What it Means to be Human

Chapter 1: The Re-Enlisting of Master Chief Petty Office of the Navy S-117

The clanging of metal on metal rang out within the floors of UNSC High Command as a giant of a man was being escorted by four armored figures. The giant had brown hair that was faded due to lack of sunlight, cobalt eyes, and was wearing an outdated khaki uniform with more medals and commendations than space on his broad chest.

The armored figures escorting the man were easily recognizable as Spartan-IV's, they were taller and broader than regular marines or even ODSTs, but he still towered over them by a good four inches. The men all stopped at a wooden door with a name plaque on it reading UNSC High Command: Lord Admiral Terrence Hood

"Sir," one of the Spartan-VI's barked out as he knocked on the door, "we have Sierra-117 as ordered sir."

The door opened and Hood was a bit surprised, No armor. His idea? Or Captain Lasky's? "Come on in son," Hood spook stepping to the sid to allow the Master Chief entrance. He stopped the others from entering, "sorry boys. Classified. Way beyond your pay grade."

"Sir," the escorte nodded before taking up positions in the hallway out of the main path, already prepared to wait.

"Take a seat John," Hood said gesturing to the reinforced chair. John nodded and sat in the chair reserved for Spartan's stiff as a board. Geez son, I didn't think anyone could sit at attention, the aging admiral thought with an internal chuckle.

"So," Hood began taking his seat and opening a few items on his desk before a projection screen appeared between the two. "I have a three conflicting reports from the main officers on Infinity Chief. But one thing is glaringly clear between them all, do you know what that is son?"

"I disobeyed direct orders and deserted Infinity. I broke the chain of command, asked an innocent officer to turn a blind eye to orders and brought shame to the title of Spartan sir," the Chief barked out knowing what he did was wrong. He would never deny what he did, he wasn't wired that way.

"Well there is that," Hood said with a smirk, "but I was referring to something else. Something far more important than a simple redirection of resources."

That took the Chief by surprise and the generally stoic man's face actually showed surprise for once. "Sir, could you please explain," the Chief simply asked.

"Of course," Hood said before throwing the holographic reports to the side and looking John in the eyes with a smile. "Yes you broke chain of command, went against orders, stole a pelican, had an officer go against his orders, but you saved the earth once more. Big deal," Hood's voice was laced with humor through the summary of his events on Requiem and Infinity, "that's all something you probably do before breakfast as your morning workout. At least that's what the boys in PR will say should this ever get further than the UNSC.

"Sir," he spoke out, his voice searching for something. The Chief didn't understand, couldn't understand what was going through the Admiral's mind. Or really the rest of High Command if they were willing to overlook something like this. Personally John thought he should have been in chains being court martialled after recent events.

"What those three reports," he said gesturing to the holographic images to his right, "have in common, is that you acted human. You showed compassion towards Cortana, you showed dedication to your duty, and you showed that no matter what humanity is your top priority by detonating a Havok by hand to destroy the Didact and Composer."

Hood then typed on the desk screen some more before two new sets of holographic documents appeared, "there has been a lot of talk in High Command and a lot of pressure from ONI and the Senators to have all the Spartan-II's decommissioned and retired. What sits before you John is two sets of paperwork. The first," he said gesturing to his right, "your retirement paperwork. Completely filled out, will all incentive pay, full benefits, back pay from you early days training, and a small home located here on earth."

"The other sir," the Chief asked apprehensively, the thought of leaving the service was a bit daunting even to him.

Moving his hand he gestured to the one on his left, "re-enlistment as the first shirt for the Spartan branch, directly under Commander Sarah Palmer on Infinity, and incharge of continued training of ALL Spartan branch soldiers," Hood said before taking a breath and continuing, "it's a pretty good deal Chief. Plus there is an on base housing deal since Infinity is only out on patrol six months with one month off for shore leave. Now I can't promise you anything too exciting what with Infinity's primary mission being exploration and discovery of Forerunner worlds and artifacts. But with the largest of the Covenant splinter groups, the ones you ran into on Requiem calling themselves The Storm Covenant, are being lead by a Sangheili named Jul 'Mdama. He fashions himself a Profit of the Forerunner's and goes by the title of The Didact's Hand."

"Is Captain Del Rio the one still in command of Infinity," John questioned politely.

"Turning tail from a very real threat that Infinity could have very easily handled, trying to separate two of the best damn special ops operators we have, and trying to have a national hero arrested for doing his duty and protecting someone close? Yeah he's been dropped a few ranks, which of course was a shit storm for me, but what can I say? That just isn't the image the UNSC needs," Hood spoke with disdain about the captain that tried to arrest the Master Chief. "We promoted Thomas Lasky to full captain and Infinity's commanding officer."

John nodded before pressing the re-enlistment paperwork,

"So before you get out of here and collect a few things from my secretary," Hood began leaning back and looking at the Chief, "I think this is the first time I've seen you wear the Spartan working uniform and not your amor. How come?"

"The mark-VI armor I was wearing was removed upon medical inspection after my recovery," John began before taking a pause to find the right words to continue, "Captain Lasky suggested I wear the working uniform in it's place until a new one could be order from Seongnam. I believe he didn't want me getting too comfortable in case I was going to be court martialed or retired sir."

"Sounds just like him," Hood nodded touching a few more things on his desk screen. "I believe you will enjoy working under him son, in the meantime my secretary has everything you need for your new position on Infinity."

The Master Chief nodded before rising from his chair and offering his hand out to the Admiral. Smiling Hood stood and shook his hand, the two men parting to go about their business.

When the Chief walked out of the room the Spartan-IV's got into formation and began escorting the man through the building once more. After a quick stop to pick up the Chief's checked in datapad that held his new reporting orders, room and house codes, and a message from Hood.

John figured he would read the message later, instead picking the datapad and making his way to the exit and his new ship assignment.

"Fireteam Crimson," a fair skinned, brown eyed, brown haired woman wearing white armor with a few red accents called out as she entered the ready room. "You ready for your war game," she asked before briefing the team on their simulator run that was about to commence.

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am," came the enthusiastic reply from the four Spartan-IV's wearing different red mark-VII armor.

"Alright then, let's get you guys briefed and into the sim," she said and began with the brief. A simple snatch a grab of varying item's and data from a Storm Covenant base with the newly added Prometheans. However she left them off the brief, I feel bad for not telling them, she thought as they filed out of the room. But sometimes are intel doesn't pick up things, and this is training for the unexpected, she continued her inner thoughts as she began to watch the team through the supplied monitor.

She was so engrossed with trying to find their mistakes she almost missed the door being opened and someone walking in.

"No attention at all for the CO, Commander that's setting a bad example," Captain Lasky said with a smirk and humor dripping from his words.

"Stuff it Tom," Sarah said clearly not caring he was her CO.

"Touchy, what's got you on edge?"

"High Command and ONI," Sarah sighed frustrated typing away on her datapad. "They weren't happy with the way the fireteams responded to the new threat of the Prometheans and I have to run the entire roster of fireteams through sims with bad or missing intel to see how they react to changing parameters."

"Ah," Lasky spoke with realization, "the ol' charlie foxtrot training." Lasky was very familiar with what him and fellow bridge officers referred to as cluster fuck training, or referred to as charlie foxtrot in polite company. In flight and officer candacey school they were regularly trained in scenarios where they were meant to run into problems not covered on their brief to see how they were able to handle and rise above the situation.

"Yeah," Sarah nodded keeping a close eye on her Spartan's as they finally encountered the Prometheans. It didn't take long before all of Crimson's armors were locked up and the four were "bleeding" out on the ground. "Fuck, another fail," Palmer cursed palming her face with a sigh.

"If you think that's bad take a look at this," Lasky said with a bit of mischief shining in his eyes. The Spartan commander took the offered datapad and began reading. And just like Lasky predicted the look on his fellow officer's face was priceless.

"Tom please tell me this is a fucking joke," Palmer asked practically begging. Dear god, anything but this, she still couldn't be sure this wasn't some sick joke.

"Afraid not," Lasky began with a smirk, "effective tomorrow morning at 0500 Master Chief Sierra-117 will be reporting to you as your senior NCO. He will also take over training of all Spartan fireteams and officers. Straight from Lord Admiral Hood himself."

"How the fuck am I supposed to give that guy orders," Sarah asked more to herself than her CO. "First off he's a fucking legend, second he's saved the entire universe like four times now, and on top of that the guy broke command and went AWOL after getting an order he didn't like. God this is a mistake."

"We can both agree that De Rio made a few bad calls leading up to the Chief doing what he did," Tom began and he did see Sarah relent a bit and he pushed further. "Plus what would you do being backed into a corner like that, knowing that turning tail and running was the wrong answer?"

"Ok good point, so a one time order break in what, 30 years? Acceptable I suppose," Sarah said fully relenting to his point, "but then we get to the fact that I am suppose to give the legend, the Spartan that all Spartans aspire to be, orders. Guy deserves to be an Admiral or retire."

"Apparently he was offered retirement but turned it down in favor of re-enlisting," Lasky said with a shake of his head. He just doesn't see that he deserves to live the rest of his days in peace. "As far as commissioning goes, Lord Hood didn't even bother trying knowing he would have turned it down anyway."

"Ugh," Palmer sighed as she began to set up for the next fireteam, "if that is all sir, I have another team to prep."

"Actually you don't. All fireteams are to rest up for the next two days while you and the Chief work out training plans tomorrow. I figured I'd give you and the rest of them today off as well, because knowing the Chief's record, you are all probably going to be going through the grinder."

"Great more good news," Palmer answered sarcastically before sending out a memo to all Spartan fireteams that they have leave for the next two days. But reminding them training started back up the following day and to try an avoid getting too drunk.

"Is that all sir," Palmer asked and was surprised by his negative head shake.

"Afraid not," he said before sending her datapad a few documents. Mostly the denied requisition forms for the Chief's new armor. "It seems the request from Seongnam was rejected; why I have no idea, but I would get the lead out on that. He can't really train with you guys without a new armor model since his was pretty much on it's last legs. I mean he did wear it five years straight through three separate campaigns."

Sarah nodded before asking permission to leave and began making her way out of the ready room and long trip back to her office muttering obscenities the whole way. No one bothered to ask the imposing woman what was wrong, instead preferring to give her space.

It didn't take John long to arrive back on Infinity. After retrieving his datapad he caught the next available pelicin heading to back up and was currently making his way to his new room. It didn't take him long to find it, what with Infinity keeping all Spartan living quarters together in an area of the ship referred to as Spartan Town.

It was an entire deck dedicated to the Spartans and their need for reinforced equipment. Things as simple as chairs that wouldn't break or buckle under their weight, to the highly sophisticated armor stations that were personalized for each Spartan on board.

The living quarters themselves were near the middle of the ship in one of the more heavily reinforced areas. It didn't take the Chief long to find his room, and the irony of it having the same room number as is Spartan tag was not lost on him. I'm sure Cortana would have something witty to say about it, he thought with a smile as he punch in the code from the datapad.

The door pulled into the wall opening up to a modest quarters, with a private bathroom, small desk with standard interface built in, holo tank for AI interface, and a bed actually big enough to fit him. I'll have to send a letter of thank you to Lord Hood for the bed, John mused to himself as he entered and shut the door.

He set his datapad on the desk, before loosening his tie and sitting down on the bed. For the first time in awhile the Chief was left alone with his thoughts and only one thing plagued them. I failed her, he thought with a sigh as he looked at the wall. It was hard to process for him, a man who had seen countless die and barely felt anything aside from passing respect. He felt torn, broken, and lost.

The thought of retirement terrified him to no end, especially now, and was relaxed a slight bit knowing he still had a place in what he considered home. "Promise me you will find out which one of us was the machine."

It was an echo, the last moments he had with his dear friends. Guess it will take me longer to find out, he thought with a sigh. Finally gathering the strength and pushing the thoughts aside Chief grabbed the datapad and scrolled to the message from Hood.

Figured you could use a bit of cheering up. Upon your return to Infinity you are to report to r-deck, room-000 as soon as you are able. No rush son, get your bearings first if you can.

UNSC High Command:Lord Admiral Terrence Hood

Guess I should go see what this is about, John thought as he stood and tightened his tie back up. He grabbed his datapad and began making his way through the Infinity, following the map provided to him on the device. He was deliberate to walk slowly, memorizing as much of the massive ship as possible while making his way to the research deck.

The walk eventually took him to a service elevator where he waited patiently with the science members as it ascended to the research deck. Chief stood alone in the corner taking up as little space as possible for a giant and merely observed the men and woman before him. They were all talking animatedly about one thing or another sharing datapads and assisting each other with small equations during the ride.

He of course was content to watch and observe, the comradery between them is something to be praised. They don't seem to interested in the glory, but rather the discovery. Chief felt waves of memories threaten to break free. Memories of his Spartan-II brothers and sisters, memories of Johnson, of both Captain Keys, memories of her. You all were never ones for glory, just duty and honor. To uphold your responsibilities, to show courage in the face of unrelenting odds. And here I stand, a ghost searching for a new purpose.

The rather short ride came to an end as the robotic voice informed him the elevator had reached the r-deck. The giant waited until the science members had step out before joining them in the hall and began to follow the map on his datapad once more. Keeping his pace the same as from s-deck or Spartan Town, John wanted to memorize as much of the ship's layout as possible.

It didn't take him long until his map led him to a supply closet at the end of a winding hallway with a biometric scanner on it. The Chief merely raised an eyebrow at this before placing his hand on the pad and lifting his eye lid a bit higher for the retinal scanner. A few soft beeps, a quite chime and the light on the handprint scanner changing to green the door slid open with a soft hiss.

Unlike what he had believed he would see, a closet filled with various tools for the researchers, he found a new hallway that lead to one door at the very end. His datapad beeped loudly to let him know of an update, looking down showed the map continued on to the room where his true destination lie.

Making his way into the hallway, the door behind him shutting, he got the feeling whatever Lord Hood sent him here for was top secret. The feeling was reinforced by the ONI symbol and a second biometric scanner. Once more he did the required motions before a few soft beeps, quite chime, green light, and a soft hiss; he was now staring into the opening of a lab. Possible the most sophisticated one he had ever seen since his deployment from Reach.

Stepping in he saw a worker sitting in a darkened corner with her back to him. She was wearing a white lab coat and from what John could tell was a bit older due to the greying hair on top of her head. She hunched over writing a few things in a decent sized personal note book, occasionally looking up at one of the holo screens before her.

"Ma'am," he called to her, keeping his place by the door, "Sierra-117 reporting as ordered by Lord Hood." The woman didn't say anything back, but John could tell she had heard him, the dropping of the pen she was using to write with was clue. The two stayed like that for an uncomfortable amount of time before John picked up the faintest sounds of sobbing. She's crying? Did, did I cause that?

"Ma'am," John called out a bit more softly as he slowly approached the woman. He placed his hand on her shoulder to which she instinctively patted.

"Oh John," she began in a whisper.

Her knowing his name caught him by complete surprise. The list of people who knew his name he could count on one hand, but it was the voice. He knew that voice better than anyone else, "Doctor Halsey?"

The woman finally turned to face him and his guess was indeed correct. She had more wrinkles than he remembered, her lab coat clung to her dirty blue jumpsuit hiding her figure, but her eyes had never changed. The usually unflinching, curious, blue eyes were still the same. This was the mother of the Spartan project, and as far as John was concerned, his mother.

Faster than he thought she would move from her position she had managed to grab the Chief into a tight hug and cried. She cried into his shoulder for what felt like an eternity for the stoic soldier, who didn't know what to do or how to act in this situation.

She finally quieted down before a light chuckle left her mouth, "can't even hug your mother." Her tone was not something he expected or could really place. To him it sounded like mirth mixed with venom when she described herself. "Then again," she said finally pulling away and looking at him with a sad teary eyed smile, "how could I call myself your mother when I am directly responsible for taking you from her?"

"You will always be the Spartan's mother Ma'am," John said evenly without hesitation. He was well aware as an adult that what was done to him as a child was considered cruel and barbaric. But in the end, what was done to him allowed him and others the honor of protecting humanity. It gave them a chance to push back unimaginable odds and avoid the genocide of their entire race.

"You are to good for this world John," she said with a sigh before mentioned him to follow her. "Terrance gave your biometrics a one time use," she stopped at a small work desk in another darkened part of the room before beginning to tap away at a console, "I've been blacklisted by ONI ever since Osman took over. She with the help of a few UEG Senators revoked my acerdations and locked me away, scared of what would happened should the truth ever reach general public.

John nodded and understood. Someone wanted to make their own personal brand of Spartans, it was something High Command was very scared of happening, especially during the War of Insurrection, ONI would not allow that to happen. "So you are being kept off grid on Infinity," John questioned.

"More or less," she said her attention still focused on the console in front of her. "They know I am too valuable to just put a bullet in and be done with. So I am kept here, essentially a prisoner. But They keep me busy whenever the other members of the research division can't figure something out. Which is too often for my liking."

She tapped one last command before the lights in that area came on and John saw a Spartan Armor Gyro with a brand new set of olive drab Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor. From what John could tell it looked exactly like his mark-VI armor except a bit less bulky. "Terrance figured you might like it," she said with a smirk.

"Why is it down here ma'am," John asked curious as to why it wasn't stored with the other Spartan armors down in Spartan Town's armory.

"Because this isn't just any armor John," she began, "this here is the Mark-VIII Mjolnir Powered Devastator Armor. A bit more high-tech than anything else out there, and definitely more reliable than anything from Seongnam." John could tell by the pride in her voice she was very happy with this armor.

A holo screen appeared in front of him. It followed along with her explanation lighting up in certain areas as she described them, the first being the inner body suit, "first things first the bio-suit. The new titanium nanocomposite design is protected with the same anti-plasma coating as the Infinity's outer hull. It still has the old heat reducers but it will take a lot more than just your shields failing to bring you down. It still relies on the standard hydrostatic-gel from the first few models; but since it was designed by me and not Seongnam I'm sure I won't find a better replacement for a while."

The next part to light up was the outer armor plates with writing appearing near certain ones, "as for the outer armor we have a new titanium plating method, makes it a bit bulkier than the mark-VII model, but still thinner than your old mark-V or mark-VI armors. Instead of solid plates shaped to form we shaped hollow plates around titanium triangle braces, this gives it greater impact resistant. And of course they are anti-plasma coated as well. All weapon holders are the same but we added a few extra spots as well as these."

When she said that the screen switch to three distinct pieces of the armor that were different from before, his gauntlet, chestplate, and helmet. "First we have your left gauntlet," the glowing holo image of it grew in size compared to the others in front of him. "It has been upgraded with a full hard light interface, fully equipped with ONI's new toy called the Artemis," her eyes softened a bit, "with an entire branch now filled with Spartans, building AIs to pair them up with became too expensive. Most just have basic holo-displays with a few extra add-ons. But the Artemis will give you the same results that Cortana was able to as far as hack, opening doors, finding new routes, tracking targets, and setting waypoints."

"Thank-you ma'am," John said softly. He was glad he didn't have to reject the idea of another AI being in his head, and he could tell it was hard for her to talk about. Cortana was directly created from a scan of the Doctor's brain; and while she held the same brilliance that Halsey seemed to have, she was very much her own person. She probably looked at her as another daughter, Chief thought internally as he looked at the picture Halsey kept of the late Jacob and Miranda Keys

The two shared another moment of awkward silence, this time briefer than the last.

"Also installed in the left gauntlet, and the right as well, are wrist mounted plasma daggers," the holo image showed a wrist and descending down. Between the bio-suit and the armor plating John saw a small set of plasma generators that ignited into a one foot miniature energy sword, "these are just as effective as the Sangiel's plasma swords."

The holo image shrunk back down to the size of the others while the chest plate expanded in size, "next we have the modified chest plate. The clavicle protection you can see is a bit shorter but wider than before. This is to house a total of 8 of the Gyroscopically Stabilized Micro-Missiles found in the Hydra-Launcher; you have 4 on each side."

The chest piece holo image dropped back to standard size while the helmet took its place, "now your helmet is what got the largest of the upgrade. It has all the standard equipment that you've come to know and use but a few extra things that are new. It was a smartlink feature built into your HUD giving you far greater accuracy than ever before. It's thermal imaging now displays in visible light, just displays targets in the red zones. And we added a spatial motion tracker capable of distinguishing targets on different levels, you active the split level feature through the Artemis. Same new titiumian build was done with the helmet so less chance of a sniper round, regardless of type."

The final image shrunk down to size and all three disappeared, and John was speechless. "Ma'am," he began trying to find the right words, "isn't this a bit much?"

Halsey chuckled before handing him the new bio-suit, "for you John I think this is just good enough. Your luck is legendary for getting you back home sure, but what few seem to gather, it is legendary for putting you in situations where others would fail. This is most evident in the fact that you pushed your last two sets of armors well past their working specs. Half the optics in both helmets were completely destroyed. Gel layer was about to fail. Thrusters in operable after first day of use. Impacts from multiple sub-orbit drops which the mark-V and mark-VI were never designed for."

John nodded before stripping down and putting the new bio-suit one, "comfortable," he graveled out with a smirk.

Halsey smiled at the smirk before gesturing to the armor gyro, "ready to put on the last suit you will ever wear?"

"Last suit," John questioned eyebrow raised in confusion. the gyro started to move placing armor on him while Halsey used the bolts to affix it in place on the bio-suit.

"It's a line from a very old movie about aliens," Halsey said as he got into position and she began bolting the olive drab armor onto him, "figured it would fit. Seeing as this is probably the last Mjolnir I will design."

"Last one you will design," John parroted back, questioning the statement.

"Well I am getting up there in age," Halsey said gesturing to her face, "you can't say you didn't notice the wrinkles all over. Even if you did I wouldn't believe you. To good for this world John, you're just too good."

She worked in silence putting the last bit of it on, and when she was finished she took a step back and smiled. "Now that is picture worthy," Halsey said with a smile and before John could put the helmet cradled under his arm on a flash of light from a roof mounted camera blinded him for a second.

A third empty frame on her desk now sported a perfect image of John in his new armor, standing tall and proud, just the way Halsey would always want to remember him. "Now shoo, go on," she said gesturing to the doorway, "I have more work to do today before I can call it quites. Also you will need to report to the armory from here on out to have a engineer put your armor on in the morning and remove it at night. You're on duty day now Chief, no more living in it."

John frowned at the thought of someone else helping him in and out of the armor, "why can't you do it?"

"Blacklisted John," Halsey said with a frown of her own, "but if you're worried about some starry eyed scientist running chit chat, don't. We got you a special buddy, you'll see him once you go to take your armor off."

Halsey started to head back to the darkened corner she was in earlier but was stopped by the sound of John placing his helmet down on her desk. Turning she was surprised to see John stepping toward her and placed her into a short hug, "goodbye...mom."

He let her go, picked up his helmet and secured it on his head, before grabbing his working uniform and leaving the stunned woman in her prison.

Halsey never got back to work, instead she dropped to her knees and cried. She cried for a good while after he left, and whispered to the wind, "goodbye son."

John had taken the same pathway he originally had used to to find the room where Halsey was being kept. The walk was a bit faster, but he used the time to read up on some of the more basic changes in the suit. He had extra thrusters to allow him for faster sprints and to break through air vents, weaker walls and structures, and reinforced glass. His shields were twice as strong and regenerated three times faster than before. Finally he noticed that both legs had two extra weapon magnet systems installed along with an added one on his lower back bringing his total carrying arment up to six extra weapons, not counting what he could carry.

When the elevator he was on reached Spartan Town, the Chief took off in the direction of his room to drop off his working uniform before heading to the holo simulators. That was definitely one thing he like about Infinity, over half the s-deck was made for training. The simulators were wide rooms carrying thousands of hard light projectors giving the ability to simulate any kind of enemy, any kind of terrain, and any formation he could think of.

Finding the simulators was easy enough, he simply pulled the ship's map with the Artemis and set a waypoint. He felt a simple test before a training session with it would be best. I'm just glad this thing is fairly intuitive, he thought as he pressed a few more commands seeing his motion tracker in the right hand corner tilt and show lights between three levels. Finally a motion tracker that will tell me where they are, this would have been nice to have at any point during the war. Maybe less would have died.

John was so absorbed thinking back over past missions and friends long gone that he failed to notice a group of Spartan-IV's talking in the corner of the training simulators as he entered. John walked into the room and saw the setup consoles on the far side of the room in front a set of lockers. Quickly making his way over; John hooked in his datapad and pulled began setting a sim run.

Now that is interesting, John thought as he saw one of the menu options under the simulator control settings. He pressed it and saw a set of mission under a code name called firefight, these are...are my last few campaigns. Chief couldn't believe it, some of the most pivotal theaters in his career where all here, but with a small message at the top,

Figured you'd wanna break in the armor. We haven't been able to get some of you newer missions on here, but this is more of a test for you to use the Artemis, and break in the new armor.

H.

The Chief walked over to the lockers after confirming the simulator settings and loaded on the wireframe gear. Once he entered it would take on the look and feel of the real thing, with fully interchangeable wire frame mags. There was one downside to this type of setup, technically the trainee had an unlimited supply of ammo, as when the wire mag was placed back into the pouch for 15 seconds it would trigger automatic reload.

As the chief began looking through the massive weapons locker he kept this thought in mind, it's going to be a bit of a clean up when I am done, but in battle there is no "unlimited ammo". He mind wandered to all the times he had to pick up alien weaponry and "figure it out" on the fly or with Cortana's help. But I don't have that help anymore, nor the wit you brought to it. Like that time I almost stabbed myself with a plasma sword.

He was so engrossed in memories for once it kinda of scared him. He had never had this much down time to think on past missions aside from after action reports and watching camera footage to be better next time. To be strong, faster, to make better calls. But now he could reflect on them, and it scared him. Thankful he was pulled from his thoughts by tapping on his shoulder plate.

"Hey man," a Spartan-IV said. He was wearing black armor with gold accents, a strange load out of a wire-shotgun held in his right hand, and a wire-Spartan laser on his back. "You must be new, right."

John took only a second to respond finding the soldier's rank on his breastplate, "affirmative Sargeant."

"Alright then. I want you to head back to the armory and have them change the color of your arom," the Sergeant spoke out, hoping to pull rank on the soldier.

"Excuse Me?"

"Look, I don't know if people stopped talking about it in training anymore," the Sergeant began aggravated, "but Olive Drab is the Master Chief's color. It's something no one has the write to wear except him."

"I apologize if there is any confusion Sergeant, but I just received my armor and have not added my rank to it. I am Sierra-117," John spoke out evenly. Though internally he was very weired out about the situation. I have my own armor color? Why would they not approve? It is simply a color.

"You're shitting me," the Sergeant said taking a step back in surprise.

John merely turned back to the locker and finished grabbing his gear. He attached a wire-assault rifle to the back magnet, two wire-smgs on his lower chest magnets, four wire-magnums on the front thigh and side thigh magnets, he then loaded the fake missiles into their launchers. Finally he grabbed two ammo belts, one for the magazine weapons, and one for his Hydra Missiles.

John turned finding the Spartan-IVs still there, "can I help you four with something?"

"It's, it's just we've never met a legend before. It's pretty exciting for us," one of the others in the back said. The one who spoke wore black armor but with ODTS camo accents, and what looked like pieces of ODST armor along with an ODST styled helmet; his armor showed the rank of Gunnery Sergeant. "See your about to run a simulation. Mind if we tag along," the Gunny asked with a chuckle.

John shut the locker without facing it and began making his way to the entrance silently, the other Spartans thinking they had pissed him off were about to start leaving before John spoke up, "do you think you can keep up?"

"Do you," the Gunny asked with a grin, placing his hand into a fist with and pinky out and pushing it against his helmet.

Chief nodded before pressing the button, the four men following him into the ready room. "What are your names Spartans," the Chief asked from while the field set up and the door behind them closed.

"Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck," the one with ODST like armor said with a chipper tone.

Chief took in his weapons load out, wire-assault rifle along with a smg,

"Sergeant Taylor H. Miles, but everyone calls me Dutch," the Spartan who tried to pull rank said with a bit of reluctance in case the Chief was still mad.

John gave him a second over and noticed that his armor was more set for heavy combat, a bit thicker in areas and smaller visor. He had a wire-spartan laser and wire-silenced SMG.

"Lance Corporal Kojo Agu, everyone calls me Romeo, cause I love the ladies."

Turning John saw the fourth member, his armor was fairly standard and in keeping with the color scheme of the team, black, with a few red accents. His Helmet like Buck's stood out and was something of a sniper helmet. Different scopes and vision settings, which John assumed was for the wire-sniper rifle in his hands and the wire-DMR on his back.

"Lance Corporal Michael Crespo, and like those two idiots everyone calls me Mickey.

John turned to look at the fourth one and saw once again black armor with grey accents, but his resembled a standard armor the most expect his helmet and layout didn't make any sense to him. The Spartan's helmet had a huge visor that he assumed stretched from ear to ear and well up into his hairline, which John find incredibly strange. The layout was even weirder to John with him holding a wire-shotgun with a wire-rocket launcher on his back. What in the world kind of layout and armor is that?

"Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117," John spoke getting ready as the hard light projecters came on and everyone's weapons went "live",

AN: YES I KNOW THE WIRE-WHATEVER WEAPON NAME WAS ANNOYING. I did too but I wrote it like that so no one tried to point out a plot hole in the training with damaging the ship and what not. This room is pretty much a holo-deck from Star TreK rip off.

"That's it, no name," Buck asked pulling his MA5 from his back and unlatching the safety as the counter on the door began counting down.

"My name is unimportant," Chief responded pulling his own MA5 and shouldering it as the counter hit the 10 second mark.

"Either he thinks we are incompetent or unimportant," Romeo grumbled.

"Shut it Romeo, if the Chief wants his privacy he can have it," Buck braked out.

"Sure stick up for the robot," Romeo shot back.

Before Buck could chew Romeo a new one Chief's voice rang out with deadly seriousness and he sprinted through the now open doors, "we are sprinting this. We have 12 minutes get to it Spartans."

The others ran behind a bit, Romeo switching to his DMR instantly seeing they were within a UNCS ship set up. "What's the play Chief," Romeo asked falling in line pretty quickly.

"Scuttling of the Pillar of Autumn, beginning of Alpha Halo campaign," John said running into his first set of enemies, the Grunts that almost made it to the bridge. Let's see how this new armor stacks up.

"You mean we are going to be running your Halo campaign, like the whole thing," Dutch asked stunned shooting an Elite dead as the rounded a corner with his M7S silenced-SMG.

"Not the whole thing," John stated casually as he rush two Elites and stuck them with plasma grenades; both dying in a shower of blue death. "Just a few notable ones up through Delta Halo campaign," John continued while blowing away a line of Grunts in perfect head-shots.

"What the hell did you get us into Gunny," Mickey asked blowing away an Elite with his M45E Shotgun. He however missed a suicide Grunt that rushed him and was almost hit by it however a bullet entering its head put a stop to his "death".

Romeo picked it off with a well placed DMR shot, the bullet ripped through its target with enough for to throw the dead Grunt back and send its grenades flying. One stuck an Elite while the other landed in a crowd of terrified Grunts; both detonated killing their enemies.

"One other thing Chief said finishing off the Elites in the mess hall, "the auto reload system is off." Chief then strapped his MA5 to his back, pulling out two magnums and heading out of the mess hall.

"We really stepped into it didn't we boys," Buck said shaking his head before following after the Chief. I know we can pick up full hard light weapons in here but we can't mag swap on them, is there really going to be enough for all of us, Buck questioned internally. The group caught up with the Chief in a double level room tearing through everything, "there is no way he can use the smartlink with 2 weapons," Buck shouted as he blew away an Elite on the top platform.

"Honestly Gunny," Romeo began as he picked off four Grunts with perfect headshots from the top floor, "I don't think he's using it."

"No kidding," Dutch said throwing a few frag grenades behind a portable shield generator killing two Jackals and thee Grunts.

"Holy fuck," Mickey yelled watching the Chief use his thruster to jump to the second level, "are those wrist mounted Plasma Swords? Where the fuck can I get some of those!"

Once John reached the second level, he put up his Magnums and ignited the wrist mounted Plasma Swords and began tearing into the Elites. Blocking the forward one's downward strike with his left blade, stabbing forward with a right jab impaling the Elite before slashing to the right. The Chief used the Elite's body, a quick twist of his arm and he held it by the neck, as a shield as he dashed forward with his thursters. He slammed into one of the remaining three, the one in the back of a diamond formation.

The force of the impact between the superheavy Spartan ramming it killed it instantly, dropping the other dead Elite, Chief pulled the SMGs free and blew away the remaining two. He dropped low while spinning to avoid plasma fire, as it sailed over his head the 5X23mm M443 caseless rounds shredded their shields and bodies.

"Come on Spartan's we are almost there," Chief spoke mentioning for them to follow as he returned the SMGs to their holders. The others shared a look before hitting thrusters and following there they headed into the maintenance shafts that were crawling with Grunts. But as the followed the realised that he was one step ahead of every enemy, like he knew where they were going to be.

How many times has he re-watched this footage, how many times has he mentally run this gauntlet to stay this far ahead? Is this the difference between a class II and a class IV, Buck thought before mentally growling. What am I saying? We IVs can bring it just as hard, time to stop letting the legend do all the work.

"Mikey, Dutch," Buck called out, "break off to the right and left up here, spartan bash those doors open and keep the enemy focused. Romeo, the Chief and I will gut em from the middle. If that's that good with you Master Chief?"

"Good call Sergeant Buck," John spoke firing away with his Assault Rifle, blasting another Grunt away. It didn't take the group long to hit the other tunnels; Mikey and Dutch broke off and sprinted a headed to breach their chaft doors first. "Breach!"

Mikey and Dutch both hit their thrusters smashing into the maintenance shaft doors pushing them off their hinges and into two Elites. The force of the metal men and doors pushed both Elites into the wall behind them, killing them instantly. Both began firing practiced ease and grace. Dutch's SMGs tearing into the Grunts and scattering the Elites. Mikey was able to pick off two of the six Elites waiting for them before the rest of the team burst through.

Buck had taken point switching in a tight squeeze between the Chief and the wall, began tearing into an Elite with a perfect headshot grouping with his MA5. Taking out the Elite with half the magazine Buck turned on another and unloaded the rest of the magazine into one on the right while thrusting left and keeping out of its firing line.

Romeo lined up his shot over Chief's shoulder and once the Elite's shield was depleted he opened fire tearing into it's head splattering fake blood on the wall. Lining up one of the remaining two Romeo kept firing over Chief's shoulder taking the Elite down with the rest of his magazine.

As Chief emerged from the maintenance shaft he saw Buck finished the last Elite off with a Helljumper Toothpick he pulled free from where it was attached on his left clavicle plate. To John the move was fluid and perfect, he has to have done that before, when he was an ODST; impressive. And it was, Buck side stepped the last Elite grabbing it's arm that had tried to run him through holding it at bay with his left hand. He was spinning the second his hand touch the alien arm, placing his rifle on his back. He continued the spin pulling the massive combat knife free from its sheath in a reverse grip in his right hand; ramming it into the back of the Elite's skull killing it instantly.

"Nice job Spartans," the Chief said with a nod to the carnage. Before moving to an escape pod door, "well gentlemen let's head to the next mission."

"Fuck me," Romeo muttered while the others piled in behind them.

The simulator viewing rooms were packed with Spartans all trying to get a glimpse of Alpha-Nine work with the Master Chief. Mickey had sent out a holopad message too a few buddies on fireteam Crimson who passed the news to other fireteams; eventually as many Spartans as could fit were in the view room watching the group plow through the Covenant carrier Truth and Reconciliation.

All the stats say it, all the eggheads comment on it; but FUCK Spartan-IIs are in a class all on their own, Sarah thought as she watched the group clear another hanger before moving on through the ship trying to locate the captured Captain Keys.

"This is something else. And to think he did this all on his own," the only non-Spartan there, Captain Thomas Lasky commented watching Chief single handedly take down two Hunters. His thoughts taking him back to the night he met the Master Chief; however he was stirred from those memories by Sarah speaking again.

"His own," she breathed out amazed by the performance. "I can barely figure out how the five of them can pull this off let alone him by himself. Alpha-Nine is one of our better fireteams for sure. Vertenna ODST that were in-rolled in some of the heaviest combat and first generation Spartan-IVs like myself, and he is leading them by a good distance. His kill count is insane."

Lasky nodded and added something else to her analysis, "But from your reports that I've read it would seem Alpha-Nine is performing at a better pace than normally. I think his experience in leading regular marines into impossible scenarios and coming out on top might be lending a hand there."

"Definitely," Sarah confirmed, "but I will say this. I am glad he is taking over training for the Spartan fireteams. If he can take a unit that is a cohesive as Alpha-Nine and make them more effective in just two simulation runs; I can't wait to see what he will do over the next few years."

"Sounds like someone is feeling better about this," Tom shot back with a smirk.

"A bit," Sarah blushed, "I mean he is a legend after all. But shut up they are about to start the next mission." Sarah was a bit disappointed as Tom pulled some of her attention from the finally bit on the last simulation run. Everyone quieted down as the Chief began speaking in the ready room, and she saw a few use the quick change locker to swap out heavy weapons, and long range weapons.

"Alright listen up," Chief began as soon as the entered the ready room to wait on the reset. "Change out your weapons to close quarters only," he began before punching a few commands on the Artemis, "also some other news. As of this moment all our armor capabilities and strengths are limited to that of a mark-V. I am not going to lie to you, this was possibly the second hardest mission of my career."

That took Alpha-Nine by complete surprise as they swapped a few weapons out and reloaded on grenades. "This is the Library on the Alpha Halo. This place is covered in flood and will overwhelm you quickly. Follow my lead, and when you are on the last few rounds for a magazine drop the gun and pick up one of the enemy's dropped ones. I promise you it will have more ammo than yours."

"Uh Chief," Dutch spoke up a bit nervous, "you know that we can't mag swap on the completely hard light weapons dropped from the enemy's right?"

"I am aware Sergeant Dutch," John said chambering a round on his rifle before shouldering it getting ready as the counter reached 10 seconds. "This will be a test the other Spartans will be doing for me to evaluate their skills. Think of it as scavenge and survive."

The members of Alpha-Nine nodded each shoulder a weapon, the door hit 0 and as one the five moved into the Library.

AN:

DUN DUN DUAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

I wrote a halo thing! Yay! Woo! Rejoice!

A few things

1) Sorry for the wire-weapon name thing again

2) I am not, nor have I even been in the military. If something doesn't line up with your view to how I am having in run I am sorry. But please also remember that this is a FICTIONAL military and I have full control to do what I want. I will try to refrain from anything too out of order but ya know.

3)No Cortana will not be coming back

4)Chief is going to development a form of schizophrenia as a way to help him cope with emotions. He will hear the voices of Cortana, Johnson, and both Keys. But as he grows and comes to terms with his emotions they will fade.

5)I am making all his augmentations part of his DNA after what the Librarian did to him. Yes its cliche ffing but eh. it helps with the statment above and what I plan to do which is…

6) Sarah Palmer and John-117 relationship. To long to explain why now, but I will at some point.

Until then folks.

AN 11/28 Update - Caught a plot hole so I fixed it. It was in the meeting with Halsey and John talking about her being blacklisted.