Ships began to take off heading towards the Infinity in orbit. Both pelican and heavy transports moved Task Force Blue to the gigantic Capital ship preparing for an assault on the Empire and Zeta Halo. John looked out at one of the windows of the ship seeing the ships board, unload and reload before heading back down. Task Force Gamma, were the ones who were going to take over operations here, and hopefully secure the sector for the Federation. He hoped that the commander taking over, would hold his own.

"Overwatching I see," a voice said next to him.

Without turning his head, he saw Parisa standing next to him dressed in her Spartan like soft armour. Her hair was done up neatly and appeared to have a applied a bit of makeup. John wasn't sure what to make of that. She wanted to hold him to that promise he made all those years ago. So, was this just due to the fact that she did love him, or was it something else? He wasn't sure. What was clear, was that she did care for him and his opinion on some matters. So, it was probably for the former rather than the latter.

"I hate waiting," he said with a deep breath. "And someone has to oversee this,"

"Let someone else take over," she said turning to face him. "I've got a nice meal for the two of us to talk over,"

John stiffened slightly. "I don't know. I don't know what about me there is to talk about. I'm a soldier, always have been. I don't know if there is truly a John underneath,"

Parisa placed a hand on his shoulder. "All the more reason to talk. Like I said before no military stuff, but war stories are fine,"

"Does training count?" he asked.

"I don't see why not," she shrugged and led him out of the observation room.

"What happened with Kelly?" he asked after a couple of moments.

"I gave her a choice with what to do," she explained. "Intel can be both a good and bad thing. We knew that there was going to be a terrorist attack, but we didn't know who, where or how. We also knew that the attack was to be on Spartan areas,"

"Then why didn't you lock them down?"

"Because that would have caused a panic and tipped our hand to them. Even then, the groups that were about to attack didn't have the kind of military equipment that took on Sparta hospital. An oversight that I corrected after the bombing," she explained before explaining how she sent intel to Kelly and what the Spartan did with that information.

John just listened wondering what Kelly was going though when she took on the terrorist group. "How is she doing?" he asked as Parisa finished.

"She's joining Misriah armoury as a mid-level developer and tester. Didn't she tell you that before she joined Operations, she was recruited by Misriah as a tester?" Parisa asked looking towards John with a raised brow.

"She did, but I didn't think that she'd re-join," John said.

"Kelly said that she liked the job, people there were friendly, helpful and all that. She also found enjoyment in making and testing weapons and armour. So, it's a good job for her, especially after losing her new-born and husband. Getting over something like that isn't easy," the two then walked into Paria's private office. "Wait here," she told her guards as she and John prepared to have a meal.

John sat at one of the ends while Parisa pulled two plates out of an oven and placed it before him and her. "Sorry it's not more… well luxurious,"

"It's ok," he muttered. "I've had worse," he picked up his fork and began to cut into the steak. "What happened after I…" he tried to find the right words, but Parisa finished for him.

"Was kidnapped?" she asked as she chewed on her steak. "Well, we all noticed that something happened the day after. Yo… well he, was sluggish, off. Like he wasn't all there. Over the weeks, he began to fall apart. My father was your doctor, and he was so damn confused. The neurological and other things that were wrong with you made no sense. Some of them would have to have taken years to develop. He got them within weeks. He investigated it long after you died. Until all his samples were destroyed in a fire," she sighed as she took another bite of her food. "Didn't stop him though. He died of cancer before he could figure it all out though,"

"I'm sorry," John said, unsure how else to react.

"Don't be," she smiled. "He was a good father, and encouraged me to join the ODST. While he didn't like the UNSC, he did see the benefits of it. But he did get on my case about missing you. Something that he said I should let go,"

"A good thing you didn't," John smiled.

"Yeah, or else you'd be floating forever," the two smiled wider as they talked. Soon their food went cold and they just talked, enjoying each other's company.

OOOOO

Kelly stood before the Misriah Armouries main building dressed in a suit. She kept pulling at the sides of it, the damn thing just didn't fit or stay in one place. Nothing like her body glove or armour. Or even her casual clothing. She took one more sigh before walking in and up to the reception desk.

"Hello miss and welcome to Misriah. Can I take your name?" the Asian receptionist asked smiled as she came up from a bow.

"Kelly Spartan, I'm here to see Mr Marco Alexi," Kelly smiled.

"Of course, one moment," the woman said as she typed in something onto her terminal. "Ah yes, he's expecting you, please take the elevator to floor 41," as she spoke, she handed Kelly a lanyard with a electronic tag on it.

"Thank you," Kelly smiled and walked over to the lift and pressed the relevant key.

One or two others joined her, but given her stature, there wasn't a lot of room in the lift. After a couple of other stops, picking up and offloading people before she reached floor 41 where she got off and made her way to Marco's office. Looking around, she was pleased at how little the place had changed since she was last there. The last door on the right was the one she was looking for. Reaching the door, she took a deep breath and was about to knock but the door opened and a smiling dark-skinned man stood before her.

"Kelly," he smiled arms wide and pulled her into a hug. "So good to see you," he said pulling away.

"It's good to see you too," she smiled as the two entered his office. "I need a friendly face given by brothers and sister are out there fighting,"

"I heard," Marco nodded as he sat at his desk with Kelly sitting opposite. "I also heard that our beloved president is after your brother's hand in marriage,"

"You make it sound so sordid,"

"Can you blame me?" Marco's smile dropped. "How are you holding up?" he asked concern entering his voice. "Losing your new-born and husband couldn't have been easy,"

"It wasn't," she admitted. "I don't think I'll ever get over it. Which is why I'm here," She pulled up her case and placed it on the desk. "A new start,"

"Which is why I'm here," Marco smiled. "But I cannot give you any favours because you worked for us before, but it does give you credit towards the decision made by the board,"

"That's good to hear," she smiled as she opened up and placed the plans, she made in front of her. "Hopefully this can help," she said as she began to explain her plans and the diagram she presented.

OOOOO UNSC Infinity, briefing room, a week later.

The room darkened as President Parisa prepared to brief the crew. Dana, the ships AI, activated the holo table and presented the system where Zeta Halo sat in Imperial territory. Parisa took one last look at the faces around who waited for her to start. John had an impassive look on him like always. Cortana gave her and odd look, it seemed to be one of disapproval, but she couldn't tell. Parisa only knew the Cortana AI, not the human one.

Six, had a bit of a lax attitude but that didn't diminish how much she was paying attention. Linda and Fred shared their brother's impassive look, while the final member, Captain Laskey, who did his best not to be intimidated by the Spartans around him. Thel 'Vadam was still hard to read despite the years she and him had talked.

"As we all know," Parisa began. "Zeta Halo is the biggest of them all. Not to mention that there are several rumours about the ring itself. Despite all that, we have no idea what the ring holds. So, the plan is this," the holo moved back and showed several ships of all makes and factions. "From the intelligence we have gathered, all of the other factions have already begun to make a move on Zeta. Atlas and GHR have already made their move into the sector and are preparing to attack. No word on what the Victorian Union are planning,"

"What about the Covenant?" John asked.

"From my own spies," Thel spoke up. "They are far too focused on in-fighting than taking out human colonies. But the Banished may make an appearance. They have been looking for this ring for years. If they got word that it is in human territory, they would make full haste to the region to take the ring,"

"Will Palmer be there?" Laskey asked.

"We don…" she tired but the ship shook.

Eyes looked around as the ship shook again. "We are under attack," Dana announced.

Cortana stood and plugged herself into a port. She winced in pain as her eyes glowed from purple to blue, then back again.

"What the…" she muttered before crying out in pain.

John moved like lightning and pulled her port out. "Cortana, what's going on?"

"Sh… she…" her eyes closed but she still breathed.

"Unknown combatants," Dana announced. "Shields are down and we have hull breaches. They are deploying borders,"

"All hands-on deck," Laskey said as he stood and hit his radio. He quickly left the briefing room while two of Parisa's guards walked in.

"Get me my armour, and get Cortana to the medical bay," she ordered as she left.

Saying nothing, John handed Cortana to one of them before he and the others then made their way to the armoury. With the entire ship on alert, marines, ODST and Spartans moved to the closest armoury to grab whatever they could.

"Borders on decks, 203, 104, 35. Suspected combatants are Spartans," Dana said over the comms.

"Spartans?" Six asked as she led the way into an armoury. "We aren't at Zeta yet,"

"Someone tracking us?" Lina asked as she grabbed a sniper rifle.

"Since it's demons, we can rule out the banished," Thel added as he picked up a pair of plasma rifles. "We'll find out who they though,"

John nodded as he fitted his helmet on and slapped a mag into his MA6D. "Dana, where's the nearest breach?"

"Deck 104, section 31," the AI replied. "Sending you a waypoint. President Parisa is heading there now,"

"She fights?" John asked.

"Oh yeah," Six said. "There's a reason why she's called the 'Fighting president'," she smiled before checking something. "Can I steal Fred and Linda? We need to stop that other breach,"

John nodded and the three moved off while he and Thel moved closer to their breach point. As they got close, they could hear Parisa yelling orders. Marines and ODST, followed those ordered as they placed sandbags, turrets and more facing towards a sealed bulkhead. Ready for the attack. It didn't take long as the bulkhead exploded and several Spartan looking troopers entered. Their arms and legs replaced with augments. As soon as they came inter sight, the guns opened up.