Chapter 36! Read, Review, and PM me your comments opinions and suggestions! I love hearing from the readers! Agent Nevada and his AI belong to Gizmo16x. Be sure to check out his work!

"As far as I can tell you're fine; you might experience a slight increase in reaction times, speed, and strength that could be temporary or permanent. There's also a Forerunner device that was added through your neural implant that I was unsure what will do, but it seems benign. It is unable to be removed though. Otherwise you show perfect health. Besides the nasty burns of course" Halsey informed Colorado once he was fully awake from the exam.

"So no scary acid-blooded aliens are going to explode out of my chest and try to eat everyone else?" Colorado laughed halfheartedly.

"Be sure to stay away from the mind rotting entertainment with those simple soldiers. I didn't spend all those years making you the best we have to offer to let simple media deteriorate your brain cells. Now go on. Oh, and Gabe, I have something for you." Halsey scowled at Colorado, who hung his head shamefully, before handing a tiny data crystal.

"I know what that is! I helped-"Colorado started, stopping when Dr. Halsey glared daggers at him. Nev raised his eyebrow at the odd sight but slid the crystal into his data port. His watch flashed and a hologram of an AI appeared.

"Hello, Spartan. I am the AI Leonidas." The hologram said. Colorado stifled a laugh at how the voice and hologram resembled a green version of Leonidas from the movie the other freelancers had made him watch with them.

"Yes, Spartan?" Leonidas turned to face him.

"Nothing, it's just you resemble almost perfectly the portrayal of Leonidas at the battle of Thermopylae in a movie." Colorado smirked.

"That was the intention."

"Remember what I said, Kale. Stay away from the mind rot." Halsey said before shooing the two of them out so she could get back to her research.

The two Spartans were soon back aboard the Mother of Invention and walking down the dorm hall to get some sleep.

"Why is there a sock in this door?" Nev asked as they stopped. Colorado read the nameplate and smirked. He banged on the metal door.

"Get some Tex!" he yelled before running away.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Cursed from within the door. Nev looked around confused, before looking back at the door as it opened to reveal an angry Tex with a blanket around her.

"Where." She growled at Nev. He looked at her with wide eyes before pointing the direction Colorado had run off to.

"Hide me hide me please!" Colorado yelled as he hurdled over the couch York and North were sitting on, playing video games.

"Why?" North asked.

"Where is he!?" echoed from outside.

"Is that Tex?" York asked.

"Yes. She had a sock in her door and I did what you did to Carolina." Colorado whimpered.

"…We're all boned…" North sighed as the angry woman walked into the room.

"You..." She hissed.

Colorado slowly dragged his way through the door to his room. Nev was sitting on his bed tinkering with his watch.

"What was all that about?" He asked as Colorado slowly lowered himself onto his bed.

"Sock in door means sex. Apparently it isn't just for procreation and is a useful stress reliever and cardio workout." Colorado groaned.

"Tex and Monty. Wouldn't have guessed that one." Nev mused.

"Monty was the one in there with her? Wow. Maybe that information will help North and York forgive me. Tex... very angry... very violent..." Colorado said.

"Do we really have to categorize all of these?" York wondered. Colorado had convinced him, North, Wyoming, Nev, and Wash to help him organize the gear from the Forerunner facility.

"Cheer up chap. At least it will count as overtime."

"You get overtime!?"

"Yeah. South and I get it all the time." North chuckled. They started inspecting the weapons and putting them near the closest weapons of human variation, with Nev walking over to Colorado. They both inspected the holographic displays of the several dozen Forerunner blueprints. When one of the last ones appeared Colorado let out a low whistle.

"…oh my god…" He whispered. Nevada's eyebrows scrunched together and he spent seven minutes in silence staring at the design.

"That's… we spent months… wow…" he muttered.

"I know. All these parts and everything are rare or hard to get. And the power source… I don't even think ship engines make enough necessary power." York walked over and looked around them.

"What is it?"

"It's the holy grail of engineering for a Spartan. Every single one of us has fantasized about building this. A mobile armory held in slip space. A box the size of a HAVOK nuke warhead that could carry every weapon you could want." Colorado explained his voice laced with reverence.

"We need to figure out how to build this. I don't care how; it'd be easy to get ONI to help."

"Let's not get the spooks involved unless we have to. I've spent too much time with them."

"No this gun's mine!" North yelled from behind them.

"I believe I deserve this gun!" A crash followed Wyoming's words. Nev, York, and Colorado turned to see the two wrestling on the ground fighting over a long gun.

"What is that?" Nev asked.

"I think it's the Forerunner's sniper rifle…Binary rifle..." Colorado rubbed his temple in discomfort at prying into the alien memories. Nev grabbed a grappling gun from a table nearby and shot it, pulling the Binary rifle to him.

"Hey!" North and Wyoming yelled.

"This is the only one of these guns we retrieved. It belongs to the best sharpshooter onboard. That's Colorado." He handed the gun to Colorado while the other two grumbled.

"So what's up with the armor?" York asked, tilting his head to the alien armor being scanned on a table.

"Scanning it to determine what it's capable of and to try and figure out how the Forerunner's combat skin system works. And learn what I need to do to update Scythe to make him compatible with it."

"I don't need a damn update!" Scythe screamed as sparks flew out of his holo tank.

"What the hell Scythe? That doesn't fix itself." Colorado scowled.

"Stop acting like I'm the one who needs to be updated to be compatible; like I'm some out dated piece of trash." The AI's hologram flashed and his voice changed filters briefly.

"Scythe, log off. You need to cool down; you've been acting crazy since our mission." Colorado ordered. Scythe shook his head before doing as told.

"He's fine." Colorado told Nev before he could say anything.

"Agents Colorado, Nevada, New York, and Texas please report to the briefing room." F.L.I.S.S. called out. North and Wyoming excused themselves and rushed out of the bay before the other three set off to the briefing room.

"You four are being deployed into the field to raid a base where we believe one of the Insurrection leaders is hiding out. You four are going to be dropped five kilometers away from the base and make your way through these swamplands to infiltrate and capture him. This operation hinges on your ability to remain undetected. Agent Texas will have command in the field. We want this man alive, agents. He holds information vital to the Insurrection; capture him and we could very well end their entire operation within the year. You leave at 0600. Dismissed." The Director turned on his heel and walked out the door.

"Well, I guess tomorrow is going to be interesting; another mission so soon. What could go wrong?" York mused.

"...You have no idea how bad the cosmic bitch slap we are going to get tomorrow is going to be now…" Nevada sighed.