So I did something I wouldn't normally do and bought a game day one. It is Kingdom Hearts 3, which had fifty fuckin' years of dev time between the fifteen thousand remakes, 358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep (still need to finish that) and 3D, and I worked for it, dammit. This commentary also dates this chapter's writing to January of 2019.

Onwards, to great shipgirling.

The Review Box:

Ender001: CONGLATURATIONS!

Fid99: Just another voice in the choir of crazy.

Uh, what exactly do you mean by 'big F'?

I literally found out about PC MCC an hour after I posted the chapter. Still hype about Halo Infinite. And the fight ain't finished yet, if three more games after that one are any indication... And since you're interested in PC Halo, I'd recommend you check out Installation 01. It's a fangame made from scratch, and it's like classic Halo.

(one PM later) Ah. You are entirely correct in that assumption.

Thanks to JDGZ OVSH and MrCraken for the follow/fav.

Journal of Admiral Steele, January 12, 2558

"We've lost Grafton! Repeat, frigate Grafton has been destroyed by- oh my god-"

"That can't be good." Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood stated gravely as the audio recording cut out.

"Sir, with all due respect, there is a goddamn supercarrier parked over Reach. Why am I not being sent there?!" Vice Admiral Aqua Steele asked.

"NOBLE team is still stationed on Reach, along with the majority of the SPARTAN II corps." Hood replied. From his office in HIGHCOM, on Terra, they had an advantage on paper. While the orbital SMACs had been destroyed, and Zealot-classes had been spotted at a mining station in the large-scale engagement leading to Grafton's destruction, they still had numerical superiority, for however long that lasted.

"And where Zealots show up, a Fleet is sure to follow." The upstart Vice Admiral responded. "Sir, if Reach is to have any hope, we need to send everything short of the Terra Defense Fleet there. You know as well as I do that the only way to beat the Covenant without trickery is overwhelming force."

"At the cost of our fleets?" Aqua stiffened. "We may have to accept this. Reach may be lost."

"There are still civilians, Hood." She said desperately. "The Covenant doesn't show mercy! Everyone on that planet is dead if we simply do nothing!"

"I know." The Fleet Admiral stared out his window, observing Sydney from below him. It was easy to imagine the Covenant over Earth, almost a certainty with Reach's fall.

"So how can- how can you stand by and condemn millions, knowing we could do something?" Aqua asked, weakly.

"Because the CORE project is almost finished."

"CORE, sir?" The Fleet Admiral turned to his terminal, pulling up a file.

"ONI was so gracious as to inform me of this recently." Hood stated, turning a hard glare onto the Vice Admiral. "You are not to let anyone know of this. If you do… ONI doesn't care about your rank." The blue-headed soldier, barely out of adolescence by a physical standard, froze in terror.

The projection split into two windows, one showing a brain scan of one Doctor Catherine Halsey, and another showing an AI projection. It was a young female, data running up and down her form.

"UNSC smart AI designation CTN 0452-9. An AI based off the brain of the SPARTAN mastermind herself." Hood gestured to the AI. "Currently partitioned. One is assigned to SPARTAN designation Sierra 'John'-117. The other is on Reach." CTN's image split into two, both standing above crystal chips.

"And?"

"She's studying an alien artifact buried underneath SWORD Base. If Halsey's correct, we could be looking at a development along the lines of slipspace travel, something that could win the war."

"It's not so much 'winning' as it is 'surviving'. The last pre-war census data showed us at a total of over a hundred fifty billion. The death toll is already passing seventy billion. If they find Sol, we're done."

"True enough."

Both stared at the depiction of the AI, wondering if she would hold the key to victory or defeat.

Six watched the Pillar of Autumn break for space, atmospheric boosters dropping off the ship as it swerved around the imploding Covenant cruiser from the seat of the MAC. Firing a magnetically-charged projectile into a glassing laser, as it turned out, was an expedient way to destroy the thing.

On the Autumn was the Package, an AI Halsey had specifically had her carry to the Halcyon-class light cruiser. All the doctor had said about it (once one dug through all the allusions and grandiose verbiage) was that it was 'the latchkey'.

Six didn't care. She'd finished her mission. Now she had one more.

Objective: Survive.

Spartans never die. Propaganda from the UNSC, meant to keep morale up that their super soldiers were actually immortal.

Six had seen Jorge toss her off the doomed supercarrier and disappear into a slipspace rupture. Watched Kat eat a ballistic plasma to the head. Didn't know Jun's status. Saw Carter ram a Scarab. Watched Emile get stabbed, stepped over his body to reach the MAC. Unable to do a damn thing about them.

Spartans died. She would be no different.

It didn't matter her 'hyper-lethal' rating. There was only so long until the Reaper swung his scythe.

And she was going to make it take as long as she could damn well make it.

Terra spat out a glob of blood, wincing as she pressed her arm to her waist momentarily. The blowback from the plasma grenade she'd stuck to the Wraith had slammed her into a wall. Her armor was scuffed and burned from blunt force impacts and plasma. Her shields had failed. The cushioning gel was barely holding on. She'd gotten rid of her helmet when her HUD had failed. She had no idea what her ammo count was. She was out of grenades. Her face was scratched, burned, and bruised.

But still she fought.

Countless Covenant corpses littered the abandoned airfield. Scraps of Banshees and Wraiths lay scattered about.

Panting, she dropped her empty pistol and assault rifle. Spotting two deactivated energy swords, she checked the charges before picking them up. They wouldn't last long, and her knife and Emile's kukri would barely delay the inevitable.

But seven hours against everything the Covenant had thrown against SPARTAN Terra-B312 almost had her just end it herself. Almost.

A squad of Zealot Elites appeared in front of her, their decloaking revealing them to be led by a Field Marshal, not unlike the one at the shipyards.

The lead alien said something in the Elite's growly language. The lone wolf merely activated the blades in her hands in defiance.

Spartans never die. They're only missing in action.

On a hillside, not too far from the Gateway on Earth.

A wing, torn from a Pelican, lies next to a platform. The words 'IN MEMORY OF THOSE FALLEN IN THE DEFENSE OF EARTH AND HER COLONIES' is emblazoned on the side. Pictures of fallen soldiers are seen, with flowers, guns, hats, and other memorada decorating the platform around and below.

Fleet Admiral Hood and Admiral Steele stand on the platform. A crowd of Marines, some Seperatists, and cameras are gathered in front of them. The Arbiter stands slightly to the right of the platform, adjacent to a line of Marines holding DMRs.

Hood began to speak as he removed his hat. "For us, the storm has passed. The war is over.

But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark, and did not return."

The fore half of UNSC Forward Unto Dawn crashes into the Indian Ocean. Lookout crews signal their communications crews as recovery Pelicans fly over head.

Later, a team of mechanics have weakened the metal enough for the Arbiter to emerge.

"For their decision required courage beyond measure, sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight, our fight, was elsewhere."

"As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten."

Hood replaced his hat, and saluted.

"Present! Arms!" Steele barked, the line of seven Marines raising their rifles. Each fired in unison three bullets, the discharge noise carrying over the silent plains.

Aqua Steele stood alone, facing the memorial. She'd come to do something that she didn't want anyone else to see.

"So it's over, huh, Sis?" She asked. A tear began to well up as she looked at the photograph she'd brought. One that had survived with her from her first second in basic.

A photograph of her, age seven, side hugging a blonde girl of the same age, their faces oddly identical.

A photo taken on Reach, before it fell.

"Just a shame you didn't live to see it through." She was crying freely now, but smiling. She affixed the photograph to the Pelican wing, standing back for a moment.

The numbers 117 were carved under the message on the memorial. Taking out her combat knife, Aqua carved B-312 next to it, then Noble Six under that.

Sheathing the knife, she saluted one last time, then left.

The setting sun cast golden rays onto the memorial.

A scorched helmet sat in a field of grass, the blue visor smeared with detritus. The cyan and gold color was tarnished beyond even when it had seen active combat.

Aqua picked up Terra's helmet, silently examining what was left of her sister.

After the Pillar of Autumn had reported in after a slipspace jump, without Terra on board, she'd known. The newly minted Admiral merely stared at a helmet that had concealed the face of one of the UNSC's greatest heroes... and one of her greatest regrets.

"What have you found?"

Absently, she glanced behind her, to where the Arbiter was stomping towards her.

"A MJONLNR helmet." She responded. "My sister's."

"I see." The Sangheili stated as he stopped besides her. "So she was the Demon The Fleets had trouble with."

"Familiar to you, then." There was no mistaking the hard edge in the human's voice. The Arbiter nodded anyway.

"Aye. She destroyed several armies before a Field Marshal's detachment finally struck her down. She brought honor to your race, for fighting until the end. The Field Marshal noted as such in his report."

"Well, isn't that something, then." Aqua smirked, before turning to the Pelican that had brought them onto the newly-terraformed Reach. The gunship was waiting to transfer her and the Arbiter back to the newly launched Infinity. After a short jaunt back to Earth, she was to run the ship and crew through their paces before returning to HIGHCOM for new orders. With the help of many of the Covenant Separatists, the cleanup from the war was progressing quickly. So quickly that the ship proclaiming their victory was able to be launched fully armed and crewed, instead of barely armed with a skeleton crew.

Aqua placed the helmet down on a table with a label reading 'Historical Records', not too far away from where a Pelican had brought a bunch of scientists and historians to study the place. Then she strode onto the waiting gunship.

Not too much happened today. I waited to write until tonight because of that.

Today's sortie was into subsector Bravo, moving on those installations Equinox had designated yesterday. The tentacle had put up token resistance before it was destroyed.

Easy work.

That the fleet hadn't suffered any casualties was unnerving. Either the Abyssals are far too weak, or, more likely, were holding back to make us drop our guard. Even as the shipgirls celebrated, I could only hope that when the inevitable came, it wouldn't be complete annihilation.

That's all I really want. Reach didn't even make me this… anticipatory for something bad to happen.

A mostly flashback chapter today. Mainly because of worldbuilding, I guess. And I'm running out of ideas.

But, hey, have a different Noble Six death scene implication. Fun for all you lore nerds out there.

I use Earth and Terra interchangeably, because, well, Terra is Latin for 'earth'. So, yeah it makes sense. And if you're using it as a name you use people pronouns.

Cortana being 'partitioned' is something I came up with to explain an inconsistency between Halo: Reach and Fall of Reach. In Fall of Reach, Chief had Cortana from when he started his training. In Reach, she's studying the Forerunner artifact under SWORD Base. AI 'partitioning' is basically like fragments from Red vs. Blue - an AI is split into two. However, partitioning is voluntary, and can be reversed. Fragmenting is not.

The last level of Halo: Reach, Lone Wolf, only lasts as long as you do, which is about 15-20 minutes depending on skill. In canon, it's hours, with shit that's not in the level, but entirely believable, considering how much force the Covenant brings to bear against Reach, and Six being the only other 'hyper-lethal' SPARTAN besides old Johnny. I tried to blend them as well as I could.

I would not like my death to be over a fucking nickname.