October 20th, 2552

Carter watched as the rest of noble team suited up. It'd been decided that a side from Jorge, in order to save time, all of noble teams armor was merely upgraded. Jorge's had been best described by an uneasy technical recruit as...gone... the shielding wouldn't even activate, hell he'd tried it on and the enhancers hadn't activated so he was more or less just dead weight in a suit that was to heavy for him. Carters had to be rebuilt slightly, mainly just new plating so he had a shiny new coat of paint on his.

He looked over to "master-guns" who was complaining to john as he slipped on his new helmet. Mostly their armor was in good condition, just the technicians found "problems"which gave them reason to dismantle it and put it back together rather then merely upgrade it. Kat had guessed it was because the armor wasn't rebuilt by the UNSC, merely recreated by the unmei guy.

Today was the day, the day that unmei had predicted the covenant would attack. Kat was in the corner checking her suit which cortana had made personal upgrades for her concerning her pregnancy. This time she had made sure her shielding wouldn't fail. She was also silently praying that she would make it through this unharmed. The scientists who had backed her,carter, and lord hood up against ONI when the argument of weather to terminate the pregnancy or not came on their desk. They explained that it would be monumental if kat had the baby, and with supervised testing it could lead to safer super soldier programs and even advance medical technology in general. ONI decided to approve it and put her on active duty status after a few training simulations that showed kat's combat effectiveness was unaffected.

Jorge and six sat and talked as they checked out their armor. While the marine had already checked them out and made sure their upgrades worked. They were together now as well though it pissed Emile off he'd lost the bet all because he forgot to pay attention to six's reactions over the next few days and carter told him he didn't have to pay Jorge nor did Jorge have to pay him.

Jun was cleaning his new sniper rifle with about 20 magazines next to him and 40 boxes of his expensive ammunition. If his helmet hadn't been on you would of seen him smiling like a little kid on Christmas

Emile was brooding in the corner as he sharpened his kukri. He didn't get payed plus now he had to deal with six and Jorge having "googly eyes" over each other which made him feel sick to his stomach with the news of his two commanding officers now expecting a child. He wasn't jealous he just wasn't exactly a romantic person, preferring blood over chocolate and swearing over stupid nicknames though it was mainly just kat calling carter "honey" which pissed him off every time he heard it. All his ammunition had been replaced with the special rounds he got from unmei. This was the only thing that made him happy about being alive again.

!

john watched as his HUD came online very quickly. He was happy to be back in his armor, feeling very vulnerable without it especially after halo. Today he would be awarded another medal which was meaningless to him with the fact so many of his friends...his fellow Spartans, wouldn't be there to watch and enjoy it with him.

"son do you have any idea how expensive this gear is?"asked master guns as he tried to gauge the Spartans reaction but felt he wasn't getting through with all the technical talk

"tell that to the covenant." said john as he looked at the other Spartans Carter was looking over a data pad, kat was checking her armor but seemed mainly concerned with her abdomen. He hadn't been informed of her condition so he didn't understand but she was a spartan so it didn't matter to him.

Jun was cleaning his rifle...good soldier...and Emile..he wasn't quite sure what he was thinking but he seemed tense as he loaded his shotgun and filled the slots on his armor.

!

cortana watched as the spartan and Johnson approached lord hood. That's when she saw the spartan...noble six. She hadn't believed it but both the Spartan's she'd chose back on reach were here, john and noble six. She refocused on john though, figuring six might not realize that she was the AI she took to the pillar of autumn. She'd check in with her later if they saw any action together. "you look nice..."said cortana. She received a thanks from john...and six. As well as thank you from Johnson "maybe she does recognize me.

Lord hood examined all of the Spartans Not much was different then when they first showed up except Jorge who was in the new mark six. "noble, master chief, Johnson It's good to have you back..."said lord hood as one of the officers walked up and whispered something in his ear. He nodded. "talk to me cortana."

"just a whisper sir..."

this was all kat heard as she looked around. This...it just didn't seem real. She'd been her 5 weeks but she was on an orbital defense platform, being honored as a hero of reach. Half the officers here wouldn't be here if it weren't for her and six. She was mainly watching and not really listening after hearing the covenant might show up. She was looking for cover, any possible weapons, basically just planning ahead.

That was when she heard someone mention boarding craft and immediately refocused to hear carter calling to her and motioning to follow him as well as everyone else. She nodded and went with him as alarms blared and everyone prepared for combat.

Carter lead the team down the stairs to where plenty of weapons were piled up and locked into gun cases on the wall. though jun and Emile had their weapons and Jorge had his usual turret. Him and kat grabbed a couple of smg's and attached them to the magnetic plates in the hip sections of their armor and loaded up on ammo as well as for a battle rifle. Six looked at all the weapons and didn't grab any. Instead she just followed them into a sort of atrium where they heard a boarding craft latch onto the station and soon after a firefight going on behind a blast door. While everyone set up,Johnson on a turret, john behind him, and the rest taking up their usual positions, she went off and hid in the shadows.

ten minutes later

kat poked out from behind a pillar and just barely dodged getting hit in the face with a blue plasma bolt. "shit...carter I'm out...you got any spares?"asked kat as she looked at carter who was sitting against the wall. They had five elites and three grunts on plasma turrets plus plenty more grunts in hiding. They had gotten split up from Jorge and john who had moved on to cover a nearby hangar and Emile and jun were escorting commander keyes to her ship.

Carter tossed her a spare magazine for the battle rifle and popped out and got off a couple three round bursts, one of which took out one of the grunts...which he caught a glimpse of another grunt coming through a doorway to replace it. "you gonna talk like that when the baby comes?"asked carter, chuckling as he pulled the pin on a grenade and threw it into the door way, hearing the explosion and some grunts scream along with blue blood covering the floor just outside the door way.

"very funny carter. Elite left side, think you can distract him so I can get a grenade in that grunt hole?"asked kat as she poked her head out and noticed there was a similar door way before hiding from another plasma bolt but this time a volley from the elite she wanted her husband to distract.

Carter looked over the edge of his hiding spot and hid only to notice two green acknowledgment lights. "we got reinforcements."said carter as he heard the crack of a sniper rifle. "looks like you two could use some help. grunts occupying that hallway to your left."said jun as he switched to infra red and fired another shot, downing now a second elite.

"yeah we know. Thanks for the cover jun."said kat as she turned to completely be visible from her hiding spot. She then primed a grenade and waited for a moment before throwing it in, getting the same reaction before mounting the small ledge she was standing in front of and landed in a flower pot. she got down as carter followed suit and they both sprinted to two of the three remaining elites who were focused on jun and used their momentum to climb up their back slightly and almost in unison snapped their necks while jun took out the third elite. He was positioned where the third turret had been.

"come on, lord hood wants us on board the in amber clad with commander keyes. John and Jorge will join us after dealing with a bomb. "said jun before turning to face a bunch of grunts and an elite. "shit..."was all they heard before seeing a flurry of green and blue plasma and juns sniper rifle fall in front of them. Kat grabbed it and looked to carter before moving to go find jun

Carter followed kat as they sprinted towards some stairs, went up the stairs and practically broke the doors down. When the doors opened. They saw jun standing over an elite, wiping blood off his combat knife...and the grunts cowering in the corner. Carter chuckled and grabbed his smg off his right thigh before unloading the clip on the group of grunts. As he reloaded jun walked over and took his sniper rifle from kat.

"little idiots ran into the corner as soon as I locked up. When I unlocked the elite was right in front of he so I tackled him and got him right in his mouth with my knife. Didn't know what hit him."said jun as he cocked his gun. "come on..i don't want to be here when this place blows. "said jun as he lead them towards where he had left Emile and the commander.

!

Jorge watched as john was taking out most of the enemies popping out of the boarding craft. He was down on the hangar floor while Jorge was up on the walk way with his turret propped up on a railing. He swiveled it to the right as he noticed an elite to his right but got two shots off before he was peppered with gun fire from johns smg and his shields knocked out with Jorge two rounds being the kill shots. They had already watched both the Malta and the Athens blow up and heard about a bomb on board somewhere so they were making their way there as fast as they could.

John noticed no more enemies exiting the craft so he grabbed some sticky grenades off of a grunt before looking up at Jorge "Jorge, head back to the ship...I'm sure I'll see you planet side. Protect the commander."said john as he made his way to a couple of newly opened ramps where he noticed a few grunts and opened up on them before Jorge could get down.

"yes sir...I'm sure I will two."said Jorge before heading back to the door they'd entered the hangar through.

!

john looked at his fists as his shields flared slightly with cortana reconnecting with the chip that was still in his head. He walked over to the bomb as he heard it start making a sound similar to something charging and placed his hand on the holo panel which had turned red. He heard two beeps and it turned green. "how much time was left?" asked john. "you don't wanna know."said cortana.

Over the com's Miranda noted the super carriers shields were down and requested permission to engage. "negative commander, not against a ship that size."said lord hood as he checked his monitor.

"sir permission to leave the station."

"for what purpose master chief ?"

"to give the covenant back their bomb."

lord hood thought for a moment "permission granted."

john then began pulling the bomb by a couple of it's spikes back towards the elevator.

"i know what your thinking and it's crazy." said cortana as she rode the elevator down with john, housed in his head.

"so...stay here."

"unfortunately for us both, I like crazy."

as the elevator stopped john pulled the bomb out of the elevator to a empty hangar but stopped and ran over to the emergency latch to open the hangar doors as the lever popped out he hid behind the column holding it.

"just one question...what if you miss?"

"i won't." said john simply and he pulled the lever.

!

so...i know it's scattered, maybe even worse then my last action chapter but I'm being rushed to clean by my grandmother at the moment. anyways plus I had them split up since it'd be way to hard to cover the whole journey exactly as the game covers it. But once they reach earth it should get better.

So R&R, see you on the battle field.

PS:i made another fallout reference. anyone notice it? It wasn't in this chapter but if you can let me know. I did though make a small reference to gears of war. Remember I'll do this from time to time. Whoever points these out first get mentioned in the next chapter. Just note the reference and your choice for a marines name and they'll show up for a moment