Alright, I'm going through a horrid writer's block, I decided to write this. I'm going for a page a day and, hopefully, I'll be updating this biweekly. There is no planning for this story. Any suggestions, questions, or things you want to see, tell me and I'll work them in.

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Prologue

Gravemind

"Do you think John's still out there? I mean, alive."-Kelly-087

Delia stood, her heavily modified 99E-S2 in hand. Her favorite weapon. A gift from her mother's good friend, Linda. The 'long rifle' as her brother had called it was modified to hold a slightly larger clip, have a more accurate scope, and, should t he first clip fail, had a switch, called the 'Phoenix Burst' which would immediately load another clip, pre-loaded into the side of the weapon.

Her trigger finger twitched, almost setting off the first round and giving away her location. She cursed under her breath and continued to scout. Her squad needed the Intel. Her mother's speed really didn't go very well with her position though.

Ah, her mother. She was called Blue-Two by her friends. Or, the closest thing she had to them. Delia always wondered if her any of the SIIs or SIIIs had anything that could be called friends. Though the SIIs were a bit more, secluded, seemed to be the word. Going as far as to never leave their 'Hammer' armor.

"Alpha-one. This is Golf zero niner zero. Hostiles coming from lower level. Switch to BR79 SR. Long rifle's clip won't help." Her squad leader was obviously better at her job than she was. She switched to the modified Battle Rifle on her back and examined the area. Soon, she found what her squad leader was warning her about. A multitude of infection forms. They were traveling in groups of five. Ever since the Gravemind developed, they always seemed to work in groups of 5 or 10.

"Golf zero niner zero, this is Alpha-one. Hostiles traveling in groups of 5. Permission to engage. If permission is denied, permission to take tactical command and issue the order to fall back and place a quarantine on Forerunner planet ten-two, section Charlie Quebec Charlie one-twelve-one."

"Permission granted and permission denied. Give 'em hell Delia."

Delia was about to speak after hearing the 'permission denied' but was silenced by her squad leader calling her Delia. It was something unusual for him considering how stolid while inside the 'Hammer'.

She pressed the visor of her S variant helmet to her BR79 and fired one round to the first infection she saw, taking out a group of four. The fifth ran around randomly, confused. "Golf zero niner zero. Behavioral note: taking out four of five in an infection squad causes the fifth to act erratically."

"Noted. Leave the fifth be. We'll set up cameras on the lower level to monitor it while you take out the other squads. After said squads are taken out, you may take tactical command."

"Acknowledged." She fired another round, this time taking out all five with the chain reaction. She continued till there was just the one remaining.

"Hostiles downed. Switching comm to Delta-Five to request pickup. Are the cameras set up?"

"Roger, Alpha-one."

"Casualties?"

"None."

"Good. We don't need another body added to the list of hostiles. Delia signing off." She breathed and pressed a button on the side of her Helmet. She blinked, took a breath, and prayed that things would go well until evac got there. Though her squad leader regrets the belief that she'd never know that things didn't.

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Alright, as before, I've made some changes. I've added nothing to affect length though, mainly because I think the length of this is perfect. Though, I would like to go over the naming process.

Sierra 2.1/3.1 This is decided by which group's augmentations are more prominent. A 2.1 will be closer to a Spartan-II while a 3.1 will be closer to a Spartan-III.
The first number will represent ONE of the child's parents. Which one depends on the augmentations that show through, gender, and various other things that are never worried about. If a decision isn't reached, they are named in honor of a fallen Spartan instead (G188-Dante for example)
The second number (designation) is which graduate the Spartan was. These began with 051 in honor of Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose. For example, 100 would be the 49th graduate to come from the Spartan-2.1/3.1 training.
The name is chosen by the parents.