Halo: The Secret Spartan
Summary
The Spartans have returned to Earth only to discover a new difficulty awaiting them: an ONI special operative known as BLADE. The first in the SPARTAN project, she's become suspicious and bitter, preferring to survive on her own. When she and the Spartans are forced to work together, a complication arises that may be the end of Blade, something that neither she nor the other Spartans expected.
Cast (new faces): The Major Players
General Mark West: CO of Camp Hayes, and a close friend to Laura/Blade. He knows that beneath her hot-tempered mask lies a sharp mind and lonely heart. Appalled by what she's had to endure, he wishes he could do more than listen. Yet every time Laura gets the better of ONI, he secretly laughs at their frustration.
Dr. Frances Gedeon: Laura's mother and a prominent physician/microbiologist. While she is disgusted by what ONI is allowing to happen to her daughter, she refuses to believe that an officer could be involved. She's taught Laura most of what she knows about the medical field, and is always willing to let her daughter lend a hand at the base hospital.
Nicole Mitchell (Nick): Laura's best, and truest, friend. Nicole knows just about everything that goes on in her friend's life, and can read her like a book at times. While unwilling to betray her only real friend, Nick knows that sometimes it takes a betrayal to prevent an even greater betrayal.
Lorienna: An AI unit created by Laura without ONI's knowledge or assistance. Possessing many of her creator's personality traits, Lorienna can be a bit of a smartass, but loyal. Her code-cracking skills allow her and Laura to keep an eye on what goes on that ONI doesn't want Laura to know.
Laura Morisson (SPARTAN-000): Codenamed BLADE for her proficiency with martial arts and combat knives, Laura was the test case for the SPARTAN-II project. Once the project began to be successful, ONI tried to bury her at Camp Hayes, except for the occasional black op. Laura and ONI have been at loggerheads ever since she found out the truth about herself and the SPARTAN project, and all their attempts to control her have failed…so far. Her drive to succeed comes from family loyalty and a sense of right and wrong that ONI has failed to break.
Nathan Mitchell: Nicole's older brother. Nathan and his daughter Taylor have a soft spot for Laura, and have 'adopted' her as a member of the family. Nathan secretly hopes to catch Laura's eye, but Laura feels nothing but a brotherly affection for him.
Skeeter: Nicole's Pembroke Welsh corgi. Skeeter is a very active fellow, but more perceptive than most would expect. While he can be annoying at times, his presence is usually enough to make both Laura and Nicole feel cheery. He has a tendency to 'laugh' at people.
Prologue-2515
North America
The little girl looked at her mother and father. She didn't understand what was going on, but knew the strange men in funny clothes were taking her somewhere. One of the strange men called to her, saying it was time to go.
"Come on, Mommy and Daddy! We're going away!"
"No, sweetheart. You're going alone. Daddy and I can't come with you."
The four-year-old realized then that she was going away for good. When the strange men came to put her in the funny-looking car, she clung to her mother's leg and refused to let go. The men couldn't pull her off: this particular four-year-old was exceptionally strong. They looked at her parents for assistance. Her mother knelt down to eye-level with the child.
"Laura, I know this is hard, but it's for the best. I promise you'll be well taken care of, and Daddy or I will come visit you at times."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Laura didn't really understand, but she knew her mommy had made a promise. Mommy never lied to her, and that was enough. She followed the men into the car and drove away from her home. Her mother and father waved her goodbye.
"Do you think we'll ever see her again?"
"I promised her we'd visit, Pete. And I have no intention of breaking that promise. We've given the military our baby, so the least they could do is allow us to see her once in a while."
"I hope you're right. Something doesn't feel right, though. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something wrong."
"We'll deal with that when the time comes. Meanwhile, the UNSC will take care of Laura."
Present day-September 4, 2552
Sydney, Australia
Lieutenant Wagner did all he could to keep from flinching as Ackerson approached.
"Everyone on Reach is dead. Dead, dead, dead." He jabbed the lieutenant's chest each time for emphasis. Before he could say anything more, however, a young ensign ran into the room.
"Sirs, we just received word from Camp Hayes: a Pelican just took off without clearance." Wagner wasn't the only one who noticed Ackerson stiffen slightly.
"Have you hailed the ship?" Admiral Hood asked.
"Yes, sir, but we've received no response other than a code 392." Ackerson really stiffened at that.
"Open a channel with that Pelican," Hood barked.
Once the frequency was open, he addressed the unknown pilot: "This is Fleet Admiral Hood of the UNSC Security Council. Who are you and what are you doing with that ship?"
The screen wavered, and a picture came up: a young-looking woman with dark brown hair and intense dark eyes. There was something familiar about her face, especially the stern, piercing look. Wagner was the only one who noticed Ackerson pale.
"Admiral Hood, a pleasure. My father always spoke quite highly of you."
"Who are you?" Hood barked. The woman raised an eyebrow, completely unperturbed by the Admiral's anger.
"I'm what ONI Section Three considers a very dangerous mistake, a flaw if you will. They tried to bury me at Camp Hayes, except for the occasional black op. This time, though, I'm going on my own." Her face hardened. "You wanted a scouting mission to Reach, now you've got it."
"And how did you know we were even discussing the possibility of a scouting mission?" Hood asked in incredulous amazement.
"Even though I usually don't leave Camp Hayes, I have eyes and ears everywhere; some of them are as sharp as my combat knives."
"I order you to come back here at once!" Ackerson barked, his voice noticeably hostile.
"Order all you like, Ackerson, I'm not coming back until I know what happened to Reach, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Don't worry, though, I won't ever lead the Covenant back to Earth." Her dark eyes narrowed dangerously. "If I didn't know better, Ackerson, I'd say you didn't care about Reach falling; you must have more to hide than your standard black ops. I don't know what you're hiding, and at this point I don't really give a damn. I'm going to Reach, and I'm going to get some answers."
"You still haven't answered my question--who are you?" Hood asked for a third time.
"Very well, Admiral, I'll tell you just to piss Ackerson off." She smirked. "I'm a Spartan, in a sense. Most people only call me by my codename BLADE, but in actuality I am a Morisson."
Just about every jaw dropped in the room. "Morisson?" Hood asked in disbelief, as he finally realized why her face looked so familiar.
"Morisson. As in Commander Phil Morisson, Lieutenant Matt Morisson, and Colonel Pete Morisson; that's why I'm going to Reach, I have to know what happened. Of course, you'll never find any records on me past the age of four, unless you ask Ackerson. Ah, there's my ride." The woman flipped a few switches. "See you in a couple days."
The com channel blinked off, and Wagner noticed every eye in the room turn to Ackerson. This is going to make for an interesting report to Section Three, he thought, carefully keeping his face impassive.
"Colonel, I think you have some explaining to do," Hood murmured, his voice low and threatening.
A few days later, at exactly 1800 hours, the UNSC Security Council (except for Colonel Ackerson) received a mission report that none of them expected to see:
The Covenant did not glass all of Reach. A decently-sized patch of the planet, though small in comparison with the whole, was left untouched. Closer examination revealed this area was the area surrounding a former ONI base of operations, codenamed CASTLE. It appeared that the Covenant were interrupted in the middle of an attempt to literally 'dig out' the installation. It was also apparent that, before their interruption, they were planning to hang around for a while: wrecked ships from the battle were piled in one area above Reach and construction of a platform had been started using pieces of the dead hulls.
Since the Covenant were no longer in the area, and since there had to be a greater reason for their interest besides being a human installation, I landed nearby and took a look around. Underneath the CASTLE complex was something none of us would have expected to find, but apparently the Covenant were looking for. There was a vast room beneath the surface, with tunnels branching off in every direction, and tiled symbols and glyphs everywhere. In spite of the evidence of there being a fairly recent battle in that area, there was enough there that was still intact. A video feed will follow shortly. Now I know what Ackerson was trying to hide: he had to have known about this, and known the Covenant would come looking. I recommend a full investigation into his activities; if he knew the Covenant would be stopping by he should have warned us.