Earth. Atlanta, Georgia, 2518

A little boy ran around his backyard, playing with his friends. His name was Joshua. Joshua Richmond. His friends were Damian Hammond and Jenny Tarian. The kids were seven years old.

"Haha!" A young Joshua said as he pushed Damian to the ground. He ran and grabbed a blue flag, and began to make his way across the backyard, so he could score. He continued to run until he reached his 'base', and scored.

"Woo-Hoo! I win!" Joshua hooted.

"You got lucky!" A dirty and scraped up Damian said. He walked over to his friend, and shook his hand, in a meaning of "Good Game."

"Do you guys want to go inside now?" Jenny asked, sounding tired. Josh looked over at Damian, and they nodded.

"Sure, let's get something to eat!" The children bounded inside and Josh ran up to his mom, and asked her to make some snacks. She said yes, and the children hungrily devoured their crackers, fruit, and juice.

"Hey guys, do you wanna go and play some more?" Josh asked.

"I have to get home," Jenny said. "And I have to go home too," Damian said.

"Oh, okay." Josh waved his friends off, and sat on the couch in the living room. He turned the TV to a channel, and watched it. He slowly drifted off to sleep.

UNSC Halcyon-cruiser Warden, in orbit over Reach, 2535

A 23-year old Lieutenant Joshua Richmond walked the halls of the Warden. "This ship is so damn boring," he muttered to himself. He was just on a walk, trying to find something to do before the next battle. He passed a couple of marines, and asked if they wanted to play poker. They told him that they didn't bet, and Josh just waved them off, seemingly disgusted at their notion. He walked into the cafeteria, and saw a large figure sitting by himself in the corner of a table. "Well, why the hell not," he said as he walked over and sat across from the figure. "Hey, what's up? I'm Lieutenant Josh Richmond, ODSTs," he asked. The man said nothing, and continued to eat.

"Uh, what's your name?" he asked, hoping to start a conversation.

"Mark."

"Last name?"

"046," he said.

"Huh? What kind of a last name is that?" Josh asked as he laughed slightly. 'Mark' said nothing, and went back to eating. Josh left the table, and went to get something to eat. Mark was just about to leave, but Josh came back and sat down. He didn't want to be rude, so he stayed put.

"Hey, sorry about kinda insulting you," Josh said. Mark nodded. "So, uh, are you a, you know, a Spartan?"

"Yes. My name is, formally, Petty Officer First Class Markus-046," he replied.

"That's awesome," Josh said. Mark was surprised, as ODSTs hated Spartans. This guy was different.

"You're different than most ODSTs. Why?" Mark asked.

"In what way?" Josh asked.

"You don't seem to hate me. You're rather nice."

"Oh. You see, I don't see a point in hating other people, you know, like humans. I reserve my hate for the Covenant. Why hate the people on your side? You know?" Josh explained.

"You make a very good point," Mark responded.

"Yeah. Too bad almost nobody else agrees with me," Josh said.

"Yes, that is too bad. If you don't mind, I need to get on my way," Mark said.

"Okay, see ya later," Josh said as Mark left. Josh didn't really eat his food. He just sat there, poking and piddling with his food. I got too much food, he thought as he chuckled quietly. It consisted of three pancakes, a pint of milk, eggs, three pieces of bacon, and a small bowl of cereal. He sat at the table for a little over thirty minutes, and ended up finishing his meal. He walked slowly to his quarters, trying to waste as much time as he could. "I freakin' hate space," he said to himself. He'd much rather be in his good ol' ODST armor shooting up some Covenant bastards. Not to mention trying to kill each Covie in the most creative way he could think of. And his imagination was vast. He had stabbed them in the eyes and left them to bleed out, broken their arms and legs and then proceed to cut their tongues off, ripped their mandibles off and made them eat them, and then shoot them in the head. Okay, maybe that last one was a bit gruesome, even for him. But they deserved it. He went mostly for style points, but only when he was able to. He set his mind back on, well nothing actually. But that was the way he liked it. He was about to turn down the hallway to go to his quarters, but he decided to head towards the bridge.

"Sir? May I ask a question?" Josh asked as he stood in salute to Captain Hammond.

"Josh, I thought I told you that you don't have to call me 'sir'. We've known each other for years," the Captain said.

"Sorry Damian. But anyway, do you know how much longer we're going to be floating over Reach? I mean is there any reason why we are here?" Josh asked.

"Honestly, until FLEETCOM says that we're no longer needed here, or unless we're called into another battle, we'll be here for a while. And yes, we are a sort of 'guard' along with the other ships. You know, surveillance," Damian explained.

"Kay, thanks Damian," Josh said as he saluted once more, and turned to walk off of the bridge. Damian nodded, and got back to his duty. Josh walked down the hallway and turned the corner to his room. When he tried to open it, it was locked. He muttered irritatingly under his breath, while punching the correct code into the keypad. The screen flashed, and read ACCESS DENIED. He began to punch in the numbers again, when his eyes gravitated up to the door number, written in small white numbers. "376." He smiled in a sort of embarrassed way, and continued to walk down the hall to his actual room. He came to a door, and checked the number twice. "379." He proceeded to punch in his code, and this time, the door slid open. He walked into his room, and began typing something on his data-pad.

Planet Reach, January 23, 2535. 16:27

Gunnery Sergeant Jennifer Tarian walked the streets of one of the many military bases on Reach. She was going to go to the range, and sharpen her shooting skills. Especially with a sniper rifle. She was her ODST team's sniper. She liked to carry an M392 with her on missions most of the time, because if her target was too close for her sniper rifle, she could take it out with some well-placed headshots. She as wearing her civilian clothes (Although they were bland), as there was no reason to wear her battle armor or her uniform, and a pair of sunglasses. It was a nice, sunny day, about 80 degrees. Just a few clouds in the sky to barely obstruct the sun's rays. She looked up into the sky, and saw a bunch a little black spots in the sky. UNSC ships. Tons of them, because they patrolled Reach's atmosphere pretty much 24/7.

She continued to walk, and eventually arrived at the range. Right before she walked in, her data-pad beeped with a message from none other than Josh Richmond. She smiled, because she had not seen him or Damian for two years now. They had talked, but she had not seen them in person. She pulled the pad out of her pocket, and read the screen.

"Hey Jenny. It's really boring up here. You doing anything fun?" She chuckled softly, as Josh was bored all the time. Unless of course he was killing aliens, or playing some sort of sport. He was definitely an outdoorsman. She quickly typed back a reply, which read, "About to go to the range, nothing much after that." She slipped the data-pad into her pocket, and walked to the armory, and picked up her desired weapons. She had her own 'custom' sniper rifle, which had an ivory plated grip, an oracle scope with 20x optical zoom, the initials 'JT' carved crudely onto the mag well with a combat knife, and an extra half-inch of rubber butt plating. Not that she couldn't take the recoil, but she liked to be comfortable while sniping. She walked over to an open 'slot', and began to load her sniper rifle.

She aimed down her scope, and brought her eye steadily closer to the scope. But not close enough to get 'scope-eye'. Speaking of that, it hurts like hell. She had gotten it only once, because for most people, when you get it the first time, you never do it again. She fired a few shots downrange at an Elite target, and was satisfied with the three headshots that she got. This also made sure that her scope was calibrated correctly. She reloaded, and began to shoot again. She never missed, out of 24 shots. She was shooting from about 150 yards from where she was shooting. Once she was satisfied with her marksmanship, she cleaned her rifle, and she switched to her MA37. Although she would rather have used an DMR, she still needed to sharpen up her skills with this weapon. She slapped a new magazine into her gun, and starting firing on semi-auto. She emptied the 32-round magazine, and replaced it with a new one. She began to fire on full-auto, and was surprised at the rounds' grouping. Sixty-four large brass shells later, Jenny picked up all her expended shells, and cleaned her weapons thoroughly.

She turned her data-pad back on, and checked for any new messages from Josh. Sure enough, there was. She opened it, and it said, "Oh cool. So I hear you're on Reach. That's cool, because Damian and I are in orbit around Reach." Her eyes started to glow faintly and a smile crept across her face, because her two best friends were close. Although, there was the large chance that they wouldn't be able to come down to the planet and see her. That thought caused her smile to slowly decease. She decided to head back to her quarters, where she could talk to Josh in private. She didn't have anything personal to tell him, but she didn't like being public about most things. She was mostly intrapersonal. She walked somewhat fast, but slow enough to still appreciate the beauty of Reach. She put her sunglasses back on over her eyes, and continued towards the base.

She walked into her room, and sat down at her desk, which she had made into a "study". She pulled out her data-pad, and connected it to her computer. She touched the correct buttons to connect to his pad, and it took a few seconds to bring up his face.

"Hey," she said as she smiled.

"Hey Jenny, long time no see eh?" Josh said while laughing.

"Actually, it's only been a few weeks," Jenny said.

"Haha, leave it to you to get all technical on me." Jenny smiled, and Josh continued to talk, preventing her from saying anything in response.

"Wow, you're smile is as beautiful as ever, Jenny." This caused her to blush, and smile again.

"Thanks. You know, you've never really commented on my smile before."

"Well I should have. It's definitely something you can't miss. Guys would be really lucky to have you," Josh said, and Jenny could feel her cheeks returning to their previous red-tinted state.

"Thanks, you're not so bad yourself," she said as she smiled playfully. Josh raised one eyebrow, and said, "That's not what you thought a few years back." Jenny knew what he was referencing to, when they had dated a few years ago.

"That was then, and this is now," she said in a surprisingly stern manner.

"Sorry I brought that up," Josh apologized. Jenny nodded, and her eyes watered slightly, but not enough for Josh to see.

"Hey, can you get Damian?" Jenny asked.

"I don't think so, he's the Captain now, and he was busy when I went to see him," Josh replied. Jenny looked surprised.

"Damian? A Captain? That's awesome, I wish I could talk to him though."

"Yeah, so I gotta go, Captain said we're entering slip-space. Going to Jericho VII," Josh explained. Jenny was disappointed, that yet again she wouldn't be able to see her friends. Jenny muttered an "Okay" and a "Goodbye." Connection was soon lost, and Jenny decided to get some sleep, even though it was only 1800 hours.

UNSC Warden, en route to Jericho VII, via Slip-Space, Time: N/A

There was nothing to look at but blackness. Dark, enshrouding, blackness. But that's how it was in Slip-Space, no stars, no planets, but just darkness. Josh sat at the observation deck, bored yet again. He looked around, sick of sleeping, sick of walking, and sick of just doing nothing. He was actually considering going into cryo sleep. The only thing keeping him was the horrid taste of the fluids they use to keep you fed, and freezer burn. That stuff just sucked. Screw it, I'd rather be bored than burned, he decided.

He forced himself up, and and decided to go to the gym. He walked the long corridors of the ship, passing several marines who were just walking to keep themselves awake. He said a simple "Hello" or "Hey" to whomever he saw. He eventually made it to the gym, which was a good size seeing as this was a large ship. He proceeded to rack up his weights, totaling 250 lbs. Right before he was about to start, he looked over and saw Markus benching.

"Hey Mark, how much you benchin'?" Josh asked. Mark stopped and looked over.

"600."

"Nice. How many reps?"

"Usually 150. But I'm at 223 right now."

"Damn! That's awesome. Alright, cool," Josh said as he got back to benching. He completed 20 reps, and called it a day. He usually did more workouts, but he was feeling particularly tired. Though he had no idea why.

Captain Damian Hammond stood at the bridge of his ship, the Warden, and watched, well nothing. He was just standing there, doing his job. Captaining the ship. Sometimes it got boring, but it was far from uneventful. Most of the time. Slip-space was boring enough though, so standing up and doing nothing was almost unbearable. He had nothing to do, but captain the ship. Not until he exited slip-space, however. He had received a call to go and guard Jericho VII, as it was one of the last major colonies in the Outer Colonies. He thought, as usual, that it would be another boring 'shift', and it would be waste of time. But he was wrong. Very, very wrong.

A/N: Not much action, but this chapter was mainly focusing on introducing the main characters. There will be more action in the next chapter, and chapters to come. And for those of you who don't know what 'scope-eye' is, it's when you put your eye to close to the scpe on your rifle, and the recoil sends it crashing into your face. It leaves a circular cut. Not fun.

-TV