A.N. First of all I need to ask if anyone else is having trouble logging in. Sometimes it works for me sometimes it wont, and it's annoying as hell. Help with that would be great.

Now we enter a bit of action, hopefully this will put everyone's worries to rest, and if it doesn't well I'm not forcing you to read the story. Many of you didn't like how the Chief only picked up a M90A last chapter. He is still on the Dawn, therefore only U.N.S.C. (and a bit of Covenant) tech is available.

Now then, it's been brought to my attention that a lot of people are assuming that I'm going to "Nerf" the Master Chief's armor to be balanced.

/lol

That's not in my plans. For this story I'm really looking in depth for comparable weaponry in each of the games as well as their respective cannon references, and from there trying to incorporate things with a unbiased view and not my own opinions.

Which means that Chief is going to be the badass he really is, that's a given. However he won't be godly.

Chapters are going to be around 5-8k words in length from here on out. At least that's how it's looking.

Apologies for this lateness of this post... well, to be honest I don't recall saying I'll be posting this according to a schedule.

This chapter was brought to you by Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance, which by the way if you haven't seen it and are a fan of the series: it's quite good. Anyways, at least that's what I was watching while I wrote this... sadly the movie ended and now it's being brought to you by my itunes play list.

I have nothing more to say, enjoy.

RNG

Chapter II

Don't Rock the Boat

Forward Unto Dawn

-it's fascinating, that the Forerunner's were only what they considered to be a Tier I technological race." Cortana continued her latest speech. Since she seemed to have calmed down the A.I. had become awfully talkative. More so than John could ever recall her being. Rambling on about every piece of information she had examined and or cataloged during his time in the freezer.

"Okay."

In fact he was more worried now than before, having noticed earlier that his mission timer was not active on his heads-up display. When asked, Cortana had given a near instant response of it being damaged during the escape from the Ark but he could clearly remember it working when he had slipped her into the terminal when he entered cryo-sleep. As well as when she had been disconnected from the system and the suits programming took over.

What was she trying to hide from him?

"The data points to much of their scientific achievement being derived from a race even more advanced than themselves. Much like the Covenant." she explained, her voice filling his helmet.

"Right."

Also, though he had not brought it to her attention that he had checked it before uploading her into the MJOLNIR once more... It had been five years.

Why would she lie to him?

He mentally shook his head, he knew why... rampancy. The word left a sour taste in his mouth and caused the most unfamiliar feeling to crawl up his spine. Something he could not identify for the life of him, but it was a cold dark feeling that he would rather forget.

'It's nothing... she's the same old Cortana.' the thought of denial escaped him and John silently cursed. She wasn't able to entirely read his thoughts, although she did interface directly with his brain, but she had a scary sense of intuition when it came to guessing what was on his mind.

"What's the matter Chief?"

There was a reason why he tended to answer her verbally.

"Nothing, you were saying?" he buried the previous thoughts deep within his subconscious, he could ask her about it later. When their lives weren't on the line.

The last hundred meters John just traveled had been some of the slowest moving in his long career. A distance he could cover in seconds at a full sprint, the need for stealth had taken all priority so far. With the enemy being unknown he had no idea of what he was facing, and with only a handful of shells available for his weapon he would rather avoid them for now. Having been moving in the dark for so long he risked a few precious seconds activating the lights on his helmet, illuminating the hall in front of him.

Clear.

Though he had near perfect night vision thanks to his augmentations, John knew better than to leave the full scope of navigating to his eyes and the sensors in the Mjolnir. The light helped to clear some of the finer details and although it did not reveal groundbreaking information, it made visually determining his position aboard the Dawn much easier.

"Well, alright... anyways about what I was saying, that's my theory based off the data from the Ark that I've gathered."

"Uh huh."

Cutting the lights he continued stealthily stalking down the hall. Keeping a wary eye on his HUD's sensors.

"So I think that these, "Precursors" as the Forerunner's called them... Chief? Chief, are you even listening to me?"

He'd been lending half a ear to what was being said by Cortana thus far, her spacy disposition at this time was not suitable for combat. Thus, he had yet to grant her the benefit of his full attention. "Most of the time?" John replied as he came to a stop leaning back against a bulkhead, according to the nav. beacon they were only another fifty meter's the Forward Unto Dawn's auxiliary armory.

Unfortunately she was a all-in or bust kind of girl, and made her distaste of being ignored known.

"...alright caveman. So you know, it's rude to ignore a lady when she's talking to you."

Unable to miss the amused tone in her voice, John felt a small smile stretch across his lips at Cortana's playful snipe. This was the Cortana he was used to. He could almost see her hologram now, hand on hip head tilted to one side as she rolled her eyes at him. Having spent as much time as they had fighting side by side, he knew that the A.I. was a bit on the eccentric side. In fact he found their banter a great form of stress relief.

Sweeping the barrel of the shotgun back and forth as he crept through the dark halls John allowed himself a small chuckle, "Yes Ma'am."

The A.I. gave an unladylike snort at his cheek."Sooo,"she drew the last syllable out like a purr. "you feeling nostalgic yet?"

"Yes," he replied, the half ton of his armored form made nary a sound as it glided through the corridor like a green ghost. Sweeping the weapon in his hands back and forth ready for an ambush. "but it's not the good kind."

"Aww," Cortana cooed "did somebody wake up on the wrong side of their cryo-pod?"

John reached up and lightly smacked the side of his helmet. "Alright big guy, serious faces now." Cortana laughed, "I'm reading several contacts ahead, twenty meters out at 3 o'clock."

The Chief quickly ducked down a hallway to his left crouching down behind a bulkhead that extended into the corridor. There he remained still as a statue watching as a group of the same creatures he had seen on his helmet displays in the cyro-bay stalk past his position hidden in the shadows.

They had managed to avoid them for the most part, sticking to sneaking through maintenance corridors for the majority of the trip to the armory. John tensed when the one closest to him turned its ugly head towards him, seeming to sniff at the air. It growled lowly at its companions halting the five of them in place. The one who growled John assumed was the leader, since it continued to bark and chirp at its fellows and they appeared to pay rapt attention.

"Amazing, they seem to have some rudimentary form of communication!" Cortana chirped excitedly, "Though it's a hostile first contact situation, we've found another species outside of Humanity and the Covenant forces that is space-faring!"

He fought the urge to groan at her observations.

Leave it to her to want to research the latest xenomorphs they had come across and ignore the fact that this group had boarded their ship and was currently tearing it apart. Let alone ignore the fact that within an hour the ship that they were on was going to collide with a planet in a flaming ball of twisted metal.

Cortana and himself still had not been able to agree on a name, though some of the idea's thrown out had been entertaining. Their numbers so far had been few, however... they were swarming around like small packs of rabid dogs, and if he were to guess based off just how they looked the creatures were vicious at close range.

Nearly a full minute passed before the leader of the pack of creatures seemed to have lost interest in his hiding place. Turning from the corridor after a short series of growls, clicks, and chirps the pack continued on in the direction they were previously headed.

Counting to thirty before moving, John poked his head around the corner looking down the corridor that they group had gone. Seeing no trace of them and nothing coming up on the sensors he stepped out into the hall and continued towards the armory.

"Fascinating! Maybe they're friendly and are just looking for salvage?" Cortana continued branching out into a new topic. "After all, the video feeds for the Dawn can't pick up audio... if I had enough time perhaps I could figure out a way to communicate with them a-"

John cut her off softly, "I doubt that Cortana." he wasn't biased in his opinion. The fact remained that he had spent nearly the entire duration of the past thirty years fighting against aliens for the survival of the human race. His distrust was entirely merited.

"Are you trying to say that I couldn't produce the software?" she snapped "I'll have you know that your talking to the woman who helped decode nearly eighty percent of the English to Covenant language bar-"

"I meant about them being friendlies." he hadn't forgotten about how proud she was of her abilities. "I do not think they are planni-"

"Just because all the races in the Covenant were hostile doesn't mean that every alien race out there is looking to eliminate the human species!" she vehemently retorted, "For all we know this could be a giant misunderstanding and if you massacre their groups on the Dawn we can damn well expect them to BECOME hostile!"

John was taken aback by her reply, and the outburst further proved to him that she was either becoming rampant or already was. The cold chill crept up his spine again, but he forced it down. Deciding to reply to her outburst with fact, giving credence to he had said.

"Weren't you saying earlier that you had been venting the atmosphere in sections they had taken over?" John pointed out. "I'm sure that by now we have been labeled a threat from that. Also they knocked out our auxiliary generators, clearly a boarding action."

The A.I. went silent, remaining that way as he continued to trudge down the hall, sticking close to the walls.

He checked the nav. point on his HUD once more, only a quarter of an hour had passed since he had been quick thawed and they were nearly to the armory located a couple floors below them. John flashed his lights again and headed down a hall to his left. Turning to one of the closed bulkhead doors he studied it for a second before looking to his left and right making sure nothing was in sight. Taking a quick look of at his helmets scanners confirmed that nothing was in range. His right hand shot out, armored fingers shaped like a spear digging into the crack where the door sealed against the wall itself, though the armored steel was made to withstand small arms fire and explosive decompression it was not designed to stop a veteran Spartan II super soldier.

A dull thump echoed throughout the hall. Flexing his fingers around the edge of the door inside the opening that had been made he looked around once more before pulling, setting the magnetic soles of his boots to maximum he tugged at the door, the hydraulic systems holding it closed began to budge. Pushing his other hand into the now widened opening he pulled again, it slid once more but still far slower than he liked. Even with the microgravity setting they were in it seemed that because of the decompression throughout most of the Forward Unto Dawn's aft section everything was in lock down. Add in the deteriorating conditions and lack of maintenance,

As the door opened fully, John ducked down into a crouch minimizing his silhouette while swinging the shotgun off of his back and onto his right shoulder. Though scanners showed all clear, he knew better than to rely to heavily upon equipment and to trust what he could see personally. His keen eyes swept the area, finding none of the aliens present he fluidly stood up and moved down the hall.

His long time companions silence was starting to get to him, usually she would have come back at him by now with a snippy comment. "Cortana, ar-"

"Sorry," She interrupted before he could finish. "I don't know what came over me." her words were surprisingly hesitant, as if she were taking exceptional care to say the words. "You're right though... I'm just not thinking clearly."

Now she just sounded pained.

John wanted to help her, she had his back in the many times they had faced the perils of war. As he had done for her. However, now there were no enemies for him to shoot. No planets he needed to save. No creature of nightmare to save her from. The fact that he did not know how to help her right now bothered him to a degree he could not understand.

It also frustrated him to no end.

The silence that had settled between them was palpable now, unsure of what to say he began to try and get the normally cheerful woman to open up a bit and tell him what was wrong. "Is there anything I ca-"

"Chief on your six, company!"

Time seemed to slow before Cortana even finished her words, a all to familiar sense of calm bathing the Spartan II commando. Due to the overall synergy of the many augmentations done to his body, when adrenaline coursed through his system it increased his reaction time to mere milliseconds. Compounded with the MJOLNIR armor that time was reduced to near instantaneous.

There was no real scientific name for it, but for his brother and sister Spartans it was endearingly referred to as.

Spartan time.

John activated his lights and span around on his heel, bringing the M90 CAWS to bear on the closest of the incoming threats in the same motion. A pair from the group earlier had doubled back and found him, he could not tell for certain since the creatures appearances were so similar. A feeling in his gut however, assured him that he was correctly analyzing how the situation occurred.

The creatures screeched battle cries and the one on the right charged towards him. The serrated blades on its front limbs and the wicked pair of scythes that it had sprouting from its back flailing in the air, their edges glinting in the beams of his helmet lights glare.

He swung the shotgun up his arms moving in a blur, bracing it against his right shoulder he lined up a shot dead center on the nearest beast. Waiting until it was in the weapons optimum range he pressed down on the trigger on-

Cortana's voice stalled him at the last second, "Save your ammo Chief!" instantly he switched tactics. In a single fluid motion he placed the shotgun onto the magnetic clips on the back of his armor and hunkered down, lowering his center of gravity.

The one who had been milliseconds from being introduced to a face full of eight gauge buckshot made a leaping lunge towards him. With a screech that stung at his eardrums the beast brought its bladed front limbs down slashing at his chest.

He sidestepped faster than eyes could track armored right hand shooting out and gripping the creatures left limb sprouting from its back like a vice. Shouldering the it against the bulkhead to immobilize the beast, it gave a startled sounding squawk as it struggled in his grip as his left palm surged forward against what he assumed was the joint.

Though John could feel the powerful muscle corded within the creatures limb straining against him to escape. It was unable to withstand the full strength behind arms capable of flipping a three metric tonne "Warthog" all-terrain vehicle end over end. The limb snapped backwards with a sound similar to dry timber being split, a horrible pained screech erupting from the beasts maw.

Its other limbs pivoted towards him clawing at the air trying to reach him. Pulling on the broken arm he wrenched his hand spinning it in place in a torquing motion, stressing the wound further than the creatures available range of movement. Twisting even further a wet crackle echoed in the air as the ligaments began to tear, the creature attempted to compensate by crouching down its other bladed arms flailing in the air trying to reach him. Thick mucus like slobber being thrown across into the air and onto the bulkheads around them as it ferociously shook its head, trying to twist its neck into a proper position to reach him with its jaws. He gave the appendage a sharp tug while planting his right foot the armor automatically increasing it's magnetic grip too the floor at the same time, his other leg shot out in a straight kick catching the beast along its scaled flank.

The Chief could feel bones snapping beneath the armored sole of his boot and with a howl the creature lurched in the direction he had kicked it, coming to a sudden halt as the battered limb still in his grip stalled its momentum.

Another twist.

Drawing back his left leg in a blur he launched another brutal assault at the stunned beast, catching it in the same imprint in its side his boot had left barely a second earlier. This time the battered limb did not stop its momentum. A wet tearing sound then howls filled the air as a magenta fluid spewed from shredded stump, painting the walls in a thick glossy ooze as it slid down the wall dazed and in pain.

It growled weakly at him trying to recover enough to get back up, the Spartan gave it no reprieve.

Spinning the limb he "liberated" from the creature like a blade in his hands, he brought the sharpened end down piercing through the scaly armor on its skull. A sickening wet crackle echoed through the hall as armored hide and bone gave way to the reinforced chitin, a fountain of gore and brain matter erupting from the massive hole stopping its flow when the thicker end of the limb filled the exposed area beneath the wound. With a dull thump the end came to a stop embedded in the flooring beneath the creatures jaw.

"Behind you!"

It seemed that thanks to the narrow space available in the maintenance corridor the creatures companion had not been able to rush him during the seconds his assault had lasted. However, their companion was out of the way, its corpse shuddering and expelling a final death rattle. They pressed the attacked. John stumbled as it attempted to tackle him, slamming into a bulkhead. A faint golden shimmer surrounding his armor as the suits shields absorbed the brunt of the impact.

Staggering forward slightly from the weight on his back, his eyes flicked to the meter of his shield noting that it was slowly draining beneath the blows. They hadn't been able to get through, yet. He reached over his head behind him the beasts maw snapping at his gauntlet covered fist bracing himself against the wall with his other arm to keep from being knocked over.

It shrieked as it continued to rain blows upon him nearly blowing out the internal speakers of his helmet, in the background he heard Cortana cursing about how she rather not have to deal with that on a regular basis.

Though the actual words used had differed quite a bit.

Fingers that could bend and tear reinforced steel in their grip found purchase along the flanges that extended from the back of the creatures skull between the two limbs coming from its spine.

He pulled leaning his body forward at the hip, bodily throwing the beast onto the ground in front of him. It screeched again lashing back with its hind legs catching him in the chest, knocking him away and towards the ceiling. He spun in mid air with the grace of a trained acrobat, kicking off of it leaving and impression in the metal itself. Like a rocket his armored form shot at the beast who had managed to scramble back onto its feet, they met in the air him blocking its lunge by grabbing the creature by the sides of its head and with it dealing out punishment with its limbs.

They tumbled through the air, rolling and skidding along the deck. Landing on his back with the beast hovering over him the Chief lashed out with his right elbow smashing it into the creatures muzzle. It howled and in return slashed at him with both limbs protruding from its back.

"They must have a way of communicating over long distances," Cortana shouted over the creatures howls as he grappled with it. Its smaller forearms battering at his shields with a rapid pace, precipitously draining them as he tried to grapple with the larger deadlier looking arms on its back. "I'm tracking multiple contacts at the maximum range of our scanners! You need to end this! NOW!"

Releasing the arm in his left hand the Chief slammed his fist repeatedly against what he guessed was its eye though with his position he was unable to put his full strength into the blows. It shrieked, the free limbs doubling their assault and alarms blared in his helmet as shallow gouges began to appear over the chest plate of his armor. Letting go with his right hand the Chief instead switched his grip to the low hanging jaw filled with needle like teeth, wrapping his hand into a fist the fingers shattered all that stood in their path. Pushing upwards with his arm he bodily lifted the beast off of him, thick viscous slobber falling onto his faceplate as the creature desperately tried to eviscerate its prey. Rolling as much as his range of movement allowed, he drew back his left fist while pulling the beasts open maw towards him.

With the proper leverage and with more power behind it than an industrial jackhammer, his fist knocked out teeth and behind them the softer flesh of the creatures mouth gave way to rock hard muscle and Titanium A armor. From the back of the creatures skull a blood covered hand erupted amongst a shower of gore, brain matter and bone fragments. The light in the creatures eyes quickly darkened and its body gave a final shudder before stilling in deaths embrace.

Cortana gave a low whistle,"Impressive, but that seemed a bit... vicious."

John gave an irritated grunt as he pulled back his arm leaving a gaping hole in the back of corpse's skull and a cascade of magenta colored blood mixed with saliva spilled onto him. Tossing the body away while sitting up he pushed himself to his feet wiping away the mixture to survey the damage to his armor. "You told me to save ammo." he grumbled though he was mentally satisfied by the fact that though there were a few new gouges in the armor, its vacuum seal had not been compromised.

Though he mentally added that if it had been, well he would probably be soon joining the creature in its fate.

"Well, I know you like your guns." she drawled "But seriously, sticking your fist down its throat and out the other side was the best you could think up?"

"I haven't had my morning coffee."

It started with an odd sounding sniffle, "Was that a joke? Really?" she tittered, it sounded like Cortana was having a difficult time containing herself now. "Well I guess your delivery needs some fine tuning, but I can work with this." she exclaimed in a pained voice as she broke into a fit of giggles.

Walking down the hall towards the first alien he had killed, he pulled the improvised sword from its skull. Holding it up in his hands he inspected the limb with a critical eye. His training having long ago taught him that if it looked like a weapon he could use, it would probably work and he already used this one in successful field testing. Checking its weight and running its edge against the wall his eyes widened slightly when it carved into the steel when he exerted a fraction of his strength to it, he nodded to himself.

It wasn't anywhere close to the Arbiter's Type-1 energy sword, but it would have to do. Hefting it in both hands in a loose grip he stepped over the carcass the newly reopened wounds leaking magenta blood once more, forming a small though quickly spreading puddle.

"And about coffee of all things!" Cortana exclaimed, the fit of giggles having passed. "Have you even tasted the stuff?"

"...No."

With only a twenty more meters to his destination, he decided it better to get there quickly. Before the rest of the groups they had seen found them. Picking the pace up to a light jog the floor panels beneath his boots flew past in a gray blur, and John rolled his eyes as the helmet filled with Cortana's laughter.

Koprulu Sector

Mar Sara System – Terran Dominion

20 Kilometers SSW of Vespene Refinery DF 113-8

0930 Hours

Over half an hour... wasted. She was used to being second guessed, expected it even. This however took the cake, 'One more time,' Nova thought to herself, feeling her fingers twitch in irritation. Her earlier confrontation with the teams sniper Ryu had her edgy as it was, she really wasn't in the mood to deal with a stubborn XO. 'he asks one more time and I'm going to-'

"Wha's tha' gain?"

She barely held back the growl that had been building in her throat from escaping.

With her helmet off and her arms crossed below her chest, Nova knew she didn't look close to being as intimidating as she wanted even as she leveled her harshest glare at the groups commanding officer. Though so far none of her current comrades had done so yet, she heard often enough the comparisons between her and the pin-up posters marines kept hanging in their lockers on base when they thought she couldn't hear them. Her telepathy however made it near impossible for her not to pick them up, something she found to be a great blessing and curse at the same time.

'Stupid hostile environment suits fault.'

Her armor did cling to her like a second skin, and unlike most ghosts she had not added very many extra systems to her suit. Leaving it in its standard configuration, only the top half of her chest was protected by the armor of her blue Neo-Steel breastplate. This left everything, other than the tight blue on white body suit, below down to her knees where her greaves began bare. Hell even though her shoulders were protected by small spaulders the majority of her arms were exposed down to her elbows, though her forearms and hands were protected by gauntlets.

'Sometimes I wish I was a marine... well, maybe I shouldn't go that far.'

For the most part, these comments didn't bug her. After all this piece of eye-candy could boil their brains in their skulls with a single thought. She DID however, hate the fact that because of her appearance and age very few people took her seriously. Questioning her decisions until she showed them exactly what she was capable of.

"We," she pointed at his chest plate then towards herself "need to move" holding up her left hand, palm up, she used her other hand to pantomime walking with her fingers "away from this location." she pointed off into the distance as she slowly enunciated each word as if she were speaking to a young child and not a battle hardened marine Sergeant.

There was a growl this time, though not from her. A small grin tugged at the young ghost's lips as she telepathically sensed the anger building in the Sergeant. Though she quickly wiped it from her face before it got her in trouble, her cheekiness had gotten her in enough of that in the past.

"Now look hurr missy," Sarge took a step towards her pointing a finger at her chest "I dun tak' kin'ly ta bein treated like an idiot." he punctuated the statement by jabbing said finger into the center of her breastplate.

Nova tensed, fighting with all her will the urge to just shoot the man and dispose of the rest of the group before proceeding with the mission on her own. 'It'd be easier than dealing with them.' she dismissed the dark thought before speaking "And you look here, I'm telling you we need to move away from this location. It's going to be crawling with zerg in less than an a half-hour!"

"How'dya know tha."

"I checked the message we received, it didn't feel right to me when I heard it." Nova brought her right hand up in front of her as if she were studying her nails, "There was a coded transmission in it, their LZ is going to be nearby."

Not that five klicks was all to far but if it got her point across.

The large mans visor slid up exposing the grim look chiseled onto his features "Now hol' on thur, are ya sure?"

Nova squared her shoulders letting her arms fall back down to her sides as she adopted an expression as serious as the mans in front of her. "Positive."

The large sergeant scowled, bringing up his C-14 "Impaler" in both hands. "How'do I know you're tellin tha truth."

Nova bristled at the accusation, though distrust of Ghost agents was widespread throughout the Dominion forces the fact that he had the gall to say something like that in her face wa-

"I heard it as well Roy." Ryu's voice called out as he stepped out of the shadows the arguing duo turned to him in surprise. His massive rifle held loosely in his arms the enigmatic sniper gave them a smile that sent shivers down at least one of their spines. "I suggest you listen to the young lady." he added.

The sergeant snorted, lowering his weapon and nodding in Ryu's direction "Alri' lemme call tha boys in." he turned away from the ghost and sniper walking towards the pile of supplies they had. Faintly from their position the duo could hear him barking out orders into the comm system in his suit.

"A thank you would suffice."

Nova span around glaring daggers at the man who continued to smile that damnable smile at her. "Why did you do that?" She growled out, she did not like this man. He knew things about her she rather never be reminded of. The fact that he could get the jump on her like he had demonstrated earlier bothered her as well. "I would have been able to convince him!"

He cocked his head to the side squinting his eyes as he did so "Ah yes, but time is of the essence no?"

Twitching in annoyance Nova attempted to skim his thoughts, coming back with nothing but impenetrable walls around his mind. Swallowing her pride she spat the words out like a curse "Thank you."

"You're welco-"

"We are moving!" the thickly accented voice of Arms cut him off and the pair turned to were the rest of the squad had gathered "Rookie, Jerry, Erik grab the supplies!" he pointed at Ryu and Nova "You two are on point!" he hefted one of his missile launchers onto his shoulder "Me and Sarge will cover the rear. Double time!"

As one the men bustled to get their orders done and ready. Nova turned to Ryu who was still looking at her with the same expression as before though now he was extending his hand towards her. "It will be a pleasure working with you Nova." he said serenely.

With a huff Nova grabbed the gauntlet tightening her grip as much as she could, wishing she could crush the hand that controlled it. "No," she hissed "it will be anything but that." releasing her grip she spun away and stalked away towards her equipment.

Ryu's eyes followed her retreat, the smile on his face disappearing and forming an emotionless visage.

"Contact established."

Forward Unto Dawn

"Oh I like this one, it's shiny and I think it will go great with your armor." Cortana spoke with a malleable humor laced in her words, "Along with every other gun your bringing with. Honestly chief, I don't know if I should laugh at you right now or ignore it as some kind of testosterone induced subliminal thought process in your head."

Standing in front of a now empty weapons locker, having already removed its contents as well as the contents of many others lining the walls, the Chief rolled his eyes at his partners teasing.

"I don't feel like wrestling with another one of those things." John ground out "They may not be as strong as a Brute or an Elite but if they overrun me they can break through my shields, and the Titanium A." he glanced at the discarded limb floating nearby, the same one he had torn off and used earlier to impale one of the creatures from earlier to the floor. Its edges and spear like tip shining in the lights of his helmet.

He turned back to the SRS99D-S2 AM he held in his hands, inspecting it with a critical eye. Bringing it to his shoulder he checked its sights as best he could in the limited space available in the Dawns secondary armory. Aiming it at an empty weapons locker already riddled with holes and scorch marks he pushed down on the firing stud, hardly a whisper was made in the near vacuum filling the room and the suppressors in his armor reduced the kick to a point that he barely registered it. "So too fix that I'm going in heavy."

Letting go of the Sniper rifle and letting it float in the air beside him, the Chief went to the next locker punching through the door next to its handle rendering the locking mechanism useless before opening it. Revealing to his eyes the rows of M6A Handguns and clips of ammo.

The A.I. let out a drawn out sigh, "I can understand the need for you to be prepared for anything Chief." he nodded in agreement with that, grabbing a M6A Pistol from the next locker and ejecting the clip of 12.7mm x 40 to make sure it was working properly before reloading it and firing it at the beaten locker down the hall. "I even understand your need to check and make sure everything is in working order." the annoyance in her tone kept him from nodding in affirmative as he shoved the a pair of the handguns and four handfuls of clips and ammunition that he stuffed into the bag that hung from his shoulder. Grabbing the floating sniper rifle besides him, he waited for what she would say next. "But we're wasting time, we need to secure a way off the Dawn. I think you've got enough to supply a small army."

Words more true could not be spoken.

Flipping the Sniper rifle onto the already overloaded magnetic strips on his back next to the M90A Shotgun he had found in the cryo-bay and a Type-25 Covenant Plasma Rifle that he had also checked over and test fired. From his right shoulder beneath the sheath that held his new combat knife hung a bandolier apair of M9 Fragmentation Grenades and Plasma Grenades hanging from the clips, on his left a satchel filled with Thermite-Carbon Cord, extra ammunition, the handguns, additional M9's, and Plasma Grenades. The many storage units on his armor were also filled with more of the same. On his left hip hung a M7 Sub-machine gun and his right carried the handle of a Type-1 Energy sword.

'If I ever see him again, I'm thanking the Arbiter.' John thought, walking to the next locker and opening it in the same way he had for all the others. His eyes widening ever so slightly spotting what lay within. "Is that?"

"I didn't know Commander Keyes had this many of those on board... she really pulled out all the stops." Cortana whispered seeing what he found through the cameras linked to his helmet. "Hello kiddies, mama can't wait to see what you can do."

Shaking his head at Cortana's antics and picking up one of the treasures within he rolled the foot ball shaped object end over end in his hands. Rows of Fury Tactical Nuclear weapons placed on six different magnetized racks within the locker gleamed in his helmet mounted lights. The same weapons he and Red Team had used so long ago to destroy a Covenant Cruiser back on Reach. John quickly banished the thoughts of his Spartan's before the painful memories breached the surface of his thoughts. They would do more damage than good with the current situation, reminiscing in a combat zone tended to get soldiers killed. Tapping a couple of buttons on its control panel he watched as a number of lights lit up on the screen.

They should be functional now if only he cou-

"You're not test firing those."

"Wouldn't think of it." he chuckled while looking around the racks he spotted another satchel, smaller than the one he was already carrying but it would work. Pulling three of them off the racks and making sure that the systems of each were locked so they could not be set off without the proper access codes, he placed them into the bag in his hands.

"Well I think we're set, anything more would be overkill... even for you."

Silently agreeing with the statement the Chief closed the locker the best he could with the broken locking mechanism. Turning away from it he paused before spinning on his heel and opening it once more. "Cortana?" he asked grabbing a pair of the Tac-Nukes and letting them float beside him as he grabbed a third. Hitting a series of buttons on its controls, then letting it go he reached out and did the same to the others floating around his head. "I need you to do something for me."

"What is it Chief?" he could detect a excessive amount of enthusiasm in her voice, almost as if she had been waiting for him to ask. "...You want me to link those so you can remote detonate them don't you?"

John smiled, this was the Cortana he was used to. The one who knew exactly what he needed before he even had to ask. "That's right." he reached out gently setting one of them back in its original resting place the light from its console throwing an eerie glow over the other nukes. "It would be easier than having to run back and blow it up manually while fighting off waves of hostiles if we have to scuttle the remains of the Dawn." he commented remembering the Pillar of Autumn.

She faked a gasp of disbelief, "You're thinking ahead for once? Color me impressed."

"I have my moments, so can you do it?"

"Do you really have to ask? I mean sure they aren't usually detonated that way but I could easily produce a program to compensate for that, and linking them won't be an issue. I could even set it up so that the entire locker-"

"I understand," He interrupted before she could get to off track, this was the stuff that was worrying him. "please do it."

"... You're no fun sometimes John." after a brief moments silence her voice rang through his helmet again "I need you to access-"

A shrill scratching sound coming from behind them interrupted her and the Chief whirled around, whipping the Assault Rifle off of his back and into his right hand while his left snatched the sub-machine gun at the same time. Standing as still as a statue with both weapons held in front of him ready to unleash a torrent of destruction from their barrels at any enemies to appear, the Spartan II super soldier took a glance at his HUD scanner.

"How did they?"

"I have no idea, but this is not good." Cortana muttered, there was enough red on the screen it could pass as a deformed Christmas tree's lights the majority of it standing outside the door to the armory. "I don't think we have time for your going away pres-"

The deck plates rumbled beneath his feet and the Chief dove away, flipping his body around so that he landed in a crouch on the far wall of the armory both weapons aimed at where he had stood moments before. In a shower of metal and sparks it exploded upwards, and in the midst of it all he spotted something new emerging from the hole. Standing nearly his height the mottled orange monstrosity seemed to glide up through the opening, it had a vicious looking extra pair of mandibles with butcher knife shaped fangs hanging around a maw filled with teeth nearly the size of one of his fingers. Beady red eyes beneath the ridges of a plume that extended from the back of its skull similar to the smaller beasts yet much larger. Thick arms with multiple joints ending in massive singular talons almost as long as one of his arms and a snake like torso rippling with muscle.

It noticed him him.

It roared.

His guns roared back.

Twin streams of death screamed from the barrels of his weapons amidst the dancing flashes and spent casings being thrown into the air, some of the bullets seemed to bounce off its thick hide while others riddled the beasts torso with holes. Yet it didn't go down. It swung its arms at him and the alarms in his helmet blared. He ducked but something slammed into his shields draining them enough for concern and sending him tumbling, pushing against the ground he took off running for cover behind a pair of tables that were used by marines for weapons maintenance. Holstering the SMG he tore one of the heavy steel tables off of the deck and forced it onto its side for cover.

"Chief we need to get out of here," Cortana shouted, as he placed the Rifle back where it had been originally. Then reaching over his shoulder pulled the Shotgun from its spot on his back. "scans show more on their way!"

"I kind of figured that out." Holes began appearing in the heavy steel table he was using for shelter, though it seemed that the creature could not fire whatever weapon it was using at a high rate. Being nearly a full two seconds between the holes appearing or the dull thumps against the steel. Waiting for the next salvo to impact his cover he took a deep breath in preparation. Another dull thump and before it finished he was already grabbing the table by its stand and hurling it at the creature, the flat end blocking both opponents view of each other he followed its trajectory, chasing after it as it sailed through the air.

The Chief watched as one of the heavy talons tore through the table splitting it in half and sending the pieces flying. He dove to the side, the other claw barely missing him while bringing his weapon to bear unloading several rounds at point blank range as he advanced. Huge grievous looking wounds appeared across the creatures body as 8 gauge buckshot eviscerated the beasts insides causing it to howl in pain and spilling a fountain of orange blood and organs from the wounds out onto the floor.

One of the shots tore its right limb off. Another took off a large chunk out of the left side of its face reducing it to bloody confetti.

The roars had stopped and the beast fell onto its side in a shuddering heap, a soft hiss escaping as it exhaled for a final time.

Shooting it once more in the head to make sure the Chief stepped closer to see if he could salvage whatever weapon it had been using though he couldn't spot any visible signs of one. He then spun around when the scratching at the door to the armory grew more intense bringing the shotgun up ready to fire.

"We need to go Chief, I'm not reading anything below us now. We should use the hole that thing made in the deck, it should bring us right next to the HEV's that are left." Cortana spoke up giving him a plan, he really didn't want to engage the number of creatures that were gathered outside the door. "We will have to launch manually. But hey at least it couldn't get any worse, right?"

The entire ship rocked violently as if to throw the words back in her face, and John sighed as he slammed a fist into a locker beside him using it to keep himself stable "We just entered the atmosphere," he grumbled mentally calculating how long it had been since he was thawed out, definitely less than an hour maybe just shy of a quarter to. "You just had to say it."

"...Shut up."

Reloading the shotgun as he moved towards the hole he peered down it once, nothing showed up. Pulling out a pair of frags he removed the pins before dropping them down the hole. Counting to three he moved away just as a gout of fire and gore erupted from it like a volcano.

The ship was rocking even harder now.

Taking one last glance around the armory and then back down the now clear hole, John replaced the shotgun to its spot on his back.

He hopped down into the abyss.

End Chapter II

A.N. For those of you that want to critique on how I'm portraying Cortana and her seemingly ADHD/schizo personality there's a reason to it. Leave it be and let me show you in the story, I'm actually having difficulty writing her out this way... mainly because I have to keep going back over dialogue too make SURE that she seems so out of it.

Also I have no clue about him never tasting coffee but I'm saying it's so, mainly because I don't want to deal with skimming the entire book series for it. Bad comedy is bad, but I needed to use something.

For those of you who dislike how I'm setting up Nova's character, let me mention that time wise shes basically fresh out of the Ghost Program. So I'm taking the liberty to start with a fairly clean slate. Don't bother bringing up how she got her memory wiped yadda yadda yadda, I know and don't care my fic I do what I want.

Just a little note taking a short break to work on my Hanagai fic. Not really sure which stories chapter I'll release next though. Because of the sites annoying tendency of locking me out of the site (though it's not cause of my connection or computer doesn't work on my tablet either) I had time to work on the next chapter a bit, it has the firefights your all waiting on. Don't get your knickers in a twist.

Here's Nova.

RNG

INDEX

/:Accessing File:

/:Security Level: Unknown

/:Decrypting

/:Firewall Encountered

/:Decrypting

/:Uploading:

/:Transferring

/:Opening File(s):

Subject: Agent X41822N

Real Name: November Annabella Terra

Codename: Nova

Origin: Tarsonis – Koprulu Sector, Terran Dominion

DOB: 1/-/2485

Status: Active

Born into the influential Terra Family (File: TF-15124), one of the Terran Confederacy's oldest living families, Agent X41822N displayed psionic potential at a young age. By age 7 parents Constantino Terra (File: TF-31520A) and Bella Terra (File: TF-25200B) had witnessed the psychic talent for Empathy (File 00078G-1: See attached: Ghost Program).

Shortly after her 15th birthday, anti-Confederate rebels murdered her parents. Agent X41822N displayed massive potential for the Ghost Program (File 00078G: See attached: Ghost Program) when she unleashed a powerful telepathic (File 00078G-3: See attached: Ghost Program) and telekinetic (File 00078G-4: See attached: Ghost Program) attack without any control, destroying a large section of the Terra Skyscraper.

Noted: Death(s) Est. in the hundreds.

Taken into the Fagin's Crime Syndicate (File: 53190-JD) in January 2500.

Retrieved by Terran Dominion (File: 02004-AM) in March 2500.

Assigned to Team Blue (File: Unavailable) in 2501.

Assigned to Team Purple (File: Unavailable) in 2501.

Assigned to Nova Squadron (File: Unavailable) in 2503.

Currently stationed under Sergeant Roy Kepps (File: SK-01810), sent to investigate unknown activity at DF 113-8 (File: Access Denied).

/:File: Combat Analysis

Base Stats

Noted: Not completely accurate for combat situations

Strength: 5

Speed: 5

Intelligence: 7

Psi-Index: 8

Combat Stats

Close Quarter Combat: 6

Weapon(s) and Usage: 8

Defense: 5

/:Overall Threat Level: 7

/:Priority: High

/:Action: Continue Investigation

/:Program Terminated