It's been ten years since the war ended and not much in my situation has changed. I'm in a strange place, not knowing much but self-defense, death, and destruction. Just like old times.

I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Nick. I'm a SPARTAN II. SPARTAN-137. Grew up with the heroes of the war, heroes like the Chief, like Fred, Linda, and Kelly. I'm one of the last SPARTAN IIs left after the war. Sure there are the IVs, but it's not the same. It wasn't really the same with the IIIs like Six ether, but it was closer. The IVs are mostly all volunteers now, the best of the applicants that ONI got. The SPARTANs aren't really SPARTANs anymore, mostly just used for peace-keeping or security for UNSC sponsored scavenger crews, looking for Covenant or Forerunner tech. Most of the time, things were uneventful on these voyages, but every once in a while, someone would find a habitable planet or, even more rarely, a forgotten Forerunner cache of new technology. Most of the time, the caches were nothing more than a few old pieces of tech the covenant passed over, but sometimes it would be a terminal, coded for humans' genetic structure. These terminals usually contained valuable blueprints or plans.

These plans have advanced the technology level of humans over 20 years ahead of what it was at the end of the war. Humanity's AI technology has advanced the most. Our AI technology then is considered expensive and inefficient by Forerunner standards. The basis of it is the same, mapping electric impulses as they moved through the brain, but we were doing it wrong. Instead of a recently deceased specimen, the Forerunners found it easier to use a living brain, similar to what was done with a clone of Dr. Halsey's brain to create Cortana. With a few minor hardware tweaks and a new base, the first of the sixth generation of smart AIs was born.

There were also some other technological advancements, such as improved energy shielding and more compact hologram technology. We have also found a way to re-charge covenant energy-based weaponry, partly thanks to the Elites, our allies since the end of the war. They shared their plasma weaponry and slip-space drive with us, but so far all we have been able to do in the year since they did this was be able to reproduce them, and even that was a stretch.

I was assigned to a scavenger frigate, the Autumn's Light, as the chief Security Officer, but as a Sergeant Major, I still lead a small ground crew of about six marines. We didn't usually see much action on a scavenger voyage; mostly we just did the recon, providing protection groundside if needed. It was a fairly routine trip, for a while anyway.

I groaned as I pulled myself out of the cryotube. Ten years of advancement and they still can't make the nutrient paste taste like anything but crap. As I put on clothes, I wondered why they won't let me wear my MJOLNIR armor in cryosleep. It's not like I haven't done it before. If the ship was attacked and I had to try to repel boarding parties, would you want a SPARTAN without his armor, armed only with a pistol and whatever weapons he's scavenged, or would you want him in full armor, where he'd have the advantage if something up to the size of a Hunter attacked?

As I walked through the halls of the ship to get to my quarters, where I stored my weapons and armor, I passed several crewmen, to whom I gave a slight nod as I passed. They seemed interested in seeing a SPARTAN without his helmet, but there wasn't much to see. I had short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a small scar cutting into the corner of my upper lip. Other than that I was completely unremarkable. Unlike some of the others, such as Fred, who got silver streaks in his hair after the augmentations, the augmentations didn't really change my facial features much. All they did was make my face appear leaner, more angular than before.

As I walked into my quarters, I was greeted by the sight of my MJOLNIR armor on its stand, it small gold visor of my Recon helmet not quite matching with the white and dark grey of the rest of my Mark VII armor. The Mark VII improved on the old Mark VI armor. With a larger biofoam capacity, improved armor and shields, and a higher power microfusion reactor, allowing for longer uses of armor abilities, the armor was far superior to the older versions.

Being one of the last, if not the last, active SPARTAN IIs in the field gave me some perks. The gauntlets of the armor, colored a light silvery color, had new technology in them. The left had a hologram projector installed, and the right had a scavenged Forerunner charger capable of charging many items, including the weapons that the Covenant used. Both slimmed down as much as possible, highly experimental, highly expensive. They worked out most of the bugs, but there are still a few here or there.

To help me work out most of the bugs still remaining, as well as helping me with almost anything else I may need. As the most effective, as well as one of the most expensive (passed only by the Spartan Laser, and possibly the M808 Main Battle Tank), ONI decided to invest just a little more in their #1 "product" a couple of years ago, giving me the single most advanced piece of hardware in their hands: Korina.

Korina is a seventh gen. smart AI, and already at seven and a half years old, she has already passed the lifespan of the old AIs. She is as stable as when she was first created, and shows none of the signs of destabilization the old AIs used to show, even at only 1 year after activation. Her avatar, colored a dark shade of yellow, is of a young woman, wearing a long sleeve tee-shirt and a pair of jeans.

Almost as if knowing that I was thinking about her, her hologram appeared above the projector terminal in my room. "Oh, you're up," she said in her usual upbeat, perky voice. "It's been a month since you were put in cryo. I made sure no one messed with your private armory. Oh, and the captain wanted to see you."

"Hi Korina, nice to see you too," I muttered almost sarcastically as I walked up to my armor. "Yeah, I'm sure you did. Just give me a minute to get suited up."

I quietly put on my armor and cracked open the two crates in the corner of my room. Inside the crates, there was a wide array of weaponry, almost everything from the M6D Pistol to the M41 Rocket Launcher. I even had a few Covenant weapons, including an old Plasma Repeater from Reach. Given a spot of honor, was an Energy Sword. I stole it from an Elite back on Reach, and kept it with me, even after it lost its charge. It was one of the few things I had from Reach and Noble Team, the others being the repeater and Six's and Jorge's tags joining my own around my neck.

After that moment of contemplation for those lost, I decided and chose weapons from the box. First off I chose the 99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle. It complemented the Active Camo armor ability I had installed, along with Armor Lock. The Mark VII had two slots for abilities, due to the increased reactor output. There were still some bugs with running two at once though. Next, I picked up the Plasma Repeater, as it was more effective than the MA5C due to only needing to be recharged, eliminating the need for ammo, and the fact that it didn't shut down from overheating. I then attached the M6D Pistol to the hip mag-strips and the Energy Sword to my belt. There were more mag-strips on the back then the Mark VI, allowing both the 99D-S2 and the repeater to bet stored there at the same time.

With that sorted out, I was almost ready to see the captain. Once I got to the hologram podium, I pulled out Korina's chip and stuck it in the slot in the back of my helmet. Almost immediately, I felt the ice water-like feeling in the back of my mind. "Ah, that's better. There's much more space in the armor than that little pedestal."

I walked out of my room and started on my way to the bridge.

"Glad to hear you're comfortable. So, what's next? Off to see the captain?"

"Yup. He said there was something that you would want to know. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good."

I stopped in the hallway as soon as I heard that last bit. "Is it… them?"

"I don't know, but I hope not."