The Body Dies, but the Spirit Lives

Time: 1300 hours

Date: March 13, 2562 (Military Calendar)

Location: In orbit onboard the UNSC ship Forbidden Evolution, planet Ejomeg Secundus, Jeroma System

"…I'm sorry, Master Chief Satoshi…"

"No, it was not your fault, Sergeant Jenny. You were overwhelmed and lost sight of the goal, that is all…"

"But I lost a Spartan, sir… Not a local officer… Not a Marine… Not an ODST… But a Spartan… One of my own!"

Satoshi had managed to find Spartan-185, Sergeant Jenny Luanda, on the top deck of Forbidden Evolution. She was still mourning the loss of one of her teammates during the assault on Ejomeg Secundus, even though she was not one to show her emotions in times as great as these.

"It was my fault…" the Spartan murmured, her gloved fist slamming into the titanium-A wall, leaving a fair-sized dent. "If it were not for my judgment, then Kevin would still be alive!"

"Jenny, listen to me… None of this is your fault, ok? Blame it on the Covenant that we have to be here… Blame it on them that they are taking lives by the billons, for something that is of their own selfish desires, for their 'Great Journey' that is only meant to doom all sentient life… You did what you could; his life was not wasted. We fought, and we won, only to continue to fight until all is done."

There was silence for quite some time as the sergeant looked out at the stars. The cleanup team had done wonders to clear out the debris, most of it taken down back to Ejomeg Secundus to see if anything could be salvaged, and if not, melted down to create new ships or to study the technology of the Covenant force. They could see the constellation Orion to the right, his arm held high with a weapon, ready to kill the lion that was gripped in the other.

"But for how long will we actually call this victory ours?"

Her voice had a hint of fatigue that the chief knew she was trying to mask with her hardened tone.

"Jenny, we will continue to fight, but for humans to survive, there is a heavy sacrifice… Every armed forces personnel knows that… The Marines know that… The ODSTs know that… All the Spartans know that… I know this… You know this… Even Kevin knew… We are all risking our lives for the future, as well as for those we love…"

There was another moment of silence.

"Yes, I know sacrifices must be made…" she whispered. "Satoshi, you have a child, yes?"

The chief looked up in shock, only to turn away slightly, running his hand through his hair nervously. It had been a long while since he had talked about his family, let alone, his dead daughter. He coughed a little before regaining his composure.

"Had…" he finally replied, his voice slightly choked. "Had… She died about eight years ago, during the time I had been called back for duty… Shot and killed by a group of local bandits while my wife was sick. I returned home from the field to attend the execution of the living bandit and her funeral… That was the last I ever saw her or my wife…"

"Oh… I am sorry to hear that, sir… I didn't-"

Satoshi held up his hand to stop her and turned around, taking his time to draw a deep breath before exhaling.

"It is quite all right, Jenny… It is quite all right…"

"You lost a part of yourself when that happened, didn't you?"

"Of course… What respectable father wouldn't, especially with an only child such as her? She was the one I deeply treasured with my wife…"

"It is the same thing with Kevin… Kevin was… was… my son…"

Satoshi looked at her with disbelief.

"You allowed the UNSC… Catherine Halsey, of all people, to have your son for the project?"

"I didn't have a choice… No one else has better knowledge of the project than Halsey. It was my son's choice to want to become a Spartan, to help me in the battle for humanity's survival."

The chief sighed quietly and closed his eyes. He clenched his fist and growled lowly. He knew that if Neala were still alive and she had the chance, she would have done the same thing. Families fighting for their families… Friends for their friends… All for their loved ones…

"Jenny… You know the UNSC will refuse to put any Spartan as KIA… They will only put them as MIA… To hide the truth from everyone…"

"I know, but… why…"

Satoshi paced quietly on deck. He knew the truth, and the truth he told.

"Jenny, it's all a part of the UNSC to make everyone think that we are immortal, but we aren't… We've all lost comrades here and there to the Covenant, whether on accident or whatever, but there is one thing that we must keep in mind…"

Jenny seemed to have softened the mourning over her dead son and stood there, looking at Satoshi.

"Yes…?"

"They are still with us, even though we do not see them…"

"What do you mean?"

"Even though we no longer see them, we always feel the presence of our loved ones near, as though they are watching or are with us during the battles."

"Now that you've mentioned it, even though he was gunned down like that, I felt as though he was still there, fighting alongside us."

Satoshi smiled.

"See? Even though they are no longer with us physically, they are still with us in one form or another, mostly in thought but there regardless."

"But… Kevin…"

"I know, but it is just like my little Neala… She is dead, but I feel her presence when a fight happens, watching her dad take on the Covenant for the better and future of mankind…"

Jenny turned and embraced her commanding officer, something that was a little awkward, but Satoshi knew that she needed it. She was a mother who had just lost her son, a son who became what he wanted to be, just to help out someone he loved. Everyone needed someone to hold, even Satoshi. This war was a terrible one, one that caused the deaths of billions of innocent as well as millions of armed personnel, all gunned down in the line of duty or injured so much that they are tagged WIA. Jenny trembled and sobbed into his suit, her warm tears falling on to the cold armor that was considered his second skin. He looked into the shadows, a private standing there with news, but seeing that the chief was busy, he hurriedly disappeared. No one needed to be disturbed, especially now.

The two went down to the main deck, where the other Spartans had gathered around the remains of Spartan-284, Private Kevin Luanda. His body had been taken out of the suit and cremated. Admiral Dwight Whitten presented the urn of ashes to the mother, who took it into her gloved hands. She looked at Satoshi and the others, her eyes brimming with tears…

Tears of sadness that her son was dead…

Tears of joy that he would no longer have to endure the pain of a Spartan…

Tears of regret that she had let him become a war machine, only to die…

Tears of pain and anger against the Covenant for taking away the one she cherished…

Taking this time as R&R for his Spartans, Satoshi had asked the Admiral if it was ok if they went down to Ejomeg Secundus to bury the remains, as that was where both Jenny and Kevin were born and raised. Seeing this as an act of kindness to return the burned body to the place where he was born, as well as an act out of respect to give a proper burial, the admiral gathered the Pelicans to carry the Spartans while he, the higher ups, Satoshi, and Jenny with her urn took the Longsword back down to Ejomeg Secundus to a quiet little valley.

Satoshi set foot in this quaint place and swept around before giving the ok for everyone else to come out. Two Spartans from one of the Pelicans came out with a shovel and motioned for Jenny to tell them where to dig the grave while two more stepped out with Kevin's suit. Jenny motioned for the two with shovels to just leave them, and for an hour, they traveled deep into the forest until they came to a little shrine. Everyone was quiet as they entered the place, as though a holy presence was amongst them.

"This is one of many ancestral grounds that we have protected today in our battle against the Covenant…" Jenny whispered, her voice hallowed as she placed the urn on a shelf lined with other urns inside the sacred place.

The others gathered around her, paying their deepest respects to the dead amongst them, as well as to their fallen Spartan brother. The admiral stepped forward and took off his cap to honor those who had died.

"Today, another had joined in their journey to the afterlife. Although Kevin was only 22 when he died, I now know he did not die because of a choice I had made… He was a smart and talented boy, able to fend for himself at such a young age. When he found out what I was, he asked to help. I refused, but the determination was so great that I reluctantly agreed for him to become what I had become. He fought for the freedom of humans, for the survival of his own race. His life was not wasted, and I will continue where he left off…"

"Amen to that…" Admiral Whitten whispered. "Amen to that…"

The chief motioned for everyone to leave while the two with the suit, Andes and Tanoak, came in and stood it up on a stand. As soon as they left, he turned to Jenny.

"Take as much time as you need…" he gestured from the doorway. "We won't leave until you're ready…"

"Thank you, chief…" was all she could say in her tear-choked voice.

He closed the wooden panels behind and let out a heavy sigh before rejoining his teams in the courtyard.

"How is she?" Kyle asked as he sat down to relieve the tension on his mended right Achilles' tendon.

"A hard blow…" the chief replied, shaking his head. "A hard blow… Spartan-284 was her son…"

"I say we get one of our Fury tac-nukes and blow their home world…" Tanoak growled as he crushed a dead leaf with his right boot. "This has gone far enough…"

Randall whistled at the name of the bomb. He had heard of these close-to-nuke weapons before. They were oddly shaped, some what might describe them as the size and shape of over-inflated footballs. Its yield was just under a megaton, but the way it burned was quite clean compared to the ancient atomic bombs and nuclear warheads that were created in the past. The only drawback was that such weapons emitted a large amount of EMP, scrambling any circuitry within several hundred kilometers. The Spartans had never used these, as they were always too close no matter how far they retreated, or there was important weaponry that would be deterred useless if the pulse destroyed the hardware and messed with the software, but it would leave a good bruise on the Covenant fleet if they were able to use it somehow.

"That's if you know where it is located," William, Spartan-310, replied. "Not even ONI knows where it's located."

"Well, tell the brass that once they know, Team Rising Sun will be ready to deliver the package!" he roared, only to be stared at by the other Spartans.

"Calm yourself…" Satoshi hissed, staring at the others as they turned away and talked amongst themselves. "We are in no position to do anything rash until we can find more information. Once we find the final Halo, we can track down the remaining and follow them back to their world somehow, ok? For now, we can't just blindly charge in, you understand?"

Tanoak stepped back and cowered slightly.

"Yes, sir…"

Satoshi could feel the tension growing in his men. They were nervous of the war to come. More people would die, if not, more Spartans. The death of 284 was just one of many sacrifices that were made. He saw the whole list of Spartans that had died, hundreds of them, all marked MIA's when they are really KIA's. The chief walked over towards Whitten, only to hear some more developing news.

"Chief, we'll need to dust off soon…" the admiral explained in a low voice as he nodded to a few to get ready. "It seems that there's another planet under attack…"

"But I told Jenny-"

"I am here, sir…" came a solemn voice from behind. "And I am ready to take it to them…"

Satoshi turned around and looked at his sergeant. Something changed her while she was in there, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He walked over and looked her over carefully.

"Jenny, are you sure?"

The sergeant looked up at the chief and admiral, the hunter green helmet nested in her right arm glistening in the moonlight of an Ejomegian night. Her eyes seemed dull when they had first arrived, as though a fire had died, but now, her sea green eyes were in flames, flames that could not be quenched by anything but the blood of the Covenant responsible for the deaths of many, especially those of the Prophets.

"Yes… I cannot leave what my son has left unfinished. One way or another, what he started will be completed, if not by me, then by another."

"I understand…"

The chief turned to everyone as they gathered around.

"Ok, guys… Looks like we're needed elsewhere now," Satoshi reported. "The ten Spartans stationed on this planet will be able to handle themselves now that the MAC guns have been restored and under our control again. We're moving out now. Anymore time being spent dawdling only means more time for the Covenant to win the race in finding their last so-called holy relic. Let's double-time back to the LZ and head off to the UNSC base for an ammunition run. I want all men to check their equipment before we dust off this planet for good, got it?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" everyone replied in one voice.

"Chief, I'll need you to get on the Longsword with me," Whitten commanded. "I will brief you on what is going on, and see how you will tackle this situation. With forty Spartans, you have too many. You will need to pick your best wisely and clear this mission before I can send in the others."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Walk with me, and I will continue the briefing once we head off to Ovid IX."

"Ovid IX? The giant ice planet?"

"Yes… The giant ice planet…"

"Let me guess, the Covenant have found it as a resource base?"

"So to say…"

"Hmm… Tanoak!"

A Spartan came jogging over and saluted.

"Yes, sir?"

"When we arrive at the Armory, grab two Fury tac-nukes… We are giving them hell once we arrive…"

"Yes, sir!"

Tanoak whooped as he ran towards the waiting Pelicans and was the first to take off while the others followed suit, escorting the black Longsword into the city. Yes, they would now bring hell to the Covenant again, just as they had done on the stations.

Within hours, all the teams had returned with their new weapons, including full loads of Jackhammer and Anaconda surface-to-air missiles, as well as full crates of ammunitions for their various rifles and guns, and grenades enough to knock a thirty-story building flat on its back. Tanoak had carefully brought in a rather large crate and set it in the Armory. Randall, who was putting away the grenades and extra ammunitions for the battle rifles, could only stare at him for a few minutes.

"Uh… How many of those Fury tac-nukes do you have there…?" he laughed nervously.

"Oh… At least enough to make the fireworks display last for a good month…" the first Spartan laughed, opening the crate to reveal two pallets of four securely placed bombs.

"Does Satoshi know that you have that many on board?"

"He never said now many…"

Randall scratched his head, poking the box with the tip his sniper rifle.

"Eight does sound a bit overboard, doesn't it? That's not like him to not say how many he wanted…"

"Ok, so he said to only bring two, but I don't think that's enough… I mean, have you seen the bombs the Covenant has? Those things have over three megatons of power! Don't you remember the destruction of Avalon XIX?"

"I remember…" the second replied, closing his eyes and shaking he head as he remembered the number of deaths had been accounted for when they had arrived. "But, just don't come running to me when he finds out, ok? Not my fault if he yells at you for it."

"Better safe than sorry…"

Randall only nodded and quickly went back for the remaining crates. New Warthogs, Scorpions, and several Wolverines, one-person, ATV versions of the Warthog, had been transported to the vessel, stored in the main vehicle hangar of the Forbidden Evolution.

Soon, the ship was charging its jump systems and disappeared in a bright flash.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know that the ATV is called a Mongoose, but for the sake of my imagination, as well as since I though Mongoose sounded a little too small, I had nicknamed them to the Wolverine. Besides, Wolverine has a better ring to it...