Chapter 1: Hyper Lethal Origins.

The small girl had been awoken rather suddenly that night by brilliant bursts of light outside her window. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she clambered out of bed; clutching her cuddly unicorn tight as she carefully lifted the blinds.

The sky was orange from fires burning in the distance. An arc of brilliant blue light crashed into the surface. A full second later the explosion seemed to shake the planet.

The force was so strong the young girl was flung backwards despite being in her room, she cried out as she struggled to sit upright; her parent's must have also been woken up because they burst into the room, overnight bags slung over their shoulders.

"We need to go, Sweetie, where's your bag?" Her mother was shaking, tears running down her cheeks as she frantically searched for the younger girl's emergency bag .

Despite her own panic, she ran over to her bed, pulling out the pre packed emergency bag her parents had told her to store there. The girl hauled it up onto her shoulders; it was a bit heavy but the drills the army man had given them at school had insisted they needed all of this on them. Looking back up to her mother she decided not to complain, she was a big girl! she could easily carry it and Mr Glitter Sparkles. The purple unicorn was tough after all, Mayday Toys made their stuff to last!

"Good, Come on. They're not near us yet, we should be able to reach a shuttle if we're quick." Her Father said, chiving her towards the door before she could even put her shoes on.

Confused, the small girl complied; stepping onto the street in her purple Pajamas and following the retreating crowd towards the trucks that were waiting at the end.

The girl took note of how scared everyone around her was. She knew the Covenant was bad, but the man over there was telling them to remain calm, so why weren't they? Surely they'd be safe soon right?

She shook it from her mind as she and her parent's clambered into the big truck. It was dark, smelly, cramped and she couldn't even sit near her parent's due to the available seats, but it was moving away from the bad guy aliens and she still had Mr Glitter Sparkles; it would have to be enough.

It was 5 minutes into this truck ride that the girl's life was changed forever. One moment everything was fine, then it swerved suddenly as the world around them seemed to be bathed in blue light. The truck flipped, tumbling through the air and tossing the girl around inside.

The girl couldn't see anything, the only sound filling her ears being that of distant yelling and screaming, and all she felt was pain, like when she'd been sunburnt at the beach but a million times worse. It took a bit but she was able to see again and when she did she didn't believe it.

The rest of the truck wasn't exactly gone, it was still there, but it was melted; as was anyone near the back. That was where her Mommy and Daddy had been sitting.

The girl was screaming now as she fought to free the straps holding her into her seat; eventually managing to free herself and drop down. She wanted to look for her parent's but it was so hot she had to back up; perhaps they were outside?

Hastily she scrambled to the outside, stopping only to retrieve her unicorn as she ran. When she finally escaped the remains of the truck, however, she saw no one. The pain became too much as her body began to shake.

Her legs gave out and she slumped to the ground, tears flowing down her face as she cried. Then she saw them coming out of the forest, gangly bird monsters hunkering behind their round shields, aiming their weapons at her.

She tried to run, she really did; but her body didn't want to. She crashed down from the pain as she failed to move. She was dead, they were going to kill her. She wasn't safe, she was terrified; she wanted her Mommy, she wanted help.

"Please!" The girl cried, and then, like magic, someone came. Sprinting out of the fires in front of her was a soldier, tall and coated head to toe in green armour. They moved with brutal speed, and blasted the birds apart with their gun. Even with her ears ringing from the crash, the sound of the gunfire was deafening, but the pain was worth it if the monsters were dead.

"Clear!" The soldier said, taking her off guard by revealing themselves to be a woman. She'd never seen a girl that was so big before. More people came out of the fog, they were shorter, around the same height as her Mom and Dad, and wearing the grey armour she recognised from all of the drills as ODST's; but then, what was that green lady?

"Christ, is she the only one who made it?" One of the ODST's asked before getting elbowed by one of his friends.

"Hey little one, it's okay, we're gonna get you out of here." The Elbowing ODST said as he scooped her up into his arms.

"That's what the man on the truck said." The girl said, tears falling down her face as she looked back at where she had last seen her Mommy.

"He did his best, and we're gonna do the same; we've got a Spartan on our side after all!" The ODST said, the girl looked at the tall lady who was moving back to them as she kept her eyes on the treeline.

"If she's the only survivor we need to move now." The 'Spartan' said. "Nathan, take point; keep your eyes out for covenant forces."

"You got it Ma'am. Meadows keep the kid safe." The ODST Nathan said, only stopping to hand the girl back her Unicorn.

The girl had seen a lot of soldiers since that day. The 'Camp' she was staying at had a lot of them moving around, but it wasn't very fun. It was so noisy and full of people, also she didn't care much for the lady looking after her. She wasn't mean or anything, but she wasn't her Mommy, and some of the kids had tried to take her Unicorn away. They'd quickly learned not to try again, however.

"Quite a show you put on out there." The man in the black suit said as the girl shrank more into her seat.

"I didn't mean to hurt him so badly, but he wouldn't let go of Mr Glitter Sparkles." She said, hugging the burnt plushy tightly; he looked worse than ever. Still burnt from the explosion and also filthy from months of being unable to wash him. At least that nice man had sewn his ear back on.

"No Shame in protecting what you have. Hell, I respect it alot kid." The Man said, causing the girl to smile despite him saying a bad word.

"Am I in trouble Mister?" She asked, her small voice coming out quietly as she clutched her Unicorn friend tightly.

"Kid, it's not my business what you do here, I'm here to offer you… something special." He explained, pulling a tablet out and unlocking it before handing it to the small girl.

"A Spartan?" The girl asked, recognising the armoured figure on the screen in front of her. The tall green lady had been on her mind ever since that horrible night.

"Yes you would know wouldn't you." The man said kindly. "Yes, that's a Spartan. I'm here to see if you'd like to be one too."

"Why?" The girl asked, head tilted to the side in confusion as she looked up at the man.

"Because you're smart, a fighter, and you want to hurt the Covenant."

"Everyone here does." The small girl pointed out, eliciting a laugh out of the suited man.

"Yes, but most of them aren't you kid. I won't force you, but I've got other people to recruit so I need an answer. Do you want to be a Spartan or not?"

The girl nodded.

As it turned out, becoming a Spartan was hard. Onyx wasn't a nice planet, nor were the other cadets. It had taken a week before the girl had found Mr Glitter Sparkles head stuffed down a toilet, and barely a week later before the rest of his body was found in a different stall.

The girl was mad, but she fixed him, he was her friend and she was going to put him back together. A small part of her said she should tell the instructors about the second incident; but her memory of the first time stopped her.

"Kid we've got better things to do, why'd you even bring a stupid toy anyway?"

The girl cried there, most of the others had family pictures, her Unicorn was all she had left of home. There was nothing else; but clearly no one else understood that.

If the soldiers wouldn't do anything to stop them, then she would have to take matters into her own hands.

'Time to make them understand'

The Instructor was yelling at her, she'd expected it. Swiping a combat knife from a passing marine and using it to cut the rope a fellow cadet was trying to climb was never going to be received well; but she didn't care.

"Well B312! What do you have to say for yourself!?" The red faced man bellowed at her.

"He hurt Mr Glitter Sparkles." She responded simply.

She'd spent a lot of time cleaning the changing rooms and toilets after that. She'd been volunteered for demonstrations and extra exercises whenever possible, the slim amount of free time they were given being taken away from her entirely. She didn't care. Sure it hurt, sure she'd cried herself to sleep on a fair few nights, but it didn't matter. She didn't care that she was doing more than the others. It hurt like hell to be on her knees all the time cleaning, but that just helped her learn to ignore pain. Sure she got pushed around a lot, but she saw the moves up close. She was learning faster than the rest of the cadets. She was also better at dodging than everyone else, and she was definitely more in better shape than anyone else.

Of course, that didn't stop her bullies from trying their luck, if anything, they were worse once they got out of medical and she was usually too tired to deal with them, but she didn't care. It had all been worth it.

This exercise hadn't been hard to work out. She was at a disadvantage if she stayed on the ground, but no one had been looking up in the trees for her, especially when her helmet's signal would indicate that she was lying prone in a bush.

Admittedly, a simulated ammunition firefight was not the best place to be taking your helmet off, but B312 wasn't worried. She was high enough in the tree's that they'd struggle to hit her. Add in the rain and general sense of tiredness from being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, and their aim was sure to suffer.

The Spartan in training grinned as one of the enemy squads walked into her trap, moving to aim into the bush she'd dumped her helmet in.

As she jumped down on them, it was almost too easy.

Mr Glitter Sparkles was gone, B312 couldn't find him. She looked around as best as she could but her schedule didn't give her much free time; she'd have to sneak out after lights out.

Well, there he was… on the powerlines, out of reach. She bent down to pick up a rock to knock him down, but as she took aim she couldn't help but think of all the things people had said. It had been years since she'd actually slept with him, usually too tired and drained to think about it, but everyone still saw him, still made fun of her for it. Even after all these years they didn't understand why he mattered to her, and she had long since accepted the fact they never would.

"Big day tomorrow… I should be ready…" The Spartan in training muttered, trying to turn away before hesitating. No matter what the others said, she couldn't leave him up there.

The rock knocked him down and he landed in a puddle. She looked over the toy she'd repaired multiple times over the years. The rain had managed to wash away much of the smoke, ash, and dirt that had clung to it; you could even see his mane was orange again! If it weren't for the poor stitches and worn appearance, someone might have mistaken it for being new.

"I hope they look after you." She said as she stuffed the Unicorn into a crate full of toys. Their Instructors had told them all to stay away from them, threats of disciplinary action and extra duty if they even walked too closely, but she couldn't help it. The shipments were meant to go out to one of the camps as a part of their effort to recruit new candidates.

Despite the ulterior motive, most of the toys would find their ways into ordinary kids' hands. Surely one of them would take him, right?

The Spartan II augmentations were… not pleasant to watch; actually it would be the most horrifying any of them had ever seen if not for the fact everyone in the room had seen their families killed in front of them; sure some of them ended up like 117, but some ended up more akin to a twisted mess of limbs and broken bones.

"If any of you want to back down now is the time." The instructor said, B312 almost laughed; none of them were backing down.

"In that case cadets, get ready. Augmentations begin in one hour." The stern looking scientist said as everyone scrambled to get ready.

"What do you mean by malfunctions, Sir?" B312 asked, fighting the natural urge to tilt her head. Her instructors had tried to beat that habit out of her but it was still present even after so many years.

"There shouldn't be any life threatening side effects, it's mostly limited to your reproductive organs, but the ones you will experience could leave you at risk for psych evaluations. The best case scenario will be stunted emotional development due to hormonal imbalance." The scientist explained to the now seven ft girl who sat up and rolled her shoulders.

"Will this get in the way of my duties?"

"We need to run more tests, but we don't think so."

B312 methodically pulled the trigger on her sniper rifle, another militia cell destroyed. She knew why she was doing this but… a distant part of her brain reminded her that she'd signed up to fight the covenant, not this.

Shaking her head, she did her best to ignore the concerning thoughts. She had her orders and she was going to follow them.

"I take it you understand how big of an honour being granted Mjolnir is, Spartan?"

"I do Sir." B312 said with a curt nod.

"Very well, any preferences for colour? You're meant to stand out on the battlefield after all; you can take the hits and if the troops you're fighting with can see you it inspires them to fight that much harder." The Man operating the scanner said as he turned his attention back to the model they were making of her.

"Lavender and Coral Orange, Sir." She said, remembering the colour guide she'd been offered when the armour had been approved to go to her. Why she wanted those colours she didn't know.

"Very well. You've requested mostly ODST pattern armour, any particular reason for that?" The Scientist asked curiously, causing the Spartan to shrug.

"I respect them." She said simply.

"I've been assigned to a team?" B312 asked, the shock evident in her voice no matter how much she tried to hide it.

"Yes. ONI has had you as a one woman army for too long Spartan, you're being assigned to Noble Team. Your new callsign will be Noble Six, your flight to Reach leaves in a few hours, get some rest before then.

"Yes Sir." The new Noble Six responded.

"That's a one way trip." Six pointed out.

"We all make it sooner or later." The older Spartan said simply. "Better get going Six, they're gonna need you down there."

He handed her his dog tags as he explained:

"Listen, Reach has been good to me. Time has come to return the favour… Don't deny me this" He said, almost seeming to know she was about to point out a Spartan II was worth a lot more than she was.

"Tell 'em to make it count."

Jorge's last words to her repeated in her mind as she fell back to Reach. he wasn't sure how to feel over the older Spartans death, it was worth it to take out the super carrier; hell, it would save Reach, but she still wasn't sure it was going to be enough for her teammates as she fell back down.

"Slip Space Rupture detected." Dot Said in her ear, Noble Six looked in horror as the Covenant fleet arrived over Reach.

She knew how she felt now; she felt angry.

"Where does he get off calling a demolition op Priority One–"

Kat was dead. Six shot back, trying to hit the sniper, but it was a useless effort and she gave up. They were supposed to destroy Kat's armour; every regulation in the book said it was what they should do, and yet they didn't. They dragged her into the bunker and let her rest.

Six didn't know Kat like the other three did, but she was still angry. This was the second member of Noble Team that she'd lost, and she could have done something; Even if it had been as simple as standing on the other side of the elevator.

"Commander you've been wondering what your Spartans died for, they died for this…"

Six looked down at the Smart A.I. in her hands; she hoped that even through her helmet the AI understood what she was thinking.

'You better have been fucking worth it.'

"Don't want to hear it, get the package to the Autumn."

"Done." Six said, she'd let Noble Team down too many times before; She could at least do this for him. She wanted to save him, but she knew they couldn't. Besides, Carter hadn't been the same since Kat died. At least now he felt alive.

"Not yet it's not. Emile, go with her. It's a ground game now."

"It's been an honour Sir."

"Likewise."

A small part of Six hurt hearing that;,this was what being on a team felt like. She'd finally got it and now she was going to lose another part of it.

"I'll do what I can to draw their fire. Six… that A.I. chose you… She made the right choice."

Six moved to the back of the Pelican and jumped when gave his mark, she was sure it was going to be the last thing she ever heard. So she guessed she was surprised when she heard him again.

"You're on your own Noble, Carter out."

Six looked over at Emile; Jun was long gone too; surely she wouldn't lose him too right?

"I'm ready! How 'bout you!"

Six knew then and there she wasn't leaving, As Emile was stabbed; not that she could save him, the energy sword was too much. But she was staying, she might have been new, she might have barely known Noble Team, but every other member had given everything to this mission.

Reach was lost; but the A.I. she'd just handed over to Captain Keyes was still alive, and the Pillar of Autumn could still make it. She just needed some help, and Six would be damned before letting her Team's sacrifices be in vain.

As she looked up at the burnt sky, she wondered if this was enough. It was hard to see anything right now, her gut dully ached but that was to be expected; she had been stabbed through the chest after all.

She wanted to sigh but couldn't. She was done, and she was tired, so fucking tired. Now at least, she could find out what happened to a Spartan when they died.

She wouldn't find out.

Deep on another world a flash of orange light flared up and a girl came tumbling out, heavily scarred, vastly diminished and vulnerable, but still very much alive, because what they'd been told was true. Spartans never die; they're just missing in action.

And Noble Six couldn't be anymore lost if she tried.

Authors Notes: Yes this is a thing I'm doing. For those who don't know this is a rewrite of a story I wrote a few years ago, I've always liked the plot but the actual execution is abysmal in the original, so I'm having another go, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying making it.