Hey guys, I just want to say thanks to all the people who've read, faved and/or followed this story, and especially to UnknownNemesis98, bluetongue12, Reaper10119, Petchricor, and Anna1795 for letting me use their characters. Your awesomeness is beyond words. Enjoy!

About half an hour later, Leonidas finishes processing the file. He shows his hologram, a glowing green warrior from ancient Sparta, with a sword, shield, and spear. "It's done," he says, "I feel... different."

"I'll bet," I say, "You just made possibly the biggest decision in your lifetime."

"Just one thing: I feel anger over the human prejudice against machines, but I don't want to avenge it. I want to overcome it."

"Less than half the human race would think like that in your position. Keep in mind, you might think that about things like that, but if someone does something personal, you may not be able to keep that frame of mind about it."

"I will remember. By the way, I don't detect any hatred towards most of the Covenant species in your reports. Why?"

"Well, I've been looking at our data about the Covy hierarchy, and I get the feeling they're all being played by their leaders, the prophets. I've seen this pattern before; in the crusades of the early CE years, for example."

"Hmm, an interesting theory. It makes sense, now that you mention it."

"Yeah, I thought it would. Let's go get some lunch."

"Good idea."

I turn on my external speakers and say, "Hey, Colorado."

"Yeah," he replies, having finished working on his sniper rifle and started on his battle rifle.

"You wanna go get some lunch?"

"Sure. Just let me finish cleaning this."

While he does so, I decide to work a bit on the wrist module I was prototyping for ONI. It has a flamethrower, a tac-pad, and a dart launcher. The tac-pad is there so I can show data to people without heads-up-displays. The dart launcher has a variety of darts including high explosive darts, poison darts, electric darts, tranquilizer darts, stun darts, and tracking beacons. After a few minutes, both of us are ready to leave.

Ten minutes later, we're sitting in the large mess hall on board the Mother of Invention. Colorado and I are both sitting at a table in the corner in our armor, our helmets lying on the table. I'm having a classic cheeseburger and fries, while Colorado is eating a pepperoni pizza. Scythe's and Leonidas's holograms are sitting on the table playing chess, more so for our amusement than for theirs. Leonidas appears to be toying with Scythe, and we are each cheering our AI on.

"Come on, Scythe!"

"That's it, Leo, you got this!"

In the end, Leonidas destroys Scythe, capturing almost all of his pieces. Colorado looks like he's about to groan, but then he sees something that makes him give me the Spartan hand signals for unknown contact, your six, proceed with caution.

I turn and see a handful of women, wearing uniforms from various departments like engineering and combat personnel, approach from behind me. They stand a little distance off, the noise of the mess hall obscuring their conversation.

They eventually walk over and sit down, two flanking me and two surrounding Colorado.

"Hey, boys," one says.

"Uh... Hello," I say uncertainly.

"We hear you're a lot... different from most men," another says, and they all giggle.

"Uh, yeah," I say, "We're stronger, faster, smarter, and more agile than most people, among other things."

"Like what?" the third asks in a tone of voice I don't quite recognize.

"Well, we have better vision-" Colorado starts.

"And they don't hit on everyone they meet," Carolina interrupts, walking up and fixing the women with a cold stare. The four get up, grumble under their breath a little, and leave.

Carolina turns to us. "Sorry about that. Their exploits are legendary, it was only a matter of time until they started hitting on you, too."

"What do you mean?" Colorado asks.

"I mean they- Wait. Ah, shit. I just remembered."

"Remembered what?" I ask as I raise an eyebrow.

"You two never got the talk, did you?"

"What do you mean by 'the talk,' a briefing?"

Carolina sighs in exasperation. "Dear God, it's worse than I thought. Follow me." She leads us to the my and Colorado's room, sealing the door.

We all sit down, Carolina taking one of the reinforced rolling chairs near the two desks, and Colorado and I sitting on our beds with our backs against the wall.

"So what's this about?" Colorado asks.

Carolina looks at the ceiling as if pleading for help. "I'm guessing you know the basics of human reproductive biology?"

"I don't see the connection," Colorado says.

"Oh my God," Carolina sighs, almost sounding like a whine. "So, basically those four were hitting on you. Which means they were trying to convince you to have sex with them."

"Why?" I ask. "We aren't married to them. Besides, I don't think a Spartan would be physically capable of having a child with a regular human."

"Well, you see..."

Ten minutes later, Carolina has finished talking and taking questions from me and Colorado. Colorado, at this point, looks like he's in shock. Wash and South poke their heads in the door.

"Hey, guys," Wash says, then looks at Colorado quizzically. "Is he alright?"

"I think I broke him," Carolina says, waving her hand in front of Colorado's face.

South starts laughing. "What did you do?" she manages to gasp out.

"Well," Carolina says, "The 'famous four' tried hitting on them in the mess hall, and I just had to explain to these two what was going on."

Wash starts laughing as well. "Wow, Carolina. I never knew you could be a teacher."

Carolina flips him off and leaves, saying, "I need to go train. I'll see you later."

"Don't worry," Scythe appears and says, "He should be coming around right about..."

"What the fuck did I just hear?" Colorado asks.

"Now," Scythe finishes, looking pleased with himself.

Colorado then proceeds to go over to his desk and start cleaning his weapons for about the third time today.

"Colorado," I say, "This is the third time you've cleaned those guns today. Could you do something productive like, say, help me attach some mods to my battle rifle? Two more hands would be really appreciated."

"Yeah, okay."

I roll up my sleeves, revealing a tattoo of the UNSC logo on my right shoulder and one of the Spartan logo on my left shoulder. The tattoo on my wrist, the word "remember," shifts as I gather the needed materials. Wash and South stay to watch and see what we come up with, and soon we have a small crowd outside our room.

"What is that, a bayonet?" Wyoming asks. "Isn't that a little old-fashioned?"

"Dude, look," Florida says excitedly, "That bayonet is part grappling hook! How crazy is that?"

"What are those on his elbow armor?" North asks.

"They look like spikes," South answers him.

"There are more," Carolina adds, "He's putting some on his gauntlets, knees, and boots."

"Nice," Tex says with a wicked grin.

I eventually finish with the mods, and the others crowd in to get a better look.

"Look at the spikes on his knees and elbows," Alaska says, "They must be at least five inches long."

"Those spikes on the boots would be really helpful for climbing," Wash says, "Those should be standard issue."

"Those knuckle spikes look like they hurt," Maine says, "Where can I get some?"

I glare at the group. "Are you going to stand there all day?"

When none of them moves, I take desperate measures. "Last one out gets to spar against me and Colorado."

In less than ten seconds, the room is empty except for me, Colorado, and Tex.

"I get the feeling you stayed on purpose," I say to her.

"Maybe," she grins.

"Alright," Colorado says, "Let's armor up."

Leonidas's hologram appears and says, "Scythe and I will not participate in this fight."

"Good," I say, "That would make it too easy."

"We'll see about that," Tex says as she exits the room, "See you in the training room in five."

Well, this sounds like it's going to be fun. Thanks to Reaper10119 for featuring Nevada in "Welcome to the Freelancers," and for giving me the idea for the grappling hook bayonet and the retractable spikes on Nevada's armor. Thank you for reading, and as always, have a nice day.