EPILOGUE TO PART 1

VICTOR

3 HOURS SINCE MISSION END

FORWARD UNTIL DAWN

Victor sat near one of the desks of the debriefing room. He as well as the other members of Buck's ODST team (he being a temporary replacement) to this room. He looked down one of the panels to see the great fight down over the ark… a three way between the UNSC , the Covenant, and the Flood. The hierarchy might have been gone, but the remaining forces were demanding vengeance.

He heard the master Chief's plan to procure Cortana for the index over the new halo ring, but they made sure with the chief that the ring would not be activated or attempted to be activated until all forces were either dead, or off planet. Which meant sending recalls to marine forces such as the ones within the forerunner city, or ones that lost contact with command. A full effort would take at the least a day. He sighed and then watched as the door opened, Mickey came in.

"How's the captain?" Victor asked. Mickey leaned back.

"He's made a full recovery, he shouldn't take long… He's a bit down though." He said. Dutch followed into the room and sat down.

"I went to see Faire's surgery, she's been shaken good… don't know what though…. Although I guess she's better than a couple hours ago." He said. Victor sighed.

"Probably mooning over Dante." He rolled his eyes. Mickey stared at him. Victor shrugged.

"Sorry." Romeo walked in along with Buck behind him. The man seemed to have a swagger in his step.

"Wow gunny, you look good as new." Dutch said. Buck nodded.

"So heard any survivors from Say-My-Name?" he asked. Dutch sighed.

"Not yet, anyways sir… hard to believe it crashed right in front of the Citadel… Strange when you think of it." He said. Buck nodded.

"I know… there has to be survivors though… I know it." Buck then said. He then looked at Victor.

"I asked Sargent Johnson if I could borrow you a little longer, he agreed for a transfer." He said. Victor slightly smiled.

"But you'll have to do more than sniping, seeing as Romeo's back." He said. Victor nodded.

"I won't let you down sir." He said.

"As for our plan… The UNSC has called for a major recall of all vehicles, weapons and personnel… We're not leaving Dante there to die." Buck said. Romeo smirked.

"I wouldn't dream of you deciding to leave your little protégé behind." He said. Buck rolled his eyes.

"Good to know you're in Great shape, Romeo." He said. Kojo sighed.

"Can't help it, sometimes you put too much faith in him." He said.

"And look where that got us, none of us are dead, and unless you decide to drop down stiff, I'd say keep your mouth shut." Buck immediately retorted. Romeo nodded. The door opened one more time to reveal Anne Faire, she seemed in better condition than two and a half hours prior. On her right side was a mechanical arm, for use in UNSC military until a new arm could be cloned at earth. She sat down in a seat beside Mickey. He looked at her, she breathed deeply.

Victor looked at Faire and saw that on her new mechanical right arm she wore a silver ring. Her hair was wrapped in a rough ponytail, obviously still getting use to the new digs, and did Victor detect some old tear stains down her eyes? Buck looked at them.

"Gentlemen, we have a new mission, we are to return to the Ark and repossess all personnel, and since we only have a couple leads, some of us are heading to the city structure, others are heading to the crash site… The war is over, but we still have a job to do."

ROOKIE

1 HOUR SINCE MISSION END

James held his gun closely as he got closer to the vent and looked down, it was a short jump. He lowered into the next room and quickly looked around the area, he was in another old vent… but it seemed the flood recently used this one. HE monitored his HUD, he was fine on Ammunition. And he didn't need a health pack.

He got to another opening and looked down. Below was a solid grey ground. He swallowed slightly and moved forward to carefully jump down; he hit the floor trying not to make a sound and approached what looked to be a control panel. He looked to the sides of the rooms, but the doors were locked, he tapped on the terminal for a moment and then looked at it, and saw a light blink blue. The machine came alive and the screen shone brightly, strange figures came into view, like it was booting up, but in a way, it seemed like this thing was always watching.

Feeling a scratching sensation in his mouth, James spoke.

"Hello?"

The hell is this thing?

The machine looked at him and started speaking, at first it sounded like gibberish, then it sounded like covenant. He shook his head.

"I don't understand." He simply said. The machine seemed annoyed with him then tested new sounds until it at least broke the language barrier and spoke Latin. James sighed.

I need to broaden my views

The Machine realized it had little effect; finally it started again, speaking in one more language.

"Hello Reclaimer… I have watched you." It said in plain English. Rookie looked up at it.

"Why?" The machine spoke in a strange accent he couldn't tell, maybe an old British dialect.

"Because the data told me." It said. He glanced at it, the screen had a light blue hue about it, with a large blue circle in the middle, it sorta reminded him of 343 guilty spark… except this thing was an entire monitor.

"Oh… I am sorry, I haven't even introduced myself." It said. Rookie stepped back a little.

"You may call me… Alcatraz."