Heyy all, looks like I actually managed to update pretty quickly for once :P Consider it a New Year present :)
As usual, any thing that's wrong or need a better explanation then don't hesitate to tell me.
Thank you for all the Reviews, Favs and Follows :)
Mr Review/BloodDragonKing: Thank you, I hope you had a great Christmas :) have a good New Year too! I'm glad you decided to make an account :P
gwb99: She probably will, I mean who would turn down a Spartan? :P We'll defiantly see NEST reactions to her combat expertise and they're defiantly gonna be in for the shock of their life :L
Telron: Thank you :) Nope, they won't, Six is gonna give them hell for attacking Earth :D
Dreaming Star Traveler: Thank you :D You shall wait no longer!
Guest: Here's your update and thank you so much :D
Have a great New Year guys and I'll see you sometime in 2015.
.
"Speech"
Thoughts or words stressed upon
The End Of My World
Six quickly took in the room that wasn't all that long, but made up for it in height. At the front there was a large flat screen that currently contained an upside-down triangle with a cow skull in the center and the word 'NEST' above it. On the other-side of the room was Major Lennox talking to a man on a smaller screen. Next to him was Ironhide who –Six noticed- was standing out of the shot of the screens camera along with the orb.
"This must be them," Lennox suddenly said. "General Morshower let me introduce Noble Six, Roh 'Rithinee and –although I cannot allow you to see them- Optimus Prime and Ratchet."
The two robots each gave a respectful greeting before quickly sidestepping the screen in order to join Ironhide. After them the Elite gave a quick greeting that was also respectful before he stepped off to the side and allowed Six the introduce herself to the General.
"Sir," she snapped a quick salute, knowing that if she was going to join NEST then she should make a good impression.
The man on the screen nodded as a small smile played at his lips. He appeared slightly hesitant as he spoke, "at…ease, Noble Six?"
Relaxing herself from the automatic stiffness and straightness that had become a reflex when talking to a superior officer, Six nodded in affirmation.
"I'm aware that you want to join NEST, why?" He asked, an eyebrow raised inquisitively.
"Reclaimer!" Guardian called, upset. "We do not have time to waste here, have you forgotten why you followed me?"
"Ye…" Six stopped herself at Guardian's outburst and a harsh frown swiftly worked its way onto her face, how dare he! She wasn't trying to waste time! She was joining NEST so she could help defend Earth and find a way home because she had a feeling that these robots had created some form of space travel. So, how dare that damn orb undermine her! She knew exactly what she was doing. Enraged at his suggestion Six caught a brief flash of surprise from the General before she rounded on the orb.
"I haven't," she snarled quietly. "How do you plan on getting us back?"
"With the necessary resources, construction of a Slip-Stream Space engine is possible."
"It'll take time," Six reminded, calming her tone. "So, in the meantime, I'm going to put myself to good use doing what a Spartan does. Protecting Humanity."
"Unnecessary, your-"
Shaking her head Six cut Guardian off, "I'm doing my duty." Six turned back to the General, "my apologies, Sir."
He frowned slightly, "As I was saying, why do you want to join NEST? I'm aware that there is some tension between you and…aliens."
"I'm willing to put that aside for the benefit of Humanity," Six assured him, "and as you just witnessed I don't have a ride home."
"We don't need half-cocked reasons for joining NEST," the General said steely. "You must be one hundred per cent dedicated."
"I meant no offence, General," Six winced internally. "This is a difficult decision, I don't want to be disloyal to the UNSC or forget about my home, but I cannot stand by while I'm here and leave Humanity to fend for itself."
"Major Lennox mentioned something about a war spanning almost thirty years," he gave her a dubious look. "I'm sure you can understand my hesitation to believe your story."
"You believe I'm working for these…Decepticons."
"A more pliable reason than time-travel. Although, the Decepticons are not known for working with Humans or…Sangheili."
Six cast a short glance at the Elite in question, who merely met her gaze with his own hard amber eyes. Go crawl back into whatever hole you came from, Hinge-head, she mentally growled.
Turning her gaze back to the General she smiled, "I have a collection of mission videos, which should be enough to convince you. I'll warn you now, you may find them disturbing."
"Someone will need to verify their authenticity."
Suddenly Lennox spoke up, "Ratchet's got us covered on that, Sir."
Six frowned at Ratchet. She didn't know he'd done something like that, hopefully Dot was okay and he hadn't poked around her much. If he had then Six wasn't sure if she could live with herself. It was her job to keep Dot and all her information safe.
"Good. Continue then, Noble Six," General Morshower said, bringing her attention back to him.
"I'll be a moment, Sir," Six replied before resting her crutches against the wall and walking over to Optimus. As she did she heard Lennox explaining that she had to set up in order to show them her videos.
"I told you to use your crutches," Ratchet growled at her.
She waved him off and sent him a silent scowl.
"Why-"
"Perhaps you should discuss this later," Optimus suggested as he held out the adapter for her. His words received a grumble of agreement from Ratchet and a small smirk from Six.
Without a word she took the adapter and then held her other hand out for her helmet. Optimus obliged her silent demand and handed her the helmet. Glad to have the familiar weight back in her possession, Six quickly made her way over to the large screen and proceeded to connect the adapter as per Ratchet's instructions.
When she was done Six turned to face everyone, "shall I begin?"
"Go ahead," Major Lennox nodded from his position next to the General's video feed.
"What I'm about to show you is part of a mission called 'Operation: Uppercut'," Six said. "Dot will inform you of the rest."
Six removed the AI chip from her helmet and inserted it into the adapters slot before pressing the green button and stepping back. After a few tense seconds the NEST logo disappeared and was replaced by the familiar glowing grid of blue lights.
"Greetings, I am UNSC AI ADT 6849-9, Auntie Dot," the usual calm female voice came through the speakers. "You will be shown the last part of Operation: Uppercut, which was the mission tasked with the destruction of the Covenant supercarrier 'Long Night Of Solace'. Due to lack of assets, Noble Two proposed using the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine in order to recreate the slip-space accident from the Cyguns system. After being approved, Nobles Six and Five were launched into space with the intent to take over the Covenant corvette 'Ardent Prayer', which was on a refuelling track with 'Long Night Of Solace'. The Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine used in this attack was from the UNSC Paris-class heavy frigate, 'Savannah'. This video will resume from Noble Six's landing on the 'Ardent Prayer '. "
As soon as Dot finished the screen changed again to the Noble insignia and then –after a few seconds- to the view from her helmet came just as she was exiting her Saber-class fighter.
/Video/
A large piece of purple metal arched over above her as a blocky vessel in the background took bright purple shots from the ship she was currently on. The blocky vessel was hovered defensively in front of a large planetary mass. All around her other marines disembarked from their Saber fighters and armed their weapons.
"Noble Six, the Savannah's countermeasures won't work forever," a male voice broke over the comm. "Find a way inside and permanently disable that cruisers communications. As soon as we're sure the corvette can't squawk, we'll initiate Uppercut phase two."
The familiar look of an Assault Rife came into view as Six began mowing down a couple of grunts. She started forwards to go down into the ship, but an Elite jet-packed out and she swiftly shot him down. Reloading, Six jumped down through the purple and blue energy barrier and floated to the floor of the ships interior.
Elites appeared from all around but they proved little hindrance as the Spartan and marines worked their way through them. Alien blood poured all over the floor as the enemy was filled with holes and their bodies were left to float lifelessly in the zero gravity. More muffled shots echoed around the purple interior along with inhuman growls.
An Elite clad in white armour suddenly jumped out in front of the Spartan, but before he could raise his weapon a kick connected with his chest. The Elite stumbled back and extended all four jaws in a roar. Unintimidated, the Spartan raised her weapon and blasted the being full of bullets.
When it stopped moving the Spartan reloaded and brushed past the floating body in a cautious manner. Her caution was rewarded when two more appeared in her line of vision. Appearing not to have noticed her they continued running towards where some other fighting was. The Spartan chased after them while turning invisible.
The next part happened too quickly to properly see as the Spartan deftly pulled out a knife, jumped onto one of the Elite's backs and stabbed into its neck. Ripping out the deeply embedded knife the Spartan jumped off the Elite and onto the other. Landing on its front the Elite barely managed to remain upright as it received a punch to the side of the face with the hand that was holding the knife. That knife was then quickly embedded through the Elites left eye. Flipping off the Elite, the Spartan continued her trail of destruction until the area was clear and the ships Comm. relay was neutralised.
"Holland to Savannah, enemy Comm. relay is now offline," the same voice from earlier said.
"Copy that, I'll take countermeasures. Diverting all power and personal to weapons," Another voice replied.
"Alright Noble, let's get that slip-space bomb on board," the voice now dubbed Holland replied. "Six, head for the hanger."
"Understood, Colonel." Came Six's toneless voice as she made her way through a door, ducking from cover to cover as plasma flew over her head. The Spartan returned her own fire are Holland spoke again.
"Five, meet her there."
"Affirmative, on approach." A new voice with a Hungarian accent confirmed.
Just as the voice finished speaking Six came passed through a blue lit door and into a large hanger. Three strange glowing structures were positioned in the middle, with a set of purple energy doors on either side of the hanger. More plasma flew Six's way as she motioned for the remaining marines following her to move to higher ground.
When the marines had moved away Six switched weapons to the DMR and began taking out the unshielded enemies, one shot at a time. With the help of the marines from above the process didn't take long and they were soon onto the many Elites that were still in the hanger.
Plasma showered over her position, forcing Six to duck behind it. Unfortunately, the plasma was followed by a bright blue grenade falling near her feet. With little time to react Six vaulted over the wall and dropped down onto a lower level before rolling behind a support beam. More plasma caught her and making her shields flicker. Ignoring the damage Six dodge and ducked in between a couple of obstacles as she sent her own return shots. The sounds of Elites taking damage and collapsing on the battlefield gave her confirmation that her shots were hitting their marks.
However, the Elites just kept coming and with them was a barrage of blue plasma and pink mist. Six returned fire with all her might along with one of her grenades. An explosion was accompanied by yells and some lessening in the fire that was coming her way. Wanting to take advantage of the lapse in fire Six lent out of cover to shot an Elite in the head only to have a gun click out of ammunition. With no ammunition left to reload into her DMR, Six changed to her Assault Rifle and fired burst shots at the Elite clad in red. The Elite jumped around as it tried to avoid her fire, but it soon fell under the onslaught and was replaced by another.
As soon as that Elite had been killed a white one in a jetpack flew right up to her and attempted to kick her in the chest. Swiftly blocking the kick Six delivered an uppercut to its jaw and released a torrent of bullets into its chest. The Elite crumpled to the floor and with shouts of 'clear' from the marines Six stepped over the body and towards the centre of the room.
"Hanger's clear, Five," Six confirmed.
"Go for the shield controls, I need in." Being Five's reply, a smile evident in his voice.
"Of course," chuckled Six as she made her way up a level on the opposite side of the room from where she entered. A control panel came into view along with two dead Elites sprawled out in front of it. When the distance between Six and the brightly coloured holographic control panel was reduced the Spartans black armoured gloved reached out and pressed a small holographic button.
The button turned red and Six looked up towards the door as the intensity of the energy door reduced and the grey coloured Pelican entered the hanger. The thrusters under each wing adjusted themselves as the landing gear came down and the Pelican landed with a light thud. The back hatch opened and more marines along with an armoured figure much taller than Six disembarked. The large armoured figure –known as Noble Five- carried a large machine gun in one hand and as Six walked down to greet him he confirmed his boarding of the alien ship.
"Six, get your fire team to the bridge," Holland's ordered as she reached the orange and red Spartan. "The Corvettes refuelling run with the supercarrier will have to be initiated manually."
"On it, Sir," Six confirmed coming to a stop a short distance from Five.
"Five, stay with the bomb," Holland added.
"My pleasure," the large Spartan shifted his weapon into both hands before speaking to Six. "Hear that Lieutenant, I'll be all by my lonesome back here. Make it quick would ya?"
"A challenge, Five?" Six asked provocatively.
Five laughed and cocked his head slightly, "why not? I'll give you ten minutes, don't keep me waiting."
Turning away from her teammate Six chuckled darkly, "Copy that."
As she passed some weapon crates that had been put out, Six grabbed some more ammunition and signalled her team to form up behind her. When she reached the glowing blue door Holland's voice broke out over the Comm. to briefly confirm her orders.
The instant the doors opened a couple of grunts came into view, but before they could even fire a shot Six and her team took them down. After them Elites poured out and began bombarding them with fire. Throwing a grenade provided a good distraction for her team to get some shots in and take down the Elites.
Six and her team barred through the room and shot down the remaining resistance, but not without one of her marines being hit by plasma fire. The marine in question shrugged off all the fuss and nodded at Six that he was good to continue. Motioning for some of them to continue to the next room Six was about to check the extent of the damage when an energy sword pieced through his chest. Behind him a large elite rippled into existence roaring in victory before throwing the marine aside.
Without missing a beat Six's gun was on the Elite as he started to charge at her, energy sword ready. Just as he reached her his shields flickered out and before he could even bring his sword up to strike her, she wacked him with her gun and poured bullets into its head. A gory mess ensure, but the Spartan ignored it and made her way over to the still alive –but coughing- marine. Pulling out a canister of Biofoam, Six was about to administer it to the marine when he shook his head.
"Don't waste it, Spartan," he coughed weakly.
"It could save your life," she pressed emotionlessly.
He gave a weak laugh before falling quiet and slumping against the wall he'd been thrown against. Pulling off the dog tag from his neck Six got up and exited the room to join the rest of her team. She then silently handed one of them the dog tag before brushing past them and down the long corridor.
While running over the body of a recently dead Elite a distressed voice came through the comm, "Savannah to Holland, sustaining major structural damage, we need to break off, Colonel."
The equally worried voice of Holland replied briskly, "Copy Savannah, our team is in. Disengage!"
The door before Six slid open and seeing the struggling Savannah through the window she made towards the Elites that were firing on the ship. Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough.
The large burst of plasma connected with the Savannah's hull, exploding on contact into bright lights of white, purple and blue.
"Break off! Break off!" Savannah yelled over the comms as more plasma shots peppered its hull. "Hull breach! Reactors flaring," the voice was becoming more distraught. "Dammit! I'm losing her!"
One final shot managed to escape before Six reached the Elites and as she silently brought down one, the Savannah exploded in a large burst of brilliant light. Pieces of the ship broke away as she moved onto the next Elite; prepared to enact vengeance for the lives just lost.
Another muffled explosion happened as a chain reaction of light burst throughout the ships body.
"Savannah actual, can you hear me?" Holland's concerned voice burst over the comm.
More light escaped the on-going explosion of the Savannah before it final lost its propulsion and began to droop in space.
"No," Six whispered over the comm.
Smaller orange explosions continued down the length of the now breaking apart ship and a solemn voice spoke to her.
"Frigate's gone, Six. Nothing you can do." It was Five.
Snapping herself back to the present Six dodged out the way of some in coming fire and began to take out her growing rage on the group of Covenant that had just entered the room.
"Noble, you're in deep with no cover," Holland's voice was urgent. "Get that corvette moving and get the hell outta there!"
Throwing another grenade Six laid down more fire as she dodged in and around cover. More enemies fell and soon there was only one left. He was soon taken down in a single shot to the head as she caught him shifting in his cover. The Elites body fell to the floor with a thud that no one in hear team heard as they were rushing to the bridge.
Winding through the twisting corridors, Six signalled for the marines to hold back as she turned invisible. Sneaking through the door and around the room she managed to taken down two commanders before she was noticed. But, by then it was too late for the crew as she called her team in and they wiped them out. Despite the quick execution Six did not avoid getting shot and was thankful that her shield was strong enough to take the onslaught.
Shooting down another Elite the Spartan started to move when hard pink plasma hit the floor beneath her. Vibrations shook through the metal as she jumped out the way and brought her weapon up at the cause. A gold coloured Elite taunted her from the place she needed to be, before it set its weapon back on her and resumed firing. Six rolled out the way and scooped up a plasma grenade that she then launched at the Elite.
To her surprise the grenade hit the Elite on the head and was stuck there. A delighted giggle escaped her as the grenade exploded into a shower of blood and flesh.
Confirmations of clear resounded through the bridge and the shooting died down. Quickly giving her team an order to stand guard, Six proceeded to the front of the ship and got the corvette to resume its refuelling run.
"Well done, Noble Six," the relieved voice of Holland congratulated over the comm. "Uppercut initiated. Corvette is on her way."
"Six," it was Five and his voice was strained with uncertainty. "Our ride's under heavy fire, get back to the hanger."
"Copy that, Five. Still got five minutes on the timer," Six replied as reinforcements attempted to storm the bridge. They were stopped however, when the marines threw grenades and the Spartan scooped up a charred Concussion Rife, which she then bombarded them with.
"Best hurry it up, Six," Five replied, his voice less strained.
Motioning for the marines to follow they charged down the corridor and back into the large empty room where they'd witnessed the destruction of the Savannah. A glance out the window told them that the Frigate was defiantly not getting back up, but they had little time to dwell on it as enemies poured out of the door at the top of the room.
Diving for cover the hail of plasma kept Six and her team pinned for what felt like ages. As she reloaded her Assault Rifle, she caught a marine's eye and when he held up a grenade she nodded. A smirk made its way onto his face and with a yell of 'fire in the hole' he threw it towards the steadily approaching group.
The rate of fire lessened as aliens yelped and tried to jump out of the way of the grenade. Some were not fortunate enough to get out of the way, which was good for Six and her group.
"At your earliest convenience, Noble Six," Five taunted through the comm.
"Missing me so soon?" Was Six's snarky reply.
There was a chuckle on the other end, "Just thinking the Covies need someone else to shoot at."
Six returned a laugh as she shot down another Elite that had been foolish enough to jump out of cover with its shields still weak. But, as that one went down two more appeared in dark orange armour and focused their fire on her.
Shuffling around her cover, Six spied an energy sword on the floor and scooped it up. She then activated her cloak and crept around the back of the Elites where she stabbed one through the chest. The other noticed and jumped away from her only to have the marines rain down bullets on him until his shield was no more. Tugging the sword from the already dead Elite, Six took her chance and lunged at the final Elite. With the shields gone, little resistance was offered as the blade of plasma burnt through the soft flesh of the Elite.
Not wanting to hang around, Six pulled the blade out the Elite, dashed out the room and up another corridor with the remainder of her fire team on her heels. Busting into the hanger revealed to them more fighting, which they enthusiastically joined in with.
Another fierce battle ensured along with the occasional bout of banter between Six and Five. The combined effort of the Spartans and their marines managed to repel the Covenant troops, but not without losing some of their own. Or in this case all of the marines.
As the waves and waves of Covenant troops were sent their way, marines fell and Six found herself running out of ammunition. She scrounged around on the battlefield for any weapon she could find and sometimes ended up using ones from her dead allies. It only reminded her about how bad everything really was.
The losses weighed heavily on both Spartans as they could do little to stop the odd shots that managed to sneak through their defences and strike down their allies. Towards the end of the battle the banter was losing its energy and by the time it was over and the last Elite had fallen, both Spartans exhaled a weary breath.
"Distance is closing on this vessels refuelling track with the Covenant supercarrier," Dot's voice echoed over the Comm. as the Spartans formed up at the back of the Pelican. Six watched as her teammate began to type in the code to activate the bombs countdown.
"Seventy seconds-" Dot began but a beep interrupted her along with a frustrated sigh from Noble Five.
"Damn it. So, it's going to be like that."
He gave the keypad a whack for good measure before walking to Six, "Well, I've got good news and bad news. This bird took some fire and her thruster gimbal's toast, which means the only way off this slag heap is gravity."
"And the good news?" Six asked, looking up at Five as he came to a stop before her.
"That was the good news."
"At current velocity, fifty three seconds till-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Five muttered, cutting over the AI as he pulled his helmet over his head and let it drop to the floor. The action revealed a dark-skinned face with shortly shaven black hair and stubble. "Bad news is, timer's fried, I'm going to have to fire it manually."
Six sharply took in a breath, "that's a one way trip."
"We all make it sooner or later." There was no regret or sadness on the Spartans face as he continue to bid farewell to his shocked teammate, "better get going, Six. They're going to need you down there."
"J-"
He ignored her and continued talking, "Listen, Reach has been good to me." He reached into the neck of his armour and pulled out a pair of dog tags, "Time's come to return the favour."
With a small smile he held out the hand holding the dog tags and Six reluctantly grabbed it. She said nothing as the larger Spartan lifted her up.
"Don't deny me this," he murmured, walking her to the edge of the hanger. When he reached the edge, the pair took a moment to look each other over one last time. His face flashed with momentary emotion as he pressed his lips to her hand before quickly withdrawing.
"Tell them to make it count," he told her and giving no time for her to reply he threw her off the edge of the ship. One of her hands reached out as he did, but it was a pointless movement.
Six could only watch the curved purple ship as she fell backwards towards the planet behind her. As she fell quickly, she watched as what appeared to be a large ship turned small the moment the supercarrier overtook her field of vision.
The view didn't last long as suddenly a large purple rimmed black hole appeared and ripped through the ships. The hole promptly collapsed in on itself, leaving only a broken ship and a light purple residue in its wake.
Six continued to fall and while it seemed to be a successful mission the video suddenly changed with four words spoken by Dot.
"Slip-space rupture detected."
The view was suddenly on a single new ship, but what looked like barely anything soon turned into a large fleet arriving right next to the single planet.
Dot's words kept repeating as more and more ships appeared in flashes of purple and black. Soon the entire view was taken up by a mass of ships and then, nothing.
The screen went grey and in the corner were the words 'Signal Lost'.
/End Video/
Blinking herself out of the trance that had come over her, Six found that her hands had curled into tight fists. She'd been so sure she could handle seeing his demise, but now? With all the sadness and anger building up inside her, she knew she'd been wrong. Why did she have to get so attached? Why hadn't she made him go off the ship?
She remained silent as her fists tightened and her jaw clenched.
Jorge.
"You were dropped from orbit?" The surprised voice of Major Lennox asked.
Turning, Six saw that Lennox and Morshower both had an impressed, but shocked, look on their face. The robots on the other hand had varied reaction. Ratchet just looked positively angry. Although, what he was angry at, Six had no idea. Ironhide simply looked impressed at the whole thing, but Six had a feeling that he was slightly surprised.
When her eyes landed on the Autobot leader she found he was staring at her. His –what she could only suppose were- eyes were soft and full of understanding, but there was also a rage simmering beneath the surface. She had a feeling that Optimus had seen his fair share of hopeless situations to know what the outcome of Reach had been after those ships arrived. Despite how understanding he may be Six couldn't bring herself to stop hating these aliens, not that she really wanted to. She was fine with hating them.
Taking her eyes off the large red robot she quickly glanced at the Elite who was stood on his own in the corner. His expression was difficult to read, but she just about managed to determine that he was…regretful towards the attack.
It's probably just a show, she told herself mentally.
"Yes," she finally answered the Major's question. "I had a re-entry pack."
Her blunt words earned a small chuckled from Ironhide and Lennox's eye-brows only rose further up his face.
"You do stuff like this often?"
"Only when necessary," Six assured them.
Ratchet wasn't impressed at her casualness, as he swiftly snapped at her, "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Six shrugged, "how else would I leave the ship? Besides, I'm still here."
Ratchet grumbled in agreement and while she appreciated the concern, she didn't need an alien telling her what she shouldn't be doing.
"What you've just shown us does prove that you're very proficient in combat," General Morshower commented. "It also shows me that you're more than qualified to work as part of NEST. The only question is, are you someone we can trust?"
"Sir, I assure you, I would never betray Humanity to anyone. I should mention that I do have experience killing Human terrorist cells."
"I was aware that this war had been going on since before your birth. Major Lennox also said that you've been in your military since you were sixteen."
"True, but before the Human-Covenant war Human insurrection was a large problem and when the Covenant showed up it didn't disappear, it only went underground. Unfortunately, I can't show you any videos from back then. My apologies, Sir."
"I see. Your teammate, Noble Five, he seemed much older than you. I'm told that you Spartan Threes are young, was he not a Spartan Three?" The General enquired.
Six knew he was trying to dig for information because it was exactly what she'd do in his position. She couldn't tell him a lot about Jorge as a Spartan Two, but she was sure he'd understand.
"No, Noble Five was a Spartan Two. They're much faster, stronger and larger than Threes, but they're also more expensive, which is why there's not many of them. I can't tell you much more, Sir," Six explained. "It's classified."
The General nodded in understanding and his eyes flickered to the screen behind her before he spoke again. "What can you tell my about your AI? Would we be able to create our own here?"
Ah, I see how it is.
Six shook her head, "you wouldn't even be able to create an AI like Dot. The process is not something you would expect and the technology to do it doesn't exist, Sir."
"What is the process?"
"With all due respect, Sir, I'm not going to reveal to you the one thing the UNSC has excelled in."
He didn't look pleased, but he didn't press the matter either. "I don't have anything on your name, do you have one?"
"Spartan-Bee-Three-One-Two is what I'm known by."
The General hummed, "It will do for the moment. If we allow you to join NEST will you co-operate?"
"Yes, Sir," Six agreed. "Do you want to see another mission video?"
"I suppose it couldn't hurt," he murmured in agreement. There was a hard look in his eyes and Six could tell that he was having a hard time accepting that this would happen to Humanity. A quick glance around the room got similar reactions from the others. Much to Six's surprise the Sangheili seemed ashamed; she frowned at that. Why are you so….regretful, hinge-head? What's your game?
"My earlier warning still applies," Six said. "This is just before I met up with my team."
Again Six told Dot to begin. The AI did as asked and captured the attention of everyone in the room. She explained how Six had landed safely on Reach only to find an invasion in full swing. Her skills at keeping people up to date quickly came into play as she ploughed through Six's actions that had occurred during that day; saving civilians, evacuating civilians and, of course, finding her team.
When the AI finished talking the screen began to play out the mission, which involved Six flying around a large burning city as she took down Covenant communication jammers.
/Video/
The burning and smoking Human city was a constant backdrop throughout the entire mission. Some buildings were blown apart while others were merely leaking smoke through the smashed windows. Bright red and orange flames would lick out the top or throughout multiple floors as they raged all through the night. The fames spewed out smoke that left the sky filled with a thick fog that made it almost impossible to see through. It was in that fog and darkness that fighting could always be heard, not matter where Six was and the eerie hum of Covenant aircrafts was never far away.
Whenever Six left a building in which she had battled through hordes of aliens in order to detonate a jammer, she would always be subject to more. Small agile aircrafts would constantly be on her tail as well as larger, but heavier hitting ships. Six always managed to deal with the purple machines and appeared to never lose her cool. Not even when one of the aircrafts in her team was shot down did she cry out, or curse.
The more everyone in the room watched, the more they realised just how different Six was from the average soldier. It wasn't her exceptional abilities or her expensive armour. It was her. It was the quiet, but noticeable giggling after every few kills. It was the lack of emotion when one of the marines in her team died. It was how inhuman she was.
It was as if she was a machine.
Two jammers were down. One in a hospital and the other in a Club filled to the brim with giant armoured beasts that refused to go down. A multitude of dead aliens and marines were left throughout the two buildings, but Noble Six still held strong. Her Assault Rifle and DMR were both still loaded with ammunition and ready to tear through anymore enemies that came her way.
However, it became apparent that this last jammer would be must more different to the first two. As Six stepped into the building alone after taking out a few grunts a few other enemies appeared. The amount seemed too few to be protecting something that was of so much tactical value.
When all was clear and there was no movement, Six walked into an elevator and quickly rode it to the top. She cautiously stepped out with her weapon raised, expecting something to launch itself at her. But nothing did.
The whole level was silent.
She saw bodies of marines were strewn over the floor. Their wounds were caused by plasma, clear evidence that there had been Covenant on this level. But, there were too few Covenant bodies for those assigned to defend the jammer to all be dead. Something was clearly not right.
Lightning flashed outside and soon after the roll of thunder followed it. Six rounded a corner and as she did there was a human scream. Following the noise with her gun taking the lead Six was led to a marine holding a gun to his head. The obviously traumatised marine began rambling about not signing up to kill aliens and not wanting to be turned into one. Saying nothing to the man Six continued towards the jammer and with the voice of her teammate rolling over the Comm. she promptly turned it off.
It was as if a switch had been thrown, as the quiet room was filled with buzzing. A warning was shouted over the Comm. about it being a trap and soon enough a horde of giant bugs flew from all directions towards Six. Six dodge around as many shots as she could while she shoot back and retreated back to the elevator, but green coloured plasma still managed to hit her. The shots peppered her shield, causing it to drop to dangerously low levels.
There was a loud bang in the background and as Six retreated back to the elevator she passed the body of the marine from earlier. His dark blood coated the floor and walls. Next to him was pistol that had obviously been the instrument of his suicide. A shot sullen sigh was the only sign of emotion from Six as she continued to fire on the enemy.
Just as she tumbled back into the elevator her gun clicked out. With the button pressed she reloaded and prepared to fight her way out the building. Although it seemed her preparation wasn't needed as the exit was quiet. There were no aliens in sight as Six dashed out the building and into the thundering night.
While she did two voices were speaking over her comm. The male one confirmed the success of the mission and passed on new orders while the female one accepted the new orders before being cut off. It was only a few seconds, but it was enough to get the male voice worried as he demanded an answer. When the female voice spoke again there was a small sigh of relief from Six as she made her way to ONI tower.
Another evacuation commenced around the large tower as Six did her best to ensure everyone made it out. She spent her time dodging around the enemy, taking down small turrets and causing as much havoc as she could for her adversaries. It was safe to say that her efforts paid off and all the personnel from the tower made it to safety.
With the mission done Six was allowed to meet up with her team. The reunion didn't last long, as after taking a call from their command everything around them exploded. The Spartans dashed to the elevators as they discussed what they were to do next. The woman Six entered the lift with mentioned something about it being her first glassing, but she quickly moved onto another topic. The new topic was her about their order, of which some of them weren't happy about. While in the middle of voicing her disagreement, the woman with a cybernetic arm was shot through the head.
It had happened so quickly that no one watching the video had expected a slither of pink of burst through the top of the woman's helmet. Her team were on the cause in a heartbeat as the woman collapsed lifelessly to the floor. Six was knelt down next to her as she fired off her pistol in one hand and held her comrade in the other. The attempt to shot down the enemy was futile as the large aircraft that had appeared overhead zoomed off quickly.
When it had gone it the team proceeded to drag their comrade's body into the bunker that she'd only fallen meters from. The door slid shut as they all entered the room and before the video skipped to another part a quiet curse from Six was heard.
"Damn it."
The video quickly resumed to the four Spartans stepping out into a city that had been levelled. Whatever 'glassing' was it could clearly deal a lot of damage. All around them buildings crumbled while fire raged all around. Metal supports and cables draped out of the buildings they were once a part of. In the background more buildings were falling into a dark red sky that was boarded by smoke and darkness. Little else was seen besides carnage.
/Video End/
It was at that point that the video stopped and Dot's emblem appeared floating on the screen. However, the AI remained silent as did everyone else in the room.
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