A/N: I just wanted to let my readers know, occasionally in this story, I will use material that is just straight out of the Halo books. I do not own Halo or anything associated with Halo.
I also appologise for the shortness of this chapter, school is murder on my writing time.
Chapter 2 0800 Hours, August 27, 2552 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, FLEETCOM Military Complex, planet Reach
This was the third time Quinn had been secretly listening in on the Spartans briefing inside the top secret, highly secure briefing room, and he listened intently, Dr. Halsey was explaining the details of the plan to capture a prophet. As usual, DarkBlade knew that this briefing was taking place, and wanted an agent present. And they were also thinking about sending one along, undercover.
He waited until the briefing was over and all the Spartans had left before exiting, he had not recorded anything as per mission orders, it was for his eyes only, and for him to brief whatever agent they sent.
He entered his Prowler and took off.
0600 Hours, August 29, 2552 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, UNSC Military Reservation 01478-B, planet Reach
Quinn watched through the bases security cameras as the Master Chief approached the gate in a warthog, he was waved through after showing his papers to the ODSTs on guard, heading for the prefabricated structure.
"Think he'll pass the test?". Asked Jack, a DarkBlade operative who had helped Quinn set up the course that the MC would soon be attempting to cross, the mines and turrets were their job, as was the SkyHawk waiting at Fairchild airfield, ordered to shoot but not kill, the missiles that it carried could at the worst, render the chief immobile for a few days if they scored a direct hit, and the fifty millimeter slugs were equipped with narq tips, and would crack but not pierce armor, they didn't want the chief to die, the rest of the preparations were left to Colonel Ackerson. "He'll make it.". Replied Quinn, who watched another camera, the chief was getting the AI enhancements to his neural implant completed. Quinn had just undergone the same thing, but his AI was taking a little more time to be created, they wanted to make sure that the same type of implants Quinn had would work on the Chief.
They watched as he was introduced to the new MJOLNIR shields and Cortana, although Dr. Halsey had no idea they were watching, they has also overseen the creation of Cortana.
As Quinn predicted, John completed the course, with a few injuries, but the missile deflection tactic had allowed him time to ring the bell.
"Told you.". He said to Jack, elbowing him jokingly. The neural implant upgrades had worked perfectly. Now he only needed to wait for his AI to come online.
0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Pillar of Autumn, in orbit around Epsilon Eriadni system, Reach Military complex.
Cortana never rested. Although based approximately on a human mind, AIs had no need to sleep or dream. Dr. Halsey had thought she could keep Cortana occupied by checking the systems of the Pillar of Autumn while she attended to her other secret projects.
Her assumption was incorrect.
While Cortana was intrigued with the unique design and workings of the ship―it's preparation occupied barely a fraction of her processing power.
She watched with the Pillar of Autumns' camera as captain Keyes approached the ship in a shuttle pod. Lieutenant Hikowa left to greet him in the docking bay.
From C deck, Captain Keyes spoke over the intercom:
"Cortana? Can we have power to move the ship? I'd like to get underway.".
She calculated the remaining reactor burn-in time and made an adjustment to run it hotter. "The engines' final shakedown is in Theta cycle," Cortana replied. "Operating well within normal parameters. Diverting thirty percent power to engines; aye, sir."
"And the other systems' status?". Keyes asked.
Weapons system check initiated. Navigational nodes functioning. Continuing systemwide shakedown and triple checks, captain."
"Very good," he said. "Apprise me if there are any anomalies.".
"Aye captain." she replied.
The COM channel snapped off.
After a quick excursion into the personnel files and a quick change in Colonel Ackersons' file, requesting reassignment to the front, a little revenge for the troubles on the obstacle course.
As she examined his CSV, she noticed that everything before his entrance into active service was blacked out, a trace back to the source led her to Dr. Halsey's group, interesting.
She hacked into the ONI files and downloaded everything she could on him, then she noticed an anomy in the spartan II program records, it showed that seventy five children had been selected, and during the augmentation procedures all but Thirty three were killed or disfigured, but she spotted an anomaly, the number had been changed recently, a mere couple of months ago, someone had edited the files, she flipped through, and noticed a lot of changes in the same week, someone was trying to cover up something, was there another Spartan, or was one dropped out and he records changed, she tasked a small portion of herself on a passive and constant but careful search for more data.
Quinn silently maneuvered his Prowler onto a secluded docking hatch on the underside of the Autumn, there were no motion detectors in this particular spot, and he was Dark, so he docked undetected, he popped the seal and floated out, he was wearing a UNSC naval uniform and carried a duffle so he would blend in. He also carried a small chip that glowed green, his AI, Saber, the AI was much like Cortana, but not as quirky, and slightly more restricted in his socializations, more like a soldier, but not too much. When he took 'human form' he resembled a dark green clad ninja wearing a black silklike sash.
He slotted Saber into his neural implants, and an icy spike hit the inside of his forehead, he gave an almost unnoticeable wince, and heard the AI inside his head.
"Hello Quinn, nice to finally meet you in person.". Quinn ducked through a hatch and closed it, pressing a button the gravity engaged, dropping him to the floor. "Nice to meet you too Saber, I hope your comfortable in there, 'cause you might be up there for a while once he mission starts. DarkBlade had selected him to go on the mission, he was their best, but they had also sent along a ONI lieutenant the had recruited two months ago, Haverson.
"I'll be fine," Saber replied. "just don't die and I won't complain.". Quinn smirked at the comment, he walked down the corridors of the ship, heading for his bunk, all of his armor and weapons were stashed on the Prowler.
Several soldiers gave him strange looks, 'I probably stick out, being seven feet tall and well muscled.' he thought, 'better stay away from the Spartans.". He dropped his bag on the bunk and lay down, promptly falling asleep.
As the Pillar was underway, a message was received, the covenant were spotted near reach, the Pillar was turned around and the crew readied for battle.
Quinn woke with a start, alarms sounded and Saber was calling to him. "Quinn! Finally! You're a heavy sleeper, the covenant are attacking reach!". Like a blot of lighting he shot up and raced for his prowler.
"Shit!". He punched in the code and floated down to the hatch, his armor was set on a pedestal, he donned it and his cloak in a few minutes, then he booted up all systems,
shields, AI interface and cloak, DarkBlade had given his armor the first armor integrated prototype of the human version for covenant personal camouflage. He holstered two pistols to his hip and a few grenades, his weapons would normally not be suited for heavy classes of enemies, but his pistols were modified to fire the rounds at a higher speed and heat them, so they did more damage to shields with the small thermal pulse they released on impact.
Cortana was monitoring the entire ship, and noticed when someone, a new crew member, entered code into a concealed panel and disappeared into a newly formed passage, which was not listed in any of her schematics of the Halcyon class cruiser. But she had almost no time to deal with that, it was intriguing so she kept a small eye on it, and turned her attention to he covvie ship that had just entered firing range.
A/N: That's the end of chapter 2, please review and tell me if you think Quinn should go to Halo, or stay on Reach with the remaining spartans and Halsey when the Pillar of Autumn heads for Halo. The one that gets the most votes will be the choice I make, if it is a tie or no one reviews, then I'll decide, so you'll just have to go with it, but I'd really like to see what you readers think.