Prologue

Sand and wind were the least impressive of foes, but after days of fighting and countless injuries every step felt slowed due to their fury. Projectiles, radiation, explosions and shrapnel - heck, even falling from orbit - so many deadly occurrences as a consequence of this invasion... The two huge alien species that made up the back bone of the Covenant armies often utilised their extraordinary strength in close quarters too. A lesser being would have died from a single instance of any such hardship.

Not for Spartan III B-312, Zeilla, Noble Six... Probably the last of Noble team - her Spartan squad mates having given their all at the behest of command to see their mission completed.

Mission completed, Six assumed she would fall to the forces converging on the landing pad. Determined to make them work for it, the young super soldier held nothing back and spat in the face of fear. When her ammo was spent, she dared take on the Sangheli and their energy swords with a knife. Never did it cross her mind that the final enemy would miss both her heart and her lungs when it buried the two-pronged weapon in her chest. She simply reacted in accordance with her training, grabbing a mandible and thrusting her knife up through the roof of its mouth.

The silence that followed slowly faded to a whispering of wind and coarse sand.

Somehow the lone Spartan dragged herself to a bombed-out structure and found enough medical supplies to patch up her worst wounds. A long trek brought her to the last scrap of Humanity on the planet. A small hundred or so strong gathering of UNSC soldiers, special forces, the odd Spartan and even civilian volunteers.

As expected the enemy found them. Unexpectedly so did an allied vessel. Every willing and able body took up a rifle and held the line for the non-combatants to be evacuated, praying there was a chance their sacrifice would see the vessel safely home to Earth.

Reach was lost. The crown jewel of Human colonization, taken by the Covenant. The most important and secret center of Human scientific research. The home of the Spartan program.

Even though it was her home, even though she was able to aim and shoot, the ranking officer ordered Zeilla out as a non-com'. Spartans were too precious to lose if they could be saved.

Once the Pelican docked in orbit everyone thought they were safe. For a while they were correct. Strange things started happening in Slip-space. Terror spread quickly so Zeilla forced her way out of medical care and checked out the viewports herself. There was definitely something wrong but she didn't get a chance to figure it out. Suddenly the vessel shook and the viewport imploded from an impact, only to explode out into the vacuum with anything not bolted down.

Chairs, data-slates, loose paneling... A wounded Spartan... It all tumbled about in the middle of the corridor between Reach and some unimportant system far from Covenant or Human colonies.

So… why could Spartan B-312 see an idyllic garden world when she looked away from a bright star?

Careful study of the surrounding star-scape matched with the information only a few were trusted enough to memorize. There was no doubt in her mind that the planet above her... No, below, the garden she was gradually being pulled to... Unmistakably Earth, the best kept secret location Humanity had. At its side was its sole moon, the place of her birth.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any Covenant vessels around... But nor were there any UNSC signatures according to her HUD.

That was wrong. Surely her gear would have picked up the many defensive satellite platforms and countless military scanning pings, even though there was little space to pack communication equipment in to a seven-foot suit of MJOLNIR armour with six foot nine inches of Spartan inside it. In fact, she couldn't see anything in orbit or any of the settlements on Luna either.

What the hell?

Locking her armour just before impact certainly saved Zeilla's life but it still punched her lights out. When she finally came to the armour was barely functioning within acceptable margins, the micro reactor was approaching critical and her body felt crushed. However, Spartans were not trained to sit around bitching. Zeilla unlocked her armour and hauled herself out of the small crater.

A quick survey revealed she had punched through a building before landing in the adjacent parking lot. An old building going by the kind of materials used, yet it appeared well kept and not at all ancient.

Where on Earth am I?

"Look mommy! A space robot!"

Eh?

"Now now, none of that sci-fi is real son- oh my..."

B312 located the voices quickly, before her HUD could finish translating in fact, hand snatching for a weapon. There was a Human woman and a child staring at her from a doorway.

She raised her free hand slowly and took a step forward only to feel pain lance up her thigh, causing a reflexive inhale that shook her cracked ribs. Zeilla howled and clenched her fists against the pain, momentarily forgetting the weapon she had pulled from her belt.

As a distorted growl echoed in the night a bright two-pronged energy sword lit up the many scars upon her armour.

The child and mother fled.

Muttering in frustration the Spartan relaxed her grip and limped in the opposite direction. She had spotted an alleyway earlier that might be good to shelter in for a time. After some rest, she could begin exploring the urban area.

Noble Six woke to the sound of terrified cries and angry interrogatives accompanying wet thuds. Well, Noble team didn't exist anymore so perhaps she was back to being a Lone Wolf. There was also an urgent alarm pulsing in her ear and a red light blinking on her HUD... And she was sweating profusely from heat even with the cooling unit running hard.

Crap! The reactor! I shouldn't have stayed so long in a confined space.

Diagnostics reported that some of the fuel rod mechanisms had been damaged. To survive the atmospheric re-entry and 'landing' all had been engaged, generating enough power to keep the shields strong and servos locked. Now she was using only a fraction of the standard output. All the control rods were in but the temperature was still climbing.

Its dark now so I should be able to move freely. I need to burn some power. If I can find an industrial freezer I could cool down, but that still leave the reactor churning through its fuel.

Jaw set against the complaints of her body Zeilla levered herself to her feet using the walls and the dumpster she had shifted earlier. A risky gamble it was to hide in the corner of a dead-end L shaped alley, but it was unlikely anyone would discover her right in the back - and surely none would care to look at her little corner. It then occurred to her the voices had become louder and more aggressive.

Poking her visor around the corner she found a group of youths shouting at each other. It was dark but with help from her helmet the Spartan was able to determine most were male, one was female... And one she wasn't sure about. The latter two appeared to be respectable while the others were somewhat less so. It looked like a mugging... But... The female was the one with her back to the street... And she was gaining ground on the males with violence.

Reverse mugging?

Zeilla stepped around the corner and cleared her throat, causing the males before her to jump. She flicked her headlamps on and they all shied away from the bright lights.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

The males panicked and made a run for it past the girl, every one giving her as much space as possible when she lashed out with a booted foot.

Once they were gone the girl growled and kicked the wall. Her companion spoke calmly to which she responded with a halfhearted kick and a mutter then rounded on Zeilla, outrage on her face and in her voice.

Oops, I forgot to re-engage the translator.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Could you repeat it?"

The girl's eyes were murder.

"You heard me perfectly well! Where the hell did you come from anyway?"

The Spartan rose a brow behind her visor. "From the back of the alley."

"Hmpf. And I was sure those punks would have seen Ku-chan too. They loitered around the arboretum. Damnit." the girl grumbled with crossed arms, kicking the wall again.

The other remaining person put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, I'm sure we will find her eventually. She is the Sekirei of Life and we haven't been searching long. It's a big city, after all."

"I know, Shiina, but it's so frustrating that nobody we ask in this city seems to have seen her. It makes me so mad!"

"Yukari-san, I'm sure she escaped capture. The guardian would have stepped in if anyone attacked."

"That just means she got away then. By now anything could have happened!"

"Excuse me..."

Both of them looked up at the lights above her visor, one curious, the other annoyed.

"...where might I find the nearest terminal? I need to connect to the city AI and get a fix on this location."

The young Humans stared at her blankly.

"Time is short, civilians." she urged them. "In approximately fourteen hours my micro reactor will reach meltdown temperature."

"Huh?" The girl snarled. "You messed up in the head or something?"

"Kid, I really don't have time for this-"

The girl shook with rage and wound back her leg. "I'm not a kid!"

Clunk

The girl had good intuition. Even in the darkness her boot landed right in the center of Zeilla's shin-guard. She didn't expect to hear the collision of metal, but quickly swung her boot again and landed the toe right between the Spartan's legs with a second clunk. Again, she was surprised, the height difference becoming more apparent up close.

Zeilla caught the girl's third kick aimed for her inner thigh before it could connect, but then the relatively small Humanoid snapped of a strong punch with a shout of rage.

Right under the ribs, where a lucky needler crystal had stuck two days ago.

B-312 gasped and staggered forward, nearly flattening the two before her in the narrow alley. She barely managed to push off one wall and land a knee under her in time. The one called Shiina hadn't quite moved fast enough and now lay sprawled under her.

"Shiina!"

Up close Zeilla could pick out Asian features. Slightly masculine. The boy had silver hair for some reason. Odd.

She pushed herself upright and turned in time for a boot to bounce off her shields before her eyes. Zeilla snatched the offending limb and stood up, hanging the girl upside down at arm's length. The girl flailed for a second before sparing a hand to hold her skirt and growling with the occasional kick at the Spartan's iron grip. The girl's arms were far too short to reach her now and she couldn't do much with her foot without risking self-harm. Zeilla hoped the Human would calm down soon.

Suddenly her shields flared up again. She found the boy, Shiina, in a sort of fighting stance and outlined by a pale, yellow glow.

Very odd.

"Don't touch her!" he cried, hurling a fist forward.

Zeilla was caught completely off-guard by the sheer power of his strike. Not only was the uppercut strong enough to take her breath away but it also lifted her off her feet for a fraction of a second before gravity brought her down with a thud. That delicate looking boy swung again before she could respond and sent her into the far wall at the corner of the 'L', shattering the bricks on impact. The girl wasted no time in lashing out again with kicks against her shields.

Zeilla pushed the girl aside with ease, lunged forward and quickly hunched down to ward off another impossibly strong blow from Shiina. Her pale blue shields were completely overwhelmed by the shining yellow light spreading out from his small fist an inch from her forearms.

"Civilians! Desist!" she ordered sternly.

Shina threw his fingers out and presented the palm of his hand. The simple motion resulted in that all too familiar sound of her shields shattering.

Then Zeilla realised that glow was not just an illusion. As soon as her shields shattered she felt deathly ill. She staggered backwards and had to place a hand on the ground to steady herself as she lowered her bad knee carefully.

That kid before thought I was a robot! I need to prove I'm not a threat - Helmet! Take off your helmet!

The Spartan quickly tore her helmet off, promptly gagging on the stench of garbage and throwing up blood with stomach acid. Even so she raised her head and a placating hand.

Fortunately, Shiina retracted his hand and the overwhelming nausea subsided with the glow.

"I'm not here to fight..." she began, but that was all she could say before retching up more blood, wet warmth seeping across her chest and back.

Crap, the sword wound in my chest...

With only time to form a death-grip on her helmet Zeilla's vision darkened and she slowly pitched forward.