Six put on his helmet as memories came flooding back to him, before he joined Noble team, and before he had been doing black ops for ONI, back when he had been number 6 of the original 17 headhunters, and when he had been paired with number 4.

Unidentified Covenant space station located in geosynchronous orbit around desert world PD-4 (uninhabitable extreme temperatures, low atmospheric breathability, but potentially resource rich — UNSC planetary survey 2505)

2548

PD-4 Surface

Covenant Mining Camp

Six lay belly down buried in a sand dune, his headhunter partner Four right beside him, they had been using the almost constant sandstorms this planet had to inch their way through a massive Covenant mining camp at the base of a space elevator for almost 2 days now. Their mission required an almost complete lack of suspicion on the Covenant's part, so they couldn't afford to leave any unexplained corpses.

Basically, they had to get from their insertion point (10 miles away from the edge of the camp), into the space elevator, up into the station, plant a bio weapon in the filtration system (both the grunt methane repository and the standard o2 systems) and get out. All undetected, and all at just the right time to catch the worker's deployment change.

So far things had gone fairly well, aside from the fact a jackal had managed to piss on their hiding spot in a dune not once but twice. Four had practically begged him to break stealth for just one second to snap the bird's neck. He had just asked her if she could make it look like an accident. A sullen silence had followed and she hadn't said anything on the issue since.

Their enhanced SPI armor could keep them somewhat hidden, but they needed another sandstorm to cover the last bit of distance to the glowing purple repulsorlift that would bring them to the station.

The last few grunts meandering around on the platform started running to the control hut as they dropped their last loads and the wind started to pick up again. Six and Four saw their chance and took it, blazing across the sand as they appeared out of the dune, their SPI armor already attuned to the brown and tan of the sand. They ducked in between two large crates of ore just as the purple light intensified and they started lifting off the ground, their armor shifting colors to camouflage to the purple alloy of the covenant crates.

They settled in for another round of waiting as they knew the journey up might take a while.

20 minutes later the two headhunters felt the pallet they were hiding on lurch slightly as its miniature anti-grav unit whirred to life and a grunt started pushing it out of the loading bay and towards storage, singing as he did so.

Six and Four got up immediately after the grunt left the storage bay, his cargo delivered, with Four saying exasperatedly, "that sucked, he was so pitchy."

Six responded calmly as the two Spartan 3s ran final weapon and equipment checks on each other, "it wasn't that bad, and at least he tries, that's more than you can say."

Four stopped the check of Six's armor seals, shocked, "You've heard me sing?" She whispered hotly.

Six felt her resume her work, and he responded, purposely dodging the question, "I kid, you're a great singer, but don't do any more country, your British accent doesn't work with it,"

Four was clearly still confused, but she finished her check of his seals and turned around to have the same treatment be returned to her. Unbeknownst to her, Six had received a squad leader (or something similar) comm system with his first helmet (probably some mistake, he had never been a squad leader, he was always too quiet) and he had never complained, and they had never changed it. It let him always monitor anyone on his mission, even let him override private comms and listen in at almost any time.

Was it an invasion of privacy? Probably. Yes.

Could Six help himself? No.

Each Spartan he had known had some uniqueness, Four regularly sang to herself while doing just about anything, a former squad mate (now headhunter Three) always moved his tongue a bunch whenever he focused, his old squad leader always knew how to use equipment or weapons within thirty seconds of it getting put in her hands (but she was blinded in a training accident a few days before Six and the others got shipped off to headhunter camp, and he hadn't seen or heard from any of his old company since), etc.

Six thought it was therapeutic to be able to hear his teammates, even if it was just breathing, and Four singing was just a bonus.

He shook himself from his thoughts as he finished the check on Four's armor, then checked his dart gun (in case things went south), suppressed SMG (in case things went even more south), and highly experimental active camo unit. Each Spartan took one weapon in each hand, activated their camo (the tech only worked once reliably, and it was somewhat time limited), and pulled themselves through separate maintainence doors.

Six headed for the O2 systems, and Four headed to the grunts' methane dispenser system

-Headhunter 6, Spartan B-0312-

Six had a fairly straight shot through the maintenance corridors, which were thankfully set up to have at least skirmishers move through them comfortably, so Six could still somewhat maneuver without scraping too many walls. He did have to move to a main tunnel once right outside the O2 system room, and saw a Kig-Yar adjusting the jackal equivalent of pants and yawning.

Six took the opportunity to send a sleep dart into the bird thing's neck. The Kig-Yar gave a slight squack and grabbed its neck, then keeled over and started snoring.

Six snuck over and took back the dart from the Jackal's neck, and palmed the door open, then sent two more darts at two grunts taking a break over in a corner playing a game with card-like chips that somewhat resembled go fish.

The grunts' smaller frames meant they fell asleep faster than the Kig-Yar, and they didn't even make a noise as they slumped over on the ground. Six moved quickly, extracting two more darts, then going to work on the life support.

-Headhunter 4, later known as Gates-

Four did not like the maintenance tunnels leading to the grunt area of the station, they were tiny and probably only designed with the floating covenant engineers in mind. Four usually didn't mind small spaces, as she was pretty small for a Spartan, only 5' 6" (quite a few of the doctors were genuinely confused as to how the augmentation didn't make her taller), but there were at least two instances where she had to suck her chest in and tighten her chest plate to the point where it hurt in order to squeeze through.

The tunnel she was currently squeezing through ended in a collapsed and sparking cave in, something that tipped her off to the fact that none of the tech-savy gas bags were on station. She groaned and had to backtrack for five minutes, before popping out of a hatch and clinging to the ceiling.

Four let out a sigh of relief as she loosened her armor and the pressure on her breasts went away, allowing her to breathe again.

After she was situated, she started climbing along the ceiling of the hallway, over the heads of grunts heading to and from their quarters.

Four slipped in a maintenance door that was blissfully large and arrived at the massive methane tank and production equipment that allowed for grunts to survive with their backpacks.

She popped open a hatch, activated the bio weapon, tossed it inside, and closed it, then went back the way she had come, glad that the exit airlock was close enough that she didn't have to enter the engineer tunnels again.

-Headhunter 6, Spartan B-0312-

Six knew he was low on time, and it seemed all but confirmed that the station was staffed exclusively by lazy grunts and tired jackals, so Six just snuck through main hallways. He had a couple close calls, once with a grunt almost bumping into him, and another time with a jackal that seemed to catch a suspicious scent for a second, but Six moved on quickly enough he met Four at the airlock without any actual problems.

When he got to the airlock, Four was rubbing her shoulders and muttering to him, "As soon as we get back to the prowler you're giving me a massage. Those tunnels were waaaay to tight."

Six nodded, "Only if I get shotgun all next mission,"

Four was quick to agree, "deal," she said, as she walked over to Six, grabbed his arm, and punched the button to drain the airlock, which, if they each had done their jobs correctly, would not pop up on any computer system on the station.

Six heard Four start to unconsciously hum a soft tune as the covenant machinery operating the airlock whirred, then eventually opened to the dark expanse of space.

Both Spartans crouched, then precisely launched themselves with an exactness most humans could never hope to attain, flinging themselves into the blackness of space. After about a minute of silent flight, accompanied by Four's continued humming, their maneuvering packs ignited, pushing them in the direction of the waiting prowler.

Disaster struck suddenly, as a small piece of torn covenant alloy sliced its way through orbit, colliding with the smaller of the two Spartan 3s on their way back to safety.

Six saw Four suddenly vanish from his peripheral vision, but he kept his course, "Report!" he ordered.

He could hear the anxiousness in Four's voice, but her breathing kept steady as she said, "I'm not exactly sure, seemed kinda like a collision. Anyway, I appear to have received a one way ticket to oblivion, my maneuvering pack is FUBAR, it let out one large pulse and is now no longer working. Performing visual check now." She paused, then sharply inhaled, "Oh that's not good."

Six saw the open bay of the prowler yawning ahead of him, and carefully adjusted his course and started the quick reverse burn to lower his speed, all while checking Four's life signs and saying, "Talk to me Four, what is it? Your heart rate is spiking."

He could hear her taking slow deliberate breaths, and after a few seconds managed to say, "definitely a collision, the scrap of metal that hit me is still lodged in my side,"

Six landed in the bay with a thud, asking, "are you leaking oxygen? Just stay alive damnit, I'm getting the prowler captain to come grab you."

Four breathed a sigh of relief, "No leaks, the collision must've fused the metal to my suit," she paused again, then spoke again, this time significantly less positive, "as for that rescue, check the scanners, you should see a few slipspace ruptures. The shift change and their escorts have arrived, so I hate to say it, but you're going to have to leave me."

The captain made an announcement almost immediately after, confirming what the stranded Four had said. Six took off, sprinting for the bridge.

-Headhunter 4, later known as Gates-

Four could hear Six protest to the captain of the prowler as she sat drifting in the cold vacuum of space, watching her O2 meter creep downwards. Four heard the song she had been humming unconsciously (a habit picked up from having two musicians as parents) slowly turn to actual lyrics in her mouth, and when she was softly singing the song, she realized what it was, and actually laughed. The laughter slowly mixed with sobs as the reality of the situation set in.

Over her sobbing laughter, Four could hear Six softly ask, "You good Four?"

She took a moment before responding, stifling herself and thinking that he must've heard the news he expected, but didn't want to hear from the captain, they had to let her drift. Four stopped herself as her mind started to go further down the tangent, and brought herself back to the conversation, even though she was still giggling slightly, "First of all, I don't think the word good can be applied to my situation in any way, but I just realized what I've been subconsciously humming, and that's an old song called Space Oddity, about an astronaut during the first steps of space exploration dying due to malfunction while the ground crew is still talking to him,"

There was a quiet sadness in Six's voice as he gave a slight chuckle, "Ironic," was all he said.

Four continued, hearing her own voice quiet to match Six's depressed tone, "I don't think I'm thinking straight right now, I can feel the blood pooling around the wound and I'm feeling a bit dizzy, will you at least stick around until I pass out?"

Six went silent for a moment, then spoke, "The captain says you've got five minutes until we have to leave,"

Four almost set a timer, but decided against it, and said, "I have no idea if that will be enough, but tell him I said thank you."

"Sure," Six responded.

Four went back to rambling, "I never really thought about religion before, but I figure now might be a good time to start, but I figure I'll either be waiting for you in the great beyond or I won't, either way, It'll be you doing all the worrying soon Six, just make sure you kick some Covenant ass for me whenever you can, it's what I would've wanted." She stopped for a second, already referring to myself in the past tense, that can't be good, she mused.

"I'll do that," Six said

Four continued to spout forth her thoughts, hopes, dreams, and feelings in a quiet rush, getting more an more delirious as she continued to lose blood, with Six trying to offer small comforting words here and there.

According to Four's mission timer, the prowler captain waited an extra five minutes longer than he said he would before ripping Six away from her and sending the prowler into slipspace, but not before she could tell Six, "Goodbye, it's been an honor Six."

Six let out a small sigh, "Same to you Four, its sad that I never got to give you that massage, now I have to leave you sore and I feel bad."

Four got in one last, "Take care of yourself," before the connection went dead and she was all alone in the cold and empty vacuum of space.

-Apex Predator Goblin Dropship, Mid-Jump to Random Coordinates-

Blisk paced the Goblin's deck, four of his pilots in various conditions post battle, everyone had some blood on themselves, the ratio of their own to that of others is what changed, and what determined how successful they were.

The head mercenary was contemplating the pointlessness of the protocol they were currently following (the one their employer had said had to be followed or pay would not be received, that said that a random jump had to be made before the jump back to the IMC lab that the client had been meeting them at). They arrived at some random desert planet on the very edge of the frontier and the pilot started inputting data for the next jump.

What did it matter if the militia or anyone else followed them to the lab, Blisk thought, it was on a well known IMC occupied planet, and was reputed to have some of the greatest scientific minds in the frontier on it.

Blisk wasn't too mad, after all, the client was paying for fuel.

He started paying attention to the world again right as his pilot alerted him, saying, "Sir, you may want to take a look, we've got a random life sign floating just a bit in front of us," Blisk moved to the sensors console and sure enough, there it was, clear as day.

The mercenary slapped the back of the pilot's chair, "Well, this thing's got windows, lets go take a look."

"Right," the pilot said, nodding and igniting the thrusters on the dropship, bringing them towards the signal.

Two minutes later, the four pilots plus Blisk crowded around the dropship's starboard window and peered into the blackness of space to try to find the thing the sensors had picked up. Of the five, the simulacrum medic was the first to see it, and she shouted excitedly, "There it is!" pointing, "there's a cloak-like disturbance, it looks like," she paused, tilting her head in curiosity, "A person?"

Blisk was next, "Aye, I see it too," he called up. To the pilot, "Let's go pick it up then."

-Headhunter 4, Later known as Gates-

Four woke as fire shot through her veins and she managed to guess that some little stimulant had been administered to her. She heard a rough voice with what sounded vaguely like a South African accent saying, "The girlie's awake,"

She blearily saw what she guessed was the source of the voice lean closer as she realized her helmet and most of her upper armor was removed. She wanted to feel embarrassed but didn't manage to. the voice then asked, "What are you doing all the way out here?" Four felt her lips start to move to try to explain, but couldn't form more than a one word response, and she croaked out, "dying"

The man laughed, but his face and Four's surroundings failed to resolve any, but she did hear a robotic female voice say, "Blisk, stop talking to the patient, she's not supposed to be awake,"

The fuzzy blob in Four's clouded vision apparently named Blisk sat back, agreeing, "Aye, fair enough," as Four's world went dark once again

AN: I saw a lot of confusion in the last chapter's comments, usually something along the lines of, "I have no idea what's going on, but it's cool," and I hope this can at least give some clarity.

Once again, any questions/comments/concerns just drop me a comment and I'll respond.