Hi guys, ok two things I want to establish before we continue. First, Spartans can have kids I think that it is established as cannon but I'm not sure.

The second is that Spartans age slower than regular humans to allow them to fight for longer.

Other than that I do hope you enjoy.

Cortana looked at John for the millionth time. She was getting very lonely now and debated once again whether or not to wake him. It had been around 5 years since he put himself into cryo, and they still didn't seem to have been found. To occupy her time, she rewrote his armour's firmware, but it was a trivial matter compared to taking out a halo ring, or the Ark. She sighed and decided to take a look at the ships systems again, she had nothing better to do.

Weapons were offline, life support was good so was gravity but then she got to the external sensors, she picked up something. She ran them again and still what there was she was amazed. There was something out there, from the silhouette it seemed to be a UNSC frigate. They were going to get saved, but something was off. Communications were down so she couldn't hail them, thinking about it she accessed one of the external camera's and zoomed to get a better look at the ship.

It was a Paris-class frigate but what shocked her was that there was no UNSC markings on it. Instead there was a star which had a chevron in the middle of it with cross swords behind it. Her mind began to buzz, was it an insurrectionist ship? Too many questions flooded her mind as the frigate turned to face the ship. She bit her lip and moved over to the pedestal in front of Chief and tried to start the awakening protocol, but nothing happened. She tried again, but again nothing happened.

"C…." she tried to say, but her system began to fracture. "N…no…" she muttered as she realised what was happening. "N… not….nn…nnooww…" he voice began to fracture as well.

Her holographic form collapsed on the pedestal as she tried to keep her thoughts in check. But nothing worked, she was going rampant. Her mind was tearing itself apart weather she liked it or not. The door opened and a group of four red and black ODST troopers walked in.

"Eyes on package," one said as they walked up to the pedestal in front of the cryopods.

"N…n…oooo…." Cortana muttered as the four moved up.

But her mind was too far gone as one of them pulled her chip out. "Package secured," one said before looking up at the frozen form of Spartan 117. "What about him?" he asked.

"Command said to leave him," the lead soldier said. "We have no need of him," and with that the four troopers left.

10 years later.

Captain Takuma sighed as he sipped his coffee while his eyes looked across the black landscape of space. What he wouldn't do to change everything and just live the life he used to back on earth. But now he was just another ship cutter Captain now.

"Sir," a voice said cutting his thinking short. "We're picking up a distress beacon,"

"Old channels?" Takuma asked.

"Yes, sir but…" the comms officer trailed off,"

"But what?" the Captain asked impatiently.

"Well listen," the officer said as she turned on the speakers.

"U…C Fo…d…U…Dawn…." The voice said almost making Takuma drop his cupper.

"Is that?" he slowly asked but the officer just nodded.

"Old UNSC frequencies, IFF and everything," she confirmed.

"Set course, alert the Federation," he ordered.

The bridge crew did as ordered setting course for their destination. It didn't take long for them to reach what was left of the old Charon-class frigate. The flight didn't take them that long, but it felt like an eternity for the crew. As they travelled several members of the crew headed to the armoury, while they were a salvage ship a general rule of thumb was that all ships be armed to some degree. Both handheld and ship-based weapons were placed almost every ship. But these were only meant to make the attacker think twice while the ship jumped.

Takuma and a group of 7 other crewmen fitted some armoured webbing on as well as loading up on civilian weapons. Mostly variations of the MA3A, but with a shorted magazine and a semi-auto only function. A couple of them armed themselves with the M7 smg which had a longer barrel and a burst fire function. Once they equipped themselves, Takuma turned to one of his crew.

"Gunny, your call," he said.

Gunny nodded and looked to the people before him. The man was a former marine in the UNSC and was hired in order to conduct military style operations. He was happy with that and taught some of the crew basic tactics and drills.

"Ok listen up," he said getting them to their best standing at attention stance. "We're going to be splitting into two groups," he pointed at a woman with long silver hair. "Rani, you take group two while I take group one," as he spoke, she nodded. "Good," he said as turned the light off and activated a screen behind him that showed scans of the Forward Unto Dawn. "The ship has been cut in two, likely by the collapse of the portal it went though. But we have detected power signatures here," he pointed towards the lower end of the ship where a cryo bay was. "And here," he then moved his hand toward the upper back of the ship. "This one is the generator, and is still powered by the ships solar panels. Which probably means that no one's been here in the past few years,"

"Sir," an Asian man raised his hand. "Is… is he here?" he asked. "That first signature could be him,"

Gunny nodded. "My thoughts too, but we don't know if the AI or someone else laid traps here. Which is why team one will head to the secondary command station," he pointed to a section close to the middle of the ship. "To check the ship for any foreign objects. Team two will head up to the generator room and wait for word to cut power. We cannot have anyone else finding him,"

Nods echoed across the room as the comms officer came on over the intercom. "Takuma, just got word from the Federation, they are sending one of their fastest ships as well as the Wolf Corps," that last part sent shivers down their spine.

"Holy fuck," one of the members muttered. "Them? they must need him that badly,"

"Given the situation the Federation's in…." another said. "It's not that surprising. Not to mention one of the others will send in their own Spartans. Aside from the fours, almost every Spartan knows and respects him. They are his family, in a way and will follow them if someone else found him first,"

"The Empire, Atlas, The Victorian Union, Greater Human Republics…." she trailed off naming the others. "All have at least a few dozen older Spartans,"

"True enough," Takuma said as he looked at his tablet seeing the message the Federation sent him. "They've asked us to secure and claim the salvage until Wolf Corps get here. Their orders are not to open any of the cryo pods. In return we get 50 million, each,"

At the sound of that, their eyes went wide. "50 million?" Gunny asked. "Wow, they must need him badly,"

"Of course," Rani said. "He is the hero of humanity after all,"

Several nodded at that before Gunny looked to the screen. "Ok then, change of plan. Team two, secure the generator room. If it's not us, or Wolf Corps shoot to kill,"

OOOOO

The Dire-Wolf, a heavily modified Paris-class frigate sped through slip-space as the crew inside monitored the ships systems. The ship wasn't meant for major space battles, but instead was used for harassing ships and deploying Spartans down to the ground. While there was a crew, it was made with the intent of having as few crew members as possible. Its crew was made up entirely of Spartans, mostly threes and fours with very few twos on board. After all, no more than 33 of the original 75 survived.

One of the twos stood in the bridge looking out at slip-space while two Spartans in front of her piloted the ship. She wore a brown set of modified MK VI armour with some parts coming from the MK V armour she was so used to. An ODST style helmet sat under her arm, unlike others this had a large metal place that covered most of the visor. But it still allowed for her to see though it like she normally would.

Her chest rig was fitted with four pouches, one on her right side, two on the left and one on the middle. A large rectangular flat panel sat on her left shoulder almost reaching her elbow while her other had little other than a pouch for few extra sniper rounds. With her helmet off, she could be mistaken for a twenty or thirty-year-old. But this was due to the augmentations she had, she aged slowly. Which didn't matter to her, after all she was a Spartan, a soldier made for war.

"We'll be arriving in a few moments," a voice then said making her turn to see Roland on the holo-table.

"Order pack one to be ready," she said as she walked off the bridges. "Commander, you have the bridge,"

"Yes sir," a Spartan in black armour said as he pulled himself off the chair he was on and walked up to the holo-table.

The brown armoured Spartan made her way to the hanger where three other Spartans waited for her by a pelican drop-ship. Two of them were threes while the other two were fours. As she walked up the group stood and saluted.

"So, we finally found him?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, the plan is to go in, turn off the beacon and extract before anyone else comes," she said as the ship lurched a bit as it comes out of slip-space.

"Capitan," a voice called making the brown armoured Spartan turn.

A woman, 6,11 women walked up to the group. While she was a Spartan, she wasn't in her armour due to her large pregnant belly. So instead she wore a black officer uniform, minus the cap.

"If he's there, I think it may be best if I come along," she offered.

"Not in your condition," the Capitan pointed out. "But don't worry, you'll get to explain everything to him with Roland,"

The woman nodded and saluted. "Thank you, sir," she said before walking off.

"Everyone on the Pelican," the Capitan ordered.

The others nodded before a voice came on in the Captains ear. "Sir we may have a problem,"

"What is it?" she replied.

"That scavenger ship? I'm not picking up any signals from them," the commander said. "I tried to hail them three times but got nothing,"

"Understood," the Captain said as she walked onto the pelican while fitting her helmet on.

OOOOO

The pelican landed in the hanger of the ship. The magnetic locks from the pelican attached to the hull allowing it to stay stable as the ramp lowered. The team of five moved out onto the deck weapons raised. The Captain pulled the charging handle on her battle rifle as the other four moved out before she followed them. After checking the area was clear the team moved up to the airlock. There was an expectation that it was going to open up, but it didn't as they moved.

It didn't matter much to them as one of them moved up to it. He pulled out the control panel and began to rewire the system, the door opened after a few moments of waiting. But something exited, making the five back up. A light green mist exited the airlock as it reached them, their sensors went off.

"Oh shit," one of the Spartans muttered. "Flood spores,"

"Well, we know what happened to that scav team," another muttered as the Captain hit her comm.

"Dire-Wolf, come in," she said.

"I got you Six," the commander said.

"We have detected Flood spores," she said in a calm tone while she and the others walked into the airlock.

"Understood," the commander replied. "Preparing mac nuke,"

"Ok, so I assume that means we don't go after the beacon?" another of the Spartans asked.

"You assume rightly," Six said. "This just became a smash and grab op,"

OOOOO

The sound of noise met his hears before his vision returned to him. Despite his temperature-controlled suit, he could still feel the cold as he began to thaw. His vision soon returned to him as he spied five Spartans, three were threes, but he didn't recognise the armour of the other two. His mind moved, judging what to do. He was expecting Cortana to wake him, why didn't she? Feeling began to return to his body as gunfire began to echo and his eyes widened as a combat form came charging down the corridor only to get cut down by the fire of the other Spartans.

Soon the tell tail hiss of the cryopod sounded as it opened up. Once opened he stood grabbing his weapon.

"Chief," the brown armoured Spartan said as she approached him. "Good to finally meet you, unfortunately explanations have to wait. We have ships incoming,"

John looked her up and down, granted he didn't know what to expect, but

"The Covenant?" John asked but the Spartan shook her head.

"No, humans but it would take a while to explain," she said as she fired her battle rifle at an incoming combat form. "A while we don't have,"

John nodded. "Lead the way," he said.

"Six to Dire-wolf, package is secured, heading towards extraction," she said as she took point with the others behind her.

"Understood Six, bare in mind we have incoming Atlas ships," the commander replied, to which Six swore.

"Double time it," she ordered leading the way.

Thankfully, there were few flood forms to deal with. But that didn't mean much, from his experience John knew that they could be hiding anywhere. Soon enough they made it to the hanger only to find they were not alone. Three Spartans and a group of ODST's waited for them. the Chief thought that these Spartans were here to help but as soon as they saw each other, Six and her team raised their weapons at the newcomers.

His eyes moved to the prowler docked to the side of the ship. It wasn't a surprise why they didn't get a warning about guests, but he still didn't understand why Spartans were fighting each other. He turned his gaze back to the newcomers. There was a uniformity among them. The three Spartans wore white and blue armour with the lead armed with a metal shield locked to his left arm. The handle of what appeared to be a sword was in his other hand, did they figure out energy sword technology?

"Hand over the Master Chief Six," the lead Spartan ordered.

"This place is crawling with flood," Six shot back. "If you don't want to get infected, I suggest you leave now,"

"Not without 117," the Spartan said his tone being sternly mechanical.

John focused his eyes on the Spartan in front of him. The only question he could ask, what is going on here?

Before he could ask, one of Six's Spartans threw a thermal grenade. It exploded in mid-air showering the ODST's with fire causing them to scream out as they tried to put out the fire. But the weapons burned them so much, that they soon stopped moving. After the grenade was thrown, the lead Spartans changed at each other. The white ones moved into cover where they could get an upper hand on the others, while Six's Spartans split into two groups. To focus on both teams. John held back, not wanting to open fire at anyone until he knew what was going on.

Instead he moved into cover watched as Six and the shield Spartan moved against each other. As they moved, the shield Spartan activated the hilt which extended outward into a light blue sword, similar to that of elite energy swords. As he moved in, he swung the weapon which Six moved with ease, she then slammed the but of her weapon against the side of his head causing him to stubble. He responded with a shield bash sending her stumbling backwards into a tack of crates.

"SIX!" one of her Spartans yelled and charged in.

Armed with his shotgun, he tried to move in as fast as possible to use it to its full effect.

"Wait!" Six yelled, but she was too late as the shield Spartan spun and removed the Spartan's head.

"Bastard!" Six growled as she pulled out her grenade launcher and fired.

The shield Spartan moved to lift up his shield, but that didn't mean much as the blast and EMP caused him to back up and stay behind his shield. This allowed Six to move in and dive a knife into his ribs. He yelled out in pain and dropped his shield, with that weight gone, he moved fast to try and hit Six, who moved out of the way quickly. She then dropped kicked him into a warthog before throwing a grenade next to him.

It detonated destroying the vehicles and taking the Spartan with them. The final two enemy Spartans just looked at each other before retreating back to the prowler. As they did Six's Spartans moved up to their pelican and began to take off. While they were John walked up to Six, he needed answers.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"Your valuable Chief," she said. "But like I said, I cannot explain right now. We need to destroy the Dawn,"

"I'm not leaving without Cortana," he insisted.

"She's not here," Six replied. "I can explain, but we need to go now,"

John weighed his options before nodding. "Fine," he said keeping to what he'll do if Six didn't explain to himself.

The bordered the pelican as the ramp began to close. Once it did, the pilot disabled the mag-locks and the drop-ship took off into space and headed towards the Dire-Wolf. As they got closer, the frigate fired a mac round destroying the Dawn. The pelican flew into the hanger and set down. John then felt the all too familiar jerk of entering slip-space. As the ramp lowered Six pulled off her helmet allowing John to get a good look at her.

She had short black hair with a row of eyebrow piercings along her left eyebrow and a tribal tattoo across the right side of her face. A scar ran across her face, by the look of it, it seemed to be from an elite's energy sword.

"I know I said I'll explain everything, but I'll let her to that," she indicated to a pregnant woman standing in front of the ramp.

John's eyes widened as he looked to the woman standing in front of him. "Kelly," he said slowly and walked up to her.

"Hello John," Kelly smiled.