October 4th, 1434 Standard time, 2552

UNSC Dominion

Gymnasium

There were no days off for the ODSTs when exercise was concerned. Maintaining physical fitness was a high priority for all branches of service in the UNSC. But their prestigious position as special forces it was important for them to set an example for others. For this reason, it was common to see ODSTs in the gym of the base or ship they were assigned to when not actively assigned other tasks. For the time being, however, it was only Fairfire using the Dominion's gym.

In truth, Fairfire wasn't exactly unhappy to be left alone with her thoughts. The day prior when she had been to Menagerie she was reminded of a lot of unpleasant memories, mostly revolving around her home planet of Emerald Cove. The similarities between it and Menagerie gave her and uncomfortable feeling reimiscent of homesickness.

Her second visit to the ground earlier today with her squad didn't help matters. While the technicians they were escorting fixed the CCTS tower she was left with plenty of time outside in the capital city, Kuo Kuana. The obvious economic problems and overcrowding did little to stop the overall positive and cheerful atmosphere, something that had stayed strong on Emerald Cove, even as the Covenant approached ever closer. The long white sandy beaches, bungalows, and the tropical foliage only drew clearer similarities.

But Emerald Cove was long gone. When the UNSC abandoned the entire region in the face of overwhelming Covenant forces, Emerald Cove was one of the planets that had a successful evacuation, nobody knew the planet's fate, but it was speculated it was either glassed or simply remained uninhabited, its once-bustling cities left empty and lifeless.

While most would feel depressed or a sense of dread at their home being destroyed, Fairfire would replace those feelings with anger. From the early periods of her life she had been taught that being sad and moping about solved nothing, action was what fixed problems. But as she continued with her established exercise routine she found herself feeling an overbearing sense of loss.

This is bullshit, that was years ago! I'm over it, so why feel shitty now? Fairfire thought as she took out her frustration on one of the punching bags. Time seemed to blur for a bit as she got caught up with her routine. Before she was interrupted by a voice she didn't recognize startling her.

"You're overexerting yourself, take a breather."

She turned and saw it was Ben standing by one of the lockers, putting something away. He was out of his armor, dressed in more traditional marine attire that was probably far more suitable for exercise than a suit of armor that weighed a third of the weight of a warthog.

I forgot he sounds like that without his armor, less deep and a lot less robotic, but he still talks like he's doing paperwork. She thought as she turned to respond. "Excuse me?"

"You're exerting yourself. It's a punching bag, not a brute." Ben pointed out. "Exercise doesn't require ferocity, It requires patience, discipline, commitment, and time."

"Yes, I also went to boot camp, thanks." Fairfire retorted.

"Then why are you disregarding what you've been taught?" Ben asked. Despite the sassiness the question implied, he asked it with a straight face and not a hint of smugness, instead a sense of frustration. "You know exactly what you should be doing, but you disregard it."

If Nathan asked me that I'd probably punch him, but he'd be more sassy about it. Fairfire thought. "I don't recall asking for your input, Sergeant."

"You didn't, I made an observation that a fellow squad member was making a mistake, a preventable one." Ben said. "I can tell just by looking at you that you've exceeded your limits for some reason."

Fairfire stopped and looked down at herself, she did look admittedly quite red and felt quite sore, and a quick glance at the clock on the control terminal for the gym confirmed that she went for far longer than she intended to. That being said, Ben was obviously hinting at a bigger issue.

"Ok, what's your point?" Fairfire asked, afraid she already knew the answer.

"I want to know why." Ben stated, obviously a bit frustrated. "Obviously you have a reason you're straining yourself, and that's a hazard to our squad. If you tear a tendon and end up in Sickbay, we're down our leader."

Goddamnit, I didn't think of that. Fairfire thought. "Look, it's just some personal problems, I'll work through it."

"Is it the Faunus?" Ben asked, his suspicion and persistence undeterred.

"What? No!" Fairfire pointedly dismissed. "What gave you that idea?"

"You were jumpy when we went down to Menagerie today." Ben accused. "You might have done your job just fine, and the technicians certainly didn't see it. But Curie pointed out your biometrics were far out of the ordinary, and then I started noticing other habits ."

"Like?" Fairfire asked, her irritation growing.

"You avoided doing any of the speaking with the local techs, you stayed by yourself for the whole mission, and you took every chance you got to go outside and look at the city." Ben listed. "At first I figured you had some sort of problem with getting put on escort duty, but everyone else in our unit certainly had no issues complaining."

"When did it become your job to coach me?" Fairfire asked, mildly amused but moreso just annoyed.

"When I got put in your squad." Ben simply answered with a surprisingly flat tone. "You aren't the only one with a problem. Yu seems to have some sort of problem with me on a personal level, Nathan was more concerned with his contraband stash under his damn bunk than his job. Poor Meadows actually seemed eager to go down to Menagerie before he got smacked back into the Sickbay by the doctor."

Son of a bitch, what a snake. Fairfire thought.

"Well, I guess that makes you some paragon of perfection then?" Fairfire asked with enough venom that her intention was obvious. "You have a lot of nerve coming up to me and bitching about my squad behind their back. You may be a Spartan, but that doesn't make you special in my eyes. If you want to bitch about my men, you can do it to their face!"

"Behind their backs?" Ben asked, obviously confused. "Yu's not exactly subtle, her intention seems to be to draw other people's attention when we clash, I'd hardly call that behind her back. And I've made my point to Nathan privately, and he agreed he'd turn his stash in if it meant I didn't turn him in."

Huh, so he didn't go behind their backs. that's interesting. Fairfire thought, now more confused than anything. "Out of curiosity, how'd you catch him?" She was actually curious what Nathan had been hiding from her.

"He's wasn't exactly subtle with hiding it, mostly just alcohol he's been getting from a partner in crime who apparently has access to officer's lounge." Ben explained. "Relax, if he had anything that would get people hurt, I would've gone to you instead of him. That being said, minor problems like that are easy to solve. The less time we waste going all the way up the chain of Command with unimportant matters, the better."

That's a clinical way of looking at things. Fairfire thought as she took a deep breath."Alright, so what do you want from me?"

"I want to know what the problem is and how I can help." Ben simply answered. "I solve problems, that's my job."

"You're a soldier." Fairfire pointed out.

"The Covenant are a problem." Ben countered. "But you're dodging my question.

"You know you aren't responsible for the whole ship, right?" Fairfire asked rhetorically.

"I know that, but from what I remember a squad is supposed to be able to cover for each other's faults." Ben answered. "If one part of the unit isn't functioning optimally, the whole unit suffers, and that goes double for the leader."

Yeah, very clinical. Fairfire thought. "A squad isn't a machine."

"But we're supposed to operate like one." Ben countered. "I've seen squads fracture without their leader, and it wasn't always a physical injury that put them out of action."

Part of Fairfire's mind screamed at her to dismiss him by pulling rank, which he would almost certainly obey. Opposing that was the rational part of her mind told her that he wasn't going to let this go, and he'd probably raise his concerns with the ship's medical staff. And she did not need a bunch of doctors thinking she'd lost her mind in deep space.

Then again, maybe that's what's got him worried, he is a Spartan after all. Who knows what horrible missions he's been sent on and what kind of things he's seen people do? Fairfire thought before making her decision.

"You're stubborn, and perceptive." Fairfire observed.

"Curie's the perceptive one, but I'll admit I'm stubborn." Ben joked.

Fairfire gave an unimpressed snort. "All right, you wanna know what my problem is? It is Menagerie, it just... brings back some memories of home."

"Bad memories?" Ben guessed.

"Not necessarily." Fairfire answered, her brain trying to process how she felt into words. She normally just swore when she wanted to do that, this was more difficult. "More like... a sense of distance, I guess."

"I think I understand." Ben said. "Homesickness? I can't say I've ever had that before, but I can see why you'd feel it. I know Lieutenant Chen is working to get us home as fast as she can."

"That's only part of it." Fairfire conceded. "Have you ever heard of Emerald Cove?"

Ben nodded. "Outer colony, unusual due to its overwhelmingly tropical climate, read a bit about it in one of my classes. I think I can guess the rest, given the state of the war."

"The Covenant didn't find it." Fairfire quickly clarified. "It was evacuated when the whole sector was lost, and nobody knows what happened to it."

"At least there's a chance it wasn't glassed." Ben pointed out. "That's more than a lot of people can say."

"It does seem selfish of me, doesn't it? But somehow it feels even worse, not even knowing what happened." Fairfire said.

"I can understand that." Ben reassured. "It's a natural instinct, humans don't like unknowns."

"But that's not my issue, why does Menagerie of all things bother me?" Fairfire asked, her frustration bleeding into her voice. "Menagerie is similar, but I know the difference. And all of this was years ago!"

"I don't know." Ben admitted. "Then again, you said it's not my responsibility, and I suppose that's true to an extent. My qualifications don't include psychology, you should talk to one of the doctors."

Fairfire sighed. "Fine, whatever, I'll go talk to the shrink. If it means you'll stop bothering me."

"Good." Ben said with a nod. "Sorry about pressing the issue, but like I said, we need you."

Well, at least he had the decency to boost my ego after tearing it to ribbons. Fairfire thought. "No problem, I suppose I'd rather have a concerned squadmate then an apathetic one."

Ben didn't say anything, only giving a short nod before continuing his warm-up routine.

He really isn't anything like I expected a Spartan to be like. Fairfire thought. Then again, I didn't really know what to expect.

But as she walked through the hallway, that thought seeded itself in her mind for some reason, before roots of memory started taking shape and she started thinking. When Fairfire had been told she was commanding a Spartan, she hadn't even bothered reading his file when it had been downloaded on her datapad. She knew enough from her position as an ODST that ONI loved to smother everything they touched in the same slimy black ink that coated their skin. One quick search through her datapad as she walked proved that had been quite a significant mistake.

Oh my goodness, and here I thought reading paperwork was boring. Fairfire thought with a grin as she glanced over page after page of only mildly censored text. She half-remembered a comment from Curie about having increased security clearance, but this was far in excess of what she had expected. Before she could get too absorbed in what she was reading she turned the pad off and put it away.

First things first, talk to the damn shrink, then read the Spartan's diary. Fairfire thought, now excited for the future.

October 4th, 2343 Standard time, 2552

UNSC Dominion

Bridge

The bridge of the Dominion was quiet but busy, as it usually was. Every officer's station had at least one person working at it, but most of the stations had additional officers working on their tasks.

All of the bridge officers had demonstrated quite a large degree of competence in the last few days, to the point Richard was pleased with all of them. And while he had been told much about them when he was assigned to command the Dominion, it took personal experience to know just how well a crewmember was performing.

Bradford was an obvious godsend. The man had a mind that could process a massive amount of things simultaneously, and he did a grand job of making sure the whole crew was working on what needed to be done. His talent for logistics was also truly legendary, we had almost finished cataloguing the entire ship, in only a matter of days.

Ensign Williams was admittedly less than busy, given the Dominion's steady orbit around Remnant leaving his role a helmsmen a bit irrelevant. But he was notably cheerful and eager to prove himself, an attitude that blended into the rest of the crew from time to time. He spent most of his time helping Lieutenant Chen with her increasingly hopeless efforts to find a way home. The two did seem to work well together however, demonstrating an impressive combined knowledge of astronomy. He did have a relationship with the ship's Chief Medical Officer that had become something of an open secret aboard the ship. While it was technically against fraternization regulations, it was very apparent that neither of them let their work be affected. Richard didn't see a need to crack down on them unless that changed.

Lieutenant Gage offered extensive experience, as he had served on the Dominion for over a decade, much longer than any of the other bridge officers. His shakiness was a cause for concern, but Richard had done his best to go easy on the man. His service record read more like a harrowing action novel than a record of the man's deeds, and after reading it himself Richard was amazed the man hadn't left the navy altogether. He did a very good job of keeping the weapons maintained and making sure that all systems were good to go, a precaution likely bred from paranoia.

Ensign Gillespie was a quiet man, one that Richard had a lot of trouble figuring out. He was always absorbed in his work, and did it quietly and efficiently. At first, Richard had thought it a bit oxymoronic to put a quiet man in charge of operations and communications, but Bradford had assured him that he was the man for the job. He had been proven right, as Ensign Gillespie did not allow his normally busy position to be a bottleneck for the rest of the crews productivity.

But while the bridge crew toiled away at their stations, ensuring the Dominion was in order. He was faced with a more complicated matter, the refit of the CCTS station on the ground. In truth, Richard didn't have many expectations from the CCTS system as a whole, much less a single relay station. He'd done his fair share of months on remote ONI surveillance stations to know that it was probably poorly funded and understaffed. But when he read the Engineering Chief's report on their mission, he had not expected it to be in such bad shape.

The first clue it was in bad shape was when Ensign Gillespie relayed a request for additional technicians and supplies from the ground. Reading the list of requests was worrying, as it asked for twice the men already sent, and enough communication and power generation equipment to construct a moderately sized SATCOM station, which were normally only established prior to extended campaigns, but the Dominion was equipped to establish at least two such stations, so Richard had approved the request.

The second warning was when the lead technician on the ground sent a message to the Dominion via their Pelican's radio warning that they had run into unexpected delays, and to not expect a stable connection until 1800. Unfortunately it took the team on the ground until 2030, and even then they had to leave a contingent of technicians behind to keep working on it, as well as a contingent of marines to act as guards for the valuable equipment and personnel. There were also plans to cycle them out with a separate team to continue working when the first group became exhausted.

The final warning was a mood of frustration from Ensign Gillespie, that only intensified as he continued to coordinate the operation from the Dominion. That mood slowly spread to Lieutenant Chen, and later Lieutenant Commander Bradford. Richard knew the look well, it was the same face he himself would make whenever he was prevented from doing his job by bureaucratic bullshit.

Those two words are the biggest reason I left ONI. He had thought.

Unfortunately, the report fell short of even his lowered expectations. Richard was appalled to learn that the relay station in Kuo Kuana was the only one on the entire continent, and even it experienced constant outages, leaving the whole continent effectively disconnected from the rest of the world except by hand-delivered messages. It became evident why when he read the whole station was manned by seven staff, all of whom were volunteers. Apparently the station was in a strange state of international deadlock where the station was owned by the Kingdom of Atlas, but Menagerie citizens were expected to staff it. However, they did not have access to what was essentially foreign soil, and as such they were forced to deal with the consequences.

There's negligence, and then there's leaving a fifth of your planet's population with no communication to the outside world. Something tells me I'm going to hear a tall list of excuses for this from Atlas. Richard thought bitterly, he did not want to deal with racial conflicts that had been obsolete for three centuries.

The equipment wasn't in a better state. Apparently it was outdated even by Remnant's lower than average standards, to the degree that many of the tertiary systems and what appeared to be surveillance equipment had been mothballed for years. The extra equipment requested had been to simply replace the existing Atlesian equipment, which was barely worth its weight in scrap. The Atlesian Staff had offered up the equipment as payment, which Richard had begrudingly accepted. The thing that worried Richard so much is that Ghira had called all of this a "minor" problem, something he hoped wasn't foreshadowing on the rest of humanity's situation across Remnant.

And apparently Atlas is the most advanced nation on Remnant, where does that leave everyone else? Hopefully with less political posturing that hurts innocent people. Richard thought. No matter, we're here now, so we can do something about it.

But the end of the report did provide the good news he was hoping for. The communications systems were compatible with only a moderate amount of modifications, mostly on the software front. He was rather pleasantly surprised to read that apparently the CCTS was more similar to Waypoint or the old world wide web back before space travel became commonplace. It would provide an opportunity to learn more about the people of Remnant, as well as other, more strategic possibilities.

"Curie, do you have a moment?" Richard asked, before Curie appeared on the holotable next to his chair, enhancing the faint blue glow that always filled the bridge.

"I am more than capable, how can I assist?" she asked.

"Are the systems of the CCTS compatible enough that you can access them?" Richard asked.

Curie thought for a moment before answering. "The infrastructure is far too primitive for any A.I to move through, much less a third generation Smart A.I. However, I do have a proposal."

"Go on." Richard said.

"I could use a proxy system by browsing the source code of any information uploaded to the CCTS or wherever in which it is stored, using the Dominion as an interface." Curie explained. "This would render most of my specialized intrusion software unfortunately ineffective, but I would still be able to access anything with a stable connection from here."

"Why wouldn't your intrusion software work?" Richard asked, his knowledge of computer systems had never been the greatest.

"A portion of it would, I shall explain." Curie said. "Several of my more specialized software packages were designed for Covenant infrastructure. As you might expect, those are completely different from the CCTS. Traditional intrusion methods will have to prove sufficient, however I am well equipped in that regard as well."

"Good to know." Richard said. "On that note, is the connection to the Dominion stable enough that you can access it right now?"

"I would need to divert a small amount of power to boost our signal slightly for the primary communications dish, but it is a negligible amount." Curie explained.

"Do it." Richard said with little hesitation.

"Give me one moment." Curie said as her digital facial expression shifted to one of deep thought. "I should share a brief word of caution, this system is unfortunately unrefined as a result of having been made as I go along. I anticipate a 35.5% slower processing rate until I can clean this up at a later date."

"Well as long as we can connect, we're better off than we were." Richard said.

Curie's holographic face was full of deep thought until she suddenly switched her expression to one of satisfaction. "It is done, stable contact has been established. As an added bonus, I've refined our cybersecurity defenses to increase their efficiency by 162%."

"That's... quite a lot." Richard commented.

"It is not nearly as impressive as it sounds, but it does offer some peace of mind, does it not?" Curie asked rehtorically. "Now that I have access, is there anything specific I am looking for?"

"We need to contact the leadership of the Kingdom of Atlas, as well as this Schnee Dust Company." Richard said. "We'll start with Atlas, as we should avoid making enemies with them first."

"I will begin searching. Thankfully there is some existing software here that can help with that." Curie said, before continuing several seconds later. "Ok, I have some basic information on all 51, wait sorry, 50 of the elected council members."

"What about their king?" Richard asked.

"There is none." Curie explained. "It would appear that monarchies have not existed for several decades outside of several unrecognized city states. All of those appear to have been destroyed by Grimm, save a few unconfirmed instances."

"Why is it called a kingdom then?" Richard asked, confused. "I assumed it was like some of the old Earth nations, were the monarch held minimal power, but still existed."

"Your guess is as good as mine, it is a mildly irritating misnomer is it not?" Curie asked. "Instead, it appears to be a rather basic form of republic. Interestingly it appears as if they have no singular position of executive power, similar to the UEG."

"Do they have established diplomats we can contact?" Richard asked.

"It would appear that they do, but they also seem to serve a largely ceremonial role." Curie said. "It is worth noting that I am unintentionally piercing several layers of cybersecurity in my search for this information. If you would like me to take more diligent care in respecting their boundaries-"

Richard held his hand up, stopping her. "One of my men is in cold storage Curie. We'll respect their privacy once we've averted a diplomatic crisis."

"I am glad we are in agreement. It's also worth noting the various instances of criminal activity I've discovered taking place on the system. It would appear that electronic surveillance is rather limited here." Curie noted.

"What about finding who we need to contact? We can go searching for faults in their network later." Richard said, trying to get them back on track.

"You are correct, and I believe I have found a good candidate. His name is General Jameson Ironwood." Curie said before her hologram disappeared, before being replaced with a well-kept man in an unusually formal military dress. "He holds reasonable influence in the Atlesian military, as well as holding two seats on the Atlesian council through a position as Headmaster at what appears to be a prestigious university, as well as another in which he was elected."

"He certainly sounds like a busy man." Richard said. "You think he's our best bet at a friendly representative?"

"I believe he is the most likely candidate. He does have a history of nationalistic policies, but for the most part, he's received ample praise from his comrades and the press alike. He seems to be heralded as a brilliant and reasonable leader." Curie answered as her hologram returned.

"Very well, can you patch us through?" Richard asked.

Curie went silent for a moment before answering. "Perhaps, I would need more time, there is a lot of software that I would need to translate first. I'd need to find a way to contact him directly."

"Make it happen." Richard said. "And see if we can't find a means to communicate through which he wouldn't think we're a bunch of technically savvy hooligans trying to prank him."

"I can patch a video line through one of the cameras on the bridge, what better way to show we are who we say they are then to simply show him the view?" Curie asked, gesturing at the bridge's window into space before her.

"Good thinking, let me know when it's done." Richard said before Curie's hologram disappeared as she diverted her attention towards her new task.

I should see about doing some research of my own. Richard thought as he reached for his datapad.

Authors note: Yes I know the UEG canonically has a President but I chose to ignore that because it is absolute lunacy and disregards basic population multiplication. On a related note, I don't take a lot of the Forerunner novel series canon or really anything post-2552 into account, less because of not liking it and more because it serves no purpose in this story and would affect nothing. A good exception to this is the railgun prototype they cobbled together in the original.

Editor's note: Hello once again reader, it is I… SardonicEffigy… surely you remember me? No?... oh well, I'm back now that's all that matters. I'm really glad to be back on the project and look forward to helping the story grow and flourish, and perhaps writing a few omakes along the way... as always let us know your thoughts on the chapter so we can strive to improve, thanks for reading.

Healthcare: Welcome back, chief.