UPDATED 1/18/2017

Here's Chapter 2.

And if anyone complains about Cortana being active already, read the booklet that came with the Halo: Reach Limited Edition, which reveals that Cortana merely first met the Master Chief in August 2552, but was "born" back in 2549. And MJOLNIR Mark 5 was introduced Nov. 2551.

-CHAPTER START-

Epsilon Eridani System

Reach

SWORD Base

March 2nd 2552

Dr. Catherine E. Halsey sighed as she sat back in her chair. The last week had been rather interesting, to say the least. Lanstar had quickly proven that she had no ill intent toward the UNSC, and had given some rather sketchy and space-filled explanations that were nonetheless extraordinarily enlightening. The existence of other realms had proven very intriguing, especially the existence of this 'Time-Space Administration Bureau'. But Teana had refused to explain more.

So her AI, Cross Mirage, did so instead.

The existence and nature of magic was a huge surprise to the brass, and to Halsey herself. However, after only four days of studying, Halsey already had a solid grasp behind the properties of the mysterious energy force. Mirage had then explained the reasons why Teana had refused to elaborate further on magic and the TSAB: the girl's rather ugly falling-out with her superiors (complete with audio transcripts), and her denouncement of magic (complete with in-depth data behind the construction and function of the self-applied seal currently on the teen's Linker Core).

The ONI personnel present had ordered all this data kept classified for the time being. Halsey had promptly disregarded this, informing her trusty AI Cortana (who would've found out anyway) and a few of her Spartans (John, Fred, Will, Kelly, & Linda) of the situation.

Another surprise was what the ship's AI had done to Teana. Some of the enhancements were straight out of the Spartan-II Program, and others were of a scale of nanotech that the UNSC was centuries from being able to achieve. What's more, the ship had remotely scanned her Spartans' armor, and crafted a MJOLNIR Mk. V-B suit customized for Teana, primarily of red plating with some orange thrown in, and a blue visor in the helmet. Teana was rapidly adjusting to the increases in physical capability the armor gave her.

Afterward, the Starshot's AI (around the intelligence level of a typical 'Dumb' A.I., if not a little smarter) had promptly stated that it had business elsewhere and would be gone for several months, but would track Teana down when it was done. It had then jumped into Slipspace for parts unknown.

After going over the magically-recorded fight that had led to Teana leaving Midchilda, as well as the Hotel Augusta and White Devil Incidents that led to it, Halsey and her friend Col. Urban Holland had both ordered a full psychiatric profiling of Teana Lanstar. What they got was a little disconcerting, but not at all unexpected.

Teana's self-esteem was practically nonexistent; she put up a brave façade, but the Augusta and White Devil Incidents had utterly destroyed her self-confidence. What Teana didn't realize, but Halsey and John did, was that the Augusta Incident had been caused partially by insufficient training; in addition to not recognizing and addressing Lanstar's rather fragile emotional state before it led to problems, this Takamachi girl hadn't (yet?) trained Lanstar properly for the type of situation she found herself in (and it had been a rather unexpected type of situation, in Takamachi's defense), and had seemingly refused Lanstar opportunity to experiment with new tactics other than what Takamachi and her fellow trainers came up with – and coming up with your own plans, especially on the fly in an unfamiliar situation, was necessity for Special Ops like Teana. As for the White Devil Incident? A combination of Teana suffering a long-time-coming nervous breakdown which hindered her ability to think tactically, and Teana trying to take on, in one-on-one combat, a Spartan-equivalent one-girl-army prodigy. Teana was a person comparing herself to a titan, and came off feeling like an ant in comparison, whereas in actuality, she was not only slightly above average by TSAB standards, her magical abilities – had they not been sealed – would've made her an invaluable shock trooper for the UNSC.

Missed opportunities. Hindsight is always 20/20.

And her new Spartan enhancements meant that, with the proper training, she might still make a valuable asset for the UNSC.

As Dr. Halsey re-read her copy of the report, a knock came from her door. "Enter" she stated, and the door slid open to reveal the green-armored form of one of her Spartans, still armor-clad from a previous group training exercise a half-hour ago. Though 'outsiders' wouldn't notice it, the subtle body mannerisms and size/shape immediately told her it was John.

"Ma-am," Master Chief S-117 spoke, "Fred, Kelly, and I have finished going over some records & recordings regarding Lanstar's training and the nature of Midchildan Shooting Magic."

"And," Halsey replied, "What have you found?"

"A lot, ma'am" he replied. "For starters, the shooting style of Midchildan magic seems to lack power. Lanstar would have to pour in everything she had just to knock a single opponent unconscious with it; she would not only be wasting time and effort, but the strain on her body could be quite unhealthy. Before her ship's AI 'upgraded' her, her body was already on the way to a breakdown. I don't know if the problem is with Shooting-style offensive magic, or if there's something wrong with Lanstar's magical 'muscles', for lack of a better way to put it.

"Second, whoever trained her made a few mistakes. TSAB Captain Takamachi seems to have disregarded Lanstar's psychological profile, and in general from Mirage's records she seems to be a bit too… cautious. From what I can tell, Takamachi is trying to avoid pushing her students to the point of physical breakdown, but she's trying too hard, and their development is slowed as a result. She's coddling them a bit too much, to be honest… or perhaps, something happened to her in the past as a result of overtraining, and she's trying to stop history from repeating itself with her students, but as I said, she's trying too hard. Plus, she's never actually told her students why she's teaching them at the pace she is; I had to figure it out on my own, and I don't think Lanstar ever did. She probably thinks Takamachi was just out to get her…"

"Not only that," said Kelly-087, as she walked through the door, "but they were neglecting a whole big chunk of the kid's potential, trying to teach her just in ranged combat when she's got natural talent in another field as well. I was just testing her a few hours ago, seeing what came easy to her, and she's got great potential as a close-up blade combat specialist. She got a hold of one of our ceremonial swords, and within 20 minutes it was like she'd had it for years. The kid's practically a prodigy with a sword. …Don't we have a few captured Covenant plasma swords lying around somewhere?"

"I think that giving her plasma swords," Halsey replied, "may be unnecessary. I've been studying her… Device, and its… his design seems highly modular. Cross Mirage can still access magic, and it may be possible to somehow create an energy blade mode for Mirage."

"One more thing, ma'am" Kelly continued. "Although she's definitely got something going for her in melee, her skills with a gun aren't too shabby, either. Perhaps if we could make some add-ons or more new modes for her Device, so that she could shoot things that actually do damage."

"I'll get Cortana and the boys in R&D to help me come up with something" Halsey stated. "Find her, and tell her about her capabilities, her lack of proper training, and ask if I can borrow Cross Mirage for a few days."

"Yes, ma'am" the two Spartans said simultaneously, and then turned to leave. Halsey got out her datapad. "Cortana?" she spoke into air.

"Yes, doctor?" the currently-disembodied voice replied.

"Get to it."

"Yes, ma'am."

-BREAK-

March 13th, 2552

Teana stood outside the R&D briefing room, wearing a dark grey suit that she'd been lent, as she pondered.

The day after arriving at Reach, as soon as she was done being politely interrogated by ONI, she'd spent several hours going over the history of this realm. She'd been utterly horrified. Back in 2525, the galaxy-wide human population had been around 25.2 billion. Now, after 26 ½ years of war against the unstoppable, take-no-prisoners alien juggernaut that was the Covenant, humanity was down to around 9.3 billion, including the 700 million currently on Reach, and the 8.2 billion in the Sol System, mostly based on this realm's UA97 – Earth.

These people had never discovered magic, so instead they'd developed pure technology in ways that more than made up for it. Their soldiers were better trained than the average TSAB grunt, and their mass-based weapons tech could rival bombardment magic in destructiveness. Their starships didn't have shields like the Bureau's did, but they made up for it with their armaments – thermonuclear fusion warheads, and tremendous coilguns. The geosynchronous orbital cannons packed enough punch – 9.98 teratons per shot – to decimate any Bureau ship, shields and all, with a single shot. And keep going with enough force left over to take out another ship. And according to records, they were just as effective against Covenant ships, whose shields were slightly tougher than those of the TSAB's warships.

What was most amazing, though, were their artificial intelligence and medical tech. Their linear, or 'dumb', AIs could compete with the highest-capability Midchildan Intelligent Devices, and their adaptive, or 'smart', AIs could outdo a Unison Device without too much trouble. Their medical technology was decades ahead, as well. Biofoam had so much value that, were the TSAB to find out about it, they'd probably pay the UNSC millions for how to make it. And the ability to flash-clone cells, tissues, and even entire organs would completely revolutionize Bureau medicine. Even paralysis could be cured by clone-growing nerve cells, and cancer – already on its way out in Bureau society – had been more or less gone in the UNSC for over a century.

The UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence utterly outclassed any intelligence agency the Bureau could offer. And where the TSAB had only existed in its current state for about 75 years, the UNSC had over three centuries of experience under its belt.

The only problem was that, for all its greatness, the UNSC was still outnumbered, outgunned, and out-motivated by the Covenant. At its prime, a quarter-century ago, the UNSC would've made the TSAB look nearly pathetic in comparison, but now, in its badly battered state, it was, though still brilliant, a shadow of its former glory. Even so, the UNSC's general practice of choosing quality over quantity meant that humanity was putting up one hell of a fight. Thinking of the Covenant's properties, Teana honestly doubted that the TSAB could've lasted as long as the UNSC had. Even whittled down, the UNSC Navy's current total ship count of 467 was on par, capability-wise, with the TSAB's 612.

The last several days had been rather interesting for Teana. She'd quickly been informed how a lot of the blame for her past lackluster performance was improper training. She'd also been informed of her previously-untapped innate skill, and had been practicing close-quarters. She'd also started learning "proper" gun-usage from Linda-058, who'd found the teen to be a startlingly quick learner. Already Linda was working on introducing Teana to sniping.

Teana had been told about the tech-heads working on her Device, trying to come up with new modes. She felt a little skeptical, but for some reason, knowing that Dr. Halsey was working on the team put her at ease; the woman had a grandmotherly air that helped Teana to trust her.

A door opened, and she was called in. Dr. Halsey sat at a table. On the table sat Cross Mirage, currently in card form. What was once white was now light silver, and the red had a faint gold outline. A few technicians stood in the background.

"What do you have for me, ma'am?" Teana asked, trying to sound as respectful as she could.

"Our technicians and I have made several changes that I think you'll appreciate" Halsey replied. An 'ahem' from the side caught her attention, and she looked at the small holo-projector sitting there. "Cortana helped, too, of course". The AI smiled and nodded, satisfied.

"Go ahead and activate it, please" Halsey stated. Teana walked over and picked up the card.

"Greetings, master" he said, "glad to be at your side again."

Teana allowed herself to smile. Mirage had been her one constant companion and friend, always supporting her in every decision she made. Truth be told, she'd come to care for him as much as she did for Subaru and her own dearly departed brother. Things didn't feel right without him with her.

She mentally commanded Mirage to activate. In a flash of orange light, the Device transformed. Now in Teana's hands sat a pistol, but it was different from Mirage's old mode. This new form had a slightly longer barrel, and the barrel was not as bulky as the old one. The circle-with-x was a little smaller, and just in front of it, at the base of the barrel, on the right-hand side of the gun, was a slot. Teana recognized the casing ejection port of a mass-based weapon. She summoned the other gun in her left hand, and it was exactly the same except for having the ejection port on the left side. The breech-loading part was gone, though.

"We've managed to set up a portal system, based on a technology found aboard the Starshot," Halsey described, "linked to a subspace ammunition foundry aboard your ship. Essentially, these portals ensure that you will never run out of ammo, or even need to reload. Cross Mirage's pistol form now fires UNSC-type projectiles – specifically, the .45-caliber Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Explosive bullets used in our M6 series of pistols. There is a 2x zoom function linked to your armor's HUD. Now, Mode PR."

"Plasma Bolt Mode" Cross Mirage spoke, and its form shifted. While staying mostly the same, the barrel had again changed. Now, at the end, just inside a protective depression, a pair of small prongs connected a tiny blue constant spark. The shell ejector ports were gone, replaced by a set of currently-closed vents on both sides of each gun.

"This is, essentially, the same type of weapon as the Covenant Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle, or plasma rifle. It fires bolts of superheated plasma on full auto. After 5 seconds of continuous fire, the gun will temporarily cease working, and the vents on the side will expel excess heat for about 4 seconds, after which the weapon can continue firing. Though we still don't know how to replace the batteries that Covenant plasma weapons use, we don't need to here. Mirage's plasma bolt mode draws the hydrogen fluoride that it uses to create plasma from a series of storage tanks aboard your currently-MIA starship. These tanks are refueled by the ship's own portal system, drawing the raw atomic materials from across space. How exactly it does this I am not certain. The point is, though, that you need never worry about running out of ammunition."

A metal plate hanging from wires descended from the ceiling nearby. Halsey nodded her head toward it. Teana aimed at the plate, and pulsed the triggers. Glowing blue bolts shot from her guns, impacting the metal plate and making it glow from heat. Sizzling metal could be heard. The plate rose, being sprayed with liquid nitrogen when it returned to its compartment. Teana nodded approvingly.

"I should say," Halsey said, "that though you strongly distrust magic at the moment, the technology that your ship's ancient makers used in their teleportation seems to run partly off it. Considering that the ship was made using technology millennia ahead of ours, I believe it's trustworthy".

Teana was uneasy, but accepted it. Whoever constructed the Starshot obviously knew what they were doing; the ship, though a destroyer, could probably trounce a TSAB battlecruiser. Especially with the ultra-powerful charged particle cannon she'd discovered (though not used); at full charge (which would take a minute to get to), the thing could probably chew through a Covenant assault carrier's shields. And the turbolasers – like straight out of Star Wars – could do some damage, too. Sadly, her ship had up and vanished, though its low-grade AI had stated that it would return to her in eight months.

"Next," Halsey continued, "is a capability that was already in your Device, merely locked. We unlocked it and made our own changes to it. Mode R."

"Rifle Mode" Cross Mirage stated, as the two pistols transformed into orange light and shot together, merging into a single object. The object took form and then materialized, and Teana was holding a rifle, about 101 centimeters long, with a scope sitting atop it, in Cross Mirage's characteristic colors, with the Device's core (the orange gem with red outline and 'x') on the side, above the trigger.

"This assault rifle can fire on single-shot, three-round burst, or full auto" a technician explained. "It uses 7.62-by-51mm Full Metal Jacket rounds, the same used in our MA5 series assault rifles and in our M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. In single-shot, with the scope, you should have a range of about 1,800 meters. The scope operates in 3x, and can see in standard or infrared. You can, er… 'summon' a silencer to the end of the barrel whenever you need to. Also, there are two underslung attachment options. Right now, that small attachment with the thin vertical opening is an energy bayonet. Try it!"

Teana willed the Device to activate its attachment. An orange blade of superheated energy sprang to life, protruding about 15 centimeters past the end of the barrel. After a few seconds, she deactivated it.

"The other attachment," the man continued, "is a 40mm grenade launcher." As he said this, Teana willed it, and in a muted flash of orange light, the bayonet generator was replaced by a slightly boxy attachment with a 4-centimeter-wide hole in the front, underneath the gun's barrel.

"Now, if you would return your Device to pistol form," Halsey picked up, "we can show you the last of the new modes." Teana did so, holding a pistol in her right hand.

"I think you'll like this one, dear" she said. "We found Cross Mirage's original locked Mode 2 and replaced it with this one. Mode LS"

"Set up," Cross Mirage said, "Longsword Mode."

The gun transformed into semi-solid orange light, shifting shape in Teana's hand. When it returned to physical form, it was a grip and guard, the handle about 18 centimeters long, and within a few seconds it sprang to life. Teana stared in wonder as the object in her right hand projected a meter-long blade of red-orange energy, in the shape of the blade of a double-edged medieval Terran longsword. She was expecting it to feel light due to her newfound strength, but it felt as if the blade had no weight at all!

"Does… does Spartan strength really make this much of a difference?" she wondered aloud.

"It does," Halsey replied, "but that's not why the blade feels weightless. It feels weightless because it is weightless. The only mass you'll notice is that of the handle. It's… supercharged subatomic particles."

That didn't make much sense, and Dr. Halsey knew it. Because it was a lie. But after talking with Cross Mirage himself, Halsey and Mirage had come to the agreement that letting Teana know that it was actually made of lethal-set superheated magical energy was a bad idea, due to Teana's current distrust/dislike of magic. Apparently, her instructors had never told her that some magic – including energy-blade magic – could be set from 'stun' to 'kill', and it was unlikely that she would listen if told in her current mindset. For now, Mirage would keep the deception going, for his master's sake.

"And, this transformation can affect the other gun, as well. So yes, you can dual-wield."

Teana stared pensively at her new blade for a moment. Then she spoke. "Cross Mirage. Set Longsword Mode as default mode."

"Yes, sir. Longsword Mode set as default form."

Teana nodded, and then willed her Device to deactivate and return to card form. She slipped the card into her pocket. She then turned to Dr. Halsey and her crew, and bowed in thanks. Halsey, quite familiar with Japanese culture (and fluent in the language), returned it.

-BREAK-

April 18th 2552

It had been 18 days since Teana had been assigned to Noble Team as Noble-7. The rest of the squad had been informed of everything.

Teana had, in the last month, made extraordinary progress. She had taken to UNSC protocol and tactics with surprising ease, and had rapidly honed her own skills. The rest of Noble Team had already gotten used to her, and seemed to already consider her to be truly part of the team. Carter had worked to instill proper team dynamics into her, which had been going much better than anticipated. Now, Teana didn't feel like a weak link anymore, mostly because she had the same base capabilities as the rest and because she finally had her own unique special skills.

Teana already had some leadership experience from her time in Task Force 6, and her newfound brainpower, her throwing herself into study & training, and her natural ability had all netted her a rank of Warrant Officer Grade 2. Not too bad, considering things (Emile: WO3; Jorge: WO5; Jun: WO4; Thom: LT; Kat: LCDR; Carter: CMDR).

Kat and Emile had been a little bit cold at first, but they'd quickly gotten to know her. Teana had an unrelenting drive to succeed and impress, and now that her self-esteem was on the fast rise, she had a bottomless determination and bravery coming to the surface. Her intelligence endeared her to Kat, and her newfound courage earned Emile's recognition; he often sparred with her, helping her hone her close-combat skills. Jun had taken to her fairly quickly. He'd continued where Linda had left off, helping the girl develop proper marksmanship and sniping skills, which she continued to develop rapidly at.

Thom and Jorge got along with her the best, though. Thom quickly became like an older brother to her, helping her fit in with the team and also helping her training and her healthy psychological development. And Jorge was fast becoming like a father to her. He saw the youth and the hints of still-untainted innocence in the girl, and resolved to safeguard that, even as he helped her become a better soldier. Jorge was a proponent of ensuring that Teana retained a kind heart even as she became a hardened warrior in the future. He also took up teaching her Hungarian, which she was learning rather quickly.

The Team's last mission three days earlier had been Teana's first encounter with the Covenant. She'd done quite well. Amongst other things, she'd single-handedly wiped out a hunting pack of Jackals led by a trio of Skirmishers, and had later punished a cocky red-armored Elite for underestimating her by literally disarming him. She'd then jammed a live grenade into the joints of his armor and then kicked him over the ledge they'd been fighting near. The grenade went off just as the thoroughly stunned Elite had fallen onto a passing Grunt pack that had stopped to watch the fight. The resulting secondary explosions as the Grunts' methane tanks went up had been satisfying.

The Elite's red helmet had, against all odds, survived the blasts. Teana kept it as a trophy. No-one else minded… especially considering that Emile was carrying a new white Elite helmet to add to his collection.

As the team headed back to base, Thom congratulated Teana on doing so well. Her helmet was off, so Teana's ensuing bright smile was visible to all. Thom was so like Tīda that she couldn't help but look up to him, and hearing his praise, followed shortly after by Jorge's, made her truly happy. Surrounded by these six, she finally felt like she truly belonged. They were her family now.

-BREAK-

May 25th, 2552

Terris System

Colony world Antioch

Kat ran, her feet pounding the ground as her arm cradled the tactical nuke. All around her, men & women of the UNSC Marines ran, fought, and in many cases died. Fires choked the air with smoke, plasma bolts zipped past her, and explosions tore the ground. Teana ran at her side, shooting anything that so much as looked at Kat the wrong way. Kat looked down and keyed in the nuke's activation code.

Suddenly, there was a flash. Kat's ears were ringing, and the world tumbled as she was sent flying through the air. When things stopped spinning, she looked through her cracked visor, and saw Teana lying nearby, dazed and with an injured leg. She also saw the nuke, still counting down, still grasped in her hand. She tried to lift the nuke, but noticed that her arm wasn't responding, still clutching onto the device. Then she realized that the arm was no longer attached to the rest of her body.

And then Thom was there, standing above them. He looked at Kat & Teana, looked at the bomb, and then bent over and pried it from a hand that had been Kat's a minute ago. He met Teana's eyes, and his visor depolarized, allowing him to give her a sad smile. He reached up and pulled his dog-tags free, placing them in the stunned teen's hand. He gently patted her on the helmet, turned around, and took off, his jetpack rocketing him toward the hovering Covenant Battlecruiser that was preventing UNSC forces from evacuating.

As he shot off, the two female Spartans watched in confusion and horror. Teana reached out toward him, panic creeping into her as she realized what he was doing.

Thom ran through the corridors, reaching a platform overlooking the main hangar. He looked at the nuke's timer. 00:09. He reared back and tossed the warhead into the room. Then, he closed his eyes and smiled. Good luck, Tia.

The battlecruiser blossomed into flame. To a certain girl, the earth-shaking rumble of the explosions felt like part of her world crashing into pieces around her.

-Break-

July 23rd 2552

Epsilon Eridani System

Reach

It had been 27 days since Noble Team had been stationed on Reach. Teana had been promoted to Warrant Officer Grade 3. She didn't really care.

The loss of Thom had hit everyone hard, but especially her. It had taken almost two weeks before Jorge could get her to approach some semblance of her old self. He didn't blame her; she'd lost her big brother all over again.

Kat now sported a mechanical right arm, to replace the one that had been blown off. She blamed herself for getting caught in the blast, which led to Thom's death. Carter blamed himself for Thom's death as well, for not being able to think up a back-up plan for in case the bomb carrier was to be disabled after the countdown had been started. Col. Holland had been trying, without success, to convince Carter that such a thing couldn't really have been planned for.

Reach was peaceful. Beautiful mountain ranges towered near Noble Team's current base; a far cry from war-torn Antioch. The Covenant had only sent a single capital ship to assault the world. After the civilians and UNSC personnel successfully evacuated the planet, and having lost a warship, the Covenant decided that it wasn't worth taking the time and effort to glass the planet. All the same, Antioch was still now devoid of human presence. It would not be re-settled until 2560.

As Noble Team moved about their temporary base, their minds were all on the same thing: the announcement that tomorrow they would get a new Noble-6.

"I hear this guy's a hardcore Terminator" Jorge said, sitting at a table with Jun and Emile, "that he's got the 'hyper-lethal' designation. No-one besides John has ever gotten that."

"Well, we'll see if the new guy lives up to the hype" Jun replied.

Elsewhere on the planet, the first seeds of serious trouble took root.

-CHAPTER END-

And there we go. Next chapter, the first few pieces of crap hit the industrial-grade fan.