Chapter 1
The Last Spartan

"In our top news story, John 117-a Spartan, part of Oni's secret weapons project and the last of his kind-returns to Earth a hero. We will have a live broadcast of the award ceremony ton-"

Daniel Gricks turned off the TV and shook his head as he straightened the bow-tie on his white uniform. He was a Marine Corporal, born in Australia and transferred for duty on the Orbital Defense Platform Cairo with the destruction of reach. He looked at himself in the mirror of his small living quarters he had on the station before brushing a hand over his short, spiky brown hair. Finally, he brushed off some dust and hair from the sleeves of the jacket, smoothed out the collar, and turned around to a small device sitting on his bed.

"What do you think" He asked, crossing his arms. The device made a beeping noise and a small blue holographic woman appeared above it, smiling softly.
"You look good in a suit. You should wear stuff like that more often." She replied. She was Aurora, an Intelligent Programmed Artificial Intelligence that Dan had designed himself. He was hoping that a big business or even the UNSC would want to buy the technology-it saved having to kill people and use their brains as templates, at least, if the rumors were true.

Dan rolled his eyes, "You know very well that I hate wearing suits. They're so… uncomfortable. There's so little room to move in them." Aurora just chuckled softly, but her composure soon changed as she raised an eyebrow.
"Why did you turn off the TV during the thing about the Master Chief?" She asked, crossing her own holographic arms. Dan turned back to the mirror and started to brush off his pants, "It's a bunch of baloney if you ask me. It's probably just a hell jumper with a high rank in green armor and special ops training on Reach." He replied as he finally finished straightening out his bow-tie for the second time.

Before Aurora could respond, Dan had turned back to her.
"What's the time?" He asked as he put a foot on the edge of the bed and fixed up his shoelaces.
"Four fifty-three." Aurora answered. Dan almost immediately tensed up, "Four fift… why the hell didn't you tell me what time it was?! We're going to be late!" He said as he grabbed the device and put it around his left wrist like a watch. Aurora disappeared back into the device as he rolled his sleeve over the top of it.
"You specifically told me not to bother you about what the time was, since I'm apparently always bothering you about being late." She retorted, seeming very serious for a moment before letting out a giggle.

"I didn't expect you to actually listen to me! Call up the elevator so I don't waste any more time!" Dan replied as he grabbed his formal white hat that went with the suit and put it on.
"One step ahead of you. Elevator is open and waiting, and a tram is on its way to pick us up." She said as Dan took off out the door of his living quarters, shutting the door behind him, before quickly taking off down the hallway leading to the elevator-which was open and waiting like Aurora said it would be. He got into the elevator and quickly hit the button for the tram. He watched impatiently as the doors finished closing slowly, and he felt the slow, smooth movement of the elevator descending. He shook his head, "You're such a pain sometimes, and then you do things like this."

"Daniel, need I remind you that you designed my attitude and emotions off your very own?" She retorted, causing Dan to laugh softly.

"Yep, you're a pain all right…" Dan said as the elevator doors opened and a tram pulled up just outside them. He quickly ran to the tram and got inside, the doors shut behind him and the tram started moving. Dan then walked over to the glass doors of the tram on the opposite side he got in on. Outside the station was a beautiful view of Earth, along with hundreds of military craft.

"What's going on?" Dan asked curiously as a cruiser flew by the station, so close he could make out its registration.
"Not sure, ever since this big EMP blast on Earth that knocked out the whole chatter net the other day, the UNSC has been amassing its fleet. They even jumped in some craft from some of the remaining colonies. It looks as though they're prepar-" Before Aurora could finish, the whole station shook and the power flickered on and off. The tram came to an abrupt halt, almost throwing Dan off his feet. Red warning lights started spinning everywhere.
"What the hell was that?!" Dan asked as he got to his feet and straightened his hat.
"I don't… slip-space rupture blast, just off the Defence Grid… 13 Covenant cruisers, 2 assault carriers. They're launching boarding craft" Aurora replied, sounding very serious for once.
"They're here..."