Chapter 1: The Six Nobles and Their Dog

July 24, 2552. Reach.

0728 hrs

He sat on the deck made of metal, just outside of the doorway the led to the team of Spartans within. He'd turn to see the two giants outfitted in blue armor glance at him from time to time, referring back to a data pad the female was holding. The man sighed, getting an exhasperated expression from the female as she bolted up. The man simply scratched his head.

"You sure?" he asked the woman, gaining a nod.

"I'm positive." She replied. The man sighed, turning around to meet the face of an ONI agent, and Colonel Urban Holland. He grunted.

"Alright, we'll keep him with us." he grumbled, tapping his helmet. "If he's as good as you say he is, why not have him stationed somewhere else? Somewhere important?"

"You will find out soon enough." The agent told him. "Now, your orders. Colonel Holland?"

Ryner couldn't be bothered to strain his hearing farther, and instead decided to look at the grey morning sky. He was waiting for something, anything, to happen. To his surprise, something did. A Warthog pulled up on the other side of the building, behind a Falcon, and another Spartan jumped out. Her armor was black and cobalt in color, with a single red stripe on her left thigh. Her visor was pitch black, and reflected little of the visible light. She walked up to the building, and paused to stare at him. Only for a moment, within the next second she had disappeared into the building with the others. About three minutes later, the five Spartans exited the building, and headed to the Falcon.

The tall man in blue stopped long enough to grab Ryner's arm, and pull him off the ground.

"You're riding with me," he said, practically dragging the smaller human along the ground. Ryner took his seat across from the Spartan with the black armor.

"Why am I here, sir?" he asked the Spartan in blue.

"Carter." the Spartan replied. "And you're here because ONI said so," great, so now ONI is gonna get me killed. "At least, that was before I read your file. You are interesting."

"I am?"

"Yes, according to ONI you're qualified to fight beside us." he said, not hiding his irritation. "Supposedly, you're more than capable of taking down Covenant forces." Ryner shrugged. "So, you're gonna be like that, is it? Fine."

Once the Falcon landed, the team of seven scouted the area, finding what remained of a Marine unit. Ryner couldn't grimace at it, as he didn't much care. Carter assumed it was an interrogation, that insurrectionists had done it, but Ryner knew better. He quickly ran to the next building, keeping his eyes open for any sudden movement.

The woman in black must have had the same gut feeling, because she was running closely behind him. He saw her pull back the slide of her Magnum, and round a corner. Ryner followed her lead, opening fire on the three targets as he came upon the enemy. It was the Covenant.

"Contact!" she called from his right, opening fire on the enemy below.

"Spartans, assist!" he could hear Carter echo from a few meters behind him. The other five super soldiers appeared, killing the enemy in perfect sync with one another. He and the woman in Black kept on their own, taking precise shots from their positions. At one point, Ryner jumped down into the open field, opening fire with his Assault Rifle on the last few enemies that remained. He looked back to see Carter shake his head.

Visegrad Relay, hours later…

The Elite Zealot jumped out of nowhere, almost bisecting Jorge and the civilian woman with an energy sword. He ducked down, and called to the rest of Noble Team, getting their attention on the enemy in full. The biggest one lunged at Six, but knocked Ryner to the ground instead when he shoved her out of the way. The second one was upon him, growling up close to his visor.

He punched it in the mandibles in an attempt to knock it off of him, however he only heard the cracking of two of his knuckles as the Elite's head was thrown to the side. The Energy Dagger on its gauntlet was activated as it brought down its arm in a swinging motion. Ryner used his left arm as a shield as he pulled his Magnum from his hip and began unloading the magazine into its stomach.

The Zealot was kicked to the side by both Carter and the Spartan in Black, who both started firing their Assault Rifles at it. As it crawled away, Black pulled on Ryner's arm to get him off the ground. One of the Elites had taken the Marine on the floor as a hostage, and used him as a shield to keep his comrades from dying.

"Permission to pursue?" Emile asked from Ryner's left.

"Negative, Four, stay on the entrance. Two, handle her. Five, Blaine, and Six, clear the hole." Carter ordered, using his hand to motion the three soldiers forwards. Ryner flexed his fingers as he started walking with the other two, looking over to see Black, who he now knew was Six, pull the DMR off her back. The Spartan threw the Rifle in his direction, which he caught, and loaded. His night vision switched on as Jorge slammed the door behind them shut.

Jorge threw a flare across the room, causing the remaining covenant forces to emerge. Six and Jorge began unloading their weapons on the Grunts and Jackals that came out of cover. Ryner stayed back, and fired his DMR sparingly, killing the enemy snipers or flankers. The Zealot from before began firing a Concussion Rifle at the Spartans, nearly hitting them both. In a split-second decision, he started firing at the Elite's head.

The Zealot tanked two of the shots, and dove down a corridor to Ryner's right. He slammed his fist against his cover as the two Spartans finished up the last few Covenant. Six walked over to him with her Rifle still trained on where the enemy had come from, and tapped his helmet.

"You alright, kid?" Six asked, gaining a nod from the ODST. "How's your arm?"

"Fine, Lieutenant." he replied, vaulting over his protection with ease. Jorge had started killing off the enemies down the corridor, Six and Ryner following the destruction to him. Upon entering a larger room, a small room on the opposite side of their position, which Grunts started filing out from, Jorge stopped.

"There's more. Flush 'em out, I've got you covered." the giant assured, motioning for Six and Ryner to continue as he laid down suppressing fire that obliterated the small force of Grunts. Ryner momentarily paused when he stepped over the now dead Marine's body, before continuing just as quickly.

The Elites rushed the pair, using the pillars as cover to keep them away from Jorge's turret fire. Six engaged the one who held the rifle, accidentally missing the fact that the one she'd left to Ryner carried and Energy Sword. The Zealot activated the blade, and spun to go after Six, when he was stopped.

Ryner kicked the Zealot's leg, firing his DMR as fast as he could pull the trigger. The Elite rounded on him, missing the kick and taking another shot that dropped its shield. The Energy Sword cut clean through Ryner's DMR, making two pieces of useless metal. He ducked under another swing, buck was kicked to the side by the Elite, his chestplate cracking under the Alien strength. Six was already occupied by the Elite with the Rifle, and almost didn't duck in time to get out of the way of the swing. Unfortunately, she rolled back into the Zealot who held the Concussion Rifle.

Ryner pulled his knife from his shoulder in a flash, jumped onto the Elite, and brought the blade down hard, slicing right through the Elite's neck, taking the deactivating Energy Sword as it dropped. Six was watching as the Elite roared and fire to avenge its comrade.

"Catch!" Ryner yelled, the blast landing a few feet to his right, sending him flying down the flight of stairs far off to the left. He rolled and tumbled, and hit the back of his head against the hard floor, and the next thing he knew, Six and Jorge were hovering over him. Six crouched down and held out her arm for him to grab. He rose to his feet on his own, and started walking, well, more like limping, painfully, back up the stairs. He looked back to see Jorge and Six watching him, before lifting their hands to their heads, Ryner's comms blaring a moment later.

"Noble Five reporting in, contacts neutralized." Jorge told said, walking up the stairs as well.

"Alright, how's our ODST?" Carter asked the team of three.

"Fine, sir," Ryner replied, trying to keep as much pain out of his tone as he could. Carter seemed to buy it, as he moved on immediately.

"Good. Kat needs you to reset a junction. Do that, and get back here."

Ryner cracked his left shoulder as he started for the small waypoint on his HUD, cautiously holding his Magnum up as he entered the room. He knew better than to trust a flimsy report, even if the ones reporting were Spartans, there could always be one more. After finishing up with that, he and the two Spartans headed back to Carter, Emile, and Kat, the latter of which was removing several pieces of the lower panelling, until she seemed to find the right one.

"How long?" Carter asked from behind her, leaning over her shoulder to look.

"Question of my life," Kat replied in a slightly bitter tone. "If the question is when will this station be back online, two weeks, earliest. This is plasma damage. All major uplink components are fried."

"Well, 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." she interrupted. She paused to look back over to Carter for a moment. "You're in my light, Commander." Carter reeled a little bit in defense, then turned around to face Jorge.

"Find out what she knows," he ordered. Upon trying to get the girl's attention, Jorge's hand was brushed to the side, something that seemed to amuse Emile.

"What's your name? Do you live around here?" the Spartan asked, pulling his helmet off of his head. "A nevem Jorge." the girl raised her head for a moment before looking back at the floor.

"...Sara…" she said quietly. Jorge raised an eyebrow.

"Sára... szép határozott név," he murmured in a calming tone. "Your accent sounds familiar. Sopron?"

"Tengeri,"

Grimacing as he followed her line of sight to the body on the floor. "Friend of yours?"

"Father."

"Sajnálom. I'm sorry," he apologized, bowing his head. Her gaze darted straight to his.

"Why would you be?" she questioned, a bitter tone lacing her words. As Jorge began to stand, Emile turned to Ryner and Six with a light shrug.

"Big man forgets what he is sometimes," he said, noticing a moment too late that Jorge would hear him. The large armored war machine leaned in to make a menacingly deep whisper.

"She just lost her father." he told him before walking over to Carter. "She needs a full psychiatric workup."

"Yeah, she's not the only one," Emile murmured, causing Jorge to turn looking like he was about to actually slam the Spartan against the wall. Carter, noticing this, stepped between the two of them.

"Lock it down, both of you!" he ordered, turning to Jorge once the conflict had ended. "Get her on her feet... the body stays here."

"Thank you, sir." Jorge replied, glaring at Emile as he walked past him. He helped Sara get on her feet as Kat tapped the top of the relay with a slight amount of glee. Carter looked back to her, and walked over as she stood up.

"Signal!" she called. "It's patchy, but it's there." Carter shrugged, shouldering his weapon and taking off his helmet as he took the small earpiece she offered him.

"I'll take it."

Leaning against a wall, Ryner pulled his knife from its sheath on his shoulder again, quickly flipping and twisting the blade in his hand like an expert. He wasn't paying any attention to what the two blue Spartans were talking about in the other room, as he didn't much care. He knew that the Covenant was on the planet, that they were going to attack and glass it, and that they were going to eradicate any and all human life they could. Just like always.

He glanced to the side to see that Six and Emile were enjoying the knife show, causing him to stop immediately. He didn't like the blank fascination their visors presented to him. Without delay, he sheathed his knife, and put his hand back on the grip of his Magnum.

"Let's go, One's speaking to Colonel Holland," Kat announced, walking past the three to catch up to Jorge. Ryner looked to Carter, who waved him to go on, before he followed the other two Spartans out. By the time he had exited the building, Emile and Kat were climbing into the Falcon with Jun, and Six, Jorge, and Sara were getting in the Falcon that still held two seats, one for him and the other for Carter.

Upon taking his seat in the aircraft, he could see Carter come out of the building placing his helmet back on. He motioned for the Falcons to take off, his boots leaving the ground a moment later. Carter was silent for a long time, only speaking again after they landed. Of course, that didn't bother Ryner as much as the golden-visored stare Six kept gracing him with the entire ride.

"Where are we going, Sir?" Ryner asked the Spartan as the team made their way to a few Warthogs, two for the team, and one for the civilian girl to be taken back to the nearest city. The Spartans, and Ryner, had to be ready at all times, and were heading to an outpost.

Ryner had to basically sit on Six's lap on the entire drive. Although it wasn't the worst possible thing in the universe, it was humiliating. Not only was her armor bulky and uneven in places, making where he sat uncomfortable, but the entire time he could feel her staring at him. A few times, she even brushed the knife on his shoulder, it could've been presumably by accident, but she had also done it about twelve times in three hours.

Upon jumping out of the Warthog, Ryner realised he hadn't yet tended to the wound he'd gotten from the Sangheili at Visegrad, something he probably should have taken more notice of when it happened. He ignored it for a little while longer, something probably not in his best interest, but his decision nonetheless, until everyone was off duty.

He was to stay with Noble Team. He found that out as soon as they'd gotten inside. Apparently, the higher-ups were impressed by Ryner's skill, something that Carter didn't particularly like, but was forced to respect anyways. The team went into a room separate from the rest of the Marines, one that fit their needs specifically.

He pulled off his vambrace to inspect the wound on his forearm, finding that the flesh, while seared and burned, was still bleeding pretty badly. Upon further inspection, Ryner noticed that two of his knuckles on his other hand were also bloodied. He had at least broken one of the bones in his hand, as the one he was looking at was sticking straight through his skin. No, it wasn't broken. The bone had just popped out of place.

Six who, like the rest of Noble Team, was getting out of her armor at the time, looked over to him while the metal casing popped and screamed as the machines pulled it off of her. The helmet came off last, revealing that she had dark auburn hair that would've fallen past her shoulders, had it not been in a ponytail. She had sharp, battle-hardened eyes the same color all Spartans held. Her nose had a slight curve, as did her jaw, which also had a few scars left over them. A cross-shaped one on her right cheek, a long thin line under her left ear, and a small line from her lips to her chin. He did not like that her eyes followed him. He couldn't see it from behind the visor, but now the helmet was gone, and he could view it fully.

Kat tapped Six's shoulder, trying to get her attention, and the two started to talk about something Ryner didn't care to try to listen to. Right now, he had to fix the problems in his hands. If they were broken, he couldn't hold a weapon. He took a deep breath, and pushed the bone back into place. It was painful, nearly put him on his ass out cold, but he knew anatomy as well as he knew the basics of combat, so he knew he had put it back where it belonged. Taking another deep breath to steady himself, he glanced to Noble Team to see them glaring at him with wide eyes. He flexed his hand as best as he could, before tying a reflex bandage over it to keep the bone in place.

Getting back to the matter at hand, 'heh, good pun' he thought to himself, he made sure to stop the bleeding, clean and dress the wound, etcetera, etcetera, he felt as if someone were hovering over him. There weren't any shadows that he had noticed to suggest such a thing, but the feeling was there. What confirmed his suspicions was Kat's mechanic arm resting on his shoulder, which startled him, and made him flip the Spartan onto the ground with only slightly more than normal effort. She obviously thought he wasn't going to do that, as she landed on her back with the wind knocked out of her.

"Stand down!" she ordered to the approaching Carter, as Ryner realised what had just happened. He slowly got up without looking around. No one could see his expression, as he was still wearing almost all of his gear. "Blaine, remove your hands from my person." with a nod, Ryner stood up, holding out his hand for Kat. she took it, and hauled herself off the ground. He was about to turn and leave when she stopped him. "Armor off."

"Excuse me, sir?" he asked, hoping he had heard her wrong, clenching his good fist.

"You heard me, ODST. Armor. Off." she repeated. Standing as they were, Ryner would only be about one or two inches shorter than her. It was an order from a superior. He nodded, unclasping the belts that held his suit together, and letting his clothes drop until he was in nothing but the body glove. "Helmet too." with an angered, grunt, he pulled the ODST helmet off of his head, letting them see his face for the first time.

Dark brown, almost black, hair about an inch long, small chin, strong jaw, straight nose, and war-heavy blue-green eyes. He had no hair on his face. There were scars everywhere, one cutting from his hairline through his left eyebrow, one horizontally crossing the bridge of his nose, a diagonal cut on his upper left lip, and finally a large jagged scar on jaw, stretching down his neck, if they could see that far. They fixated on his eyes and scars particularly.

"Sir," he said at attention, his expression as blank as his visor.

"You're… a kid." Carter exclaimed in a surprised tone.

"You read up on me, I assumed you knew everything there was to know, Sir," he replied without a change in tone or expression. "You should know your men, and women, like the scope of your DMR." Carter shifted in his spot, either in irritation or a conflicted thought of anger. Six was the first one to talk after that.

"How old are you, then?" she asked, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall. Ryner did not feel obligated to answer her, and just stood in silence. "I'm a lieutenant, answer the question Blaine." his face twitching for a moment, allowing only a moment of anger to seep onto his face, he looked at Six.

"Seventeen." he told them. Six's eyes narrowed, as did the rest if Noble Team's.

"Why the hell would ONI send us a kid?" Kat asked Carter, who waved her off.

"A better question: how the hell did a seventeen year old boy become a such a high rank, and an ODST?" he replied, his chin in his hand. "He's been on more solo missions than a lot of us. Killed as many, if not more, than a few Spartans that we know."

"More than four hundred confirmed human kills, sir," Ryner cut in, his stare not betraying his thoughts. "Over eight hundred Covenant, solo, no backup, no team." he hated how he was gloating about it, like it were some kind of achievement, not just because it wasn't, but also because he despised gloating more than anything. At this, Emile's eyes actually widened as he and Jun looked back at each other.

"Shit, that's a lot of kills…" he muttered. "Probably more than some Spartans out there…" Six kept staring at him, even as Kat gave out a sigh.

"He was also born on Kholo." she announced, pulling up a small touchscreen for the rest of the team to get a look at. Ryner didn't bother looking at what he didn't want to know. "He was there during the glassing, survived by some unknown means."

"By 'unknown', you mean-?" Carter began.

"I mean, nobody knows how he got off the planet. Do you even listen?" she slipped in under her breath. "Even if it was reported, it doesn't say." Jorge, the only one of them who seemed to not be paying any attention to what was going on, was suddenly part of the conversation.

"Aside from that, what qualifies him to fight with us?" the big man asked. From the small amount of time Ryner had spent with the team, he knew Jorge wasn't discriminate, especially not against soldiers. "I want to know what exactly makes him such an asset."

"You've seen him in the field, are you not impressed?" Six replied, patting Jorge's shoulder with a light smirk. "What else can you expect from just an ODST?"

"That's the thing, while I was digging, I found something," Kat intervened with a smirk. "He aced every single test they sent his way. Hand to hand, marksmanship, you name it, he passed it with flying colors." before anyone could even open their mouths to speak, Kat had started talking again. "Once, a group of insurrectionists were able to get into the academy, disguised as students who turned on the other cadets when the plan went into motion. He subdued eight of them on his own, without a weapon and without alerting any others, on his own, and only killed three of them in the process." she informed them.

"Well, at least he didn't kill them all," Emile chuckled, watching as Kat's expression shifted. "Y-you're n-not… laughing…"

"I never said the other five lived, I just said he didn't kill them." she replied with a dark glare. "He tortured them relentlessly, only one of those five survived the ordeal, and had to be put in a psychiatric ward after because of it."

"Okay, they killed several of my friends." Ryner countered. "I worked hard to socialize, and they took it from me. They deserved what they got, and I discovered who was on our side, and who was not." he walked over to the nearest bunk, and fell into it. "Let's just drop it for now, okay? I'll tell you more tomorrow, I'm not a Spartan, I need to sleep."

"Get up, Blaine," Six ordered, just as he had closed his eyes. Ryner looked back to see her holding two knives; his and hers, with a fixed stare into his eyes. His brow furrowed, he followed his superior's command, and slowly got back onto his feet. He noticed that she was smiling slightly, and it was unsettling to him. He steadied himself with a deep breath.

"What?"

"If you can win, anything you want." she replied, throwing the knife in the air, in his direction, with a grin. "If I win, anything I want." it was only a split second after she finished her sentence that she launched at him.

It was in the blink of an eye, but even so, Ryner dodged the attack without breaking a sweat. Her next swing was aimed at his neck, which Ryner barely managed to deflect with his own weapon. Using her momentum to make her over shoot her target, Ryner elbowed her in the ribs hard. She stumbled a little bit, before rounding on him and slamming his shoulder with a roundhouse kick, making him lose feeling in the appendage. She began to swing and stab wildly, but with a pattern and rhythm, his instinct the only thing keeping him alive. As a reflexive movement, Ryner slashed Six's left obliques in an upward motion, drawing a fair bit of blood. With his mind set on the one attack, he didn't notice her fist until it had landed firmly in his temple, and put him on the ground.

Six had straddled him, pinning his arms and legs to the floor, her knife on his throat. "Do you yield?" she asked, the small gleam in her eyes fading a little. He threw his head forward, biting down on her fist, gripping the knife, and pulling it away from his throat. With a twist, his leg was free, and brought up to kick Six in the head. She, of course, anticipated and saw his movement. With another punch, Ryner couldn't move anymore, and Six was smiling like a hungry wolf. "I'll take that as a no, looks like you lose."

"What happens now?" he asked as his vision started to blacken.

"Nothing yet, but I'll let you know in due time." she answered, lifting him back onto the cot for him to rest. Before he even touched the bed, he had fallen asleep.