion. Survivor accounts suggest such teams are small, nimble, and almost always Zealot-class. No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there. And you let them get away." She finished that statement with a harsh glare towards Carter.  

Carter defended himself, "Data retrieval was not a command directive. Even had we known, we had other, more urgent matters to attend to."  

Kat muttered with, "Like warning the planet."  

Something that Mike agreed with, warning the planet would help save more lives; but hearing the bit about the ONI data, made him question something, if the data was that important, why weren’t they made aware of it in the first place? If they were made aware of it then they could’ve taken steps to stop the Zealots from stealing it. Were ONI purposely keeping somethings secret from them even though it could help them in the long run?  

Halsey then said, "Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a "latchkey discovery." Latchkey... not a word he would use lightly. So let's hope that the data module your Lieutenant Commander stole contains it." Looking towards Kat as she finishes.  

Carter looked towards Kat a bit of shock in his voice, "Kat?"  

"Before you ask, I was alerted the moment you attempted to access its contents. As I am with any unauthorized tap."  

Kat looked sheepish for a moment before walking up to the container that Halsey pushed out of the shield door and places the Data Module in it.  

"That data is classified Tier One... I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work."  

"Maybe you'd like to join her." Carter interjected to defend his teammate  

"I'm sorry?" Halsey questioned  

"We're currently under emergency planetary directive, "Winter Contingency". I'm sure you're familiar with the punishment for civilian interference with a Spartan deployment." Carter stated  

Halsey blinked before narrowing her eyes at Carter, "Are you threatening me, Commander?"  

There was tension in the room before Carter broke it, "Just making a reading suggestion, ma'am."  

Mike was stunned by this, did his team leader really tried to threaten Halsey herself??  

Carter then motioned for Noble Team to leave the room, "Let's move, Noble Team." As Kat, Jun, and Emile went with Carter, filing out of the room.  

Mike went with the rest of the team, with Jorge lingering for a moment to have a moment with Halsey.  

"Ma'am?"  

"That... will be all, Jorge."  

Jorge put his helmet back on and left the room, leaving Halsey to examine the Data Module.  

Chapter Text

Church clutched his head as he saw Halsey, a strange sense of familiarity washed over him, and before he knew it, words came out of his mouth... 

“Doctor Catherine Halsey...” Church said 

Mike and Delta looked at Church a bit confused. 

“Do you know her?” 

“That’s the thing, I never met this woman in my life but... I feel like I... know her somehow.” 

Delta was stumped to say the least, which was not in his programming, Church knows the lead to the Spartan II program on a personal level?? 

Mike was on the same thinking process, albeit he was assuming Church knew Halsey as a fellow scientist, or a close friend, but that wasn’t possible, was it? 

Church continued to clutch his head as it was starting to hurt, just by looking at Halsey he felt... something stirring. When the first mention of Halsey was said, he had felt a sharp pain in his head, which continued to intensify as he saw Halsey herself. It was almost as if he knew her, like a good friend that he hadn’t seen in a long time... but that makes no sense, he had never even met her and yet... 

Church felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see the towering figure of Mike. 

“Don’t think on it too hard, it will cause you more pain if you do.” 

Mike needed to steer the conversation away from Halsey, he could tell the Church was having a hard time even thinking about it. 

“I agree with the Spartan, it would do you no good if you overthink yourself like Mike.” Delta added, though he did get a side glance from Mike at the overthinking part, since that was basically him in a nutshell. 

Church calmed himself down, they were right, he could think about it later but for now there were more pressing matters, there was another conversation that they neglected to ask, and before they could view more memories it was time to bring it up now rather than later. 

“You’re right, but now that I’m thinking, I can’t help but wonder why that lady on the team always treated you like...” Before he could finish his sentence, Mike cut in. 

“Like how you treated Caboose back in Blood Gulch?” Mike inquired dryly. 

Church panicked and attempted to clarify on what he was about to say, “No, not like that!! But she mostly ignored you up until that mission, back in that Station she didn’t even want to interact with you!” 

“You have to understand, no one on the team wanted me to replace their previous number Six. Kat being the most vocal one from what I learned, then again it had been a long time since I had seen her from our training days back in Beta Company. She had changed, war changes everyone.” Mike explained, though there was a hint of something in his voice, but Church couldn’t figure out what it was... 

But Delta did... Mike might be a Spartan and was trained to keep his body language under control at all times, but when Kat was brought up along with Jorge... there was a slight change in Mike’s posture not enough for Church to notice, but for Delta. 

“What about that skull fucker, you didn’t seem happy with him, not that I would after what he said back in that Station.” 

“I didn’t get along with Emile in the beginning, I mostly sticked to Jorge, Emile was someone who was always itching to go commit war crimes against the Covenant and it wasn’t at all common for him and Jorge to argue constantly, which always gets shutdown by Carter.” 

“Your team leader was logical to not order Emile-A239 to go after the Elites as he likely would have been ambushed and killed, but ultimately that didn’t matter as the Covenant got what they wanted in the end. But still I am uncertain as to why ONI didn’t tell you of the importance of the Data that they stole.” Delta commented. 

Mike let out a sigh before turning to Delta, “That’s what I had been wondering at the time, though looking back, ONI would have never told us, despite Noble Team being one of their most effective fire teams, we would still be in the dark because that’s just how ONI is. Always keeping secrets even though it would have helped in the long run.”  

“Carter always thought to follow orders first before doing anything else, he was also very caring to the team, and so when he was confronted with the fact that he should have gone after the Elites with the Data, he defended himself by being a by the books officer.” Mike continued, though there was a bit of bitterness in his tone. 

“And what about that big guy on the team? He seemed to be fine with you.” 

“Jorge was cautiously optimistic with me being on the team, but we became friends fast, although in hindsight...I...” Mike stopped as he looked to his shaking hand which clutched the one thing that matter to him most. 

Church picked up on this, and nervously asked, “How did he die?” 

Mike paused for a moment before saying, “Spartans never die... they’re just Missing in Action.” 

“Bullshit! Everyone dies, no one lives forever!” 

“Tell that to the propaganda during the war.” 

Church just stared at Mike for a moment, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing! How many Spartans have died in the war and got the MIA treatment?! If they were humanities best hope against the Covenant, then why treat them with such a mythological aura, when everyone knew what really happened to them when a war lasted for nearly thirty years!? 

Delta understood the logic behind the ‘MIA’ status for fallen Spartans, it was to give humanity some glimmer of hope during such dark times. However, it was logical for humans to begin doubting this status after almost thirty years of continuous war. When a war goes on for so long, people begin to question, and when questions were asked... 

Well, ONI and the UNSC were there to ‘assure’ the public that they were at a stalemate and were doing everything they could to win the war, when it was clear to everyone that they were losing... badly. All it took was for a miracle for them to end it, and it did. 

Church let out a sigh before bringing up something, “That guy with a sniper rifle, we don’t see much of him, what was his name again?” 

Before Mike could reply, it was Delta that took over for him.

“Jun-A266, Noble Three, he was the marksman for Noble Team, aside from Spartan Mike, he is the only other member of Noble Team to have survive the Fall of Reach.” 

Upon hearing that, Mike froze before turning to face Delta, disbelief came out of his voice. 

“Jun is... alive?!” 

Delta, being the logic driven A.I that he was, knew that if Caboose was going to recover then logically letting him know that one of his teammates had survive Reach, would help speed up the recovery. 

Mike couldn’t stop the many thoughts in his head like before, Jun was alive! He felt immense relief, at least someone other than him had survive Reach. 

“Well, it's just like you said, Spartans never die they’re just Missing in Action, right?” Church piped up, in an attempt to lighten up the mood and get the Spartan to think positively for once. Even patting him on the shoulder as a gesture of comfort. 

“I... had always wondered what happen to him and Halsey after Reach, but now...” Mike couldn’t finish that sentence, so many thoughts running through his head. Just how did Jun and Halsey make it off of Reach?? He was ordered to- 

He felt a hand on his shoulder as he paused and looked to Church, who was comforting him... 

“Don’t think on it too hard, it will cause you more pain.”  

Mike stared dumbfounded at Church using his own words to aid him. 

“Now show us what happened next, got to wake up Caboose remember?” 

“Right, after successfully defending Sword Base, we were put on standby, it wasn’t long until me and Jun were ordered to do a Recon on the Covenant to find out just what we were up against...” 

Chapter Text

August 11, 2552 

Viery Territory, Reach 

26:30 Hours 

The silence of the night was broken as a Phantom dropship passed by with its searchlights on, swiveling from side to side to search for any unwanted visitors. As the dropship passed by the cliffside a figure soon propped themselves up from their hiding position and turn back to motioned for another that the coast was clear for them to move. 

Mike carefully moved along the cliffside, being careful to not fall as said fall was quite the ways down. As he followed Jun along the edge, he couldn’t stop his thoughts from thinking about what lead up to this...  

The past two weeks were not kind for Reach as every Spartan fireteam that wasn’t Noble, were called in to set up defenses and make sure that Reach was as fortified as it could possibly be and to have any data that had the location of Earth wiped off the drives completely. Although that notion was quickly becoming null as the Covenant were ever so ruthless in their campaign to wipe out the humans, Mike grimly thought that they were getting a bit too lucky in these recent skirmishes and he knew it was only a matter of time before the Covenant would pull out their trump card sooner or later, the question was a matter of when. 

Things were also changing in terms of Noble Team, Mike himself proved so far to be invaluable to the team; though Kat was still a bit pissed off that he was replacing their previous Six and wouldn’t talk to him even after their little moments during the ONI Sword Base defense. Despite the team being put on standby, Mike was feeling restless, why would they be put on standby when they could be out there flushing out the Covies before they get a chance to rethink their strategy and really hammer down on them. 

It wasn’t long until Command got them out of standby, and to Mike’s inner horror; Kat was the one in charge of the op. The op in question being a recon mission to find out what the Covenant were planning, they had set up a dark zone in the Viery Territory and it was clear that they were planning something big. There were already recon teams set up at different positions inside the dark zone, and Mike was being partnered with Jun to be one of those teams. 

So far, things were going smoothly as Mike’s blue armor was surprisingly helpful during nighttime, although not completely camouflaging him as the moon shined, lighting up some spots. In his hands, the SRS99D-S2 AM sniper rifle that he had briefly used during the Oni Sword Base defense. He also brought his DMR as during his previous team’s adventures, he was always known for being overprepared after... the incident. One could never be too careful when it involved going behind enemy lines. 

Sneaking... Sneaking... Sneaking 

The sounds of shuffling along the cliffside were broken by Jun speaking on coms to Kat... 

"Recon Team Bravo reporting, Three and Six in position. It's starting to get crowded up here, Kat." 

"Then we're closing in, report any Covenant structures or devices. Direct action may be necessary." 

Jun let out a chuckle before speaking to Mike who had soon joined him looking over the mountainside. 

"Copy that, when Kat runs an op, direct action is always necessary." 

“On that we agree.” Mike said, as from what he remembered of Kat back during training, she was always one for being forward and not be sneaky. 

Jun then reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a magazine of sniper rounds, handing them off to Mike. 

"Here, you may need these. High velocity, armor-piercing. They'll take the hat off an Elite at two thousand yards. And they ain't cheap." 

Mike took the sniper rounds and put them in one of his pouches, making a mental note to save them for a big target. 

“Got it, now then. Shall we?” Mike gestures down the cliff leading towards their objective. 

Jun let out another chuckle before moving towards another part of the cliffside, as he does this, he turns around to face Mike and said... 

“Try not to get too overconfident Six, I’ll be in touch.” 

With that Jun moved towards the high ground where he could cover Mike if needed, meanwhile, Mike only shook his head, he wasn’t that overconfident was he? But he quickly closed his thoughts, he had job to do after all. He then slid down the cliff, towards the ground, and with that the mission would begin... 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 
RECON COVENANT COMBAT CAPABILITIES 

As Mike jogged towards the next area, he quickly got behind a rock to avoid being spotted by another Phantom passing by with its searchlights on. Once it flew passed him, he got up and continued jogging, as he did this coms crackled to life with the voice of Kat. 

"Recon Bravo, the sector ahead is dark to electronic surveillance." 

"Covenant can block our instruments?" Jun asked with a concerned tone in his voice 

“So it would seem, and Command wants to know what they're hiding." 

‘Well, the Covenant is still technically superior to us, so it’s not that surprising if our surveillance can’t penetrate their shielding.’ Mike thought grimly 

He once again shut his thoughts off as he got into the area, only to see an Elite who was none the wiser to the demon behind him. 

"Elite. He's yours, do it quiet." Jun spoke up on coms. 

Mike then took out his combat knife and silently got behind the Elite, and before the Elite could let out a sound of alarm, Mike grabbed him, plunged the knife deep into the throat, and snapping its neck for good measure. 

“Not bad Six.”  

“He never saw it coming.” Mike said quietly as to not alert the nearby Grunts that he had spotted as soon as he killed the Elite. 

“And what of his ‘friends’?” 

“Already about to take care of them.” Mike said this as he began the process of killing the Grunts off before they had a chance to know what was happening. 

Once the area was cleared of enemies, he soon went up the hill, just as he reconvenes with Jun, who looked at Mike before nodding and going off into the next area, they soon got near a complex that was clearly controlled by the Covenant. At that moment lighting soon lit up the place, making Mike worried that they were going to be spotted by any sniper Jackals. But thankfully that didn’t happen. 

Jun then called on coms to Kat. 

"Recon Bravo to Noble Two, stand by for contact report." 

"Standing by to copy, over." 

"We have eyes on multiple hostiles patrolling a settlement. This what we're looking for, Kat?" 

There was a brief moment of silence before Kat replied back with. 

"Negative, too small, you're not in the dark zone yet. Engage at your own discretion but keep moving." 

"You heard her, Six. Let’s drop those tangos.”  

“Already on it.” Mike’s reply came back just as he started to aim down the sights of his rifle, and once he had his target in sight... 

There was the sound of a loud gunshot and before any of the enemies could react, one of their own Elites dropped to the floor dead, with a hole in his head. More gunshots rang out and more Elites dropped, the Grunts panicked and attempted to run for cover, but they too found themselves on the floor.  

Mike reloaded his sniper rifle and put down four more targets before reloading his rifle again, he was using the regular sniper ammo as he was saving the ones given to him by Jun for a bigger target. Speaking of which... 

"Incoming. Looks like we really pissed them off."  

A Phantom had arrived to drop off reinforcements to the rapidly dwindling Covies, however, no sooner than they landed on the ground to aid their allies... Mike and Jun both took them out before they got a chance to do anything. 

“I’m impressed Six, all tangos down with perfect headshots, you are something else. Glad to have you on the team.” 

“Likewise, Jun. Now let’s move forward.” 

Mike and Jun made their way further down the trail leading into the complex, along the way they came across more Covenant. Mike switched to his DMR seeing as how the space they came across the enemy in was a somewhat closed area, making it a medium range battle. Oh well, nothing they can handle. 

Once they cleared out the complex of all the Covenant, they continued down the trail that led to the dead zone, however on their way down the trail they heard a loud roar. They both stopped for a moment to listen again, and they picked up the sounds of battle cries and plasma shots, they started running and soon enough they came across a huge clearing where they found Covenant... but that wasn’t the only thing they found. 

They found a large creature that was killing the Covenant, bashing its hands to the ground and squishing the unfortunate Grunts that found itself under it. 

“What the hell is that thing?” Mike asked Jun 

“I don’t know but I don’t think its happy with us.” Jun said as the large creature noticed them and let out a roar before charging towards them. 

Mike and Jun split up to fire at different sides of the creature, Mike contemplated using the special sniper ammo that Jun gave him, but he decided to save it as by the looks of this creature, its skin was not doing anything to protect itself from the normal sniper bullets. So, with a few well place sniper shots the large creature went down with a thud. 

“Kat, you pick any of that up?” Jun asked on coms 

"Affirmative, Recon Bravo. It's an indigenous creature, called Guta." 

‘So that’s what they’re called’ Mike thought 

They left the Guta behind and continued moving forward trying to find a way out of the area. 

"Six, there's a trail up ahead through the rocks. Let's take it."  

“I’m right behind you, Jun”  

They both went up the trail and made their way towards a lush, filled area that had several Moa’s fleeing. Mike wondered why they were fleeing towards their direction but that’s when they heard it. Gunfire, not plasma shots. Which meant... 

"Gunfire. Magnums. Security sidearms, standard issue." Jun said it first 

“I thought this area was supposed to be evacuated of any and all civilians?”  

“Let’s go find out shall we, Six?” 

They both sprinted to where they heard the gunfire and found a pumping station that was under attack by the Covenant, and pinned down were some civilians that were being fired upon by the Covies. Mike felt his heart stopped for a moment, his old team's security adventures kicking in, what were these civilians doing near a Covenant dead zone taking on the Covenant?! 

"Noble Two, we're at some sort of pump station. Got eyes on civilians, I'm thinking more local militia. They've engaged hostiles." 

"Move to assist. They may have intel we need." 

"You heard her, Six. Let’s keep those civilians alive." 

It was at this moment that one of the civilians noticed the Spartans that were on the hillside, and he called on coms. 

"Give us a hand! Bastards just keep comin'!” 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

PROTECT MILITIA 

Mike’s determination shot through the roof when he heard that on coms, it was almost as if he was back with his old team, helping with some evacuations. Before he knew it, he sprinted towards the station, getting his DMR out and firing upon the Covies with his deadly precision. He could almost hear one of his old teammates yelling in his ear to get the civilians to safety. 

A Jackal got close to one of the civilians but before it could do anything, Mike came out of nowhere and knifed the Jackal in the throat. An Elite tried to get the drop on Mike, but a sniper round pierced through its head and plopped to the ground. Mike then tossed a grenade at a cluster of unfortunate Grunts, who then exploded. Jun picked off any Sniper Jackals before they could even get a chance to do any sniping. 

Soon enough the area was clear of any Covies, the local militia that they were protecting soon got out of cover and started conversing with the Spartans. 

"Little more action than we're used to, you Spartans sure are good in a fight." One of them, presumably the leader, spoke out of breath. 

"What are you doing here? The whole area supposed to be evacuated." Jun questioned 

Mike had a feeling that these civilians in particular were the type to not back down and give up anything that belonged to them, and sure enough, his suspicions were proving correct when the leader of the militia said. 

"Didn't like leaving it to someone else to protect our home. So, we came back, for this, we have 'em hidden all over the territory." The leader gestured to a pair of briefcases that his buddies got out and opened. 

Inside the briefcases were UNSC weapons, an M41 SPNKR, an extra Sniper Rifle, a DMR. Mike then frowned, great they were dealing with smugglers, not the worst kind but still... it could be worse. He banished any thoughts on arresting them, he wasn’t with his old team anymore, he was with Noble Team, therefore it was no longer his job to arrest any rebels; the Covenant were the bigger threat. 

Jun looked at the caches of UNSC weapons before turning to the leader and dryly saying, "You do know this stuff is stolen?" 

"What? You gonna arrest me?" The leader questioned sarcastically 

‘If I was still with my old team, yes.’ Mike thought deadpanned 

"No. We’re gonna steal it back." Jun said as he picked up ammo for his Sniper.

Mike then picked up the M41 SPNKR and just in time as the group all heard the sounds of incoming Phantoms, three in total dropping of more Covies for them to take out. 

“We’ve got incoming!” 

“I see them, Three!” 

While Jun focused on taking out the Elites with his Sniper, Mike stuck close to the militia, as much as he didn’t like the rebels, they were still civilians caught in the crossfire between Spartans and Covenant, so he was going to do whatever it took to keep them safe from the Covvies. Not that they were no slouch when it came to wielding firearms, as they took pot shots at any hostiles that tried to close the gap between them. 

Mike got out the M41 SPNKR and aimed carefully to take out a cluster of enemies, soon he got his chance and fired, the explosion that followed caused some of the Grunts that weren’t near it to panic, which resulted in them getting killed by Jun via Sniper shots. Mike then fired another rocket at a pair of Sniper Jackals who had the high ground, before turning around a getting his DMR out and taking a shot at a Grunt who was just about to kamikaze a trooper with his plasma grenades, it dropped to the floor dead, and Mike quickly picked up the trooper whose life flashed before his eyes and ducked for cover just as the grenades detonated. 

“T-Thanks.” The trooper shakily said to the Spartan that had just saved his life. 

“Just be more aware of your surroundings, you never know when the Covies can get the drop on you from behind.” Mike said 

“Y-Yeah, I’ll do that.” 

Mike let the civilian go before looking around, Jun quickly regrouped with him, the area was clear of enemies.  

One of the militias soon spoke up, "This road leads to a hydro-electric plant, but the gate doesn't work." Pointing in the direction of said road. 

“An alternate route?” Jun asked 

"We use the riverbed to smuggle rations, weapons..." 

‘The standard smuggler operations, how did we miss this?’ Mike questioned thoughtfully 

"Basically, anything the UNSC considers contraband." Jun interjected bluntly

The militia trooper hesitated before confirming it, “Basically.” 

“Show us.” Mike ordered 

They soon got their bearings and started to lead the Spartans down the alternate route, which lead to a riverbed. At this point their IFF tags soon popped up on the HUDS of the Spartans. 

CPL D. DUNN 

PVT J. RAMIREZ 

PVT J. ALLEN 

Mike noted that Allen, the young trooper who he had saved from being kamikaze, was now being more aware of his surroundings, aiming his rifle at possible hiding spots. He would keep them safe, aside from Dunn, these troopers were green. 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

RECON HYDRO PLANT VIA RIVERBED 

“Where does this riverbed lead?” Jun asked Dunn 

"Straight to the hydro plant, we dammed this river up forty-five years ago, plant powers every settlement in the territory. It would be a shame if it all gets wasted." Dunn said that last part with a somber tone, as he knew that by the end it would get wasted no matter how hard the Spartans try. 

“We’re doing what we can.” Jun said 

Mike was about to pipe up with a hopeful message before he suddenly froze and look up to see a Phantom that was about to fly over them with its searchlights activated. 

“Incoming Phantom, drop to cover before it spots us.” Mike ordered 

They all got to cover just as the Phantom’s searchlights passed through, it stayed for a moment before flying elsewhere. 

“We’re clear, let’s move!”  

They got out of cover and made their way further down the riverbed, after a while they eventually reached a cliffside that overlooked the Hydro Plant, which was completely taken over by the Covenant, and that wasn’t all they found. A structure that resembled some kind of pylon was sending out pulses. If Mike were to hazard a guess, then he assumes that it was the structure that was creating the dark zone. 

"Kat, are you seeing this? Covenant structure, kind of a big pylon. Heavily fortified." Jun asked on coms 

"That's the source of our dark zone." Kat said, unknowingly confirming Mike’s suspicions. 

“Then, consider it gone.” Jun said with determination in his voice 

"Negative, stick a remote det charge on it, Command's planning something big, they say that pylon ties it down." Kat shot down Jun’s determination immediately. 

“Are we gonna blow it?” Allen asked nervously, Mike put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him as he spoke up to reassure them. 

“We’re going to clear the area of the Covenant. Once that’s done, my partner will plant a remote charge on the pylon, while he does that, the rest of you are with me. We’re going to defend him.” Mike cocked his DMR as he says this. 

Jun looked on, finding the idea of a Spartan ordering some rebels to defend him while he plants a bomb almost ridiculous that he wanted to laugh. Instead, he let out a chuckle, trusting Mike to handle these rebels. 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

NEUTRALIZE COVENANT DEFENSE 

An Elite was just looking over the bridge, absently waiting for any action so that it could have the glory of exterminating any humans, but just it thought that a Grunt shouted something, and he turned around, only to get knifed in the throat by a Spartan with three humans behind him taking down the Grunts. 

“Dunn, you and Ramirez take down any Grunts you come across. Allen, you’re with me. Stick together and watch you’re six!” Mike ordered 

“Got it! Let’s go take out the Covvies Ramirez!” Dunn shouted before he and Ramirez went in the direction where they could take the Covies by surprised. Mike gave Allen the rocket launcher, “Two shots left in that thing, don’t waste them, make it count!” Mike gave a bump on the shoulder to Allen as a sign of trust. To which Allen, nodded and gripped the thing tightly. 

Mike took care of any Jackals and Grunts that came their way, doing his best to shield Allen from getting hit; Dunn and Ramirez did exactly as they were planning on doing, taking the Covies by surprise by hitting them from the side while they were distracted by Mike. Jun, meanwhile, took down more hostiles with his sniper rifle when they were about to flank Mike and the three troopers. 

Eventually... 

"All clear, Six. This is gonna take a minute, keep your eyes peeled." Jun came up and started to plant the remote charge. 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

DEFEND JUN 

“We’ve got incoming!” Dunn shouted 

Two Phantoms soon came in and dropped off reinforcements, one of them dropped a Spec Ops Elite unit, however the other Phantom dropped off... 

‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!’ Mike thought in despair at seeing two Hunters. This was not going to be easy. 

Mike then remembered the ammo that Jun gave him at the start of the mission, and he quickly got his Sniper out and slotted in the ammo. With a satisfying sound, the special ammo was ready to tear in the skin of some unfortunate Covvie, and he had the perfect idea on how to do it. 

“Allen, get ready to fire the rocket launcher on my mark! Dunn, Ramirez, get to high ground and take pot shots at the Hunters, stick to cover at all times!” Mike shouted out, to which Dunn and Ramirez shouted back, ‘Yes Sir!’ and begin to flank the Hunters. 

Allen got behind Mike and steadied his aim, ready for the order to fire as soon as the Spartan said so. Mike focused intently, the Spec ops unit seemingly disappear, but he knew that wasn’t the case, they were now camouflaged. He waited with bated breath, and soon enough there was the slightest distortion in the air just a dozen feet away from him, he reacted quickly, throwing a grenade at the distortion. The nade bounced off the armor of the Elite who shouted in surprised at being found out before the grenade exploded, taking down the shields of the two Spec ops Elites. 

“Now!” Mike shouted at Allen, who fired the M41 at the Elites, blowing them up. Mike patted Allen on the shoulder as a way of saying ‘great job’ before sprinting towards the Hunters, getting his Sniper out and aiming it at the back of the Hunters, who were busy trying to take out both Dunn and Ramirez. 

The Hunter felt enormous pain in his back, but before he could turn around and retaliate, another shot rang out and the Hunter fell down, dead. The other Hunter, seeing its brother fall down, roared in rage before aiming its fuel rod cannon at where Mike was. Mike quickly sprinted towards the Hunter, it tried to shield bash the Spartan, but he slid right underneath it, turned around and quickly fired a shot into its back.  

The Hunter roared in pain and quickly turned around before Mike could get another shot off, but before it could try and shield bash the Spartan again, Dunn and Ramirez got out of cover and threw grenades at it, while at the same time they yelled at the Spartan to... 

“Get to cover Spartan, grenades out!!” 

Mike quickly dove for cover just as the grenades went off, killing the Hunter for good. 

“You mess with us; you mess with all of us you alien bastards!” Dunn roared out in victory. 

The Spartan got out of cover and ordered the militias to regroup on Jun, the area was clear. 

Speaking of which... 

"Recon Bravo to Noble Two, charge placed." Jun called on coms 

"Somewhere inconspicuous, I hope?"  

"Stuck it inside the pylon's power supply." 

‘Now we hope that the Covenant aren’t that smart to check if its sabotaged.’ Mike thought hopefully 

"Alright, keep pushing into the dark zone, Command wants to know what the Covenant are hiding." 

"There's a gate to the southeast of the hydro plant."  Jun pointed out as the group made their way towards it 

"Copy. Uploading security codes to you now." 

There was a moment of pause before Jun confirmed it, "Okay, got 'em, unlocking the gate." He then inputted the code and the gate opened. 

"Recon Bravo, you're heading into the dark zone now." Kat informed 

“Understood, let’s tread carefully.” Jun said that last part after getting off of coms. 

Mike swapped mags on his sniper with regular ammo, as he wanted to save the last bullet just in case. 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

PROGRESS FURTHER INTO THE DARK ZONE 

Not even moments after they went through the gate, they spotted a Phantom dropping off hostiles. 

"Phantom, too close for comfort." Jun remarked as he went behind cover that was conveniently put there. 

Mike did the same, along with the rest of the militia, they took pot shots at a few Grunts and Jackals before making their way in further. Jun was about to turn the corner but pulled back just as quickly, not long after he did that, plasma mowed down the area with rapid fire, which meant they were dealing with... 

"Shade! Fire and maneuver, Six. Hit' em from th-" Before Jun could finish his sentence, there was a loud gunshot before the Jackal that had occupied the Shade Turret fell off of its seat and onto the ground. Jun blinked as he turned around to find Mike holding his sniper rifle with the barrel of the gun smoking. 

“Already took care of it.” Mike said before he quickly fired at a Grunt that was making its way towards the turret. 

Behind Mike, Ramirez took up a spare sniper rifle from a briefcase that was right next to the gate that they passed through, soon Ramirez was taking out Grunts and Jackals along with Mike; Allen stuck close to the Spartan and was waiting for the chance to use the last shot of the rocket launcher; Dunn had picked up an assault rifle from another briefcase and got it locked and loaded for combat. 

As they made their way up the hill further into the dark zone, they all heard the sounds of Banshees flying overhead. 

"Lotta air traffic around here, Six. I think we're getting warm." Jun commented 

“Which means we are getting close, let’s move!” Mike said with determination in his voice 

They soon got to another area that was filled to the brim with Covies, along with another Shade Turret, which soon spotted the Spartans and Militias and bellowed out to its comrades. To top it all off, much to Mike’s further dismay, there was another Hunter on the ground. 

Mike felt a bump on his shoulder, he turned to see Allen, “Spartan, the rocket launcher still has one shot left, let’s make it count!” 

“We’ll take down the Covenant while you two take down that Hunter!” Jun said as he, Dunn and Ramirez, loaded up their guns and opened fire on the Covies, drawing their attention. 

Mike nodded before he put in the last bullet left from the special ammo that Jun gave him, one shot left, better make it count.   

Mike and Allen got into position while the Hunter was distracted and carefully aimed their weapons... 

“On my mark...”  

The Hunter soon got into position as it prepared to fire its fuel rod cannon, charging it up, but before it could... 

“Now!” Mike shouted as he fired his sniper just as Allen pulled the trigger on the M41 SPNKR, both bullet and rocket soon found their target, and just like that... 

BOOM 

The Hunter was gone. 

“Yeah! That’s how we do it!” Allen cried out victoriously, Mike gave him pat on the shoulder as a job well done, before returning his attention to Jun and the rest; They had finished taking out most of the hostiles and were down to the last few, Mike then took out his DMR and began to take out the remaining Covies. 

Eventually... 

“All clear!” Jun shouted out 

Mike then turned to Allen and spoke with him, “We’ll handle it from here, take the rest of your squad to safety.” 

“Yes sir!”  

Soon Allen reunited with his friends before they begin to leave, which left the Spartans to do what they came here to do. 

They reached a cliff edge that overlooked what seem to be a massive army on the other side. Mike and Jun went prone and crawled towards the edge as they saw their enemies' forces. 

“Jackpot” Jun said 

“Transmitting visual to you now Kat.” Mike said as he did exactly that. 

“You seeing this Kat?” Jun asked on coms 

"Confirmed. Receiving Noble Three and Noble Six's live visual of a Covenant strike force."  

Mike balked at that; this was no strike force it was a- 

"That's no strike force, it's an invading army. If we're gonna smother this thing, we need to go in hard and fast." Jun unknowingly finished Mike’s thoughts 

"Agreed. All recon teams disengage and fall back. Sun will be up in a few hours...and it's going to be a very busy day."  

“That it is.” Mike said as he and Jun got out of there to reunited with Noble Team. Preparing to go to war the next day. 

Chapter Text

Church went slacked jaw as they witnessed the memory, he didn’t know what part he should be shocked; Caboose being a better sniper than him! Caboose taking down those Hunter’s, or the massive army that the Covenant had at the time of Reach.   

Delta, meanwhile, was curious on Mike’s treatment of the local militia, while logically understandable that he was initially thinking about arresting them had he’d been with his old security team, as it was illegal to stop a Spartan from operating during Winter Contingency, he still helped them as it seemed that Mike-B313 was primarily tasked with helping civilians get to safety during evacuations. Delta wondered if it was because of those interactions during evacuations, that the Spartan developed an outgoing personality that blended well with the Simulation Trooper that was Michael J. Caboose.  

Delta’s musings were interrupted by said Spartan, who was speaking with Church.  

“Nothing to say about my superior skills as a Sniper than yours?” Mike’s voice had a smug tone to it  

Church fumbled his words trying desperately to defend his skills as a sniper, to which just like he was at Sniping, he was equally terrible at lying.  

“N-No I’m not!”   

Mike only stared at Church with a look that suggested that he didn’t believe him for a second  

“W-Well, maybe... okay I am Jealous! Are you happy to hear it!!” Church yelled in embarrassment  

“Maybe I am happy, but then again, your skills as a Sniper leave... much to be desired.” Mike finished with a drawl to his voice  

“Now look here, I managed to hit the Meta!”  

“Only because your bullet ricochet into him after you missed, before I terminated him.”  

“You saw that?!”  

“Before Caboose was knocked out and I emerged, and even he thinks you are a very terrible Sniper.”  

Church choked before he tried to give an excuse  

Before that excuse could be given out however, they were interrupted by Delta, who stepped in to stop this back and forth from escalating any further.  

“While I do agree that Church’s skills as a Sniper are lower than the average Simulation Trooper, I am curious about your old team. If I were to hypothesize, you were primarily charged with escorting civilians to safety when the Covenant began their assault on a planet, while leaving the work to the Spartan II’s and III’s that weren’t washouts.”  

Mike flinched when washout was mentioned as he still carried a bit of despair when he was told the news after his augmentations failed, although from a certain point of view, it didn’t fail it just gave him compensation as a way to cover for his overcomplicated thinking process. That compensation was by making him the Strongest Spartan there was.  

“You would be correct Delta... before Reach happened, I was put into a team with the rest of my fellow washouts; more often than not, we would be called in to manage planetary evacuations when the Covenant glassed a planet, but there were a few times where we were a security team. However, I’ll admit that during some of those security ops, there had been some attempts by the Insurrectionist to steal any UNSC weapons when they were being stockpiled for an inevitable invasion.”  

Mike paused for a moment as he remembered how those interactions tended to go when they refused to surrender.  

“There were the rare moments where we would arrest them without any bloodshed, but of course, they don’t always go that way...” He finished somberly  

Delta processed this information, while it was logical for the rebels to be afraid of an invasion by the Covenant during the war and get as far away as possible, for them to unwillingly help the UNSC fight back against the Covenant and instead hamper their process by stealing essentials supplies didn’t seem to be logical at all. Was it because they were selfish? That they would rather have their group be the ones to survive instead of the UNSC?  

Church took this opportunity to speak up and ask the Spartan a question that was in the back of his mind...  

“What were your sisters like?”  

That question caused Mike to look down with a sorrowful posture...  

“They weren’t really my sisters; Caboose thinks of them that way... Though in hindsight we really were like a big family, as fellow washouts, we sort of clung to one another; we never agreed on some things, we would argue on pointless things, just like a real family would... before it all went to hell.”  

The more he talked, the more his fist clenched until it was digging into the material of his armor before he stopped and looked at Church  

“Did you know that Caboose writes to them every day these past few years? He still thinks some of them are on vacation, when their status is MIA.” He said in a hollow voice  

Church’s eyes widened when he heard this, now that he thought about it, Caboose was always off somewhere before he came back in a short time, Church never thought about what Caboose was doing... but now.  

“I... never knew that.”  

“Of course, you wouldn’t after how you treated him, Caboose still thinks of his ‘sisters’ fondly. He even thinks about Noble Team, as demonstrated with his... thoughts.”  

“Is Caboose that deep in denial that he falsely believes that his washouts and Noble Team are still alive?” Delta inquired  

“... He is, you have his brain damage to thank for that. We are not even halfway done with the memories and the more we see them, the more his perception on things is going to be more and more hectic.”  

“As if trying to deny that it happened and modify his memory of the events to be more hopeful?”  

“Exactly.”  

“Wait there’s something I don’t get, if Caboose remembers his sisters and Noble Team, then how come when I came here last time; I didn’t see them?” Church asked  

Mike stiffened before he spoke up with a near quiet voice  

“Because Caboose doesn’t want to remember anything before Blood Gulch.”  

Church was stunned by this, just how much damage does one’s brain have to be in order for their perception of reality to distort so much?!  

“If we help repair his memories to what actually happened, then what’s next?”  

“You’ll see.”  

“So, what happened after your little recon mission? Did you see those soldiers again?”  

“I never saw Allen or his friends after that, I could only hope that they made it onto the evacuation transports in time. But after our recon mission was done, the next day we took the fight to the Covenant, and... much to my dismay, my fellow Spartan from Beta Company was the driver...”  

“Catherine-B320... the same Spartan who had a notorious history of being a terrible driver.” Delta’s voice rang flat  

“The very same...”  

“Why did you let her be the driver!?” Church shouted in disbelief  

“She... pulled rank on me.” Mike said in embarrassment  

“I thought you were a Lieutenant!”  

“She was a higher rank than me... Lieutenant Commander.”  

“The fuck’s the difference!?”  

Delta could only watch in disbelief as Mike began to educate Church on the difference between a Lieutenant and a Lieutenant Commander, as the next memory began to play out.  

Chapter Text

Szurdok Ridge, Utkozet  

August 12, 2552, 08:00 Hours  

Mike held on tightly to the warthog and with very good reason as his fellow Spartan from Beta Company, Kat, was the one driving the warthog. If it were any other Spartan he would have felt fine, but because if was Kat, he couldn’t afford the luxury of trusting her to drive a vehicle in the first place. He felt embarrassed to even be in this situation, Carter had explicitly told him to never under any circumstance let Kat drive, and yet there she was behind the wheel. All because she had a higher rank than him and used the pulling rank card.  

They weren’t the only warthog in the field, several other warthogs accompanied them along with a few Falcons, charging directly towards the Covenant army. Mike grimly did the calculation in his head on how many casualties they would suffer from this mere frontal head on assault, by his calculations the odds were...  

His thoughts were interrupted by their Dumb A.I, Dot...  

"It appears that Noble Team's discovery last night was not an anomaly, large Covenant deployments have occurred undetected, and we are now under attack across the Viery territory, including orbital defenses. As per the Winter Contingency, we are countering on every front, Noble's reconnaissance has also identified sophisticated Covenant army hiding canopies and has been pinpointed what's believed to be a landing zone for additional Covenant forces, the origin of which is yet to be determined."  

"That landing zone has been tagged by UNSC command as a Priority One target." Carter spoke up on coms  

"Det-charge link is loud and clear!" Jun called out to Kat  

"Copy that, acquiring signal lock on the pylon. Detonating in three, two..." Kat pulled out the detonator and as soon as she said ‘two’, she pushed the button...  

Mike looked to the side and saw the explosion from the pylon, not long after the entire Covenant ground force engaged the UNSC, Banshees coming in from the air and raining down fire on the ground. A few warthogs were unfortunate enough to be blown up by these Banshees, while others were trying to avoid the mortar rounds from Wraiths that were in the distance. Mike held on as Kat jerked the Warthog to avoid the incoming mortar, ahead of them was a bridge and as they were about to cross it...  

“Incoming!” Mike shouted as the mortar from the Wraith blew up the bridge, taking out the warthog that was in front of them.  

“Might want to hold onto something!” Kat yelled out as she slammed her boot down on the accelerator and floored it, making the warthog jump the makeshift ramp, which led to the warthog spinning out of control when it crashed into the ground.  

Mike soon woke up to the sounds of gunfire, remembering what had happened he desperately shook off the effects of the crash and tried to reach for his grenade launcher which was supplied to him.  

“Six! Can you hear me? Six, are you alright!? I could use some help here!” The voice of Kat rang in his ears  

Mike grabbed his grenade launcher, checked to make sure it didn’t suffer too much damage from the crash, and responded back to Kat in a sarcastic tone...  

“Yet another spectacular crashing from you Kat, are you ever going to learn how to properly drive?”  

“I don’t want to hear it Six! Now shut it and get over here!”   

“On my way!”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 
SECURE A LANDING ZONE 

“Two, Six, what’s your status?” Carter’s voice came on coms  

"Pylons are down, we're pushing up the hill!" Kat said as she quickly engaged her armor lock to prevent an explosion from killing her.  

Mike carefully aimed his grenade launcher and timed it to where he could pick off his enemies, he did have limited ammo for the grenade launcher after all. Once he had fired a shot and blew up an Elite along with a turret, he quickly switched to his trusty DMR and started to take out the Jackals and Grunts.   

Once the area was cleared, a Pelican soon came by and dropped off a Warthog with missiles, and much to Mike’s surprised the gunner for the Warthog was...  

“Hey Spartans, we meet again!” The same gunner from the ONI Sword Base, only instead of a Gauss Warthog, he was now operating the Missile.  

“Nice to see you again trooper!” Mike shouted as he quickly got in the driver seat before Kat could even think about it. She soon got in the passenger seat, still miffed about Mike’s sarcastic comment earlier.  

"Two, be advised, ONI has ID'd two hostile anti-aircraft guns southwest of your location." Carter informed them  

"Copy, Commander. New targets, Six. Let’s go shut down those AA guns."  

Mike put the Warthog into gear, and soon they were off towards their objective.

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

NEUTRALIZE ENEMY AA  

After a short drive, they soon found themselves looking at the large enemy AA gun firing in the sky, taking shots at the UNSC aircrafts.  

"Six, AA gun should be in visual range."  

“We see it!” Mike then sped down the road towards the AA gun running over Jackals and those Skirmishers, which the UNSC decided to name after reading upon the accounts that said enemy would take pot shots from afar.  

"2 Lima 4 to Noble One, those guns are pounding us with high-velocity plasma shells!"  

"Which would mean a strike by the frigate Grafton is also out of the question." Dot piped up  

"Noble Six, all our birds are stuck out of range unless you can do something about those guns."   

“We’re working on it Commander!” Mike shouted as he swerved the warthog from being hit by plasma shots from the Ghosts, the marine operating the missiles wasted no time in firing a volley and blowing up the enemies around them. Kat got her assault rifle out and managed to take down a few enemies of her own, taking down both Grunts and Jackals.  

"New intel, Six. Looks like normal weapons won't dent those AA guns."  

“Oh, you don't say?” Mike deadpanned as he turned an Elite into roadkill in front of the large AA gun  

"I would suggest neutralizing the internal fuel cells, Lieutenant."   

“Copy that, Dot.” Mike then got out of the Warthog after the area was clear of any enemies, and went inside the AA gun, locating the fuel cells. He punched the force field, which broke apart, and then tossed a grenade in there. The grenade then exploded, causing the entire AA gun to go into overload.  

He soon rushed out of the AA gun and back into the Warthog, then drove out of there as the explosion soon filled their ears  

Mike then spotted an incoming Phantom that was getting closer by the second, but just as it was about to drop of reinforcements, it got blown up by a UNSC frigate.  

"Good work, Noble Six. UNSC air support, skies are clear."  

"Copy. 2 Lima 4, bombing run, heading 224.6, permission granted - out."  

"Six, take that south road, let’s see if we can get a better view at the Spires.”  

“On it.”  

Mike drove the Warthog down the south road, and as he turned the corner, he immediately pulled a sharp turn to avoid the incoming mortar from a Wraith.  

“Trooper fire on that Wraith, I’ll keep the Warthog from being hit!”   

“Don’t have to tell me twice!”   

“We’ve got a few Skirmishers accompanying that Wraith, Six!”  

“Both of you focus on firing, I’ll focus on driving!”  

The Marine fired missiles at the Wraith, which was a bit tricky to do since Mike was busy trying to keep the Wraith from hitting their vehicle, Kat on the other hand, had no problem taking out the Skirmishers, though she did get hit enough for her energy shields to break but not before she killed the last of them.   

BOOM  

The Wraith exploded after another volley of missiles had hit it, courtesy of a Marine.

“How do you like them apples Covies!” The Marine shouted at the remains of the Wraith that he blew up.

Mike only shook his head in amusement before driving the Warthog over to the next area, there was just one problem...  

“Commander our way to the next area is cut off, the bridge is gone.”  

“Standby Six, you’ve got a Pelican with a deployable bridge on route towards your location. Once the bridge is drop down, head on over to the other side.”  

“Copy that.”  

Mike didn’t have to wait long as the sound of an aircraft descended upon their location with a deployable bridge, and just like Carter said, the Pelican dropped the bridge with perfect precision, thus allowing a way to the other side.  

“Bridge in position, let’s move to the other side Six.”  

“Don’t have to tell me twice, Kat.”  

They crossed the bridge and move into the valley, Mike was careful not to flip the Warthog over like his fellow Beta Spartan, however on the way out of the valley, their coms crackled to life with Carter’s voice coming through to inform them on something important.  

"Six, Two, there's a mining facility near your location, Covenant are using it as a command outpost. Troopers on site have already engaged."  

“Copy that Commander, we’re almost there. We’ll help the troopers.”   

Mike put the Warthog into high gear as he rapidly sped down the road so that they can get to the troopers before any of them can be killed. Soon enough, they reached the mining facility where they saw troopers engaging the enemy. Mike couldn’t order the Trooper to fire a salvo of Missiles least he destroyed the bridge, so after parking the Warthog and thanking the Trooper for his help, he and Kat moved in to help the others and push the Covenant back.  

“Let’s put down some Covies, Kat!”  

“Don’t get too cocky Six, don’t want to get another replacement on the team.”  

“You won’t need a replacement.” With the sound of a gun cocking, Mike went to work gunning down the hostiles along with Kat backing him up.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

SECURE MINING FACILITY  

The sounds of Grunts running for their lives before quickly being put down by the two Spartans filled the air, Mike and Kat made their way into the facility, taking out any Covenant along the way; To conserve the ammo they had left, Mike shot at propane tanks that were conveniently placed near clusters of enemies while Kat strategically aimed her grenades at the leftovers who managed to get away from the explosions from the propane tanks.  

About halfway through the facility Dot came on coms with information that nearly made Mike stopped in his tracks...  

"New intelligence: friendly forces near the Covenant outpost have sighted a high value target. An Elite Zealot, in fact." 

‘A Zealot is here?!’ Mike thought, if that was true then that meant...  

“A Zealot? We’re onto something big Commander.” Kat piped up, sounding eager to encounter this Zealot and take him out to deal a blow to the Covenant.  

“Eyes on the prize Noble, take out that Zealot if you get the chance but keep moving towards the spires.” Carter’s commanding tone rang out.  

“Understood Commander.” Kat resigned; Mike remained firm in killing that Zealot, but his grenade launcher could only do so much against an Elite with high shields, unless...  

Mike looked to the cluster of dead Grunts and picked up a Plasma pistol, once he spotted the Zealot and got within range, he’ll never expect it.  

“Six what are you doing with that plasma pistol?”  Kat asked.

“If we encounter the Zealot, then a charged shot will take out its shields, I can then switch to my DMR and take it out before it gets the chance to recover.” Mike said as he reloaded his DMR and got spare ammo from an ammo crate that they just come across.  

“Let’s put that to the test, shall we?” Mike looked confused by what Kat said, only to look across and see the Zealot that they were just talking about. Upon seeing the Spartans, the Zealot let out a roar alerting the Grunts that had accompanied it to open fire.  

Mike and Kat dropped down and quickly made their way up the stairs to where the Zealot was, taking out Grunts along the way; Mike took out the plasma pistol and charged it up, preparing to take the Zealot by complete surprise. Once at the top, Mike fired the charged shot, and just as he expected, the Zealots energy shields shattered. The Zealot let out a furious roar but before it could retreat, Mike pulled out his DMR and headshot the Elite, its dead body hit the ground.  

"High value target has been neutralized. Impressive, Six."   

“I aim to impress! Now let's secure the rest of the facility.”   

“Agreed.”  

Mike and Kat got to work clearing out any hostiles that were left, eventually making their way outside where two Grunts spotted them and panicked making their way towards their vehicles, but they never made it that far as they were gunned down by the two Spartans from Beta Company.  

“Mining Facility secured Commander.” Kat said on coms.

"Update, Six, Two; Scans show another Covenant AA gun ahead of your location. I want both of you to neutralize that gun, by any means necessary." Carter ordered.  

“Copy that Commander, we’ll get it done!” Mike said as he commandeered a Revenant that most likely belonged to that Zealot, Kat soon hopped into the passenger seat, but not before carrying something with her. Mike looked confused before realizing just what Kat had, it was a Plasma Launcher.  

“This will certainly come in handy if we encounter large resistance.”  

“I already have a gut feeling that we’re about to meet a large wave of enemies at the AA gun.” was all he said before speeding the Revenant down the road towards the AA gun.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

NEUTRALIZE ENEMY AA   

Mike effortlessly maneuvered the Revenant from crashing into the canyon walls and making the enemy roadkill whenever the chance rose up. Before long they made it to where the AA gun was, and Mike immediately spotted two Wraiths that prepared their mortar shots.  

“Kat use the Plasma Launcher on the other Wraith!” Mike yelled as he avoided an incoming mortar shot and retaliated with the Revenant’s powerful plasma shot.  

“Already on it!” Kat leaned out and aimed her Plasma Launcher at the second Wraith while Mike was dealing with the first one; The sounds of a plasma shot from the Revenant fired at the Wraith with a vengeance, while Kat steadied her aim and fired at the second Wraith dealing considerable damage to it. That wasn’t to say that it was easy taking them out, as Mike had to deal with outmaneuvering and returning fire without taking heavy damage, Kat on the other hand fired another volley at the other Wraith making it go up in flames and exploding. Not long after the second Wraith had exploded, the first Wraith then burst into flames via a volley of plasma shots from a Revenant carrying the Spartans.  

Mike didn’t celebrate this victory as they had a job to do, the longer the AA gun was up, the more casualties that the UNSC were going to get in the air. He quickly sped up the hill where the AA gun was, he was expecting just a small group to defend it, but he was not expecting...  

‘Are you ki- I do not need this right now!!!’ Mike yelled internally as he wasted no time in firing the Revenant’s plasma cannon into the pair of Hunters, with Kat similarly firing a volley from her launcher.   

“Six, Two, I need that AA gun offline now!” Carter’s voice cut clear on coms  

“We’re working on it Commander!!” Mike barked as he avoided a shot from one of the Hunters, Kat had fired another volley at the Hunters but because of their shields, they were proving to be quite difficult to take down, that’s when Mike had an idea. A stupid one considering the talents of his fellow Beta Spartan, but it would speed things up and allow him to quickly take out the AA gun.  

“Kat I’m letting you drive! I’m going to flank the Hunters and get them from behind!” was all he said before he jumped out and allowed Kat to take the driver seat.  

“Use this! It’s got one last volley left! Make it count!” Mike received the plasma launcher and quickly began to flank the Hunters when their attention was focused on the Revenant. Once in position, he aimed the launcher at the back of the Hunters and fired, the resulting explosion was enough to kill the Hunters; Mike didn’t think to celebrate because this was his chance to take out the AA gun! He went inside, punched the barrier until it broke, tossed a grenade, and got the hell out of there!  

BOOM 
 

“Commander! Enemy AA gun destroyed!” Mike called on coms.  

"Well done, Six. ONI needs up-close recon on those spires, we're going to fly you the rest of the way."  

"Jorge has a Falcon inbound, Lieutenant. Highlighting the LZ now." Mike’s HUD had the LZ pinpointed, before he could make his way over there however, he saw a Phantom about to drop some enemy reinforcements, only for them to immediately be blown up by Kat piloting the Revenant.   

‘So now she is good at driving?!’ Mike thought in exasperation, only to immediately be proving wrong by Kat who had just turned a Grunt into roadkill comically drive straight into a rock, and because of how fast she was going, the Revenant began to smoke.  

‘I stand corrected.’ Mike thought deadpanned as he just gave Kat a very blank stare, which she noticed. Before he could even say anything...  

“Not. One. Word!” Kat said through gritted teeth.  

Mike only shook his head in disbelief as he made his way towards the LZ where Jorge will pick him up. The thought of teaming up with Jorge again made him smile, he always got along with the big guy.  

Soon enough, the Falcon carrying Jorge set down on the LZ, “Need a lift, Spartan?” Jorge piped up.

“You betcha!” Mike manned the M460 grenade launcher, once he was seated, the Falcon took off towards the Spire.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

ADVANCE TO PRIMARY OBJCETIVE  

"Spotted some nasty business in the canyon on the way down." Jorge informed Mike  

"I'll call out targets as we go." The pilot of the Falcon called out  

“Got it, let’s blow some Covies up!”  

With that declaration, Mike prepared to blow up any Covenant that were unfortunate enough to be within sight. As the Falcon began to fly out of the Canyon and into the open field, the Pilot shouted out...  

"Top of the canyon, dead ahead!"  

Mike immediately shot at the targets down below, his aim was true, killing clusters of Grunts and Jackals. The Falcon continued its course, revealing more enemies for Mike to take out, blowing up turrets and any Covenant that happened to be within the blast radius.  

“Nice shooting Spartan!” The pilot said.  

"Stay sharp, Six. We're not out of the canyon yet."  

That’s when Mike saw it, the Spire, emitting a giant ray shield. The Pilot made a direct course for it.  

"There's the spire."  

"Solid copy. Dot?" Carter spoke up  

"Latest intel suggests these spires may be projecting electromagnetic cloaking shields."  

At that moment, they had arrived at the edge of the shield. Upon hearing about the possibility of the Spire emitting cloaking shields, the pilot hesitated. Unsure on what they were about to encounter in there.  

"Priority One, pilot. Gotta know what's in there." Jorge reminded the Pilot of their mission objective.  

The Pilot had another moment of hesitation before he responded back with a reaffirm tone of voice, “Affirmative, sir... Here we go.” The Falcon then went inside the shield, the moment it entered the shield everything went wrong...  

Mike held on tight as the Falcon started to spin out of control. Blue sparks shot out of the inner machinery of the Falcon, "We just lost all power. We're going down!" The Pilot shouted.  

"Lock your armor, Spartan!" Jorge yelled as he engaged his armor lock, Mike followed just in time to hear the Pilot yelling, "Brace for a hard landing!", The Falcon crashed into the ground, violently flinging Mike out of it.  

Mike woke up, shaking the effects of the crash off. He disengaged his armor lock and picked up his DMR, checking his surroundings; His radar didn’t show any enemies nearby, but he wasn’t willing to chance it. He quickly made his way to the crashed aircraft where Jorge emerged, heaving some equipment along with his minigun.  

Before Mike could speak up, he spotted Skirmishers in the distance taking the high ground, which could only mean...  

“Get down!!” Mike tackled Jorge to the ground as a shot rang through the air, Mike quickly aimed down the sights on his DMR and fired at the Skirmishers, before quickly going behind the crashed Falcon to avoid another shot from a sniper. Mike looked to Jorge to see if he was alright, only to receive a look from Jorge that he could interpreted as one of shock. He didn’t have time to think about that as he popped out of cover and just like that, he took down all the snipers with his perfect precision.  

Once there were no more snipers taking the high ground, Mike went on coms to inform Carter of the situation, "Commander, we got eyes on the spire. It looks like a staging area."  

"Copy, we have your visual. Dot's working the problem, stand by."  

“Are you alright Jorge?” Mike asked the Spartan II, who seemed to have recovered from his shock, and had now recompose himself.  

“I’m fine Six.”  

“What about the crew? Did they make it?”  

Jorge shook his head; Mike was disheartened by this. If they had just flown lower, then they would not have received a harsh landing that they got. If only....  

Mike quickly shut his thoughts, there was no time to overthink like he always had done. They had a job to do, a mission to complete and they were going to get it done. As he took in the equipment that Jorge was able to get out of the Falcon, he noticed a SOLA jetpack amongst the wreckage. He equipped the jetpack, the Spire was tall, so he was thinking that he was going to need it in order to get up there.  

After making sure that the jetpack was operational, Mike turned to Jorge, “Ready to lay waste on some Covies, Jorge?”  

“You got my back?”  

“Always!”  

With that, Mike and Jorge made their way towards the Spire, taking out any Grunts, Jackals, and Skirmishers along the way. Eventually finding themselves overlooking the Spire, their Dumb A.I companion soon coming on coms with some new information.  

"Noble Five, Noble Six, ONI believes those spires to be teleportation terminals."  

"Teleporters? Linked to what?"  

Dot’s robotic voice was replaced by Carter, "Frigate Grafton is on station, ready to kill that spire, but first we need to power down its shields."  

"Understood. Six, I'll hold these bastards off. You find a way to the top of the spire." Jorge said that as he revved his minigun up and began to lay waste on the Grunts, however Mike spotted some Shade turrets that were occupied by Elites. Looking further up he noticed a position where he could use his grenade launcher to take out the Shade turrets. Activating his jetpack, he made his way up on the pipes, he then took out his grenade launcher and started taking out the turrets; He managed to down one before he ducked to avoid the shots from the other turret.  

Reloading his grenade launcher, he got up and fired at the turret blowing it to smithereens.  

‘That should give Jorge some breathing room while he takes out the Grunts!’  

Mike then jumped off the pipes activating his jetpack to slow his descent to the ground, he then made his way inside the Spire, “Commander, I’m on my way up the Spire.”  

“Understood, take out that shield Lieutenant.”  

“Yes sir!”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

DISABLE SPIRE SHIELDS  

Once he made it at the top, his radar notified him on where his enemies were. With that in mind, Mike rounded the corner and fired his grenade launcher, the Grunts barely had time to panicked as they were blown up; An Elite roared out, activating its energy sword only to receive two grenades that were thrown by Mike, one taking out its shields while the other...  

"Six, we're en route with a Falcon. We'll pick you up as soon as you knock out power to that shield."  

"Ready when you are, Six."  

With the area cleared of any enemies, Mike went to the controls. With a few buttons pressed he deactivated the shields to the Spire, once he had accomplished that he bolted to the outer edge of the top floor where a Falcon was waiting for him, in the Falcon was Carter and Jorge. Mike jumped and caught Jorge’s outstretched hand before being pulled into the Falcon.  

“Get us out of here Pilot!” Carter barked  

The Falcon started to fly away from the Spire. Mike watched the Spire getting further and further away from them.  

"Control? This is Noble One. Spire One is green, and you're free to engage. Have a nice day."  

"Copy that, Noble One. Be advised, all ground units: Frigate Three-One-Eight heavy is inbound, and MAC rounds have been authorized."  

Jorge balked at that declaration, "MAC rounds? In atmosphere?"  

"One way to get their attention! Hang on to your teeth, people!"  

Mike spotted the Grafton firing its MAC round into the Spire, destroying it. He could feel the happiness from Jorge, but Mike saw a purple glow in the sky, and to his horror a beam from high above stuck the Grafton, making it crash into the ground.  

"New contact. High-tonnage." Dot informed the team.

Jorge having turned back to witness the crash and hearing Dot’s info was now hitting his leg with his fist in despair at what was happening.  

"No. No! Somebody tell me this ain't happening!" Jorge cried out.

Mike leaned to get a better view on what hit the Grafton, almost wishing he hadn’t. Air Control was desperately calling out on coms to the Grafton, "UNSC Frigate Grafton, do you copy!?"  

"Grafton is dust! We need to get out of here, now!!" Carter barked out.

Whatever Carter was yelling out, Mike wasn’t paying attention. He was frozen in horror at just what had destroyed the Grafton...  

‘Please tell me I’m seeing things!’  

It was a Super Carrier...  

Chapter Text

“Holy... shit.”  

Those words spoken by Church carried a tone of both shock and horror. Seeing a massive ship that seemed to dwarf the planet was jaw dropping and horrifying at the same time.  He didn’t know what to think! 

“A Covenant CSO class Super Carrier. A powerful vessel capable of commanding large fleets. They were only deployed to worlds that held high strategic value.” Delta said as he witnessed the large vessel ripped the UNSC Grafton with its plasma beam. 

“We didn’t know it at the time... but looking back... that was when Reach was lost.” Mike spoke softly with an underlying rage in his tone. His fist clutched angrily as the trauma of what happened came back to him, the despair in Jorge’s voice; the panic of the marines; Carter’s voice demanding to know what happened; His fear upon seeing the Super Carrier... 

“How did they do it?! How did a ship that large get past Reach’s defenses!?” Church panicked voice rang out. 

“It was those damn Spires, they acted as teleporters to that damn Super Carrier. It's possible that it was there the previous month before I 'joined' Noble Team, but I couldn't be too sure without substantial evidence. Regardless of how long it was there, it was wiping out our forces and we scrambled to find a way to take it out, but initially there was nothing we could think of. We called for reinforcements, but they were out of range and they we going to arrive too late to take out the Super Carrier quickly.”  

“But you took it down right!?” Church asked desperately, hoping that Mike would say ‘yes’. 

Mike looked at Church for a moment before looking down as he answered... 

“We did... but at a great cost... too great.” Mike’s voice cracked ever so slightly; the hand that clutched at Jorge’s dog tags clenched harder, letting it hang from his hand. The sounds of metal clinging against each other rang out. 

“How did Jorge-052 go MIA?” Delta inquired; Church looked at Delta with shock. In sheer disbelief that Delta would ask such a sensitive topic in front of the Spartan who looked like he was about to fly into a rage when pushed too far. 

Mike stood there, almost like a statue.

"Spartan Mike?"

Mike didn't hear what Delta said because he was too busy thinking about...

"I'm giving you an order!"

"That's an order I'm going have to refuse."

"Jorge please! Don't do this!"

"Reach has been good to me, don't deny me this."

If he had kept even one marine alive during that mission to detonate the charge, then he would still be alive damnit!!! If he had brought a backup detonator, then he would still be alive!!! If only...

If only...

Delta and Church were speaking to him, but he didn't want to hear it!!! Spartans never die, they're just missing in action!!! As much as he knew it, he desperately wanted to believe that Jorge was still alive by some miracle. But he knew that no one could survive an explosion that close.

There was static ringing in his head and ears, his breathing got heavier. It was too much!! He needed to stop thinking! He needed to know for absolute certain that he was dead!! 

HE NEEDED-

Mike felt arms clutching his shoulders and he reacted instantly, grabbing his target by the neck and--

He stopped when he realized who he had grabbed...

Church clutched at his neck terrified for his life before he felt himself fall onto the ground, he desperately gasped for any air that was chocked out of him. 

Mike banged his helmet with his hand in an effort to stop thinking, slowly but surely the noises began to drown out. 

Delta slowly laid a hand on the Spartan's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. Which seemed to work as Mike's breathing became calmer and steadier, and soon Mike turn to Delta with a nod to let the A.I know that he was fine.

Church was still on the ground and as he about to get up, a hand outstretched for him to get up. Church hesitated for a moment before grabbing the hand and got pulled up by Mike, Church took a step back as he was still terrified about Mike losing control.

"I'm sorry for lashing out, because of my brain damage my thinking process has become more and more distorted." Mike apologized to Church.

"Did your brain damage happen when Reach fell?" 

Mike paused before confirming it...

"Yes."

Church was scared to mention Jorge, but they needed to know what happen. Just how did the big guy go out?

"How did he go out? Did he go out with a bang?"

Mike froze and for a moment Church was terrified that he was going to get chocked by the Spartan again. But that didn't happen, Mike only let out a tired sigh before speaking out.

"Kat had a plan to take out the Super Carrier, and well... I'll just let the memory play out."

Chapter Text

Szurdok Ridge, Utkozet  

August 13, 2552, 20:07 Hours  

A giant Scarab stomped on the ground in the distance as it fires its main cannon bringing devastation in its wake. Mike felt dread upon seeing it, it was easily the biggest Scarab he had ever seen, it looked like it could easily wipe out a quarter of a planet when seen from space. The dread continued to grow within Mike as he realized something, for a Scarab to be that big then that meant the Covenant were pulling out all the stops to wipe out Reach.  

Jorge and Jun were behind him, with Jorge carrying a large briefcase, and Jun was watching their back with his DMR. They managed to rendezvous with the rest of Noble Team at the cave when their dumb A.I Dot spoke on coms with information.  

"Our foe is more devious than we imagined. That spire was indeed a teleporter linked to a cloaked, Covenant supercarrier... A grave threat. Thankfully, help is imminent. Sixty percent of the UNSC fleet is en route to Reach from existing deployments. The first battle group should arrive within forty-eight hours."   

Just as Dot finished her sentence, Jorge had dropped the briefcase next to Emile who looked to be taking a nap. Upon hearing the briefcase being dropped on the ground he woke from his short nap and began to get up. Jun had holster his DMR when he heard how long their reinforcements would arrive, he wasn’t exactly pleased.  

“Forty-eight hours? That’s imminent!?” He said that last part after taking his helmet off. Mike too balked at the time for their reinforcements to arrive, by the time they arrive Reach would nearly be destroyed by that Super Carrier at best. As Jun brushed off Jorge’s shoulder pauldron as it got charred by a plasma hit, he noticed Kat arguing with Carter and he knew exactly where this was going.  

"Uh-oh. Who's your money on this time?" Jun asked Jorge.  

“Her.” Jorge answered with no hesitation.  

“You always pick her.” Jun complained, with Mike watching on bemused as he figured out what was going on between Kat and Carter.  

Jorge took off his helmet and replied back to Jun, "She's always had him dialed in."   

Jun then turned to Mike and asked him, “What about you? Who’s your money on?”  

Mike looked at Kat and Carter before looking back at Jun with an obvious answer, “Kat, easily.”  

Jun at this point looked to Mike with his mouth agape, “Is it because you two are from Beta Company and are showing favoritism towards her?”  

“I admit while Kat has had her moments of embarrassment regarding her driving skills, there is a reason she is brilliant when it comes to making plans that are a little... outside the box.” Mike said remembering the times Kat would show her brilliance when it came to outsmarting the instructors.  

“When you put it like that... I can see why.” Jun grumbled.  

As this money betting was going on, Kat was arguing with Carter.  

"That thing's crushing us, and we're waiting for backup? They'll be backing up a graveyard." Kat argued.  

"All our nukes are either out-system or went down with the ships that carried them. You're preaching to the converted." Carter said matter of factly.  

"How converted?" Kat asked with a small smirk.  

"I know that look, Kat."   

"You can say no."  

“No.” Carter refused immediately.  

"You don't even want to hear it?"  

Carter let out a sigh, "Fine. I'll hear it."  

"Remember that accident a couple years back? Colony ship en route to Cygnus. Seven hundred dead?"   

"Vaguely. A slipspace drive malfunction, right?"  

"Actually, it worked fine. The drive was mounted improperly after a service haul-out. When it fired, it teleported half the ship to oblivion."  

"And this is relevant, how?"  

"A certain Covenant supercarrier could, with some assistance, suffer the same unfortunate accident..."   

Carter was silent for a moment, stunned at how out of the box Kat’s plan was, "Even for you, Kat, that's-"  

"Inspired?" Kat interjected.  

"Not the word I would use."  

As their conversation finished, the rest of Noble Team walked up to them intrigued to find out the outcome of the argument.  

"What's going on?" Jorge asked.  

Carter looked to Jorge before turning back to Kat, "Go ahead. Explain." Gesturing for her to explain her crazy plan for the Super Carrier.  

Kat reached for Emile’s kukri knife but before she could take it, Emile quickly stopped her as a warning because he never let anyone touched his knife. Kat remained unfazed by this and simply asked, "May I?"  

Emile slowly let go of her hand allowing for her to take his knife, "Don't cut yourself." He said simply.  

Kat then began to draw a rough diagram on the floor, as she does this, she began to explain her plan to take down the Super Carrier, "Objective? Destroy Covenant Carrier in geosynchronous orbit above us."  

Jorge turned to Carter, "This sanctioned, sir?"  

"What do you think?" Carter shot back.  

"Oh."  

Kat finished her diagram which was a crudely drawn Super Carrier, below it was a mini slip space drive with an arrow pointing directly towards the Super Carrier.  

"Method? A slipspace drive in lieu of the nukes we don't have. Delivery system? Us. Solvable? Getting us up there. That, and getting our hands on a slip-space drive."  

As she finished speaking about her plan, she gave Emile back is knife, "Thank you for sharing."  

Emile took back his knife as Carter looked lost, "So... All we need is orbit-capable transport, and the single most expensive piece of equipment made by man?"   

Mike thought this plan by Kat was completely out there, while she did have plans in the past that were admittedly brilliant this was taking it to a whole other level to the point that it was completely over the top and ridiculous. Did she not realize that they had no orbit capable transport at the moment?!  

As he was thinking this, Kat continued explaining, "As a soldier in the field I couldn't possibly have access to those kinds of resources - that said, a good place to look might be... I don't know, the nearest nonexistent launch site in the nonexistent Sabre Program, dismissed by three administrations as preposterous rumor...” She then turned to Mike with a smirk as she continued, “And which our newest member was certainly never a pilot.”  

Mike was stunned as he saw everyone turn to look at him, the Sabre Program?? He did hear a rumor about that but...  

“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.” Mike said flatly.  

“Spoken like an ONI spook.” Kat let out a chuckle.  

Emile turned to Kat, "You're scary, you know that?"  

"All we need is a green light from Holland." Kat spoke up.  

"Good luck with that." Carter scoffed.  

“You’re the one asking him” Kat said as she pulled out a data pad and outstretches it to Carter for him to take it.  

Carter looked at the data pad for a moment before reluctantly taking it and looking away, "Oh, there's no way in hell he's gonna go for this..." He says as he began to tap away at the data pad convinced that Holland would not go for it...  

Sabre Program Launch/Research Range, Farkas Lake, Eposz  

August 14, 2552, 12:48 Hours  

...Holland went for it.  

Mike would have laughed out loud at the slumped shoulders that Carter had when he reported that Holland went with Kat’s crazy plan. But he didn’t do that because he was too busy thinking about what Kat had said during her explanation of said plan. He had said that he could neither confirm nor deny what Kat said, but he just said that to dodge the questions he would have faced had he said the truth.  

...He never flew the Sabre in his life.  

The statement by Kat caused Mike to seriously question everything. While he did hear the rumor about the Sabre Program, he never flew it and yet from what Kat had said, he did. Was he forgetting it?! No that wasn’t possible he remembered everything about his upbringing; His induction into Beta Company; Him failing one of his augmentations and the... incident; Being assigned to Humble Team with seventeen female washouts; Him doing everything he could to get civilians to safety during planetary evacuations when the Covenant invaded them; All of it leading up to him being assigned to Noble Team...  

...But was he really forgetting it??  

Mike firmly denied what he was thinking, even if he was forgetting something surely it wouldn’t be something as big as the Sabre program! A program that, like Kat said, was fiercely denied by three administrations as just that... rumors.  

Then a thought came to mind, did someone in the military screw up? Did someone misfiled another Spartan’s accomplishments and put his callsign on it?  

No, that was impossible. Any kind of military screwups especially with the war turning out so bad for the UNSC would be fiercely dealt with and never repeated again. Either that someone would be assigned to cleanup for the rest of their life at best, or at worse...  

As the Falcon was flying nearer to the launch facility, Mike jolted out of his thoughts, he would think on this later but right now they had a job to do... a Super Carrier to destroy.   

The Falcon flew near the ground, enough for the Spartans on board to jump off. The Spartans in question consisted of Mike, Kat, Carter, and Jorge.  

"Bit of a hike to the launch facility..." Jorge grumbled, clearly not happy having to walk with heavy equipment to the facility.  

"Any closer's too hot to land." Carter reminded him.  

"Copy that, Commander." Kat said.  

"Move up the beach, Noble!"  

“You got it boss!” With that said by Mike, Noble Team made their way towards the launch facility, going through a narrow passage before turning the corner to witness a battlefield happening in front of them. The skies littered with enemy Spirit dropships getting shot by AA guns.  

"Launch facility, dead ahead." Kat shouted out, spotting the facility in the distance.  

"Hostile transport coming in!" Carter barked before firing upon the Grunts, the rest of Noble Team following their leader and taking out the first wave of enemies.  

As they got closer to the facility, pods came raining down from the sky and out of them came another wave of enemies, hellbent on taking out Noble Team. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get far before they splatter on the ground. As Noble Team took out the remaining hostiles and secured the area for now, an Army Trooper bellowed out...  

"Everybody inside, more hostiles on the way!”   

"Inside, Six, let's go!" Carter barked out as he led Noble Team into the facility. Mike being the last to enter as he finished off a Grunt.   

"Spartans coming in! Watch your fire!" Another Army Trooper bellowed out to the other troopers to let them know that friendlies were coming in.   

"Flight control's this way, they're expecting you." One of the troopers came up to Noble Team and informed them on what they wanted to hear.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

PROCEED TO FLIGHT CONTROL  

As Noble Team went further into the facility, Jorge let his grievance know among the team about his disbelief about Holland going along with the plan...  

"Still can't believe Holland said yes to this..."  

"Well, some plans are too good to say no." Kat quipped quite pridefully.

"Let's just get that Sabre airborne before he changes his mind." Carter said keeping his team in check before any other arguments could break out.  

Mike kept silent throughout the trek through the facility, he wasn’t busy thinking too deeply like he used to but the whole situation was still bugging him. Along the way, a Trooper came up to them as they neared their destination...  

"Control's right through that door, Commander."  

Mike went first and just as he was about to round the corner, a Trooper came flying out and hitting the wall hard. Out of the other hallway came an Elite, however just as it was about to fire its plasma rifle, Mike was already on it. Pining the Elite to the wall and snaping its neck before it could do anything else.  

“Nicely done, Six.” Jorge commented as he patted Mike on the shoulder for a good kill. Mike felt warm on the inside, Jorge was his favorite out of all the members of Noble Team, which was saying much seeing as how Jorge was a Spartan II therefore, he was better than the III’s but he always treated the III’s as more brothers and sisters.  

"Warning: launch facility has been breached. Covenant forces have entered the base." The PA crackled to life with the announcement, jolting Mike out of his thoughts as he caught up to Noble Team in the control room.  

Once gathered in the control room, the bulkhead began to slowly open up and once it was fully opened. It revealed an aircraft that left Mike speechless.  

...The Sabre.  

"Five, Six: get to the Sabre before the Covenant wreck it." Carter ordered.  

"What about you and Kat?" Jorge questioned.  

"Jun's on his way with a Falcon, we'll exfil after you launch. Move it!”   

"You heard him, Six, let's go."   

“We’ll get it done Commander!” Mike then took off for the Sabre with Jorge right behind him.

"Launch teams, Sabre is prepped and ready for launch." A Trooper called out.  

Mike nodded to the Trooper before climbing into the cockpit of the Sabre, with Jorge behind him in the passenger seat.   

Now came the hard part...  

Mike glanced nervously at the controls before pressing down some buttons that prepped the Sabre for the go ahead.  

“We rode on a roller coaster that was super fun!! And went really really high!”  

“Because it was a spaceship!”  

"Struts disengaged. Commencing launch in T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2..." 

“Bleep! Sound effects!”  

As soon as the countdown ended, the ignition started and propelled the Sabre into the air, launching it into space. Mike held on as the G force rocketed into his body.  

“AEYYYYYYYEY!”  

"First stage engine burn nominal." 

At this point, the Sabre had reached the upper atmosphere and was now entering low orbit.  

"Stage separation in 3, 2, 1... Stage separation." 

The booster rockets for the Sabre detached leaving them to float in space, once that was done the afterburners engaged when Mike punched it, heading for the Anchor 9 station.  

"Second stage ignition confirmed." 

“Man, I can’t wait to touch all these buttons!”  

“Don’t touch any buttons!!”  

Mike watched breathlessly as he took in the view, if it weren’t for the immediate threat of the Super Carrier, he would’ve just been there for hours taking it all in. But they weren’t there for the view, they had a job to do.  

"Noble Actual to Sabre Bravo Oh-Two-Niner, over." Holland’s voice crackled on coms.  

"Copy, Actual. Colonel Holland?" Jorge answered.  

"Affirmative, Noble Five. Welcome to Operation: UPPER CUT. I'll be your control from here on out."  

"Noble Six, these Sabres have been customized for orbital defense; you may need to get reacquainted.”  

“I think I’m going to need it! Just guide me through, Colonel.”  

What followed could only be described as a comical sight to anyone watching as Mike did maneuvers that were straight out of an action movie as Holland guided him on how to get re acquainted with the Sabre. Mike was nervous throughout, but that nervousness quickly faded once he got the hang of the controls. By the end of it Mike was confident that he got the hang of it and was ready to take out any Covenant that dared stand in their way.  

"You're all warmed up, Six; we should head for the Savannah." Jorge piped up once Mike was finished getting through the controls.  

“Agreed!”  

Mike piloted the Sabre to the staging point where the other Sabre pilots were waiting, along with the Savannah which was being docked.  

"Multiple unidentified contacts." Jorge spoke up suddenly.  

"Savannah Actual to Sabre teams, be advised: we have bogies inbound."  

"Anchor 9 to all UNSC ships: station defenses are down, requesting combat support until we can bring them back online."  

"Here we go, Six. Show them what you can do."   

“Got it!”  

CURRENT OBJCETIVE:  

DEFEND ANCHOR 9  

Mike piloted the Sabre at full throttle as he relentlessly pursued the Banshees and began taking them down, other Sabre's followed and began their own dogfights with the Covenant. With Mike’s excellent piloting skills as well as the other pilots, they managed to quickly take down the Banshees.  

"Anchor 9 to UNSC ships: impulse drive signatures detected. Fighter-class. Heads up, Sabres!"  

Multiple Seraphs quickly made themselves known.  

"Sabre teams: use your guns to take down their shields, then hit 'em with your missiles!" Holland informed on coms.  

"Defensive batteries at 79%; buy us another minute, Sabre team!"  

Mike had a Seraph trailing behind him and did an evasive maneuver by somersaulting behind the Seraph, firing his cannons to deplete the shields and once the shields were gone, Mike switched to the missiles and fired after a few seconds of locking on destroying the Seraph.  

Mike wasted no time as he went to protect another pilot from being destroyed by a Seraph, getting behind said Seraph and doing the same thing as he did before.   

“Thanks Spartan! I owe ya one!”  

“Thank me later when we finish this!”  

After that brief conversation, Mike went around and helped the other Sabre's with putting down the Seraphs, while they proved tough eventually, they were destroyed.  

"Anchor 9 to all craft in the vicinity, be advised: we show a large attack force inbound. Combat air patrol and Sabre teams are directed to engage and defend the station."  

"Is there any place the Covenant isn't?!" Jorge cried out in exasperation.  

"Anchor 9 to all UNSC ships: station defenses are back online. Clear the lane, and we'll light 'em up."  

Not long after that announcement, more Banshees and Seraph’s appeared, with so many it was going to be tough. But that wasn’t what Mike was focused on at the moment.  

"Anchor 9 to Sabre teams: Phantoms are inbound on vector Seven Mark Four Niner."  

Phantoms then came in, heavily armed and ready to shred any defenses that the UNSC held up.  

Mike’s blood ran cold, if those Phantoms were to get close to Anchor 9....  

"Anchor 9 to all UNSC fighters: multiple inbound Phantoms headed straight for our defensive batteries. Sabre teams, marking high-value gunboat targets - now."  

Mike’s HUD lit up with the HVT’s and he grew determined to not let a single Phantom get close to Anchor 9. He pushed the Sabre to its limit to get close to one and started firing with all the missiles it had. One Phantom went down and so Mike went around doing evasive maneuvers to avoid getting hit by the Banshees and Seraph’s that were trying to stop him from destroying the Phantoms.  

Anchor 9’s defense systems were doing a good job taking down some Banshees and putting a few dents in the Seraphs for the Sabre teams to finish off. With this going on, Mike was able to bring down some more Phantoms. Soon it was down to the last one and Mike got behind it, waited for the lock on to engage the target, and fired his missiles, destroying the last one.  

Once the last Phantom went down, the remaining Banshees and Seraphs fled in retreat, not wanting to be destroyed by the defenses of Anchor 9 or the Sabre teams.  

"Anchor 9 to UNSC ships: all targets neutralized. Bravo Oh-Two-Niner, you are cleared to dock. Activating marker."  

"Holland to Bravo Oh-Two-Niner. Noble Five, you ready to go?"  

"Affirmative, Colonel."  

"Noble Six, head for the marker. Initiate docking procedure."  

“On it!”   

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

DOCK WITH ANCHOR 9  

Mike was able to dock the Sabre just outside the hanger, the docking procedure then commence as it held the Sabre in place.   

"I'm out here, Six." Jorge said as he prepared to exit the Sabre and fly to the Pelican that housed the slipspace drive for their mission. However, before he could exit, the cockpit refused to budge as the computer announced...  

"Warning: M-Spec Reentry Pack disengaged."  

"I need your override." Mike then inputted the override so that Jorge can do what he needed to do.  

"Warning: M-Spec Reentry-” It was interrupted once Jorge opened the cockpit and instead continued with, “Cockpit depressurization complete. Canopy release lever: armed."  

Jorge then launched himself at the Pelican letting the zero gravity take him as he flew.  

“Touch!”  

“CABOOOOOSE!!”  

“Goodbye Giant Friend! Come back Soon!!”  

Jorge looked down at Reach and said something in Hungarian, Mike was confused on what Jorge said and was about to ask him for a translation when their Dumb A.I Dot interjected.  

"Noble Five? Please repeat."  

"Pull up surface grid, 19 by 22."  

"Gladly. ONI Sword Base: Sector 18G."  

"Thermal enhance."  

Mike instantly knew what Jorge saw when the view of the area housing Doctor Halsey and Sword Base was engulfed by an explosion that could be seen in Space. Mike was speechless as he knew exactly what it meant...  

"Noble Five, your pulse is elevated. There is nothing you can do for Doctor Halsey and the others inside SWORD Base. The mathematics are determinate... Noble Five?"  

Jorge was not responding.  

Mike switched out of the view area and focused on Jorge; he was just staring at the area where the ONI Sword Base was. Mike hesitated but he knew he needed to get him to focus on the mission, to hopefully save Reach and avenge Halsey.  

“Jorge...” Mike stared saying, “Dot is right, there’s nothing we could do for her... But we need to focus on the mission. Let’s do it for her... for Reach.”   

That mini speech by Mike was enough to get Jorge out of his stupor and he replied back quite somberly...  

"...I know. Let’s do it Six.”  

"Bravo Oh-Two-Niner, you're cleared to re-engage thrusters."  

As Mike reengaged the thrusters, coms came crackling to life with Holland on the line, but... something was different.  

“...Noble Six, this is Holland."  

Mike stopped for a moment as he picked up something in Holland’s voice, something was wrong. Why did he say his callsign with hesitancy?  

“Colonel, are you alright? Your voice, did something happen?”  

There was an air of silence for a moment before Holland came back on coms with reassurance, “...Something did happen but the mission still stands, we've flagged a Corvette-class vessel on a predicted docking track with our target. Get our makeshift bomb on that Corvette, and we have our delivery system. Noble Five will escort the bomb. I need your Sabre team to clear the way for boarding."   

"Understood, Colonel."  

"As she's already donated her slipspace drive to the cause, the Savannah will be joining you to provide local fire support."  

"UNSC Savannah. Our wings may be clipped, but we've got your back." The voice of the commanding officer of the Savannach said on coms.  

"I've stuck my neck out for Noble on this one, Lieutenant."  

"We'll get it done, Colonel. Six out." Mike finished the call as he piloted the Sabre to take the lead.  However, he was still unsure about the tone of voice Holland use when addressing him, now that he thought about it, Holland spoke to him with a layer of... caution, as if one wrong word and he would have crumbled. Why was that? Mike force himself to focus on the mission, he can think about Holland later.

It would be a while later that they found their target, and Mike let everyone know the moment they laid eyes on it.  

"We have visual. Target confirmed."  

As they got closer, the commanding officer of the Savannah spoke up on coms, "Frigate Savannah in position. Sabre teams: sound off."  

"Echo 1, all systems nominal."  

"Echo 2, good to go."  

"Echo 3, systems green."  

"Echo 4, all systems online!"  

"Solid copy. We are currently jamming the Corvette's comms. Hit it hard while it can't call for help!"  

"Agreed. Sabre teams, clear a path to that Corvette." Holland ordered.  

"Might wanna clip her engines, Colonel. See if we can slow her down."  

"Good thinking, Savannah. That'll make boarding her a whole lot easier. Noble Six, I'm marking targets: take out the Corvette's main engines."  

“I’m on it!”  

CURRENT OBJECTVE:  

DISABLE THE ENGINES ON THE CORVETTE  

Once Mike had his targets, he was dead set on completing the task assigned to him; Maneuvering the Sabre to get behind the Corvette all the while dodging the plasma shots by the Banshees and Seraphs that accompanied the Corvette. Mike was relying on the Sabre pilots to cover him while he took out the engines, while he did that the Savannah would provide covering fire.   

Mike was able to take out the engines with some effort, feeling proud that he had accomplished his task and the Corvette started to slow to a stop.  

"Warning: energy pulses detected in the Corvette's aft launch bays." Dot warned.  

"Heads up, Sabres: multiple impulse drive signatures detected, more bogies incoming."  

"Echo 2 to Savannah Actual. Where are the reinforcements coming from? I thought the target was jammed."  

"Must be squadrons coming back from patrol, Echo 2."  

"Don't let any of them get away, Sabres! Kill them before they bug out and warn that supercarrier what we're up to!” Holland barked out orders.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

DESTROY CORVETTE FIGHTER ESCORT  

Mike punched it and made a beeline for the Banshees and Seraphs with the rest of Sabre team backing him up. Swiftly dealing with them with the aid of the Savannah before they could retreat and warn the Super Carrier. Mike backed up Echo 2 who was having trouble with a Seraph whilst dealing with a Banshee on his tail. Mike got behind the Banshee and blew it up allowing Echo 2 to finish off the Seraph.  

"Dot, analyze all available data on that Corvette. Find a way inside." Holland ordered Dot.  

"Scans indicate a structural weakness surrounding a platform on top of the vessel."  

"Noble Six, set down immediately on that Corvette's topside landing pad."  

“Got it Colonel!”  

Mike maneuvered his Sabre into a parking position on the landing pad, he was soon followed by three other Sabre’s landing on the pad. Mike got out of the Sabre, cocking his DMR as he prepared to kill any Covenant that got in his way. At the same time his HUD lit up with the IFF tags of the Sabre pilots that were joining him in storming the Corvette.  

CPL M. GRIFFEN  

SGT C. WALLCROFT   

SGT K. GAZ  

"Noble Six, the Savannah's countermeasures won't work forever. Find a way inside, and permanently disable the cruiser's communications. As soon as we're sure the Corvette can't squawk, we'll initiate UPPERCUT - Phase Two.”  

“We’ll get it done Colonel! Alright boys, lock and load.” Mike hyped up the other pilots as he went first and dropped down into the Communcations center. He quickly fired at a few Elites to get their shields down, once that happened, they were quickly dispatched by the Troopers that accompanied Mike. 

If someone were to look at the scene unfolding, it would have been a sight as there was no sounds of gunshots ringing out, or explosions letting out a loud BOOM. It was an eerie serenity.   

Mike dodged a plasma grenade thrown his way by a Grunt and retaliated by blowing their head off. Gaz managed to slit another Grunts throat before kicking them letting the nonexistent gravity float them. Wallcroft managed to get a collateral with his sniper rifle by aligning his shot to hit two at once. Griffen stole a Grunts plasma pistol and charged it up to completely take out the shields of an Elite before shredding them with his assault rifle.  

"Holland to Savannah, enemy comm relay is now offline."  

"Copy that. Halting countermeasures, diverting all power and personnel to weapons."  

"Alright, Noble. Let's get that slipspace bomb on board. Six, head for the hangar."  

“We’re on it! Let’s move Troopers!”   

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

CLEAR THE HANGER FOR THE PELICAN  

Mike and the Troopers made their way towards the hanger determined to get their reinforcements so that they can get this done and potentially save Reach. Once they got to the hanger, they took the Covenant by complete surprised as they wasted no time in taking them out, some were downed before they eventually recovered from their shock and started firing upon them.   

Mike fired a shot at an Elite, only to get blocked by an overshield, he blinked before looking up and seeing... something that was protecting the Elite. What was he even looking at?! He quickly fired upon whatever the hell it was and got rid of it, thus eliminating the Elite with an overshield. He’ll think about what he saw later but for now he needed to focus on the mission.  

"Colonel, on our way to the hangar."  

"Noble Five, meet 'em there."  

"Affirmative, on approach."  

"Six, go for those shield controls. I need in."  

“We’re working on it! Just got to clear a few more hostiles and we’re good to go!” Mike said as he threw a grenade and blew up a cluster of Grunts that panicked and tried to escape before splattering to pieces.   

Once the area was cleared of hostiles, Mike made his way towards the controls, no sooner than he did the artificial gravity turn back on and with the air returning. Mike found this out after jumping to the platform that housed the controls only to fall short when the gravity turned back on. Grumbling, he took the slope up and deactivated the shield.  

The Pelican carrying the slipspace drive along with Jorge, following after the Spartan II was another Trooper.  

SGT M. GRIGGS  

"Powder keg is aboard, Colonel." Jorge called on coms.  

"Copy that. Six, get your fireteam to the bridge; the Corvette's refueling run with the supercarrier will have to be initiated manually."  

"Yes, sir."  

“Five, stay with the bomb...and discourage the curious."  

"My pleasure. Hear that, Lieutenant? I'll be all by my lonesome back here. Make it quick, would ya?"  

“I’ll be back before you start missing me.”  

“Heh, you wish.”  

After finishing their back and forth, Mike along with Gaz, Griffen, and Wallcroft stocked up on ammo.  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

PROCEED TO THE BRIDGE  

"Noble Six, get that Corvette moving toward the supercarrier. Head for the bridge. Find the NAV controls."  

“Consider it done!” Mike gathered the troops and just as they were prepared to go to the hallway leading to the bridge...  

“Covenant!” Griggs barked, firing his assault rifle at the Elites when they came charging out of the very door that they planned to go through.  

“Engage!” Mike commanded, Wallcroft and Griffen took down the Grunts that accompanied the Elites; Gaz meanwhile, fired at a batch of Grunts and just as he turned to fire at an Elite making its way towards him, his gun clicked, signifying an empty mag. Knowing that he wouldn’t reload the gun in time for the charging Elite, Gaz threw his empty gun at the Elite and quickly pulled his Magnum out and emptied its clip into it. The Elite roared in rage when its energy shield was gone and it pulled out a plasma grenade and threw it at Gaz, who dodged at the last moment and plunged his knife into the Elite’s throat.  

Gaz pulled his knife from the throat of the Elite and quickly picked his gun back up and reloaded it. Griggs stuffed a grenade down a Grunts throat and hurled it at a cluster of Grunts who were running away in terror before being blown up.  

Jorge revved his minigun and eviscerated the remaining hostiles that were trying to flee after seeing their brethren killed off in such a brutal fashion.   

After the chaos had settled, Mike was impressed with the Troopers, one would easily mistake their skills as comparable to ODST’s but with the war dragging on for this long it was inevitable that some would get creative when fighting the Covenant.   

“Alright Troopers, we know what the mission is. Let’s move it!”   

“Yes sir!” They all responded back. Going down the hallway leading to a room that had multiple plasma batteries firing away at the UNSC Savannah that was retreating, having sustained too much damage to continue the fight.  

"Savannah to Holland: sustaining major structural damage! We need to break off, Colonel!"  

"Copy, Savannah. Our team is in, disengage!"  

"Break off! Break off! Hull breach, reactors flaring! Dammit, I'm losing her!"  

The Savannah then exploded, leaving chunks of debris in its wake. Mike froze upon seeing this before he was back in action when Griggs was the one who shouted out in despair.  

“You’ll regret that you damn Covie bastards!!” Griggs roared out before unleashing his fury upon the Elites that were taken by complete surprised.  

“Give em hell!” Hallcroft joined in along with Griffen who threw a grenade at the far end of the room that blew up an Elite. Gaz, Griggs, and Mike followed behind blasting away at the Elite with a renewed vengeance for their fallen brothers.   

Mike tackled an Elite and snapped its neck before taking one of its plasma grenades, priming it, and throwing it at another Elite.  Gaz got behind an Elite and stabbed it in the throat while it was distracted by Griffen. While Gaz, Hallcroft, and Griggs finished off the rest.  

After the skirmish, Mike looked out the viewport at the debris field. He was hoping to see any escape pods but he didn’t see any...  

"Savannah Actual, can you hear me?" Holland asked over coms, trying to get any response from any survivors. But there were no survivors, there wasn’t enough time to get to any escape pods.  

"Frigate's gone, Six... Nothing we can do." Jorge’s voice took over, trying to comfort Mike like he had comfort him a while ago.  

“I know...” Mike said with a low whisper.  

"Noble, you're in deep with no cover. Get that Corvette moving and get the hell outta there!" Holland commanded.  

“We’ll get it done sir... Count on it.”  

Not long after he said those words, Mike led the Troopers down another hallway that housed a door into the bridge. When the doors were opened, they could see more Elites and Grunts manning the bridge, unaware of the humans that were about to slaughter them.  

"Looks like the bridge, Spartan. Let's clear it out." Griggs piped up. Mike took a moment to analyze the room to see how many hostiles they were dealing with. He then noticed one particular Elite with gold armor. The shipmaster himself. After moments of thinking, he had a plan.  

“Griffen do you still have the plasma pistol?” Mike asked.  

“I do, what are you thinking?”   

“That Elite with gold armor, his energy shields are greater than the Elites we encountered on this ship so far. A charged plasma shot from that plasma pistol will take out his energy shields...”  

“Therefore, making it easy to take him out.” Griffen finished the sentence. Taking out that plasma pistol and dual wielding it with his Magnum. “Not bad thinking Spartan, but what about his friends?”  

Mike didn’t waste any time, “Here’s the plan, I’ll distract the Shipmaster so that Griffen will get him from the side with a charged plasma shot; Gaz, Hallcroft, and Griggs will take out the Grunts and remaining Elites. Are we clear on that?”  

“Just give the signal and we’ll be sending them all straight to hell.” Gaz growled out. The others soon made their agreement to the plan known. They all prepared for Mike to give the signal and after a moment of silence...  

“Engage!” Mike commanded as he charged at the Shipmaster while throwing a grenade at the other Elites to take out their shields. Gaz, Hallcroft, and Griggs followed behind and went behind cover to take out the Grunts and the Elites. Griffen flanked the Shipmaster as he was distracted by Mike, getting behind him and charging the plasma pistol waiting to get a clear shot without hitting the Spartan in the process. Mike seeing this, dodged a slash by the Shipmaster who whipped out his plasma sword, after dodging it, Griffen took the opportunity to fire the shot and taking out the Shipmaster’s shields and headshot him with his Magnum.  

The bridge was now clear of hostiles, moments later Mike’s coms crackled to life with Holland’s voice, "Move, Lieutenant! Put that Corvette on a refueling track to the supercarrier."  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE:  

ACTIVATE THE REFUELING SEQUENCE  

Mike went to the navigation controls and activated the refueling sequence, “Refueling sequence initiated, the Supercarrier won’t know what’ll hit them before it’s too late Colonel!”  

"Well done, Noble Six. UPPERCUT initiated. Corvette is underway."  

At that moment they heard the door to the bridge open and a small Covenant force made their way and fired at the group, Mike and the Troopers managed to kill them before they could figure out what they did. “Come on we are getting off!” Mike led the group back to the hanger, on their way however, Jorge came on coms...  

"Six, our ride outta here is taking heavy fire! Get back to the hangar!"  

“We’re a little preoccupied at the moment!” Because they ran into a few Elites in the room that housed the plasma batteries and were busy taking them out when Jorge was on coms.  

“Whenever you’re done dealing with them...” Jorge began to say.  

“We’re done dealing with them and are now making our way towards the hanger.”  

There was nothing but sounds of plasma fire and needlers in the background before Jorge’s voice came back.  

“That was fast...”  

“I work well with Troopers.”  They were now nearing the door to the hanger bay.  

“That I have noticed.”  

The door to the hanger bay opened to a sea of Covenant hostiles; Elites, Grunts, and Jackals firing upon Jorge who was holding his own so far with his minigun. “Griffen, toss a Grenade!” Mike tossed a grenade which was soon followed by Griffen doing the same, resulting in some Jackals blowing up along with a few Grunts. “Wallcroft, back up Noble Five with your Sniper rifle! Gaz, you, Griffen, and Griggs are with me, defend the bomb at all costs!”  

“Yes sir!”  

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 
DEFEND THE SLIPSPACE BOMB 

"Nice of you to join Six!” Jorge took out a Grunt before he could make his suicide run.  

“Hope you didn’t grow bored with my absence.” Mike put down a Jackal with precision.  

“Oh, I didn’t, not when I had the Covenant converging on me.” Jorge took out an Elite that tried to flank them but failed.  

“As long as those Covie bastards get what’s coming to them, I’m not complaining!” Griggs piped up as he fired upon the Elites along with Gaz.  

They took down the first wave of enemies, and as they restocked on ammo prepared to get ready for the second wave, that’s when things went south...  

“Hallcroft look out!!!” Griffen shouted, but it was too late...  

A plasma grenade stuck to Hallcroft’s chest just as he turned around, and as he looked at the culprit, he made a decision...  

“For Reach!!!” Hallcroft used the precious few seconds he had left to run and tackle the Elite to the ground just as he exploded.  

“Hallcroft!!!” Griffen cried out. His grief turned to rage as he picked up a rocket launcher from one of the briefcases and fired upon a group of Elites, he fired another rocket at a group of Jackals. Before he could have a chance to reload...  

“Griffen get down!!!” Mike ran to Griffen trying to tackle him to the ground, but just as he grabbed him, Griffen’s head exploded via a needler shot by a sniper Jackal.  

Mike froze upon seeing the missing head of Griffen before a shout of pain grabbed his attention, Gaz was on the floor bleeding out before he was stepped on by an Elite and shot in the head by a plasma rifle while staring at the Spartans and Griggs.  

“You’ll regret that!!” Griggs shouted before he was pulled back by Jorge who revved his minigun and fired upon the last group of Elites. He managed to down one before they scattered trying to dodge his never-ending hailstorm of bullets. Mike shot the sniper Jackal that killed Giffen, while at the same time holding Griggs back trying to keep him from being killed. But it seems as if fate had other plans...  

“Stay close to me Trooper!” Mike commanded as he threw a grenade at the column where one of the Elites was taking cover, the Elite noticing this got out of cover only to receive a hail of bullets from Jorge’s minigun. The other Elite went out of cover and shot his plasma rifle at Jorge, the plasma shots resulted in Jorge’s energy shields being taken offline and he let out a string of curses in Hungarian as he took cover. Leaving Mike to deal with the lone Elite.  

The Elite fired upon Mike but he dodged out of the way and returned fire, distracting him long enough for Griggs to plunge a knife to the eye of the Elite. It roared out, grabbing Griggs by the leg and slamming him to the column, hitting his head hard. Griggs cried out in pain before the Elite was killed by Mike.  

After making sure there were no other hostiles in the vicinity, Mike checked Griggs to make sure he was still alive.  

Griggs remained unresponsive...  

Mike was distraught by this, three Sabre Pilots dead and one extra trooper as backup also died via head impact. If he had been faster then maybe...  

He felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see Jorge comforting him.  

“I’m sorry Six.”  

Mike knew they couldn’t stay there; the Super Carrier was fast approaching. He could handle the death of these Troopers later but right now they had a job to do...  

“... What’s the status of the bomb?”  

“Still intact.”  

“And the door leading to the Sabre's?”  

Jorge went silent for a moment before explaining, "Savannah did a number on the door. There's no way back up to the Sabres.”  

Mike felt a small pit form in his stomach but he quashed it for now...  

“We’ll figure out how to get out but let’s check on the bomb.”  

As they made their way over to the bomb and Jorge began arming it, Dot came on coms...  

"Distance is closing on this vessel's refueling track with the Covenant supercarrier. Seventy-six seconds to endpoint."  

Mike could see the Super carrier getting ever so closer to them, all they had to do now was set the time off and get off the Corvette... somehow.  

As Jorge finished arming with the bomb, he noticed something very wrong and no sooner than he did he smacked the bomb in frustration, "Damn it... So, it's gonna be like that."  

Jorge glanced at Mike who had turned to face him when he had heard his resigned exclamation.  

"Well, I got good news and bad news. This bird took some fire and her thruster gimbal is toast. Which means the only way off this slag heap is gravity."  

Mike felt the pit in his stomach grew larger with each word spoken, he hesitated before asking the, hopefully, good news...  

"And the good news?" He hoped that Jorge would say that everything would turn out for the better...  

But his hopes were crushed...  

"...That was the good news."  

Mike was stunned if that was the good news then what was...  

"At current velocity, fifty-three seconds to endpoint."  

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know..." Jorge sighed before explaining what the problem was...  

"Bad news is, timer's fried. I'm gonna have to fire it manually."  

Mike froze upon hearing this... no no no... this isn’t happening...  

“But that’s a one-way trip!!!” Mike cried out, his voice cracking.  

"We all make it sooner or later.” Jorge said in a resigned tone, “You better get going Six, they ar-”  

“No! I’ll do it!” Mike interrupted Jorge.  

“Six...”  

“You’re a Spartan II, you are more valuable than me. Let me do it!”  

“No, Six you are equally valuable, all you Spartan III’s are equally valuable as me. I already made my decision.”  

“To hell with your decision!! Jorge let me do it! I am giving you an order!!!” Mike pulled rank, desperately hoping that Jorge would listen, tears were threating to escape his eyes but he couldn’t cry, Spartans don’t cry...  

Jorge gave a hollowed laugh, “That’s an order I’m gonna have to refuse.”  

Jorge then stood there, a slight head nudge betraying his stillness. Before Mike could say anything, he felt motionless...  

No, not motionless...  

“Armor lock engaged.” Dot’s voice called out on coms.  

...What?!  

“Jorge what the hell are you doing!?” Mike yelled out, trying to move but he couldn’t.  

Jorge then removed his helmet, dropping it with a loud thud as he gazes into Mike’s visor.  

“Six, listen, Reach has been good to me..." He pulled his dog tags off before clasping them into Mike’s hand and lifts him up, "...time's come to return the favor. Don't deny me this." He then begins to carry Mike towards the shield door.  

“Jorge please! Don’t do this!!” Mike begged, not wanting to lose his best friend.  

“And when my mission was all done, he politely dropped me back off at home because he was my new best friend!”  

"Tell 'em to make it count, Six." Jorge said as he dropped Mike into space.  

“Alright, time for you to leave.”  

“JORGE!!!” Mike screamed as he fell down to Reach.  

“Goodbye! Thank you for the ride! You are my new best friend and I will never forget you! You probably can’t hear me though because everyone knows there is no oxygen on a rollercoaster! I am yelling quieter now because I am further away from you!!”  

As he fell, he saw the Corvette almost touching the Super Carrier and just as it did a bright light engulfed his view. The next moment he saw a massive slipspace rift rip the Super Carrier apart. A massive shockwave then followed releasing ionized radiation in its wake.  

Mike’s eyes were water filled as tears finally escaped his eyes... he had just lost his best friend... the Super Carrier was destroyed yes but at what cost!?  

‘You did it Jorge... I hope you find pea-’  

"Slipspace rupture detected."  

...What!?  

Mike quickly turns his head to see a Covenant capital ship arriving. His heart sank... no... this can’t be happening...  

"Gamma Station Control, reading multiple pings below the Orbital Defense Grid!"  

"Slipspace rupture detected."  

Another ship arrives...  

"Yeah, we're picking up anomalies too-"  

“Are you reading this?"  

"Slipspace rupture detected."  

Then another...  

"Multiple Covenant signatures!"  

"Slipspace rupture detected."  

More and more show up...  

"Does anyone have a visual?!"  

"They're everywhere!!!"  

"Slipspace rupture detected."  

"Oh, this can't be happening!"  

"Must be the whole damn Covenant fleet!"  

"Slipspace rupture detected."  

All Mike could hear was the screams of people as they got assaulted by the newly arrived Covenant fleet. His dread had reached its peak and horror had dawned on him as the surface of Reach was growing closer...  

Chapter Text

“No...”  

The despair that was in Church’s voice rang throughout the room as his hand went to his mouth on reflex if he had his helmet removed. He couldn’t believe it... Caboose and Jorge went through all that trouble to take out the Super Carrier and in the end, it was all for nothing! 

Delta just stood there as the events correlated with the reports, the Covenant Fleet that then Supreme Commander Thel ‘Vadamee had arrived and thus began the Fall of Reach, of course Reach had technically been considered ‘lost’ when the Super Carrier was involved but despite the efforts of Spartan’s Mike-B313 and Jorge-052, it was all for naught and Jorge-052's sacrifice was in vain... 

The silence was broken by a noise that neither Church nor Delta recognized at first, both of them turned to face Mike who was staring at the memory that played out moments before. His breathing was ragged, his fists shaking, the noise continued to ring out as it clicked for Delta. 

Was Spartan Mike...? 

“Caboose?” Church hesitantly asked, slowly inching closer to him. 

Mike didn’t respond, still staring forward, still making that noise... 

“Spartan Mike, are you alright?” Delta’s asked though he knew right away that Mike was not okay. 

Said Spartan still didn’t respond. 

Church was now up close to Mike; it was at this point that he finally realized just what the noise was... and no sooner than he realized it that he slowly made a motion to take off the Spartan’s helmet. 

As the helmet was slowly being taken off, Church could make out the stream of tears flowing down, when the helmet finally came off, he was greeted with a Spartan that was clearly struggling to hold back the tears but failing miserably. 

Now Church never saw Caboose without his helmet as he saw no reason to see what he looked like because of their ‘adventures’, so to finally see the face of the blue... soldier... was a shock to him. 

The face was young, almost innocent looking, with brown bushy hair that needed to be cut off yesterday... but that wasn’t what made Church almost drop the helmet. 

It was the eyes, or rather that lack of seeing what his eyes looked like... 

If was as if there was some kind shadow that was protecting Mike from other people from seeing the emotion in his eyes. 

But that didn’t protect him from the tears that were streaming down his face. 

As Church was shocked by how young Caboose looked, the Spartan swiped his helmet from Church, but he didn’t put it on, instead he just looked at the visor of the helmet. After a while he finally spoke up after struggling to keep his emotions in check. 

“It should have been me...” Mike said in a low, hollow voice. One filled with raw emotion. 

“If I had just... broken out of my armor lock and took his place...” Mike couldn’t finish the sentence, his tears continuing to stream from his eyes as he barely was able to keep it in. His hands clenched tighter to his helmet with each passing moment as his grief overwhelmed him. He didn’t want to show emotion because Spartans didn’t cry... but having lost his best friend and the Covenant destroy Reach back-to-back... it was all coming out. 

Church hesitated before asking, “...What did you mean by Jorge being a Spartan II? Aren’t all Spartans the same?” 

Mike didn’t look away from his helmet as he answered, "I’m a Spartan III. We were... different from the Spartan II’s... we were made orphans because of the war thus fueling us with a drive for revenge against the Covenant. My father died during the war and my mother... she was heartbroken and turned to alcoholism, I was neglected... making it easier for ONI to kidnap me and turned me into a soldier, at least that was the hope. I still had my mother, but not for long as she died a few days after I was kidnapped due to heartache. I checked when I became part of Humble Team...”  

He continued,  “Spartan II’s were better than us in every way but the cost for them was beyond what ONI were hoping to spend, so they turned to other means of being cost effective... thus resulting in the Spartan III’s... we were nothing but cheap replacements whose only purpose was to be sent on suicide missions... because we weren’t special like the Spartan II’s some of us were doomed to fail our augmentations. I’m from Beta Company... quite possibly among the few that have survived so far... simply because I’m nothing more than a washout who was compensated by whatever God there is.” Mike finished bitterly. 

Church’s eyes widened upon hearing this, as if he thought this situation couldn’t be more fucked up than it already was, Mike revealed another level of fuckery that ONI had done! 

Delta knew about Operation Torpedo, the mission that resulted in Beta Company’s nearly three hundred Spartans being killed in that operation, aside from the few that were excluded from that Operation like Mike-B313, Kat-B320, and Spartan B-312. Mike was excluded because he was a washout, while there were others from Beta Company that were excluded from Operation Torpedo because they performed better than the others. As such was the case when ONI paired the few left to be headhunters. 

Mike’s barely controlled crying continued for what seemed like minutes, having to relive the traumatic experience over again was causing him to almost fly into a rage. He was a firm believer in the moniker that plagued the propaganda, ‘Spartans never die, they’re just missing in action’. But he knew that there was no denying the truth. No one could have survived that explosion at ground zero. Not even a Spartan II. 

“As you heard from Caboose’s... thoughts... he remembers the event very differently, but that’s not what you are thinking is it, Church? He told you this story, didn’t he?” Mike glances at Church with a look. 

“I... I thought nothing of it when Caboose told me about it, but...” Church remembered when Caboose told them about his adventures with a big guy on a rollercoaster and some ‘friends’ but seeing the events of Reach caused him to look back and realized that the signs were there! Caboose had literally told them about his time with Noble Team in his own fucked up brain dead way!! 

“While Jorge was more valuable than you, I believe it was better if he died thinking that he saved Reach rather than live and see his home be destroyed by the Covenant.” Delta said. 

Church looked to Delta aghast not believing what Delta had said, Mike looked to Delta with what seemed to be a murderous glare... 

“Delta!!” Church cried out, in some hope that Mike wouldn’t kill the A.I for being so blunt. 

“The A.I... is right... Jorge died believing he saved Reach, if he were still around...” Mike said begrudgingly, his gaze softening albeit still retaining some rage. 

Church didn’t know what to say, so instead he put a comforting hand on Mike’s shoulder. The Spartan flinched as for a moment he thought he saw Jorge doing it instead of Church, but the vision quickly faded. He then glances at Jorge's dog tags and the memory of what happened next began to repeat...

“I wandered for days after landing on Reach, hoping against reality that I could get to whatever civilization was left before the Covenant could destroy them... but when I got back...” Mike’s voice now changed to a rageful tone as he stares intently at Jorge’s dog tags and continued, “There was a reason why I had my rage locked away by memory block, but when I saw the Covenant invading a city and killing off civilians after Jorge sacrificed himself...” His voice was now threating to roar out, “I showed them no mercy...”  

Chapter Text

Reach

August 14, 2552 

Mike-B313 holds his injured arm as he limped towards the Reentry pack that he discarded not that long ago. Reentry did a number on him, especially the crash landing, having to avoid the debris of the Super Carrier that had fallen along with him. He got his pistol from the Reentry pack, cocked it, and turned around to look up at the massive ship that was the Super Carrier, lodged into a mountain as debris from the ship continued to rain down in the atmosphere, creating an artificial meteor shower. 

Mike didn’t have any time for sightseeing, he needed to get back to any sense of civilization! He needed to get back to Noble Team and inform them of- 

He shut the thoughts down, he didn’t want to think about what happened! A Covenant fleet had arrived, for all he knew, they could be destroying cities and glassing them right now! But if they were glassing them then that meant Jorge’s sacrifice was for- 

He banged the side of his helmet with the palm of his hand, he didn’t want to believe it! He just needed to get back to civilization and hope that everything was alright!  

With a heavy heart and fierce determination, Mike-B313 set out for the nearest city. 

New Alexandria, Eposz 

August 23, 2552, 15:34 Hours 

Nine days... that’s how long he had been traveling, nine long agonizing days... praying against all odds that the Covenant were not on Reach destroying everything... praying against harsh reality that his best friends sacrifice was not in vain...  

Mike heard explosions in the distance, he hurriedly traversed the hill and got a view of- 

His heart sank, there was New Alexandira, and in the sky were three Covenant Corvettes bombarding the city... 

Mike fell to his knees as he witnessed the Covenant launching their assault against the city. Jorge’s dog tags slipped from his fingers and dangled in the air. This wasn’t just confirmation that the fleet he saw as he fell down to Reach was not a hallucination, it was confirmation that his best friend’s sacrifice was in vain... 

‘It was all for nothing...’ His thoughts rang out in despair. 

Mike let out a scream as he punched the ground, his tears streamed out of him hitting the inside of his helmet blurring the screen. His crying continued for a while before he stopped and slowly looked up towards the Corvettes... 

Ba-Dump 

A feeling grew inside him, something he had felt long ago when he failed one of his augmentations but never felt again... 

Ba-Dump 

The feeling of lashing out at the world, of using that against the species that had killed Billions of people in the galaxy, to destroy them with extreme prejudice before his failed augmentation... 

BA-DUMP 

His hand clenched around the dog tags shaking, his eyes narrowed with hate, now remembering the feeling... 

He was feeling... 

ANGRY... 

Mike-B313 crept on the rooftop before he jumped down from it onto the alley, hugging the wall as he scanned his environment for any targets, finding none he continued before he jumped down onto a walkway. 

Dee dee dee, I just stepped on some gum. Got to find some peanut butter. 

As Mike made his way towards a building structure, he sees dead bodies of civilians, his rage at the Covenant fostered even more. Just as he was about to continue on his way towards the building to hopefully save some civilians and regroup with some militia, his coms crackled to life. 

“This is Kilo Dispatch: all available teams, advance to Traxus Tower. Evacuation will commence ASAP." 

"Copy, Dispatch. What's the status of the tower pad?" 

"Tower pad is green. Let's move these civilians before it changes." 

"Copy, Dispatch. Four-Zero out." 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

MAKE IT COUNT

LINK UP WITH UNSC FORCES 

His HUD lit up with a NAV marker and with his destination now set, he made his way to save the civilians. Mike went through the damaged building; along the way he encountered Skirmishers who noticed him and attempted to bring him down. But before they could get a shot off, they all went down with bullet holes in their skulls. Kicking the dead bodies out of the way, Mike made his way to another building, one that led to downstairs to where the NAV marker was telling him to go. 

"Romeo Company, be advised: we have reports of Covenant suicide squads." 

"You gotta be kidding me..." 

“That's a negative. Keep your eyes open, troopers." 

When he heard suicide squads, a Grunt happened to come in his line of view, taking no chances, he gunned him down just as the Grunt primed the grenades resulting in an explosion. One that no doubt alerted the other suicide Grunts to what had happened. He was going to have to tread carefully... 

Making his way downstairs into the dark, he turned on his night vision. As he crept along the walls, his tracker informed him on where his enemies were. He made his way down, preparing to take them down... 

"Kilo 26, this is Kilo 40. Covenant corvette is raining hell on us! Final protective fire - 1, danger close, on my command, over!" 

"Copy, Kilo 40. Firing FPF-1 at your command." 

"Fire FPF-1, over." 

"Firing FPF-1... Shot." 

"Hold on to your helmets!" 

The ground shook violently as Mike continued to take out more and more Grunts without wasting all of his ammo, just a few strategically placed shots and the Grunts were doing the rest unknowingly. 

"Kilo 40: request FPF sit-rep." 

"Negative, 26! Corvette still coming!" 

"Copy, 40. Firing FPF-2... Shot." 

The ground shook violently again as Mike was almost out of the basement, but not before taking out a Grunt that killed a huge cluster of other Grunts that was blocking the way out... 

"Damn! How do you stop that thing?" 

Having cleared the basement of the suicide Grunts, Mike made his way out, turning off his night vision... 

"Help! Somebody help us!" 

"They're coming! They're after us!" 

Just in time to encounter some civilians running for their lives, trying to get to behind some cover for some protection. Troopers were holding the line against... 

Brutes... 

Brutes that were killing civilians and were in the process of devouring... 

Ba-dump 

His body was moving while his mind was in a different place, not hearing the grateful cries of Troopers over seeing a Spartan come to their aid, in fact all he heard was static... 

Ba-Dump 

Troopers were trying to say something to him, but he didn’t hear them, as he was focused on the Brutes, his breathing was ragged, his fists clenching. 

BA-DUMP 

He ran at the Brute, letting out a scream of rage. Before the Brute could react, Mike punched through the Brute before grabbing its torso and ripping them in half. His eyes scanned his next target, another Brute who was in shock at what happened before attempting to fire its weapon at the Demon. Not letting them a chance, Mike grabbed both of the Brute’s arms and tore them off as he swung them at the Brute, using its own arms as weapons. Quickly taking it down, but Mike didn’t stop as he picked up the Brute and slammed them repeatably to the ground reducing them to bits and pieces... 

He dodged a needler shot with no effort as he turned and spotted more Brutes accompanied by a few Skirmishers. One in particular holding the rifle that had taken a shot at him. He narrowed his eyes as he charged at them, dodging another needler shot as he skewered a Brute before taking its gun and jabbing it at a Skirmisher; He then lunged at the last Skirmisher, its eyes wide with fear before finding itself paste on the concrete. 

A Brute tried to get the Spartan from behind, but it was stopped by Mike uppercutting the Brute so hard that its head flew off its torso, he was too focused on relentlessly beating the remains of the Brute to a pulp that he didn’t notice that the gunfire had stopped, didn’t hear the Troopers shouts, didn’t hear the voice in his coms... 

He felt a hand on his shoulder, he quickly grabbed his target and lifted them up to- 

He froze when his eyes laid on a female Trooper with eyes filled with fear. 

Realizing what he almost did, Mike quickly let them go as he took in his surroundings... 

Half of his armor was completely covered in blood of the Brutes, the Trooper he almost killed was scrambling back to their feet and kept their distance from him, the civilians were terrified of him, the other Troopers were also terrified but they managed to keep their stoicism, just barely. 

Mike clutched his head as he remembered what the rage felt like, the feeling to lash out, to take out any and all hostiles in the area with no mercy. He remembered what happened after his augmentations, it wasn’t even a full hour before something went wrong; All he felt was too many thoughts in his head then he lashed out destroying the equipment and incapacitating some trainers before he got hit with a lot of tranquilizers, and the next thing he knew he was strapped to a table and then feeling... empty; like devoid of a specific emotion. 

“S-Spartan...?” The female Trooper that Mike almost killed asked hesitantly. 

Mike looked at the Trooper as his thoughts rang out in the back of his head, as much as he wanted to reassure the Troopers and Civilians that he was fine... 

“I’m... alright.” Mike said weakly, a futile attempt at reassuring the others. 

“With all due respect sir. Clearly, you’re not okay! You eviscerated those Brutes like paper! You were acting like a wild animal!” One of the Troopers exclaimed. 

Mike was working hard not to think, he always had a problem with overthinking because of his failed augmentation but now that he has regained the feeling of rage, it was becoming overbearing! The only thing that was stopping him from lashing out again... was the civilians. When he laid eyes on the terrified civilians, it was as if he was back with Humble Team again. Leading them in evacuating Civilians off world as the planets got glassed by the Covenant. He could already hear his old teammates shouting at him to protect a couple with their young son just as they were approaching the aircraft. Failing to save them when... 

Mike banged his head as the thoughts became too much, there was no time to think. While he had yet to regroup with Noble Team, he knew what he had to do... get the people off of Reach. 

It was what Jorge wanted... and Mike was going to make it count. 

“There are more important things to worry about Trooper than me... and that is getting these people to safety.” He began, slipping back into his old position of team leader, “Now where do we go to get them to safety?” 

The leader of the squad of Troopers piped up albeit hesitantly seeing as how unstable the Spartan was, but he was right, getting the people out of here was important, “The Tower serves as our evac point.” 

“How do we get to the Tower?” Mike asked as they began making their way towards the evac point. 

"Elevator in the atrium goes down to the cargo port. Cargo port goes to the tower." The Squad leader said. 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

MAKE IT COUNT 

ADVANCE TO ATRIUM ELEVATOR 

“Then let’s move, the sooner we get these civilians to safety the sooner we can prevent more deaths by the Covenant!” Mike began moving as the Troopers and Civilians followed with hesitancy seeing the brutality the Spartan caused not a few moments ago. As they moved closer to the Elevator, they were assaulted by more Brutes and Grunts; just seeing the Brutes nearly sent Mike into another rage, but he held it in, instead channeling it into a silent rage. If a Brute came near him then he’d show them why the Covenant called Spartans ‘Demons’. 

Though upon gazing upon the Spartan covered in blood, some Grunts immediately began to run for it, not bothering to have a dance with death itself, to which they themselves would get killed by said Death itself via his sharpshooting skills. Some Brutes tried to get up close and personal to the Spartan that had their brethren's blood, only to receive very painful deaths at the hands of the demon. 

As the brief encounter died down, Mike pressed the button for the elevator, only for nothing to happen. 

"What the hell's taking this thing so long?" One of the Troopers cried out. 

"Uh, we're evacuating a group of civilians on the floor below you. Soon as they reach the cargo port, I'll send the elevator back up." 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Another Trooper cried out in disbelief. 

Mike knew that they would be assaulted by the Covenant any moment, time was running out for the civilians to get to the evacuation transport, the Corvettes in the sky would no doubt take out the transports killing their occupants. With a clenched fist, he laid out some orders... 

“Troopers, defend the civilians with your dying breath, stay behind cover. Let me take care of the Covenant.” He finished that last word with coldness that matched the burning fire in his heart. 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: 

MAKE IT COUNT 

DEFEND POSITION 

“You heard the Spartan get behind cover!” The leader of the evac team barked, as he and the others led the civilians behind some cover while they waited for the elevator. Mike, meanwhile, grabbed a downed soldiers DMR rifle, after checking to make sure it was functional he waited for the Covenant to show their faces. 

It didn’t take long for the enemies to show their faces, Brutes came in first with a few rushing towards Mike upon seeing him. Mike began firing upon the Brutes in the back while allowing the ones rushing him to come closer, as soon as they made an attempt to swipe at him Mike dodged and made his move. First, he punched the first Brute head off, then he skewered the other before ripping its heart out and crushing it in his hand. He quickly whipped around and continued to fire his DMR, this time at the Grunts that had just made their way inside, to then getting their heads blown off. 

The elevator chimed signaling its arrival and Mike made his way back, spotting the evac team and the civilians all crammed in the elevator. Mike made his way in, with some desperately trying to squeeze in the corner to put as much space as possible between them and the Spartan. “Am I glad you’re on our side Spartan.” the female trooper that he nearly killed earlier said. 

Mike’s coms then crackled to life, "If you're trying to get to the tower, you're too late, Lieutenant. Corvette over the starport pounded the hell out of the place. Cargo port is impassable on foot, rooftop evacs are lost. We can use the executive landing pad, except there's no easy way to get there. A group of ODST specialists are working a plan. They might appreciate some backup." 

“Understood sir!”  

The elevator door then opened up at that moment, with Mike coming out first meeting a medic tending to the wounded civilians. Upon spotting the Spartan, the medic tensed for a moment before speaking to Mike, "On the other side of the hall there, Lieutenant. Right through the triage." 

As the evac team led the civilians into the small atrium to get some breathing room, Mike patted the medic’s shoulder as a way of thanking them before he went through the triage to meet with the ODST’s. He passed through some of the civilians; a man was sobbing against a woman’s shoulder; another woman was cradling their young child and was whispering something to the kid; the sight of this added fuel to the fire that was growing inside Mike, and with clenched fists he swore to do right on Jorge’s words. Make it count. 

He just hoped that his former team can evacuate all the civilians without him there as team leader... 

Mike went through the triage to a sight of multiple Banshees in the air passing by being fired upon by the ODST’s with little effect. Upon noticing the Spartan there was a slight jolt in their stance before it was quickly replaced by professionalism, although due to what chatter on the coms said about this Spartan given his armor being covered in blood of those damn Brutes, there was a bit of tension in the air regarding being in Mike’s presence. 

The leader of the ODST's piped up, "Hey, there he it, that's the one that's been giving the Covvies a bit of scare!" 

"Radio's buzzing about you, Spartan. You feel like jumping?" Another ODST asked, not wanting to mention about what happened earlier. 

“Always ready when the situation arises sir!” Mike said back, eagerness in his voice. 

"In that case, we've got an extra jetpack in the armory. Go ahead and try it on, Spartan." The same ODST that greeted Mike first, said. 

Mike went to the area that acted like a temporary armory and put the jetpack on, once it was on, he gathered with the rest of the ODST’s. 

"Welcome to the Bullfrogs Spartan, now let me be clear, while these Covvie bastards deserve what’s coming to them, we can’t afford to lose ourselves when we have a mission to complete. While impressive if not horrifying to hear what you did to those Brutes, remember the mission, and that is getting these people to safety. Am I clear Spartan?” The leader of the team questioned Mike.