Welcome home, John. - Cortana

Hello there folks Chaodixe here bringing you another chapter of Dawn of The Spartan. Let us see what awaits Chris and Tanya this time. What we will see now is some unexpected shit that will happen. Anyways let us get to the chapter shall we now? I do not own any of the franchises those do entirely belong to Bioware and 343 industries.

Dawn of The Spartan: Chapter 3 Unexpected events

Location: Hangar bay. Time: 13:00.

Chris went out of the pelican and was approached by the captain of the Destiny; he had no doubt questions for the Spartan.

"Spartan, I am glad that you saw the mission through and that you got the scientist and the artifact back in one piece. While it was a bit extreme to blow up the entire facility."

"Sir, time was running out and there was no other viable option." Chris explained his actions to the captain.

"Very well then, what's done is done. By the way Spartan, we had an unexpected guest to enter the ship while you were down there. He is a SPARTAN-III too, maybe you know him." The captain explained the arrival of the new SPARTAN in the Destiny.

"His SPARTAN tag sir." Chris asked for the SPARTAN's tag since he maybe knew the man.

"What was it now; B-201 was his tag."

Unfortunately, Chris did not know the Spartan, but he was eager to meet a fellow Spartan. Tanya was interested is well. Then Tanya asked the captain the Spartans current location in the ship.

"Captain where is B-201 right now?" Tanya asked curiously.

"He is currently in Cryo sleep, in Cryo-bay Delta."

"Thank you captain." The pair thanked the captain for the information he gave them.

Tanya spoke with Chris through his armors external speakers so he would be the only one who could hear her.

"Another Spartan Chris! You will have a new best friend!"

"You are awfully excited."

"Just haven't seen any other SPARTAN besides you for a while."

"Am I that boring?"

"Wait I didn't mean it like that."

"I know, but it sounded too cruel."

Location: Cryo-bay Delta. Time: 13:20

There he was watching the Spartan sleeping; he was in his full armor. This consisted of a Mjolnir Mk. V with a black visor watching right at him, he had the Gungnir shoulder piece on his left shoulder, and on his right one, he wore a UA/Multi-Threat shoulder piece. On his torso, he did wear a Collar/Breacher chest piece. On his wrist he wore a Tactical/Tacpad. He wore the Fj/Para knee guards.

"A awakening is awaiting him." Chris pulled out Tanya's chip from his helmet and slid it in a nearby console where her avatar appeared.

"Wake him Tanya."

"As you wish Chris."

The A.I began fiddling with the holographic screens pressing many buttons. This gave Chris a mere headache just by watching those fingers press everything so fast. He just wanted to pull up his handgun, put the barrel to his head, and pull the damn trigger. Then he heard a hissing sound of the Cryo pod opening up.

John wakes up from cryo-sleep and slowly looks around when he notices a SPARTAN-III figure outside of his pod. It opened and revealed the SPARTAN in front of him and a holo-table right next to his pod revealed an AI - Tanya.

''What time is it?'' John asked while stepping out of the cryo-pod.

''13:20'' Chris answered.

''What's your name and rank?'' John asked the SPARTAN-III in front of him.

''Christopher 333, Master Chief Petty Officer.'' Chris answered to John's second question and John finally started to realize where he is. He is onboard the UNSCS Pursuing Destiny.

''Ah... so... where do we go from here, now?'' John asked as he now silenced himself, becoming the silent type.

"I think I will like him." Tanya said with a smirk on her face

John just stared a little bit at the A.I and saw her body. She was naked but had circuits running all over her body and long black hair flowing down her back.

"It's not nice to stare you know?" Tanya commented on him staring at her.

"Right, sorry, but then again where do we go from here?" John pulled himself together and repeated himself.

"I am going to keep this short; we do whatever ONI needs us to do."

"Does that include fighting the covenant?" John asked curiously.

Then the two SPARTAN's saw Tanya putting her palm over her face due to Johns question.

"I am with Tanya on this one." As Chris agreed with Tanya on Johns question.

"Okay then. Nice knife by the way." John complimented Chris.

"Thanks I guess…" Other people rarely complimented Chris; well Tanya was an exception in that regard.

"How did you get here anyway?" Tanya asked John.

"Well I was originally sent down there to rescue some marines and civilians, but the covenant came and found us. They were slaughtered, all of them. However, those split jawed bastards sure as hell did pay for it. Then I activated a distress signal, and a pelican came down to get me, while you were down there I went into cryo sleep."

"So you have been through a lot, ready to get back to work?" Tanya asked and knew the response she was going to get she smiled at that a bit.

"I am insulted that you even ask, I am a SPARTAN not a marine fresh out of boot camp."

"Well at least you have the spirit, unlike others." Tanya turned to Chris and smiled at him. Chris then began to say something.

"Well something you should know about Tanya, She can be cruel as all hell if you get on her bad side."

John just stood there silent; he did not doubt his fellow Spartans words so he would be as nice as possible. John noticed something was missing it was his beloved weapon.

"My weapon, where is it?"

Chris pulled up a DMR and threw it to John he squeezed his weapon tight.

"Thanks Chris, almost felt naked without it."

It felt strange to be called his true name by another person again, all this time he had been called either Spartan or his tag. But he always welcomed a fellow Spartan to call him his name.

All of sudden the captain of the Destiny contacted Chris; apparently something happened to the artifact. He said it was too… heavy. The marines couldn't carry it neither could the ODST's, the Spartans were the only ones he could think of that could pull it off.

"Affirmative sir, were on our way." He finished speaking with the captain, he could also see John had a question about that matter.

"Before you ask we have something to do, you are coming with me John."

John simply nodded and followed his fellow Spartan.

Location: Hangar bay, Time: 13:30

The Spartans approached the artifact, which was guarded by two marines; one of them began to speak to the Spartan trio.

"You are here for this artifact?"

"Yes, where is it heading?" Chris wondered where the artifact is heading.

"It's supposed to be in the science lab to be studied. So that is where it's headed."

The artifact itself was like a big block of ice but in sleek shapes like the Spartans has not seen before; there were lines all over it that was glowing orange. The Spartans took their positions and began to lift the artifact. It was incredibly heavy but the Spartans had to deal with it as they had no other choice.

Location: Science lab, Time: 13:40

Once the Spartans made their appearance in the science with the artifact, many of the people's attention went to the artifact. Even the captain was there personally to oversee the progress. Chris wondered why, but stopped thinking about it since the Spartans were told to put it down. John just let it go from his hand so it just slammed on the ground on his end and it slipped out of Chris's grip. The entire artifact slammed on the ground. It did not sound good since it started to make an extremely large sound. It began to glow and suddenly let out a large orange beam that spanned the entire science lab. Everything went off. Suddenly Chris felt that something gripped on him, he elevated up in the air and felt an extreme pain. He saw his shields draining quickly and heard the captain scream out.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING! GET HIM OUT OF THERE."

"SIR WE CANT ITS FEEDING OF HIS ENERGY SHIELDS!" the scientists panicked and did everything they could, they all ran around and did everything in their power. Until John came up sprinting and tried to pull out his fellow Spartan. He gripped his arm trying to pull him down. John started to feel the same pain and his shields were draining too.

Suddenly a big white flash filled the entire lab blinding everyone in there, the extremely loud noise was gone everything was quite once again. The Captain got up on his feet from being knocked over by the white flash and looked around him. Everything was back on and the scientists were okay. But the only thing that was missing was the two SPARTAN-III Commandos.

"Where the hell did the Spartans go!"

"Captain we think the artifact teleported them somewhere."

"Teleported?"

"It was feeding off their energy shields which must have been a source of energy required to activate it. And when that white flash came I think they went through the portal." The scientist tried to explain as best as possible to the captain but he did not look to happy after what happened.

"The artifact is it still intact?"

"We don't think so sir but we will study it further."

"Find a way to bring those Spartans back." The captain ordered.

"Sir, we will try our best."

"Shit ONI is not going to be happy about this…"

Location: Unknown, Time: 14:20

Chris opened his eyes quickly and took a heavy breath as if it was his last. He quickly stood up on his legs. He saw his fellow Spartan lying down on the ground he was slowly getting up. He thought of Tanya and said a silent fuck to himself.

"Tanya, do you read?"

Chris got no answer the first time he started to worry.

"Tanya, do you read?"

Still no answer from his A.I

"Tanya to you read!"

"Loud and clear, cowboy!" Chris was relieved when he heard her voice. He thought he almost lost her,

"Damn you had me worried."

"I know. But your MJOLNIR is not looking to good Chris."

"I remember that my gear used to be a lot cleaner than this."

John then spoke up after being silent for a while.

"Where the hell are we, and what happened?" John asked he hoped that Tanya would have an answer for them both.

"Well after you activated that artifact somehow and it started eating your energy shields, and when that white flash came, we three went through a portal that leads here."

"Is there any way back to the Destiny?" John asked Tanya hoping there would be a way back to the Pursuing Destiny.

"As far I can tell we are officially stuck here."

"Still where are we?"

"As far I can tell I have no idea where we are really."

Chris scanned his location it was a platform of some sort, but farther ahead he saw a gate of some sort.

"We could try to head over there."

The trio stated to walk over to the gate and once they arrived, they heard a bit off rumbling. Another platform lifted them up and acted as an elevator apparently, once they got at the top they witnessed an endless metropolis. The buildings were incredibly big in size and beautiful in design, this held the Spartans in a look of awe as they stared out on the endless metropolis all of the buildings were mostly grey or silver in color. They had no idea where they were but it appeared to be some sort of city.

Suddenly several sentinels flew towards the Spartans and floated around them for reasons unknown. The sentinels were sleek looking and seemed to be equipped with more advanced weapons than other models. Tanya began to speak up all of a sudden.

"Sentinels, I didn't think we would run into them here of all places. They seem to be a bit more armed though." John pulled out his DMR and aimed at one of many sentinels that surrounded them. Chris quickly slammed the DMR out of his hands, John looked at him waiting for an answer.

"The last we want to do is piss these things off."

John simply nodded back at his fellow Spartan as Chris gave him a pat on the back of his head.

"Chris any idea where we will head if we get back?"

"FLEETCOM." Chris said shortly after thinking of viable options, John simply nodded.

Then a monitor came flying down from the sky and stopped the trio right about when they were to go away from the location and further into the city. The monitor had a light orange eye in the middle and had golden lines running down in the sides of the monitor. Suddenly the monitor let out a large orange scan at the Spartans scanning them apperantly. However, suddenly it stopped and began speaking human English in a very respectful and friendly tone.

"Acknowledged, identity as Reclaimers has been confirmed. Welcome Reclaimers, to the home world of my makers, the Forerunners. I am Command Monitor 2303 Prospecting Renewal, how may I be of assistance Reclaimers?"

Chris and Johns eyes wide opened at the words the Prospecting Renewal just said the home world of the Forerunners, Tanya as well was surprised.

"Did you just say the Forerunners?"

"Confusion is understandable Reclaimer, You two are the first of your kind to arrive here. And this location is the main command center for the war against the flood."

"The Forerunner homeworld… Damn!" John said he just got to know he is in the Forerunner homeworld itself. Prospecting Renewal told everything the Spartans needed to know about the war that was waged on this planet and about the flood and the Halo rings. The monitor was about to say his last words of the lecture he gave the Spartans.

"With life well on its way to beginning again, I was created to help maintain order and given command of the facilities here to provide assistance to the Reclaimers, should they manage to find their way here."

The two were left speechless and Tanya just silent; they had a hard time dealing with all the information that was revealed to them. They once again looked out to the giant metropolis and how amazing it simply was. The taller structures looking down at the smaller ones. Unfortunately, the UNSC would not be able to create much beautiful architecture due to the war with the covenant. But it was simply a masterpiece to behold and be gazed upon.

"Reclaimer it appears you have a construct with you?" Prospecting asked about Tanya apparently. Chris pulled her chip out from his helmet and held it before Prospecting Renewal. All of sudden he let out that orange scan once again and scanned her chip. After he was done scanning, he spoke to Chris once again.

"Reclaimer, it appears your construct is nearing the end of its lifespan. You should have presented it to me sooner!" While Chris acknowledged that Tanya did near the end of her lifespan, which he was not too keen about but it was, simply how it was.

"She still has 2 years left Prospecting Renewal."

"Still due to the technical improvements made after the war, can ensure it can extend her lifespan and even be improved upon!" the Spartan was silent for a moment before realizing what Prospecting said.

"That… would be amazing." Chris said gratefully and even John looked intrigued. But Chris asked Tanya he wouldn't do it without her approval of course.

"Tanya what do you want?"

"Do it Chris."

Chris nodded at Prospecting Renewal as he let out a small orange light shot out surrounding Tanya's Chip and stared moving into a building. Chris and John followed close after. He led them into some sort of modified refit and repair workshop, there were hundreds of Huragok scattered around working on various pieces of equipment the pair really could not identify.

Chris and John followed Prospecting into a large room with clear glass walls and a large console in the center of it all, into which the monitor inserted Tanya's chip. Suddenly the sound of whistling filled the air as Redeeming communicated to the Huragok in their form of oral language, calling in twenty of the engineers.

Immediately they began inputting commands into the console, bringing up a diagnostic report on Tanya's chip on the screen. Apparently the information they received, was extremely interesting to them. They started chirping rapidly, their tentacles dancing across the controls, rotating the image of her chip and breaking the diagram up into every minor component.

"To ensure there will not be a repeat of this incident, she will have to be upgraded to the most recent standards my makers set when creating their monitoring units, the ones used for my creation in fact. This will eliminate the possibility of "rampancy". It will also extend her operational lifespan to an approximate 7500 years. I am sure this will be more than adequate for your needs?"

Chris and John just stared at Prospecting like he had told them cows could fly, then they just looked at the Huragok at the other way, a UNSC A.I that would live unhindered for 7500 years was simply amazing. All other UNSC "Smart" A.I only lived up to 7 years before rampancy would take effect. John simply asked Prospecting Renewal a new question.

"What other standards are set for Forerunner AI?"

"Our higher processing capabilities are far superior. I do not mean to offend, but in the time it took your construct to complete, an all systems check on a standard Class-Three cruiser, I could have done the same thing, and coordinated navigations, firing solutions, and attack plans for an entire fleet. Rest assured, your own will be able to accomplish this and similar feats, as well."

John's eyebrows rose in shock. If Tanya or any UNSC AI really, had been capable of that then the space battles against the Covenant might have been more in their favor. Especially if someone like Captain Keyes had been the one to create the attack plan that was to be implemented. Chris rose up and said.

"Go on."

"Let us see…her memory pathways and information storage will be increased by a factor of 5000, naturally her data cell will have to be upgraded to compensate. I will of course leave her core personality as it currently stands. I believe that is the one aspect your kind has succeeded where my creators failed."

Chris smiled behind his helmet for a short moment. A low beeping sound drew his attention back to the Huragok, watching as they took the new, much larger chip from the console and inserted it into the holopad. Chris and John and Prospecting both headed into the room and stepped up just as Tanya's holographic visage appeared before them, smiling brightly.

"How are you feeling Tanya?"

She looked down at her hands watching the circuits in her body flow silently. Everything she knew was compressed she was thinking much faster than she did before.

"I can't believe it myself Chris, everything I know has been compressed and not even taking up one percent of my memory storage! And it's all thanks to you. Remember when you said you would never let go of me, well you have kept that promise now."

"When I make a promise..."

"You keep it…"

"By the way I've also learned some new tips and tricks for stealing secrets and being in places I shouldn't be" she finished mischievously.

"I'm glad."

"ONI is not going to believe all this..." John said wile he stood by the entrance of the room.

"Yeah…" Chris said back.

Chris thought he understood that last bit, but needed confirmation. "Her insurgency software and security skills have been upgraded as well?"

"But of course! As I have stated to you previously, she has been upgraded to meet the standards set by my creators. Nothing less than the best is acceptable." Prospecting stated somewhat proudly. Chris and John just looked on eachother.

"Now, on to other matters, I believe we must find a suitable combat skin for you Reclaimers. A Class 2 combat skin is highly outdated, and its usefulness has long since passed. It was the first combat skin created in response to the discovery of Virulent Specimen L-094, codenamed: the Flood. Its predecessor was little more than an environment suit with no combat potential for use in hazardous areas. My creators were forced to implement many changes and improvements with each new model to meet the rapid adaptability of the Flood. The Class 12 combat skin was the lowest grade deemed acceptable for combat against them, however I am sure you will settle for only the best. Naturally, this means we will have to prepare the Class 18 combat skin for your usage."

John and Chris even Tanya turned and looked at Prospectings and chris asked the monitor another of many questions he had.

"What makes this Class 12 so unique that it's the lowest acceptable armor grade?"

"Why that would be because of its material composition and unique shielding system of course" Prospecting answered jovially. "The material that made up this armor was a prototype nanotechnology-membrane composite. It was so advanced that, if given enough time, could repair itself of any damage taken, due to the millions of nano machines that made up the membrane. In addition, the armor was plated with a dense metallic composite, similar to the alloy used on the ships and structures designed by my creators, though understandably weaker due to weight. Finally, the Class 12 models were equipped with a more powerful shield than the Class 11, which also acted as a radiation shield and provided the ability to lockdown shields. A back-up instantaneous shield generator was also equipped to provide another layer of shielding as soon as the primary shield failed, leaving no rest period where the user was vulnerable. Essentially, these improvements were designed to counter the probing attacks to the nervous system the Flood infection forms utilized."

"I can see where that might be useful." Chris said as Tanya then spoke out.

"Thanks to the repair and upgrades, I've been able to access some files that are made by Dr. Halsey and were stored in my memory. There are schematics and details for all new armor and weapons exclusive to Spartans, though she may have taken the Greek Pantheon theme a bit too far."

"What do you exactly mean Tanya?"

"Well, the next series or armor upgrades after the MJOLNIR Mark V starts the ATHENA armor line. More emphasis has been put into the systems to enhance your body, adding to what your augmentations already improve, you really would be the closest thing to a Greek god among men. Oh and let's not forget the weapons. There is the M1091 "ARTEMIS" sniper rifle, named after the Goddess of the Hunt, and the MX4 "ZEUS" Light Support Weapon, which is an electromagnetically charged directed energy weapon."

Chris just loved the sound of all this, but the only thing that actually bothered him was it was dubbed to ATHENA instead of MJOLNIR. Chris just came up with a simple suggestion.

"How about we dub it the MJOLNIR Mark X instead? I really just don't like the sound of calling it ATHENA."

"Well why not, call it whatever you want." Tanya said back to Chris.

Chris then asked once again, Tanya was a little bit tired of all these questions.

"Will you need our armor now to construct the new models?"

Tanya and Prospecting faced each other as Tanya faced the Spartans once again.

"No, that won't be necessary. With the resources available to us here, we can make the ATHENA from scratch using the plans I've got, and the materials Redeeming can provide. As you know, the Dawn's armory was lost with the other half of the ship, leaving you with nothing but that old rifle of yours. We'll create and develop the weapons in the plans to remedy this. After we're done we'll draw up plans for the new supercarrier. Now—"

John snapped when he heard "plans for the new supercarrier." He quickly faced Tanya and said.

"A SUPERCARRIER! Do we really need a ship of that size?" John yelled aloud, Tanya looked back at John with a smile on her face this time.

"Well I always liked big ships and I would love to be in control of one. And let's face it whatever ship we return to FLEETCOM with is the ship they are going to let you stay in, So why not take the best of the best?"

"I agree with Tanya on this one John."

"Well I guess you are right."

"Excellent me and Prospecting will get to building the SC now, Now Prospecting is there anywhere here Chris and John can get medical treatment while we design and create their new suits and toy?"

"Certainly! There is a medical and surgical center near the center of the facility. Simply head there and allow the medical units to perform their tasks. Is there anything specific I should alert them to focus on, construct?"

Tanya snapped her fingers as her body flickered a little bit until Prospecting spoke again.

"Ah, your orders have been received and transmitted to the medical units. They will heed them explicitly, though I must say I am impressed that you were able to find the information on this treatment so quickly. Have you been searching through the system databanks the entire time? That is most impressive. You will be a force to be reckoned with, should your enemies try to hide secrets from you."

"Why thank you Prospecting."

"You are utmost welcome construct."

While Prospecting and Tanya was in a in depth conversation about the upgrades and everything. Chris and John just looked at each other and they went to the surgical stations, there were only four in total. Chris thought this was quite inadequate for being the Forerunner home world but he suspected there was more to it. There were medical versions of the sentinels, Rather than the usual beam weapon, these had what he assumed were smaller surgical lasers, mechanical claws for gripping and extendable limbs with attached syringes. The sight unnerved him slightly, but Tanya had specified the treatment they were going to receive; and they trusted her. When they stepped up to the sides of the surgery tables, the sentinels came out of standby and hovered around them.

"Please remove your combat skin Reclaimers, and the sentinels shall begin your treatment" Prospecting said, his voice projected through the sentinel directly in front of them. The Spartans began the process of removing their armor and piling them neatly up in the provided cart. Then the pair laid down on the tables and above their heads masks lowered down covering half their faces, and administering anesthesia. The last thing they saw before passing out, was the sentinel insert its syringe into a container containing a dark red liquid, filling it up completely.

Chris opened up his eyes as well as John who was already up and sat at the edge of the table was looking on his hands and noticed something noticing that the myriad of cuts, bruises, plasma burns, and other injures from his time fighting were gone. Even scars he had had since his initial Spartan training were gone. Could the Sentinels really have been so efficient?

"Glad to see you back up Chris. How are you feeling?" Chris stretched his arms out and flexed them a bit.

"No pain at all. I am going to miss it, but I don't understand how it was done Tanya."

She held up her right hand and a fully 3D, life-sized image of his body appeared in the room before him. He noted it was an x-ray scan, as he could see his internals, and narrowed his eyes when he spotted the lighter red of his blood flowing through him, but saw patches of darker red as well, the same color he'd seen before he succumbed to the anesthetics. "What is the dark red I'm seeing?"

"Those are a grand total of fifty billion nanites running through your body. They're the pinnacle of medical technology, and were created at the end of the war. Unfortunately, by that time, it was already too late to use them to help save the lives of infected Forerunners."

Chris looked back and saw his X-ray scan once again and saw patches of dark red in his head, shoulders, neck, legs, chest.

"These things can counteract a Flood virus infection?"

"They can. They can also treat any injuries you receive from the inside out, including potentially lethal damage to internal organs, or staunch bleeding to prevent excessive blood loss. Their operational lifespan is about seventy-five years, give or take five years. The moment you die, so do they, though they're going to try their best to prevent that from happening. To start with, they're currently repairing broken down cell tissue and spawning new ones."

Chris eyes were wide open "They're trying to halt my aging?"

"Trying? Please, give them some credit. They've already succeeded. What they're doing is restoring your body to peak efficiency. I set the command for twenty-four years of age. That sounds like a time when you were in your prime. Once their seventy-five years are up though, they will disintegrate and your aging will resume again starting from age twenty-four."

Then Tanya looked back at John who was also listening he was speechless simply.

"I'm only going to say this once, and you better damn well remember it, because I refuse to let you die on my watch. There are only two ways for the nanites to fail in their role. The first is decapitation, or lethal damage to the brain. Limbs can be reattached to your body, a head cannot. Organs can be healed from potentially lethal hits, the brain cannot. The second is complete and total destruction of your body instantaneously, such as from an explosion or something similar, though with any luck, we will ensure your new armor can withstand something like that. It would have to be complete total body destruction instantaneously, because if you take injuries to various parts of your body other than the head, but it remains intact, then you can survive."

"What else can they do?" Chris asked his beloved A.I

"They bolster your immune system, filtering out any viruses, diseases, poisons or toxins that may enter your system. I've also instructed them to remedy a certain unfortunate side effect from your augmentations. Your suppressed 'sex drive' is slowly being brought back up to normal human standards. And by normal, I mean the men who aren't pigs. It's got to be a gradual process or the overwhelming time spent suppressed may react detrimentally. Twenty years of reduced hormones coming out in a single instant could be bad, especially for a Spartan.

"Holy shit…" John let out

"Yes that's right."

"Well anything else you might want to ask before we go on? "

"I am fine for now.

"We'll have a nanite injection dispenser installed on the new ship. But, you've been out for almost a full month; twenty-two days to be exact, though. Your new MJOLNIR Mark X armor is ready. Do you feel up to getting them, or would you rather wait until morning?"

"Mark X?" Chris asked

"Mark X?" John asked at the same time.

"Well it is just feeling weird calling it anything else besides MJOLNIR."

"My thoughts exactly. And let's go now I have waited enough." Tanya's image disappeared.

As the pair walked in, they saw a pedestals made out of metal and there was a circular barrier surrounding them. Chris assumed that there were the armors being held. Tanya's image appeared on nearby holopad, while Prospecting circled around the barrier it suddenly disappeared.

"Boys say hello to the MJOLNIR Mark X Powered Assault Armor."

They gazed upon the new armor it resembled their old ones but without the scars from jumping from orbit or all the damage it has taken it was brand new. The colors were crystal clean, Chris's main armor color almost resembled real ice by its look and the gold was shining as if it was real. John's forest color resembled the color of the real nature by its looks; the previous areas that were exposed due to the armor not reaching that far to it, those areas were now covered in some sort of plating causing the Spartans to be fully covered by armor and to look even bulkier than before. Chris noticed two small openings of each wrist.

"Walk us through here Tanya."

"Gladly. I would be glad to. The Mark X's armor is composed of a combination between Titanium-A, and ENDES Ceramic Skin alloy, taken directly from the Class 18 combat skin. The suit features full-body integration with a neural uplink via the helmet. This ensures full synchronization with the armor and not only allows you to move as if unhindered while wearing it; it also makes instantaneous reaction timing a possibility, via the reactive circuits and the force-multiplying circuits. At the exact second you think something, it happens, and to the degree that you want as well. Your old reactions will be akin to moving through water compared to now." She took a small pause before speaking once again.

"Let's see…your old fusion reactor that powered the MJOLNIR has been replaced by something the Forerunners called a Trinity Star reactor. This is a system of three smaller hard-light fusion reactors working in tandem to power your new shielding system and armor functions. Your armor now starts off with an overshield for a total of three shield layers, and the recharge times are light years ahead of where they were. Time delay from shields dropping under fire to beginning of recharge cycle is a three second delay. Time from fully depleted to fully charged, is nine seconds, with the three second delay first, followed by the two seconds needed to charge each layer. Their strength is about a hundred times stronger than that of the MJOLNIR Mark VI. Considering that was the standard for Class 18 combat skins, it makes you wonder how bad the Flood was then, compared to when we encountered them the first time."

"What else can it do?" Chris asked.

"There are stronger magnetic plates built into the suit, focused on the back, hips and upper thighs for you to carry more weapons into battle. A total of three weapons can be carried on the back, a weapon on each hip and one on each thigh. The suit also has jump jets built into the bottom of the boots, allowing for rapid maneuverability across terrain or sustained flight for sixty seconds. Not to mention it will help with movement in a zero-gee environment, of which you have a 120 minute supply of air for." Chris thought she was done this time but he was wrong.

"I'm sure you've noticed the ejector ports placed on the wrists? Those contain extendable hard light energy daggers using Forerunner technology. They're thin, indestructible, and burn at least twice as hot as a Covenant energy sword; allowing it to slice or stab through a greater variety of materials. Your suit is capable of utilizing shield lockdown, deploying drop shields and can emit sustained active camouflage, which can not be neutralized by enemy fire or shut down from the heat of your weapons. You can also create an exact duplicate hologram, which I can control of when inside your suit, to divert the attention of enemies while you flank around them. With the heightened synchronization of machine and mind, this will allow you to use these abilities with thought alone. Now I think it's time you were allowed to try it on."

Chris stepped up onto the pedestal staring into the golden visor and smiled. He took his helmet and put onto his head, his HUD powered up instantly as he felt something slide into the slot where Tanya's chip were supposed to be. He felt the temperature within the suit regulate from hot to cold until it reached the perfect balance to keep him at a comfortable level.

He saw his shield beep three times, signaling the delay, until they started charging. the first layer was filled in two seconds, and the next began its charge immediately after, with another time elapse of two seconds, until finally the last layer came online. The familiar blue, red, green display of an overshield cemented the fact that this was real and it was his.

"Now, Reclaimer if you could retrieve your construct and insert her into your helmet's new port" Prospecting said after being quite for a while

He pulled her chip out as it was ejected and slotted it back into his head. He missed having her back there.

"I still have two minor things to explain before we're done here. Now then, the temperature control is constantly adjusted to perfectly counterbalance your own. Essentially, you're invisible to thermal imaging. And last, but not least, your suit is logged in as a destination in the teleportation grid. We've only built the input console so far, but we'll install that to the ship when it's completed. I will be able to access it directly even from in your suit, and can bring you to or from the ship, as well as bring things to you." Chris looked by his side where John was finished putting on his helmet, and he looked back at Chris.

"You got all that?"

"Loud and clear Chris, i got to say i can't even believe this. Seems too good to even be true. But we still need weapons Tanya."

"I can do a weapon swap for you from the armory."

"That would be great."

"By the way, are the new weapons done?"

"They are, and we've made more than enough should you choose to distribute some to other UNSC personnel you might be forced to bring aboard the ship, or see them destroyed in a fight. Prospecting, if you wouldn't mind opening the vault?"

"Of course construct, one moment please." Redeeming floated over to a panel on the wall, directly interfacing with the controls, causing the wall to his right to retract. Once the wall was gone, the room beyond was revealed, with racks and racks of weapons. He did a quick count and found ten of each type.

He walked in and inspected the various weapons as Tanya ran through the specs for each one. Apparently they had done away with the old gunpowder and primer system, and gave each weapon a miniature gauss firing system. The rounds were now solid Titanium with a Tungsten Carbide tip rather than FMJ rounds, resulting in no shell casings and larger clip size. Besides the obvious increase in damage and stopping power, this led to greater firing range, higher ROF, and drastically reduced recoil.

Tanya had only chosen to create several varieties of these new UNSC gauss weapons, including: the M62 HBR, the M108A1 CAWS automatic shotgun, the M1091 "ARTEMIS" sniper rifle, and finally the M739 Light Machine Gun. She had gone ahead and created the MX4 "ZEUS" directed energy weapon as well, in addition to recreating and improving upon the Spartan laser, the Fuel Rod Cannon, and the Plasma Launcher which could now fire five homing plasma grenades at a time.

Prospecting Renewal had actually provided leftover hard light weapons from the Forerunner-Flood war to supplement the armory. These weapons fired projectiles composed of hard light that dispersed after impact, leaving no trace after an enemy was killed.

The Z-130 Suppressor was the Forerunner equivalent of the UNSC's MA5 line of assault rifles, capable of fully automatic fire with far greater accuracy. Unlike Covenant plasma weaponry, this weapon was able to fire all 50 rounds in the clip at once without overheating.

The The Z-250 Light Rifle was the Forerunner equivalent of his new M62 HBR combined with the Covenant Particle Beam Rifle. The weapon fired three-round bursts towards the target, similar to the standard Battle Rifle, and had an alternate firing mode which utilized a single precision round. The precision rounds were more powerful, but required 3 times as much ammunition, with each precision round using up five shots from the fifteen round clip.

The Z-110 Directed Energy Pistol, more commonly known as the Boltshot according to Redeeming, was the primary sidearm of the Forerunners during the war against the Flood. It had dual firing modes similar to the Covenant plasma pistol. It could shoot Magnum-like bursts or be charged to fire a powerful hard light blast that consumed the entire clip. The latter was similar to a Shotgun's blast and nearly as powerful as well.

And finally, the Z-390 High-Explosive Munitions Rifle, better known as the Incineration Cannon. Prospecting informed him that it was a highly destructive weapon that could fire several streams of explosive particles along multiple paths that would detonate and spread upon impact. Prospecting chimed in and claimed that it mixed traits from a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a flamethrower.

After fully inspecting and field stripping each weapon, Tanya informed Chris that it would still be another two months until the new ship was completed.

Tanya and Prospecting and as well as a large number of Huragok and Sentinels were arriving to the new Super carrier.

Meanwhile Chris and John were testing out all the new weapons at a combat training course Prospecting directed them to. Chris and John were competing with each other at a fast pace. The CAWS made a huge impression on Chris, the way it went straight through the shields just impressed him. And the hard light daggers were his new favorite weapons for CQC but he would never forget to use his Kukri every now and then. John seemed to have a field trip with everything he had at his disposal. Chris choose to equip the ZEUS as he called it for short, and the light rifle and the CAWS, in addition he also equipped two bolt shots on both thighs. John also choose two bolt shots and the ARTEMIS, The HBR and the light rifle. Now that the Spartans were fully equipped and sharpened their combat skills with their new equipment and armor they were ready for anything practically.

The boys were lead out to a massive shipyard, which was mostly empty except for a Super Carrier that stood all alone, it was just incredibly massive in size. Could take on the challenge of being the biggest damn ship in the UNSC.

"Name it Chris."

"Name it?"

"The ship must have a name am I right?"

This made Chris think a bit, the ship would no doubt unleash unimaginable destruction at their enemies so Chris got an idea.

"UNSCS Cataclysm."

"Well that's out of the ordinary, but it works just fine. And by the way you will be forced to give me superiority to me."

"Gladly."

"Right, well the ship is 11km which is fairly larger than the standard, and this is due to the amount of armaments we've stacked onto this ship, and the size of the hangar bay. Through a long, arduous process, we've managed to strip down a Forerunner Dreadnought, removed the engines, and implemented them to full capacity for our ship. And what I mean by full capacity is quite amazing. The Covenant used a Dreadnought as the power source for High Charity, and only used 10% of its total power output. With that comparison in mind, imagine how much more power we can use for the weapons, shielding, slipspace technology and the miscellaneous other features." Tanya explained to John and Chris.

"Shall we go into the ship?"

"Hmm…that sounds acceptable. Alright, let's board the ship and I'll tell you about the rest of the ship."

Location: UNSCS Cataclysm. Time: Unknown

"I see you got the teleportation system fully developed, though the light could be toned down a bit." He said, still trying to blink the spots out of his eyes. He held his hand over the controls and saw the blue light of Tanya pass through his gauntlet and into the system, her image appearing on the AI projector beside them.

"I'm still working out individual power outputs for various systems in the ship. Now I know the teleportation grid doesn't need that much."

John silently walked around the massive ship to explore it.

"I'm still working out individual power outputs for various systems in the ship. Now I know the teleportation grid doesn't need that much."

"The weapon systems?"

She held up her left hand, bringing up a diagram of the ship and highlighted several sections in dark red. "We have not one, not two, but three MAC cannons on this ship. I haven't had them tested yet, but my predictions state that with the new engines pushing power to the more advanced magnetic coils, we can fire up to 5 shots consecutively from all three, though I'm positive there's no ship in the loyalist fleet that withstand even half that. We've got 100 Pulse Laser turrets, and 100 50mm HE turrets as our point-defense weapons, and they've been arranged to cover each others blind spots." She said, proudly, as she had done the calculations for the point-defense guns herself.

"Moving on, we have 260 Archer missile pods, 130 on each side of the ship, 13 across and 10 down, with 30 missiles to a pod for a total of 7800 missiles. We also have four hard light torpedo tubes at the rear of the ship. Those things are really nasty. They're the fastest firing weapons on the ship, and upon impact, they shatter like infantry shredder rounds. Most of the time, they'll manage to pierce into the enemy's ship first, making the shattering effect that mush more deadly, since it'll happen inside the ship. Who knows what they'll hit then? They could damage or destroy the engines, the life-support systems or maybe even rip the entire ship apart right then and there if it's small enough.

Last, but certainly not least, we've got 100 plasma turrets with their own set of magnetic coils separate from the MACs. This will increase accuracy and power of the shots to a precise surgical beam that can carve a ship in half." Chris was simply astounded by the weapons systems power, any enemy to come across this ship is going to have a bad day.

"As for the defensive aspect, the armor plating on the ship is from the stripped down Dreadnought along with the remaining Titanium A This ship can take quite a beating, but almost nothing is getting past the shields. Initial estimates show that the shields can withstand a direct hit from an ODP and still retain 75% charge."

"That's too impressive Tanya, just too impressive."

"Prospecting has supplied us with a complement of 5000 Huragok to help repair and maintain the ship, including keeping the weapons loaded."

"You expect them to keep everything running smoothly? And are they even capable of creating MAC rounds, Archer missiles and 50mm HE rounds?"

"No, I expect them to operate and maintain the Forerunner material factories built on the lowest levels of the ship, which will create ammunition as we need it. We have two specifically made to keep the armory stocked with ammo, three for the MAC rounds, fifteen for the Archer missiles, and one just for replacement parts for the Mark X armor system. This ship is now self-sufficient concerning ammo resupply, and the energy based weapons draw power from the engines rather than a limited ammo supply."

Chris and John nodded in thought as he inspected the ship diagram Tanya still held in her hand. There were four sub levels devoted to the factories. The Archer units took up two levels, the MAC and armory units shared one level and the Mark X unit took the highest of the sublevels. "What about vehicles in the hangar bay?"

"We've created ten shielded Open Frame 92/Extra-Vehicular Activities, or Booster Frames as you know them. They've been modified to work in atmosphere as well as zero gee now. The unique Forerunner shields made specific for these frames creates a sealed environment for the driver. So while a pressurized suit isn't technically necessary to operate them anymore, it is highly recommended, as the shields can only take the equivalent of a single plasma torpedo before failing. I had the primary and secondary nuclear fusion reactors taken out and replaced with Forerunner equivalents, which significantly decreased the charge up time for the M92 Principle Gauss Cannon and increased its power. Finally, we replaced the M41 LAAG at the rear of the frame with the M68 Gauss Cannon for greater firepower. Other than that, we left the twelve MITV pods and the two 80mm Ball-Mounted Rotary Cannons unaltered as they're perfect for this vehicle."

"Damn…" John said. Then he spoke again

"And single ship fighters? Did you make Longswords?" Tanya responded with a smile on her face this time towards John.

"No. We have a carrier size hangar, something unheard of and normally unnecessary for a destroyer. So, being the practical woman I am, I decided to fill it with Forerunner fighters. We have a total of fifty Stealth Assault Vehicles, or SAVs. They have a constantly active cloaking array around them that deactivates for a few seconds each time they fire their twin pulse cannons or hard light repeaters. By the time the enemy sees them, they'll already have done their damage, re-cloaked and moved on."

Chris was simply proud to have this ship at his disposal and controlling it. Technically he could be called the captain of this ship, but Tanya was the one in full control. He wordlessly stood up and stared out the window for several moments before turning to Tanya and John. "Are you ready to head home?"

"More than ready." Tanya said.

"Damn right."

"I've been ready for a long time now. Slipspace coordinates have been set for FLEETCOM. Engines are powering up, and the slipspace drive is charging at 25% a minute." Tanya informed her Spartans.

There we go guys a hell of a chapter to write :D . I really hoped you enjoyed reading it but before we go any further id like to say an extremely big thank you to Kamen Rider Fourze for allowing me to use and implement technology from his story "The Spartan Protocol" and use it in mine, thanks man without your permission I wouldent be able to make the story head this direction u/1531502/ .

And our new character John B-201 is based on a friend of mine Stealer-L1F3 since he had the kindness to create one for me in his story payback is here bro enjoy.

Why I made Chris and Tanya both do MC and Cortana quotes? Well they are my Cortana and Chief so I said why not .

I do realize I might have done some wrongs here and there so please point it out if you find anything.

As always please read, review, and have a good night people and Chaodixe out.