Sitting back, Six closed his eyes and reminisced once more. He thought about the last time he had seen each member of noble team before they died. He thought about the friendship he had with Jorge, the dedication Carter had the extraordinary wits of Kat, and the resilience of that badass, Emile.

"I'm sorry, I'll make it count. I promise," he said in a low sentimental tone gripping Jorge's dog taps firmly while remembering his fallen squadron. There was still someone from his squad alive, however. It was Jun, if anybody deserved to make it out it was him, he'd been through hell just like Six he needed to finish the war for his team, even if Six couldn't.

"Jun's out there with Dr. Halsey, maybe when the covenant leaves and the glassing stops, I can use the base's communication system to contact them. For now, I have to rest," said Six, as he closed his eyes waiting for the Elevator to arrive at the underground base.

"Welcome to Sentinel Base Omega." Six woke up startled and confused aiming his DMR around, then realizing it was only an automated voice. He calms down letting out a sigh of relief. The door to the elevator opens revealing a dark subterranean facility. "I made it, I guess this is home now. A very dark, creepy home but home, for the time being at least..."

Toggling the flashlight on his DMR, he steps out of the elevator, walks down a dark corridor feeling a cold drift hit his cheeks. He uses the flashlight on his DMR to look for a layout or map of the facility in the soulless halls of the base. As he walked a bit further he had a strange gut feeling. Something wasn't right, where was everybody? Six remembered reading intel on the base before his journey to Reach, it was supposed to be an entire army down there.

'This isn't right... Why isn't anybody stationed here?' Six thought to himself.

He felt a sharp pain in his chest from the fight earlier and stopped for a moment holding his chest.

The pain shot up in his chest like fire and 6 added, "I need to find an infirmary and the generator, or I won't last a damn day down here, these bandages and whatever piece of sanity I have left won't last forever."

As the Spartan walked deeper into the facility he notices there is something a bit off, there was no military personnel occupying the base. No sergeant, no marines, no general, no anything, it was like they were there one second, and gone the next, leaving everything behind. 'Man this is creepy as hell,' he said to himself. 6 pointed the flashlight toward the ground noticing footsteps leading to the elevator that he just got off of, 'Maybe they evacuated, but why, they were safe down here,' he questioned. 'This is weird as hell.'

The further he walked deeper into the base the more uncomfortable he got. Six gripped his DMR rifle firmly, feeling uneasy. He turns right while walking down the corridors, then left, then right again, keeping his head on a swivel, having no clue where he's going. He finally discovers a door that he guessed would maybe lead to a bigger room of the base. Not knowing what would be on the other side of the door he keeps his DMR pointed in front of him just in case something tried to catch him by surprise.

"Please don't be bad, please don't be bad, I've had enough of this shit" he mumbles to himself. The door proceeds to open up slowly, and with every second the door opens, and the other side becomes more visible with his flashlight. 'Damn, it's getting hot in here. Feels like I'm sweating through my suit.' Six mumbles to himself, as sweat dripped down his scalp.

The door finally opens and Six lets out a sigh of relief, there was still nothing to be found, seen, or heard. "Well, If I don't die from plasma burns and an energy dagger through the chest, it'll be from cardiac arrest. Totally how I imagined myself going out," he said sarcastically. He continued cautiously into the darkroom of the base feel as if he wasn't completely out of the wind yet and observes the leftover supplies the UNSC left behind with his flashlight. "This is a whole lot of firepower, maybe this was the armory. Won't know for sure until I find a map of this place, or when I turn the lights on."

Six continued to walk around in the big room waving his flashlight around nervously, observing for anything that he could find to turn the power back on. Just then, BOOM! 6 slammed into a wall not paying attention to his surroundings. "Are you fucking kidding me," he blurted out blatantly annoyed that he bumped into the wall. He rubbed his head in pain, 'Keep it together man, gotta find that generator, turn the power back on, then this place outta be lit up like Christmas Eve...if it doesn't explode in my face.' he said to himself sarcastically, despite still trying to maintain hope.

He points his flashlight upwards, then to the side, and sees a dark room to his right. Six took 3 steps in this room waving his light around to check for anything he could use. He sees a circuit breaker box on the wall. "This has to be the circuit breaker to turn the generator on, only one way to find out."He opened the breaker box up slowly and located the latch, he then reached towards it slowly and as his fingers touch the latch he closed his eyes wishing for the lights to cut on, hoping he'd finally get the break he deserves.

The sound of the lever being flipped makes a loud "CLENCH" and Six opened up his eyes. "Still no power?! WHAT. THE. FUCK," Six blurts out furiously. He can feel his face flaring up with rage and his fist clenching up. Grinding his teeth with frustration and anger, he gives the breaker one mean jab with his left arm, partially opening the wound in his chest and shoulder.

"ARGH, SHIT." He crumbled down to the floor out of shock and the lights suddenly turn on, he can hear the clicking noise running down the corridors signifying that the lights are on.

"Dear universe, why am I blessed with the shittiest luck," questioned 6 while simultaneously breathing heavily from the now reopened wounds on his shoulder and chest.

"Fuck, I need to find that infirmary like right now before I start bleeding out." "That had to be the most luckiest, and dumbest thing I've ever done...in my life." Just then, Six is startled when he hears an automated voice that sounds like a clean female British accent. The voice echoed down the hall, all the way to the room he was in.

"General McCain Is that you," the automated voice questions.

Without thinking 6 blurts out, "Um, I-, err, yeah it's me. General McCain."

"Welcome back General! I had no idea how long you'd be gone for, I've prepared the-"Six cuts off the voice saying, "Listen, uh, I need you to direct me to your-, I mean our infirmary immediately," he says impatiently.

"Of course General, I'd be happy to assist," the voice says in a cheery tone. "It's in the southwest section of the base General!"

6 seemed befuddled," Um, and where is that exactly?"

"Well, you are already in the southwest section General, so it would be the room right across from Lieutenant Dubbo's quarters."

Six frowns in confusion, "Who the hell is Dubbo? And how...how do you know where I am?"

"I know where everyone and everything is in this base! I also know you are not General McCain, you are Noble 6 of Noble team."

"What- How the hell did you figure that out and WHY the hell did you refer to me as 'General' at first?"

"I am artificial intelligence Noble 6, I know the names and information of every soldier, platoon, squadron, and base on Planet Reach. I needed to hear you speak some more so I could correctly identify who you were, seeing as you just powered the base back on. General McCain helped design me with the UNSC, the brilliant man he is! So by default, I am programmed to say his name whenever I am turned on, however, this can be changed with a hard reset" said the AI.

"That won't be necessary" Six stated.

He began to think to himself, 'Of course it's an AI! Nobody talks like a cheery ass British soccer mom when the planet above just went to shit.' "Hey, where is everyone? Why is there nobody stationed to monitor this facility," questioned 6.

"I am capable of monitoring this entire facility Noble 6. However, the General and the entire base personnel abandoned this facility approximately 21 hours and 37 minutes ago before you arrived!"

"But why?" Six questioned.

"I am sorry, but I have implanted instructions that prevent me from saying furthermore."

6 thought to himself, 'What the hell does she mean by implanted instructions?! What is she not telling me?!'

He spent a moment thinking about a plan and there was a short moment of silence...

"Noble 6, are you still there?"

Finally, 6 spoke aloud again, "Yeah I'm still here, can you tell me your codename and designation." he asked.

"I am Designation Artificial Intelligence, D3 198, or otherwise codenamed as Heidi, property of the UNS-"

"He interrupts Heidi while getting up on his feet, grunting out of pain from his wounds. "Hmrgh, Yeah yeah yeah thanks Heidi, that should come in handy."

"You're welcome sir, always happy to help," Heidi says excitingly.

Six lets out a sigh, 'This A.I. is acting strange, it's a lot different from any A.I. I'm used to, like Auntie Dot.' On his way out of what seemed to be the General's quarters, he bumps into some decorations, holding his shoulder and chest with the open wound, while wandering outside into the infirmary.

He briefly observes outside of the room and feels slightly relieved knowing that the power was on. "Finally things are going well, my day's been a living hell," says 6. Six continues to walk further in and chuckles, "Damn this place really is lit up like Christmas Eve huh." Six opens the medicine cabinet, "Let's see what we have here, morphine, antihistamine, paracetamol, the good stuff"

Just then Heidi interrupts six startling him, causing him to jump and knock over some of the pain killers. "JESUS HEIDI, PLEASE STOP DOING THAT," 6 blurts out startled and annoyed.

"I am sorry Noble 6, but if you want, I could assist you with medical attention manually or verbally if you need it."

"What? How? What do you mean by manually? How can you do that" Six asks confusingly curious?

"Simple, just take a seat on the gurney near the wall, where the monitors are." He looks over to the side of him and see's a gurney with monitors hooked into the wall. He examines above the gurney and see's large mechanical arms wielding surgical tools.

Heidi continues saying, "Since Dr. Hoffman is not here I'll be one to carry out medical operations." Wow," he says in an astonished tone.

Briefly contemplating he decides manually would be the best option."Alright, Heidi, I choose manually, but you better not clip any blood vessels or 'accidentally' pop a vein..."

"May I inform you, Noble 6. A vein is part of three major types of blood vessels, they are the: arteries, the capillaries, and the,"

"OK, skip the nerd talk smartass and let's focus on fixing me up please," Six scoffed.

"Very well then," Heidi replies in her clean British accent. "This procedure will require you to take off all of your armor so that I can properly diagnose you."

"Fair enough," says Six.

He slowly removes his damaged shoulder plates trying not to irritate the open wound even further. He took off his damaged chest plate slowly grunting, and leg armor as well, and set Jorge's dog tags to the side on the table next to him. He then laid down on the gurney and the mechanical arms started to move closer and a red light from one of the arms to scan his body from head to toe.

That's when Heidi tells 6, "It appears you are suffering from 2nd-degree plasma burns on your shoulders, chest, and humerus. You also have an energy dagger puncture wound very close to your collarbone on your chest, if the Sangheili (Elite) had aimed a few centimeters closer your clavicle would've been shattered."

"Well... can you fix it," asked 6 in agonizing pain.

"Certainly! The accelerated healing augmentation from the SPARTAN III program you previously participated in is a bonus. I've done procedures with patients in far worse conditions. May I inform you about one of my patients whose name was-"Six interrupts Heidi again, "Please, no! Save me the torture," he mumbled under his breath.

"Very well, onward with the procedure then," Heidi said confidently.

As Heidi starts to treat Six's wounds he babbles, "I'm lucky I'm a Spartan, were I any random soldier I would've probably already passed out from blood loss like earlier."

Before Heidi could respond, Six blanked out like on the battlefield when he was stabbed. He thought about his team once more, like on the elevator. Now noticing that what he said triggered it. He reminisced about their sacrifices, and the choices they all made for the planet. It was eating him up inside that he couldn't bring them back, but only remember the thought of them. At least Jun was still out there. Six was hoping for a possible reunion with his former teammate sometime in the future.

He grew silent for a moment forgetting where he was and starts to hear gunshots from DMR's and assault rifles, a sign of early PTSD. He hears explosions all around him, the screams of the Troopers and he starts to relive the moments when he last saw each member of Noble Team. Jorge pushing him off that covenant corvette while he stayed behind to blow it up, sacrificing himself thinking he had just won humanity the war. Carter crashing his pelican into the scarab, buying him and Emile enough time to deliver the A.I. to Captain Keyes safely. Emile getting stabbed in the back by an elite but still managing to take the elite down with him like a true badass. Then there was Kat... he felt like she was the only death he could've somehow prevented. Nobody saw the sniper from the phantom hovering over the hole in the roof. Only if he had seen it, or been a few seconds early, he could've pushed her out the way, and that would save her. Six can feel his muscles tensing, his fists clenching up, and his eyes starting to water when he heard a familiar British voice calling his name from a distance.

The voice starts to get closer and closer by the second, "Noble 6, Noble 6 can you hear me?" Six finally snaps back into reality noticing where he was.

Noticing that six was gasping for air and breathing heavily Heidi asks, "Are you alright Noble 6? My psychological parameters suggest you are suffering from a very early stage of PTSD, I can also help with that if needed."

Six replies sharply with "I'm fine."

"My psychological parameters also suggest that you are not fine, is it because of the glassing of Reach? The loss of your team? Perhaps some jazz musical therapy would help ease your mind, it was the General's favorite."

Six wondered how she knew his team was K.I.A. but brushed it off with slight anger. "I said I'm fine okay! You got stuff that you won't tell me, I got stuff that I don't have to tell you, you already seem to know everything about me already! So just lay off and let's leave it at that alright" he hissed with fire in his voice.

"My apologies Noble Six, I did not mean to pry."

"Whatever," Six said numbly.

"On the contrary, I managed to treat your wounds to the best of my abilities Six, you should be able to move around with not too much interference from those wounds, although I would not advise returning to duty right away yet."

"Thanks," he said in a low tone, "How long until I'm 'fit' for duty then."

"I would recommend staying inactive for at least a few weeks, I can also repair your damaged armor in the workshop. In the meantime, you will find some leftover uniforms in the General's quarters."

"Can I sleep in the guy's bed as well? Looked pretty cozy in there," he asked.

"Of course. General McCain sure won't be needing it anymore."

6 stated, "Another thing Heidi, I'd appreciate you repairing my armor but, a few weeks? Hell no, I need to keep my skills sharp."

"In that case Six, we do have an interactive training course in the North Wing, although I wouldn't recommend jumping back into action so soon. You wouldn't wanna reopen any wounds."

"I'll be fine, I'm a professional I'll check it out."

"Very well, Six."

"Oh, and Heidi?" Six asks.

"Yes, Noble Six?"

Feeling bad for lashing out at her he apologizes, "I'm...sorry for going off on you, I do have a lot on my plate right now and would appreciate it if you could help."

"No worries sir! We can begin treatment as soon as tomorrow," Heidi said in her usual cheery tone.

"Sounds great. One more thing, where exactly are you stationed at in the base?"

"I am located in the command center, Noble Six. Just walk out of the infirmary, and head back towards the way you walked, in through the General's quarters, and you'll see me hooked up to a console! However, I am not sure why you would want to come here."

"See, yeah you lost me at the 'backward, forwards part, and that room was the General's quarters?"

"Affirmative 6" Heidi responds. "When you are ready Six, just walk outside the infirmary and head south, and you will see the command center."

"Yeah that makes soooo much more sense, thank you, Heidi I am totally a walking compass," he says sarcastically.

"You are funny Noble 6, if you truly were a compass you wouldn't be a dear in headlights right now, you'd already know where to go!"

"I already hate you," Six says in a low-toned disgusted voice.

As six started to put back on his armor he grabbed Jorge's dog tags squeezed them tightly and put them in a pouch on his tan, and preach armor. He was gonna do right by them...he promised. Remembering that he doesn't have his helmet anymore because it was lost during the fight on reach, he noticed a sink and a mirror in the infirmary that he didn't seem to notice before.

He walked up to it putting his hands on the sink and stared into the mirror revealing his dark brown eyes. He opened up a pouch revealing a piece of cloth, he was about to run water on it when he had the thought that the water might not be safe to drink or they might even be any water at all.

"Hey Heidi, is this water safe to drink and use?"

"Of course it is, all water is made safe to drink and use by the base water filters, it's also build to withstand glassing's from hostile covenant forces and coordinated rebel attacks."

"Alright good to know, Heidi," says Six.

"No problemo!"

'Man there's still something about her that's strange. I'm gonna get to the bottom of it,' he thought.

Six turned the nob on the sink handle and ran water under his cloth, he looked in the mirror again noticing dirt on his face, and proceeded to wipe it off. Six looked back up into the mirror one last time and wiped it off some revealing his Caramel skin and messy comb over fade again. When he finished cleaning himself up, he looked around the infirmary one last time, grabbed his weapons, and stepped out into the corridors.

"South she said, uhh that would be... c'mon I'm supposed to remember this. Fuck it I'm just gonna wing it," said 6 choosing a random direction.

He came across a gigantic door that looked like it lead to another massive part of the base.

"Turn around Noble Six and keep walking forward you should see the door to the command center, I wouldn't recommend going that way."

"You couldn't say anything BEFORE I almost wandered off into oblivion, and why? What's that way," Six questioned suspiciously.

Heidi's tone turned serious, "That way is the western area of the facility. I simply cannot allow you to proceed any further than where you are. If you choose to ignore this, I'm afraid I'll be forced to resort to more...drastic measures." With that being said, automated turrets sprouted from the ceiling of the corridors.

Now there was definitely something he didn't know about. Something the A.I. wasn't telling him. He no longer believed truthfully that the UNSC that occupied the base just "evacuated."

"Woah Heidi...fine. I won't go that way. You got it," Six, conveyed slowly with his hands up.

Returning to her awfully cheery British tone Heidi yelped, "Splendid Sir! Thank you for cooperating, and preventing me from doing something I would hate to do!"

"Yeahhh..." mouthed Six, as he started to devise a plan to see what was on the other side of that door.

He was creeped out by the secretiveness and knew from the jump that there was something up. He used to an ONI assassin he knew how this sort of thing went.

Placing his fingers on his chin he thought, 'Usually I would either force someone by gunpoint to open that door, or kill them, but there's nobody here but this A.I.' Six consulted with himself letting out a brief sigh.

That's when it finally came to him.

'I'll have to find a way to shut her off, or hack her...yeah, never mind I think I'll just shut her off... I was never good with computers anyway. But if I succeed it'll definitely shut off all the lights again seeing as she's technically the generator. I'll have to use my flashlight to hotwire the door panel controls and open it. Who knows what could be lurking behind that door in the dark though? I suppose it's a risk I have to take.'

As he entered the command center Six eyed the amount of computer and technology in the room. He looked down to see the same pile of guns he had seen earlier with the flashlight from his DMR.

"Uh, Heidi did you know that there's a big pile of assault rifles just sitting by the mess hall."

Heidi replied, "Yes, I most certainly did!"

'Hmph, I'm sure you did...,' he thought skeptically. 'I guess these guys took, No fighting in the War room to an entirely new level.'

Six noticed how loud Heidi's voice was all of a sudden. He turns around and see's that Heidi is attached to a console is a huge computer screen mounted on the wall.

"Holy Shit," he says in astoundment.

Despite Six being bamboozled by how big Heidi was, she continues with, "There isn't anything I can do about the situation however, but you can!"

"You. Are. One. Big. Ass. Computer." Six says dumbfounded.

He'd never seen anything like Heidi, not even when he was sent to invade insurrectionist bases by ONI. He'd still have to find her off button though."How long did it take for them to make you?" He said staring at the voice waves presented on the screen, showing that Heidi was now speaking.

"Well Noble Six, I was built in 2550, so my production took place in only 2 years, now are you gonna pick up those weapons the General and his men left behind?"

Six chuckles ignoring the last part of Heidi's sentence, "Anyway how much food does this place have and what's the overall infrastructure like?"

While Heidi was answering 6's questions, he narrowed his eyes around the gigantic computer to look for any plugs or switches could use to power her off.

"There is a lifetime of rations here due to the population of the base being so huge, and the overall infrastructure is built to last centuries."

"I don't think I'll be here for that long..at least I hope not I gotta get back out there. Back to the UNSC." "Heidi how long until Reach is habitable again," asks Six stalling Heidi longer, and finally picking up those weapons from earlier and setting them on the mess hall table.

He reloaded each weapon, making sure everything was still in order, still scanning the area, and finally locates a lone red button behind two stacks of boxes. Six glanced one last time through the space between the boxes, at the button before focusing on the magnum pistol he was still loading.

Heidi responded saying, "Seeing that Reach was only partially glassed by the Covenant fleet, I calculate in approximately about a year. Of course, with re-terraforming the surface playing a significant role in the process, the planet will be mostly habitable again!"

Six thought about this for a moment. Staying down in a massive base that he hasn't even seen the half of, with this strange A.I. that threatened to kill him for stepping a foot where he wasn't supposed to? For an entire year? He presumed that it was definitely gonna be a struggle in the long run.

"Let me guess, comms are down as well huh"

"You are correct, Noble Six."

"Not surprised," said Six.

Six contemplated about what he should in the long run. "Does this facility have leftover beacons...let's say a specific PLB distress beacon that I could use to signal for help in a year?"

"I'm sorry to imply that I've scanned the entire base and found no presence of any PLB distress beacons. You however can build one from scratch using leftover supplies that were never used during the final construction of this facility. They can be found in the storage room, located in the Northeast section."

Six knew this was an obvious lie and it only convinced him more to get behind that door on West Wing to see what lied beyond.

Not wanting to seem suspicious to the A.I. he simply stated, "That's Alright I'm sure we'll figure something out."

'I'm gonna get behind that door one way or another and I bet there's actually distress beacons on the other side, maybe in an armory or something. I know one thing for sure though, I'm not staying hostage for long,' Six said subconsciously.

'I'll have wait 'till I fully recover from my wounds and injuries, next I'll scope out some weak spots covertly to see where I can possibly shut her down, then that's when I'll make my move,' Six planned.

"Six...may I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"You ever wonder why you're here?"

"I...I honestly don't know. Sometimes I feel like it's one of life's greatest mysteries, Heidi. I mean, all I've known most of my life is fighting and killing who I'm told, for the greater good. Besides, I got some debts that need to be repaid. I don't think it's a coincidence I survived and made it down here..."

"My apologies Six! It seems you misinterpreted my question. I meant why are you here in here with me, instead of exploring the rest of the base? The troops always said this was the most boring place to be in the entire facility, so I'd imagine it would be the same for you."

"Oh, uh...I guess I was just curious to see...where you were stationed like I said! It's great for future reference!" Six said eventually being able to gather his words.

"I see. Another thing, would you like to record a personal entry to keep track of time and your progress on the distress beacon?"

Six thought for a moment, this could be the perfect time to stall Heidi. He could learn more about her and find any weaknesses.

He eventually jabbered out, "Yeah..yeah let's do that."

"Very well beginning entry recording. Ready when you are Six,"

"Ready, and Heidi?"

"Yes, Six?"

"Copy these onto a hard drive."

"As you wish. Beginning recording of login entry in 3,2,1. "A bright red light flashed with voice waves on the supercomputer signifying that Heidi was now recording.

Taking a deep breath, Six opens up his mouth and starts speaking on the recorded message...

"This is day one of my personal entry for anyone who may hear this. This is Spartan-B312 or whoever is listening to this may know me by, Noble Six. It's Augusts 30th 2552, the day I was supposed to die... I am stranded on Planet Reach and as far as I can tell the only survivor still here. The planet's been partially glassed by the covenant and I found shelter in an underground military base named Sentinel Base Omega. I'm a little banged up from the fighting above but I'll be fine with some rest. It seems all personnel have evacuated because of orders, panic, or...something else. I'm not entirely sure and I don't know how long I'll be here, but I need to find a way to make contact with others and get out of here to finish the fight against the covenant, it's what the rest of noble team would have wanted. I found this A.I. that seems to run the base maintenance and basic functions that go by the codename, Heidi. She may be of help with this current project I'm working on. I'm gonna try to build a distress beacon so I can get out of here and contact the UNSC, but I'll save these entries for personal reference or if don't make it. Know that if somebody finds these one day, I died giving the boot to those Covenant bastards one last time. I'll die in honor of all my fallen brethren and soldiers. This is Spartan-B312, and Noble 6...signing off."

END OF CHAPTER 3

Our beloved Spartan will go through some hard times in Sentinel Base Omega, but I think it'll all work out...maybe? Guess we'll have to see where this adventure takes us next!