6 made his way towards the place where he was set to rendezvous with his new squad, and found himself hoping they liked him. It would make working with noble team while on reach that much easier for him, considering this was his first time with a team. He straightened out his armor, stopped and brushed some dust from his EVA shoulder plate, and continued walking.
"Wonder what our new 6 will be like. If we're lucky, he'll be like Thom, but we can't be certain, especially considering his history as a lone wolf." Carter said to his second in command, who simply gaped at him. "No one will ever be like Thom! This man may be hyper lethal, but he will never fully fill the position Thom left behind!" his second in command, Kat, exclaimed. Carter sighed, they'd had this argument many times before, but orders were orders and he needed noble back up to full strength. "Kat, we are done discussing this. I know Thom was like your brother, but he's gone now."" Those words struck Kat in the heart like a bullet. But she didn't have time to yell back her reply, since Jorge and Emile had just showed up saying "The new guy's here" almost simultaneously.
6 walked right into the tent, and immediately noticed the skull helmeted Spartan, who also had an article of EVA armor, his helmet. Then there was a larger man, with orange armor. This one had a mix of armor from all over, similar to 6's, although with a collar grenadier pouch. Then there were two blue armored Spartans, standing side by side. Noble's leaders, he guessed. He walked up to the dark blue one, and said "I'm guessing you're captain carter? Pleasure meeting you, sir, and ready to serve." "Welcome to noble team, 6. Like you guessed, I'm carter, noble 1. This is my second in command, Kat, noble 2, he said gesturing to the woman next to him. "The one in orange is Jorge, noble 5, and the one with a skull EVA helmet is Emile, Noble 4. Jun, noble 3, is waiting for us on a falcon. Any questions?"
Six had gotten stuck on Kats face for a few moments. He thought she was beautiful, but wanted to deny it. He was a Spartan damn it and He wasn't permitted to love. So he peeled his eyes from her face, and focused on carter. "Alright, we've got our first mission in a while noble team. Seems that command lost communications in a valley just north of here a few days ago, and it's our job to check it out, and see if it was militia, or natural causes they sent a couple trooper squads out, but they never came back. We are permitted to kill any and all resistance. Alright noble, let's move out."
As the falcons soared through the air, 6 couldn't help but let his thoughts drift to Kat. This was the first woman who'd ever done this to him, and he didn't think it was only due to her looks. But just in case it was, he was going to get to know her better, so he didn't cause her any grief. He felt a hand tapping on his shoulder, and turned to look at carter. "Hey, 6, I saw the way you were looking at my second in command. Try not to break her heart if she does give you a shot, understand?" Carter said rather sternly. 6 nodded his head, and replied "She just struck me as the kind of woman I actually COULD love. Just from her looks I can tell she's strong, stable, and a fighter. And her face is almost like an angel, despite the scars."
The falcons set down on a ridge above where they had gotten a signal from a distress beacon, and six was the first to it. He moved some wood, grabbed it, and handed it to Kat. She nodded her head and said "The troopers were definitely here. And if I didn't know any better, I'd say I was picking up faint traces of plasma…but not on reach, as Jorge says." "Well, they probably would've fled the easiest way for them to go if they'd been attacked, so I'm guessing we'll find more evidence that way." Six said, pointing down the north of the valley." "Good thinking six, considering you're more of a killing machine than a tracker." Kat said, meaning it as a joke. However six drew back and she could almost feel the hurt in the air. "I know in my files it says I'm hyper lethal, but that doesn't mean free of emotions. I'm not entirely like him, yet." Six said before walking off. Kat instantly regretted saying it, but could do nothing as carter funneled them back into formation.
6 walked out ahead of the group, acting as though he were searching for signs of the marines, and while he was, his mind was also set on what Kat had said to him. It was what he'd worked his entire life to get people not to believe it. He knew he was a killing machine, but when people point it out it…hurts. It hurts damn badly, because he pictures himself only that much closer to a monster. He remembered a time when people didn't take one look at him and run away, screaming. He was interrupted from his daydream by a yell from carter, and then he saw what he was yelling about. There was a large blue ball of plasma flying right towards him…
Kat watched as the wraiths shot fell lower and lower, and how six just stood there looking at it. And then at the last moment, he rolled out of the way. He then ran at the wraith, killed the turret man, and jammed his foot straight through the drivers cap and into the head of the sangheilli driving. Before six could even catch his breath though, two hunters were upon him. He took his knife from his boot and his magnum in his other, and then leapt onto one hunters back. This caused the other hunter to shoot this one, and then 6 shot the one he was on in the back of the head, killing it. He then rolled under the other one, and cut at its legs, disabling its ability to move. Then he took his knife, and cut its entire head off, causing the decapitated body to fall to the ground. He wiped some orange blood off his visor, and then headed back over to his squad.
Carter was already nearly yelling into his radio "Sir, bad news, the covenant are on reach!" And six simply took a seat on a rock. Jorge and Emile walked over and sat down next to him, and then Jorge broke the ice. "Good kills, I've never seen a Spartan fight like that before." 6 just nodded his head, before looking straight up. "Guess the covenant took something from you, huh?" Emile said, knowing that someone only fights like that for revenge. Again six nodded before saying "My brother, Adam-S230. He died when zealots were on the ground, evacuating civilians. There was a kid who was lagging behind, and he went back for him. 3 zealots jumped him, and while he killed them all, he was run through with an energy sword. Died in a med-lock 2 days later." His voice sounded cold, and hollow, almost robotic as he said this. Emile and Jorge got up, and walked back over to Carter, allowing Kat a chance to talk with 6. She walked up to him, took her helmet off, and sat down on the rock next to him. "I-I'm sorry, six. It's just that after a while, I figured you'd be used to being called a hyper lethal." Six sighed and replied, looking at her face through his visor "No Kat, I'm sorry. You're right; I should be used to the title by now. It's just that every time someone calls me that I think "If I'm so damn hyper lethal, why couldn't I save my brother?" "
"What happened to your brother?" Kat asked, and 6 took a small chip out of the right side of his helmet. "Watch this; I recorded it the day and time he died." Six said, before standing, loading his rifle and going to carters' side, as he beckoned for him. Kat slipped the chip into her helmet, and then went over to carter with the rest of them.
The covenant had infested the valley by the time noble really started fighting, and as stray plasma bolts flew, and misguided bullets whistled every which way, the extent of the covenant occupation became clear. Noble had just run into a large mixed squad. 4 hunters, 30 uggnoy (grunts), 10 skirmishers, 20 energy shields, 8 zealots, 12 elites, 15 brutes, and a single chieftain. 6 grabbed his rifle in one hand, and killed a zealot with an energy sword. He chucked his rifle aside, and grabbed the sword, and began slicing into the grunts. Kat was taking on the skirmishers, Emile and Jorge were fighting the energy shields, and carter was after the other zealots. Soon all the grunts were dead, and 6 began looking around for the chieftain. He finally saw him, charging. He took a good look, and realized he was charging straight for Kat with a gravity hammer! Six took off at top speed, sprinting, and reached her just in time.
As six looked up at the hammer, he realized there wasn't enough time to block it without hurting Kat, and then things just began to seem like slow motion. He could hear Kat turn and yell "Six!" he could see the trail of distortion the hammer left behind as it made its slow arc downwards, and then he saw a bright flash, then darkness.