0600 hours, January 18th, 2544 (Military Calander)\

Reach.

Jake stood in the middle of a clearing in a large forest on the surface of Reach, looking forward. On his right stood Anton, and on his left was Emma. To her left was Danial. They were the only four in the clearing, looking at the cross that had been commissioned and erected. On it was a small memory, inscribed in it through the hard work of Jake and Anton over the course of the rest of the flight. They took turns, using their combat knives to inscribe the message on the small, wooden block. It looked more magnificent than any machine ever could have done.

Sheila-122. Spartan. Ally. Sister. Friend. Hero.

Shall always be remembered.

The entire thing, the cross, the cut-out, the ceremony that they had done, was unorthodox. As far as Jake knew, no fallen Spartan had had anything even remotely similar done in their honor. But she was more important than all of the others... Jake vaguely thought. Why can't I save them? Goddamnit! First Randall...and now Sheila? How much longer can we fight this war? Until every single one of us is dead and gone?

"Jake..." Emma murmured. Jake looked up from staring at the cross, and saw that Danial was already a few steps away, his back turned. Emma had her hand on his shoulder, while Anton had dropped to a low crouch. "...we should go. We've got a mission to do."

"I know." Jake whispered. "I know."

He looked down at Anton, who pulled a pile of dirt out of the ground, put it to his forehead, and then dropped it. He didn't wipe of his hands. "Let's go." He whispered, barely audible.

* * *

Vice Admiral Takashi Kurosaki stood on the bridge of the Pericles, looking out through the front view port. The UNSC Carrier drifted through space, the bridge crew just getting to work on the ship's systems. Fresh out of construction, it was a new ship. The crew had just graduated from the old Carrier the Archangel, which had recently been decommissioned.

"Sir, can you take a look at this?" someone said.

Takashi looked over at the source of the voice, it was one of the only veterans of the old crew, the Navigations officer. But instead of a navigation chart in front of him, he had a syllibus of everything that was currently on the ship. "Look at this," he said.

Takashi's eyes narrowed as he quickly read through the ship's complement. Ten longsword fighters, Fifteen Pelican dropships, six shortsword bombers, 200 ODSTs, 600 Marines-

NavSpecWar occupants

"Yeah. What's that?" he asked. The rest of the list showed the Naval crew aboard, the number of Mongooses and Warthogs and Scorpions they had, as well as all of the weapons and ammunition.

"Kubota. Ignore it." Takashi said, a smile crossing his face. It was the first true, happy grin that he had had in many, many years. "Let's just say it's something really, really good."


Writer's note: Recently, I've bought and read through the Halo Encyclopedia. There have been some discrepencies between what I've written and what is in the encyclopedia itself. I apologize for these mistakes, but some are a bit large to try and fix. So, with the fact that most of these chapters were written months ago, you, as the reader, are going to have to go with me on this. Thanks! :)