November 23rd, 2541 01:11 Hrs

Valiant Class Super-heavy Cruiser, UNSC Blood of Kings

Outbound of Lambda V System

-Grizzly Team-

Jake stripped his rifle for the umpteenth time, it was quite calming to just sit and repeat the same task over and over again, and after their narrow escape from Manticore, Jakes' nerves were on the jittery side, fortunately he'd managed to keep calm until after the other Spartans and the rest of the soldiers and crew had entered cryo, which due to the sheer number of people aboard were in short supply and as such Jake had opted to not enter cryo, allowing someone else to use the pod.

"You know, if you could reinsert the bolt catch without wiggling it, you could shave 0.825 seconds off of your personal best" Galahad noted jokingly, prompting a middle finger from the Spartan in question, whilst he liked the A.I and appreciated the company, he was a bit annoying "Also I detect a slight issue with you night vision system, I would suggest that you allow me to run a system diagnostic" he added, prompting a sigh from Jake.

"Only if it keeps you from bothering me" Jake replied as he picked up his helmet from the deck and move to plug it into the terminal Galahad was stored in, who normally resided in Carter's armour, but as he was in cryo, had been plugged something else.

"Oh, and I thought my witty personality was quite nice, but if you insist I won't bother you unless..." Galahad began, only to be interrupted by the sound of the ship's intercom crackling to life.

"Spartan 384 please report to the Admiral's ready room" the intercom requested, prompting a raised eyebrow from the Spartan in question.

"Unless someone else bothers you first, I wonder what you did wrong this time?" Galahad mused, Jake however simply rolled his eyes before leaving the A.I to himself, "Hey at least tell me what happens, there's not much else going on around here" He called, Jake, however, ignored the A.I and proceded towards the Admiral's ready room, receiving curious looks from the skeleton crew as he did so, Spartans only existed in rumours after all, finally he reached the door in question and was about to knock when the door sprang open, finding an aged man sitting at his desk.

"Ah Spartan 384, I heard about how we nearly left you behind on Manticore, and I would like to apologise for not realising you were still there in the first place " the admiral greeted as he stood up, offering his hand as he did so.

"I prefer Jake sir, and thank you for being there to pull us out of the fire, Admiral..." Jake replied as he searched for a name tag on the Admiral's uniform.

"Hood, Admiral Terrance Hood, now as to why you are here" Hood answered, before picking up a tablet from on top of the desk, "Our techs picked this up before we jumped to slipspace, We only just managed to decode it" He continued as he handed Jake the Tablet

"I'll let you have the room" Hood added before leaving, leaving the Spartan somewhat confused, what would Jake need the room for, but as he powered up the tablet he froze as a document came on screen, it was an after action report on Shark Team and Puma Team, another two of the Cat-2 teams, they had been assigned to assist with Evacuations in one of Manticore's Larger cities, on the opposite side of the planet to Grizzly, Panther and Fox, however they had lost contact early on in the battle, but what stood out to him were the three red letters next to each of the teams names, 'M.I.A' and as he read the report, he began to feel back to that night so many years ago as he and Beth had watched their home planet being burned into glass from orbit, the W.I.A classification was just ONI's way of saying that they were dead, because ONI's Directive 930, forbid any Spartan from being classified K.I.A, and order that Jake and many other Spartans, even some of the II's, hated with all their will; finally he'd read enough and so Jake put the tablet back on the desk, and stormed out, not even noticing Admiral Hood in the process.

"I knew this was going to happen" Hood sighed as he watched the Spartan stalk off, before turning to a nearby holo-terminal where the ships A.I sprang to life "Keep an eye on him but give him some space" he added, the A.I simply nodded before disappearing once more.

"Ah Jake, How was your chat with the Admiral, are you in trouble?" Galahad asked as Jake re-entered the room, Jake however simply blanked the A.I as he stared at the opposite wall,

"Jake, you ok?" he asked concerned, seeing immediately something was wrong.

"Galahad, power down for a while" Jake growled, Galahad, however, didn't comply, watching the Spartan with concern, clearly something was off about him, "Galahad! off now!" he snarled, turning to face the A.I, the look of anger on his face was more than enough to confirm his suspicions, but rather than make the situation worse, Galahad complied with Jake's order, and powered down, leaving Jake alone in the room; Finally alone Jake could finally let out the anger boiling within him, by turning back towards the opposite wall and burying his fist in it multiple times, until finally he turned, panting, back towards where he'd stashed his gear and began to bandage his bleeding hand, leaving a significant dent in the interior wall, which Jake had selected as it was made out of a lighter steel than the rest of the ship, and wouldn't damage his hand as much, luckily his bones had received a similar treatment to the Spartan II's making them unbreakable, although that had due to chemical's rather than skeletal implants like the II's, but Jake didn't care about that, or the dent in the wall, or even the pain in his hand, all he cared about was that eight of his friends were dead, and he had been powerless to save them.

Authors notes

So it's been a while, I kept changing my mind over this chapter, and it probably doesn't help that I'm still getting settled after moving to uni, but I'm getting into the swing of things so I'll try and do better in the future.