For once in his life, John felt like things were going his way. Michael had given him everything that he needed and more. There were three bases which had been assigned to John's command, each with a radically different task. As John returned to his office from the long day of working out the details of his pet project, he realized that he was excruciatingly exhausted. He sat back in his ergonomic chair and decided to take a small nap.
The new body was going to be created at the Dabos III base. The base had previously been constructed at the end of the UNSC, meant to create slates quickly to counter the threat of insurgency, but had been decommissioned when the number of Spartans began to outweigh the needs of the Empire. It was fitting, considering that it was one of the biological construction zones for the first Spartans. This new Spartan required a distinctly female body. This was due to certain recent discoveries in the human brain. Over the years, the mapping of the feminine brain showed strong advances in the areas of the brain relating to fine muscular control, information processing, and emotions over those of the male brain. As such, the female gender provided the ideal landscape material for the integration of the AI.

The AI was to be created at a base on Serendine, a lone, artificial planet created for black ops research and development. It orbited a barren, red sun, devoid of any planets or natural satellites, exactly what the perfect setting for a military installation looked like. Serendine was the prime place for the development of this experimental battle armor, as the most pristine and powerful construction machines in the galaxy were housed in this tiny planetoid. (Nowhere near as powerful as those housed on the Ark, though. That had been deemed a "Black-out" area ever since the "Incident." What happened there, though, no one could say. It was rumored for a time that there were zombies there, but no one really believed that story.)

The third and final site for the project was Alpha. It was a derelict Halo, near the Galactic Center, which had been gutted by the army and then refitted to be an AI production center. Also noted as a "Black-out" area on an intergalactic map, the base provided the perfect place to complete the AI for the Spartan, and then integrate and train them in the use of their new body and armor, as this Halo, like the rest of them, came complete with artificial landscapes the likes of which rivaled any environment. Still, the estimated time to develop just the new AI was around a year of solid work. It wouldn't be easy…

For now, though, the center of production was on Dabos. As the whole project was receiving limited funding, the project only had a few scientists working on it. Therefore, at the end of each section, the base they were working in was evacuated by the Spartan personnel, returned to the original owner, and the next stage's base was activated. The estimated time to complete the project was two years, but most of the scientists that had already been called in were optimistic that they could accelerate that time table to just over a year.

If this project worked, then John would probably one of the most celebrated people in the IE, and would be on his way to becoming the most notable celebrity of his time…


"Oi! Wake up, you lazy bastard!"

John awoke with a start, his dream of the project disappearing as quickly as the smoke from the cigar that was inches from his nose.

"I came to give you congratulations on getting your project approved and find you asleep at your desk. That sweet smell of success get to your head, Jones? Or are you just not getting enough sleep, what with all those crazy ideas running through that thick skull o' yours?"

The man addressing John was none other than his boss, Jerry Ray. He was a burly man, whose muscles showed that he worked out regularly.. His brown eyes and curly black hair cut short was mirrored perfectly with his dark brown skin color, reflecting his African origins. Despite looking like a football star, though, this man was the chief of the entire Special Projects Division. If the board was Congress, then J-Ray was the President. He held in his pinky enough power to order two planets to do whatever he wished, and had enough contacts that he could always get his way. However, he was a kind soul, who had worked hard to get where he was, and never stepped on the little man for the benefit of the big one. As a result, John and J-Ray had become great friends over the years.

"I'm getting plenty of sleep, sir. Just figured I could use a little rest after a harrowing day," John said, smiling the whole time. Jones was a nickname of sorts, as J-Ray had never been able to remember John's name when the time was necessary. Eventually, Jones had become his nickname with the whole board. "Anyway, sir, it's an honor that you came down personally to give your thanks. I didn't expect for it to pass so quickly."

"That's what happens when your buddy is the emperor of a freaking galaxy. You end up getting your way a lot of the time." J-Ray snickered. Michael was the one guy everyone wanted to be friends with, but John was the only one that actually had a friendship with him, besides the secretary. And the secretary was one cold lady if you ever got the chance to meet her. She had a strict "All business, no socializing," demeanor, but was only friendly towards Michael…

John's face quickly resumed his normal work demeanor. "Well, I do have work to finish today besides celebrating a victory against the legislative system and taking a nap, so I'll get back to it… I'm glad you stopped by to say congratulations. It means a lot to me." John picked up one of his three EDBs.

J-Ray smiled again. "You're a hard worker, and you did a good job getting the system up top to accept you. Keep a cool head and you'll do fine. I'll see you around, you lucky bastard." With that, J-Ray turned around and walked out, pride showing on his face. It was starting to look like he had another friend in a high place now…


Zachariah Heber was sitting on his bed at the same time that John was getting congratulated by J-Ray. Zach, though, wasn't happy so much as very, VERY sour. He was currently glaring menacingly at a small, square, metal plate, with a blue-rimmed, black-core sphere imbedded in the middle of the two-dimensional object. It resembled a soccer ball sticking out of an elevated section of the floor, the way it sat on the carpet, and was surrounded on all sides by a very messy room, which resembled his room two weeks ago, when the internal environment went haywire and generated a tornado in his room.

"YOU STUPID THING!! WORK!" Zach yelled as he leaped from his bed onto the machine, attempting to shove a pair of socks he had randomly grabbed into the sphere. The device was a slipspace suitcase, more commonly called SS. So far, everything he had tried to push into the slipspace aperture, which was supposed to be able to absorb anything of a small size (up to a grand piano) into a tiny (house-sized) room, had failed. Even his watch failed to pass through the barrier.

He pushed and pulled on the machine, yelling the whole time. "WHY WON'T YOU- Oh, what's this?" he said, as he found a button, conveniently located by the handle.

The shield around the aperture fizzled and died, allowing the domed hole to suck up him and his socks. Zach sighed. Why was it that he could never seem to do anything right? He clapped twice to turn on the overhead light in the dimensional bubble. No matter how "user-friendly" the technology, he always seemed to fail at even its most basic use. The most ironic fact was that his field was cutting edge neuro-mechanical interfaces between humans and AI, possibly the most complex and dangerous field in the galaxy, both for the humans and the people working on them…

Zach got up and walked out of the bubble. The tingly sensation of passing through the multi-dimensional field quickly faded, and he began hurling his clothes and projects into the bubble. The mess diminished as the light blue bubble continued to absorb the plethora of materials, useful and not, into itself.

Once the room was cleared, Zach sat back down on his bed. He had finally had his dream realized. He was now a part of the design team working on the next generation of Spartans. The current ones were pretty much maxed out, each Spartan with more equipment, vehicles, and weapons than an entire battalion of soldiers in the old days. Just one soldier was said to be able to clear a building filled with terrorists without breaking open a millionth of their weapons.

He saw a Spartan for the first time when he was 2. His great grandmother was showing him an action figure that the UNSC had produced, showing the long-presumed dead Master Chief. He was hailed as the savior of humanity, a veritable knight in olive-green armor, the best Spartan ever. Since that first little action figure, he had worked hard to get into one of the Spartan development programs. It had been his dream…

Now that he had his dream, though, he couldn't shake this foreboding feeling, as if everything around him was surreal, and he would wake up at any moment. He chided himself, convinced that it was just the jitters at finally getting the job. Besides, shouldn't he be more interested in WHY he had been chosen? His field wasn't often utilized by the nigh-mechanical Spartans, as the spinal interface, the most common method by which Spartans manipulated the human bodies they were given, was easy enough to create. Neuro-mechanical structures built to interface with the human brain were far more complex, though, and required a far more delicate touch. So why did they need him?

He picked up his bag absentmindedly, and then let out a loud curse as a small explosion of clothes and other paraphernalia flew out into his previously immaculate room. That damn button again…


If the IE can be credited with anything, it would be always going the extra distance. The IE regulated trade, businesses, products, buildings, even transportation. All military, economic, and political instruments were controlled by this vast conglomeration of businessmen and politicians. As a result, product quality rules were STRONGLY enforced. Every building built had to suffer orbital plasma bombardment, simulated earthquakes, simulated volcanic flows, and other highly destructive tests until they were considered safe for human use. The same rules applied to all other physical items built by the government, from computers to AI to chairs to tables to beds and beyond (though not necessarily subject to the same tests).

As a result of the meticulous construction required to pass the tests, the quality of life was actually pretty high throughout the IE. This was mimicked in all military structures as well. The Dabos III facility was the best factory for blanks ever built, even 500 years later. It was the first IE building ever, and the IE was proud of that. There were tours through there on occasion, but those were stopped for the period the project would be there, under the guise of "repairing" systems.

Zach stepped out of the quantum teleporter and immediately stumbled into a silver clad Spartan XII unit. The unit wore a cloth-like material that seemed to flow and fade at the edges, almost transparent. Zach's eyes seemed to slide off of the unit to the building around him. However, the two black ovals sitting over the eyes of the silver head belied the silver statue look. (It was rumored that the eye shields were taken from the E.O.D. variant of the original MJOLNIR armor, but this is unconfirmed.) Zach didn't have time to be surprised by this soldier, though.

"I have a job to do. Are you my escort?" Zach stated quickly. The unit nodded its head, and then motioned for him to follow. As quickly as the unit left its post, another quickly took its place. It was only then that Zach got a good look at his surroundings. The normally busy reception area of the teleporter was quiet, with a Spartan XII standing in front of each of the twenty seven teleportation areas. Aside from him and the Spartans, though, the building appeared deserted, as if the planet had been evacuated. However, Zach didn't have much more time to sit and stare. The Spartan ducked through the exit and moved into the field just outside the door.

About 30 feet away, over the grassy plain which stretched before him, a bubble appeared. The bubble, similar in color to the SS, grew in size until it was roughly as wide as a Scorpion, then collapsed upon itself to reveal the Hornet Mk. X, a fast attack unit designed around the latest in gravitic pulse engines, able to fly at Mach 20 in Earth atmosphere. It was a non-standard two-seater design, apparently used for transporting the Spartan and its passenger into battle and out of it quickly. The fighter craft had a central pod with two triangular wings extending forward beyond the body by about twelve feet, instead of swinging out, and each wing was armed with a particle cannon attached to the tips. While the maneuverability wasn't the greatest, the craft could get in and out of range fast enough to deliver a three-shot burst, or a sustained beam, enough to slice through the toughest transport or fighter craft shields with ease and still carve the craft up like a Thanksgiving turkey. All before the pilot even knew that an enemy was in range. The Hornet Mk. X found a name in history during the Covenant rebellion, when the last of the San 'Shyuum incited another war between the young IE and the Covenant. The casualties on the Covenant side were so high that the San 'Shyuum actually began attempts to negotiate a cease fire. Unfortunately, the San 'Shyuum home world was destroyed in a sneak attack by IE forces before the cease fire had even finished leaving the superluminal arrays. No San 'Shyuum had crawled from their blackened hole since that glorious day.

Zach climbed into the sleek and deadly craft. While he was impressed with the design, he wondered what the necessity for speed was. As fast as the Hornet was, he could circle this tiny planet within two minutes. Why did he need to get to the building so fast?

The Spartan leaped gracefully into the cockpit, sliding into his seat like water. The machine, without so much as a hum, lifted off of the ground, slowly and with care. Then there was a loud explosion.


John was busy marking off the large list of supplies that he would need when he heard the approaching sonic boom. His final technician was finally arriving. The Hornet screamed in from the horizon and decelerated from Mach 15 to sub-Mach 1 within the space of three seconds, and then coasted into the landing bay with the grace of a hummingbird. The docking clamps reacted immediately, rising from the floor to form two support struts, arms and pipes snaking from the walls to refuel and rearm the vehicle for battle, and a staircase rising from the ground to let the pilot out. Of course, the military precautions weren't necessary here, but the IE liked to be prepared for every contingency…

Mark clambered unsteadily out of the cockpit, shaken by his brief look down at the planet below him. His speed had shocked him, stunting his breathe and leaving him gasping. The disorientation of viewing such extreme speed with nearly no sense of acceleration had left him witless, and he was babbling incoherently by the time he got to the floor, where he collapsed on it and began to kiss its surface vehemently.

John couldn't help but laugh. "First time in a Hornet, eh kid?" This genius among geniuses had been shaken by something that John had experienced every day for the past several years. John's personal Hornet, bought at a great expense, was richly designed, though devoid of the weapons systems that most IE Hornets contained. He flew it everywhere, and had insisted that every one of his team get a flight in one.

"Yeah… ugh… I never want to do that again, though." Zach moaned as his body continued to assault his senses, disorienting him despite his knowledge that nothing had changed, not in pressure or air quality or any one of so many other environmental factors that his body was denying.

"Don't worry. We're going to be doing this on a daily basis from now on, to get you used to flight and fighting. I don't want weaklings under my command, understood?" John stated in a matter of fact voice.

Zach just stared at this man in front of him. Was he serious? This wasn't a marine unit, it was a science team. Why was the boss worried about physical fitness? He didn't have time to ponder any more, though, as his body reminded him that it wasn't feeling so well.

"Fine, fine. I'll do whatever you want," Zach groaned, getting up on his shaky legs. He staggered forward, brushing past John.

"Don't you want to know where your room is, Zachariah?" John inquired, smirking at Zach's weakness.

Zach stopped. Of course he did. He wanted to catch some now deeply needed R&R. "Yeah. I do. And call me Zach. Zachariah is too formal if we are going to be working together for the next two years."

John smiled again. This kid was a softie, but he had a good heart, from what John had heard. Things might work out between the two of them. He might even be included in the plan. That was a distance away, though, and there was plenty of time to evaluate the kid's skills later.

"It's room 212, the faculty room. Plenty of bedrooms, so go ahead and pick one. Mine's the president's room, though, so no stealing it. Got it?"

Zach nodded and trudged down the corridor. That ride had been surprisingly anxious, but since it had been three days since he last slept, the weight of the world had seemed to settle on his shoulders. He went to a gravity chair (a chair with a propulsion unit, a place to put your luggage, and a seat belt), sat down, put his bag in the compartment behind it, and sat down. "212," he murmured, and the chair flew off, moving through the corridors at 90 miles per hour. Zach groaned.


"Hey, we got the last recruit!" Three of the scientists cheered as Zach's chair floated down to meet them in the room. They were happy to receive him, limping off of the chair and gazing blankly at his surroundings. The sense of vertigo had left him, though he still felt wobbly. The men looked up expectantly.

"What's up?" he croaked out. The scientists stared at him for a second, and then started laughing.

"The guy has never ridden in a Hornet before! Unbelievable! Look at him! He looks wiped!" The men continued cajoling as he grabbed his stuff from the back of the lift. Another man came up to him.

"Sorry for their rudeness. They are brilliant and kind, so don't take their attitudes the wrong way. You know, the new assignment and all. Anyway, my name is Chad. Nice to meet'cha." Chad smiled as his huge hand engulfed Zach's weak return. Chad was enormous, standing a full 6'8", with dark brown skin. He was definitely of African origin, but he had the rustic looks of a German.

"Nice to meet you, too. Do you know what room mine is?" Zach smiled at Chad with all his strength. He just wanted to go to bed right now…

"Sure thing. Follow me. And don't worry about your suitcase. I got it." Chad lightly pried the rather hefty SS from Zach's hand and loped off. Zach lagged behind him.

At the end of the hallway, next to the President's room, Chad opened the door on the right. "This is your room. It's got a full holographic projection system, fridge, a bathroom, and everything else you'll ever need. Everything's all keyed in, too. You can open your door with this thumb scanner."

Zach blindly held his thumb over the holographic display, and the door opened with a smallhiss. Chad sauntered in, dropped off the bags, and then sauntered back out, briefly looking back. "Get some sleep man. You look dead." Zach nodded absently, wandered to the bed, landed on it with a thump, and drifted into dream land.


Zach awoke to the sounds of explosions. He leaped out from under the covers and charged into the hallway. At the end of the corridor, he saw two unidirectional heavy shield generators set up. John and Chad were crouched behind them, shooting at an unseen threat in the main common room. The wall nearest to Chad exploded, knocking him over. Chad struggled to get back up. He had been injured, with a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his back, around the kidney area. John's eyes traveled from Chad's damaged body to Zach. Zach couldn't move. It was like all those war-simulations that he had seen. There was blood everywhere. 'I just arrived no more than a couple hours ago! How could this be happening?!? Why me?!?' he screamed in his head.

"ZACH! Get your ass over here!" yelled John with vehemence, motioning with his hands. Zach nodded, but didn't move. It took another explosion in his room, annihilating all of his personal effects, to shock him out of it. Zach sprinted to the shield generators. As he arrived, John yanked the gun out of Chad's hands. Chad had stopped moving a couple seconds ago, and was now just staring at the floor with forlorn eyes, as if he had been wishing for something. "Here! This is a gun! Point, Shoot, Shoot, Shoot! Don't stop shooting for anything! Got it?!?" John screamed over the sound of the facility falling apart around them. Zach nodded. He had no idea who the enemy even was…

The shield directly behind John went down. As John turned, Zach saw an Elite jump over the remains of the device. With a battle cry, the Elite stabbed his antiquated plasma sword through John's chest. With his last ounce of strength, John whispered one word to Zach. "Survive…"


Zach awoke with a start. He was still lying on top of his sheets. Of course, he wouldn't have thrown off the covers if that had been real. He never got into bed… So that was a dream then.

"What the hell was that?" Zach said out loud. It had been roughly three years since his last dream, so he was particularly confused as to why this had come up now. It wasn't as if he hadn't changed locations before, and he had met nice people, too. So what was up with this weird dream?

Zach quickly got undressed, showered and then redressed. Breakfast was being served in the common room, so he marched out of his room and down to the common room. Seeing the assortment of scientists maneuvering through the small crowd before him, he figured he was in the right place. He saw an open kiosk, and sprinted to it. The hustle and bustle of the other scientists obscured his hasty attitude. He grabbed the kiosk and ordered a large skillet, with two eggs, potatoes, and several green vegetables. He added a parfait to the order, and then smiled as his order appeared in the container before him. He grabbed it and moved to a table. Chad meandered over to him and sat down.

"Yo! How was your night? We had a great party going over here, but we all hit the sack a little after you did. You sure were tired to sleep this late, weren't you?"

Zach smiled broadly at Chad. "Yeah. I was exhausted. The whole flight, plus that gravy chair? What was up with that? The thing felt like it was running more than twice as fast as it should have been."

"Yeah, John supped it up. The thing's minimum speed is 60 miles per hour now. Half the scientists here think that it's too extreme, and the other half think that it's too little. Some have planned to add a couple Quantum energy plants to the thing. The final result? They plan to reach Mach 7 with that damn thing. I won't touch it anymore," Chad said with a slight twinkle in his eye. It sounded like he was one of the one's who wanted to add those energy plants…

"Well, enough about ridiculous speeds that no human should ever reach, despite the gravy generators that are supposed to keep him from feeling the G's. What's the news on the project?" Zach said.

Chad was going to respond, but the lights dimmed before then. The scientists still bustling around sat down in the nearest available chair, and John stood up. Moving briskly to the front of the room, he pressed three buttons on his EDB. "Welcome, gentlemen! You know why you have been called, so I'll skip the pleasantries. We are building a super-Spartan. We begin work in just over two hours. In the meantime, we are going to go through boot camp. Got it?"

The scientists stared dumbfounded, but the look on John's face was deadly serious. "You have thirty minutes to finish your meal. While this isn't a military unit, we are building a military project. Everyone here will be in top physical fitness by the end of this project, get it?"

Everyone started smiling. Most people had read this little part of their contract, but it appeared that Zach had, in his haste to work on the project, forgotten to read this clause. "What's going on?" he murmured to Chad. "Boot camp. It was in the agreement. Didn't you read it?" Chad replied with a grin.

"Um… I must have skipped that part," Zach murmured.

"Well, here's the cheap, penny-for-your-thoughts version. We start out with military maneuvers, flying Hornets for a good little while. We each got our own for this project, so it'll be fun to try them out. Then we go through a boot camp-style training program. We'll be doing anaerobic exercise, such as sprinting, push-ups, squats, etc., and then do some aerobic exercise. That will include running and some other stuff. It'll take us about 12 hours to finish the whole thing. Then, we'll spend the rest of the time working on the project."

"Now, is everyone done their food? Good, now get to the bay!" John shouted, drowning out all the groans and sighs from the scientists. Zach stared at the empty plates lying in front of him. He had evidently eaten it all, though he didn't remember eating it. Oh well. Time to get to work…


A/N: OK, first off, I'm three months late. I promised October, and now it's January. I'm so sorry for those of you who were hoping that I'd update sooner. It's taken a ton of time to write these things, and with college essays, extended essays, and theory of knowledge essays, I've had NO time to write anything for myself. My days have been shot. No excuses, though. I failed you all. I'm still going to do the story, but hopefully (Now that I'm done with the essays) I'll be updating more frequently. Anyway, if you notice a mistake or have a question, please include them in your review. I changed the previous chapter because I got a nice review on the fact that blue suns aren't cold, but hotter than anything else. So I changed that, and am trying to get my facts as straight as possible.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you! And until next time, when I try to do this all over again in a much shorter time.