A/N: I'm trying something kinda new for me. I've been inspired by the game (obviously) and just can't stop thinking about this story. I've never written anything like this so bare with me please. Hopefully it will get better further along and I get feeback and my bearings for this kind of world.
Disclaimer: Own nothing but the plot and a few characters
The giant ship glided through space like it was a boat in water, moving so fluidly that it was like it wasn't moving at all. Marines on board the cruiser Pillar of Autumn seemed a little relaxed and yet the overbearing feeling of apprehension and dread couldn't be ignored. It was like everything from now on would be this way with the way their lives were now. On the bridge sat marines at all stations, manning the space and watching for anything out of the ordinary. In space…that could be a lot of things. Standing on the bridge with his hazel eyes and an old pipe clutched in his hand, the captain watched the sparkling stars in front of them. His hand fiddled with the pipe, turning it over in his hand a few times but never actually bringing it to his lips. He hadn't done that since the first invasion by the Covenant. From the vastness in front of him, he turned way and looked at the pipe in his hand before stuffing it away and turning back the glass.
"Cortana, I want to know if we've lost them…" Captain Keyes said as a purple, naked woman appeared on a holographic console beside him with her hands on her hips.
Short, bobbed hair cut, almond shaped blue eyes, a slim, curvy figure made of data flickered into view, "I think we both know the answer to that." Smooth, sardonic and alluringly sexy, Cortana spoke up again, "In slipspace my maneuvering is limited."
"Can you tell where they are?" the captain asked, staring through the enormous window trying to find any trace of those sleek purple space crafts.
The onboard A.I. placed two fingers against her temple, "Sorry sir, sensors aren't picking anything up."
Keyes cursed under his breath, "Damn! Where could they be hiding…"
"Uhm sir, I know we're in a bit of a bind here but I was wondering if I could step out for a moment," Cortana asked of the captain. It was preposterous of her to be doing such a thing but she felt a need.
The captain looked at her transparent frame, her data streaming by, "Ten minutes Cortana. But if we're engaged I want you back on deck and at the MAC guns the moment I say."
"Of course sir," Cortana answered and flickered from view.
She had felt the elevation in pulse and heard the light huffs of pain through the COM systems that she managed within the ship. There was no way to deny the torment that she was picking up on from one of the rooms that held the soldiers onboard. Room 224; the door was locked and not a single light had been turned on. Darkness enveloped the room as the A.I. looked around and saw the sole occupant laying on the bed, curled up in a ball and burying their face into their pillow. Short red hair was cut to the line of the jaw with bangs falling into the electric blue eyes hiding behind the red curtain. The tiny figure of the soldier was well kept, tight muscles lined a feminine physic; high cheek bones gave her a heart shaped face without a single blemish to tarnish her beautiful features. An hourglass figure gave way to a perfect bust for the tiny figure and nicely shaped butt. With a closer look, Cortana saw tears slide over the bridge of the young woman's nose and get absorbed by the cloth of the pillow beneath her head.
"Sergeant Grey…"Cortana's voice cut through the painful silence.
A sniffle and the red head sat up as Cortana flickered into the room and in front of the Sergeant's line of sight, "Hello ma'am…'
"Sergeant I was receiving irregular heart rhythms from your room, is everything alright?" the smart computer asked, taking a sitting position in the middle of the tiny room; floating.
"Yes…" the sergeant wiped her puffy pink eyes. "Everything is fine…it's just our home has been destroyed."
Cortana knew that she was lying by the rhythm of her pulse, "Are you sure because that's not what your body is telling me."
Sergeant Grey brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, "…Mmm, I'd rather not."
"Sergeant Grey…" the tiny, glowing figure got up and walked over to the soldier and sat on the bed beside her, "You knew Noble Team didn't you?" the sergeant looked over to the A.I. with eyes wide. "I looked in your file; they were mentioned."
The red head dropped her face into her hands and cried. It was then that Cortana knew that she wasn't just crying for her fallen home, but for Noble Team. The A.I. knew them, not personally, but she had read their files front to back and back to front. They had been the ones to extract her from Reach and bring her to the ship they all now occupied. But what Cortana didn't know and couldn't figure out was why she cared so much for a team that she had only met once. The Sergeant had no squad and it was noted that she didn't make friends well with fellow soldiers, so she couldn't be crying over the thousands of losses they had suffered. Cortana put a hand on the Sergeant's upper arm sympathetically and that's when she heard it. The glossy eyed soldier spoke a name that she had kept to memory and refused to erase. There was a good reason for it too.
"Carter…" she paused and removed her hand, "as in Noble Team's commander?"
Blue eyes had turned to a steely, pearl gray as she looked up and over to the transparent woman, "The files don't say anything about it but we're married…"
She didn't know Sergeant Grey personally but she felt for the young woman, "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." Cortana's violet blue eyes looked up at the depressed woman with painful sympathy, but then a thought struck, "Why is your marriage not on record?"
"Because…" the young sergeant sighed as she finally unhooked herself and stood up, "he's Spartan and Spartan's aren't allowed to have normal lives," she said with a sardonic tone, waving her hands in the air melodramatically and contorting her face as if she were mocking someone.
For a moment, the room was silent as the sergeant took another seat, this time on the floor. In this quick moment, Cortana accessed her data processors and thought; the symbols streaming across her body. Was that really true? Were the Spartans never allowed to have normal lives? She had never known a Spartan that seemed to care for having a normal life. All of them seemed ready and willing to do their duty as Spartan's and nothing else. She wondered, did they ever think about it? Did the Spartan's ever wonder what it would be like to live as a normal civilian? Did they wonder if they'd even be able to after serving the UNSC for so long? The kind of training they received would never leave them; so would it affect the way they lived? Her moment was up when she heard the sergeant making noise as she shifted to get comfortable on the floor. There was a heavy sigh and then a flat chuckle from the soldier which caused the A.I. to tilt her head to the side in curiosity.
"What is it?" she asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. At least this curiosity wouldn't kill her.
She shook her head, "Just remembering when we met…" Cortana sat cross legged in the air, in front the sergeant eager to listen to her story.