Chapter 5: Recovery

Authors Caution- This chapter is a recount of the events of Halo: Reach, save for Lone Wolf, and the end of Pillar of Autumn, obviously. This will be very boring. Please bear with me. The real action starts next chapter. Now to the Notes. I have read your reviews, both of them, and Jun will be included later on in the book. Please, please, please, review. Rate as well, but mostly review. Thanks. Also, do you want Noble team to stay on Earth after the New Mombasa Slipspace Event and go through the events of H3: ODST with the Squad, or do you want them to go with John to Delta Halo? PM or review with your opinions and I will tally the votes and post results in the AN's of the chapter before Regret leaves Earth. Also, I need Beta-Readers. It would be greatly appreciated. I need criticizers more than anything right now. Also we have topped 600 views. Yay! I never expected the book to be this popular in just 5 days. Thank you for your support. Please rate and review.

When the group entered the bridge of the Antietam, everyone turned to look. Noble Six felt more than a little nervous about having so much notice. Captain Del Rio turned to address the group. "Commander Laskey, return to your station. Spartans, follow me." Laskey turned and walked over to one of the terminals. The Spartans followed the Captain to his personal quarters for debriefing. When they arrived, Captain Del Rio motioned the two Spartans to sit on the other side of his desk.

"Noble Four, tell me what happened on Reach." "Sir, Six would be able to better relate the events than me." "Very well. Noble Six, tell me what happened." "Sir, It all started with an investigation into the disabling of the Visegrad Relay Outpost, which our Commander, Colonel Holland, believed was disabled by Insurrectionists. When we were investigating the area around the outpost, due to a group of farmers saying that 'something in the fields, killed their son', we were engaged by a small patrol of Grunts and Skirmishers. After advancing further up to find a group of missing UNSC Army Troopers, we were engaged by a group of four Elite Ultras. We eventually found the troopers, and aided them in holding of multiple Spirit and Phantom dropships dropping off waves of troops."

"After we held them off, two Falcons came and extracted us, Me, Carter and Jorge, Noble 5, and took us to the Relay, where Kat, Noble 2, and Emile here were trying to cut through the inner door to the entrance to the Outpost, during which they were holding off more Covenant forces. After we landed and fought off more covenant, Kat managed to get the door opened, and we all, save Jun, Noble 3, entered the Outpost. Inside, we found a group of troopers that had been attacked and split by Elites. Jorge found a civilian scientist, and I found an encrypted data chip of some sort. The wires had been burned by plasma weaponry and were rendered inoperable. We were shortly thereafter attacked by a group of Elite Zealots, and in the skirmish I was nearly killed by one, saved by the actions of Carter. Me and Jorge were sent to find and kill the Zealots, while the rest stayed behind. After we had secured the station, I reset a junction that Kat wanted me to and returned to where we were ambushed. We then left the relay."

"The team was then diverted from our then-present course to ONI: Sword Base to repel a Covenant attack on the base. Kat and I were dropped to repel the assault on the front doors of the base. After that, we were sent to activate a radio antenna and an AA Gun. Once we had done that, were directed back to Sword Base because the covenant had found another way into the base. I was directed to help Emile repel Phantoms and Banshees that were landing troops through a breach in the walls. After that, we met with Dr. Catherine Halsey, who turned out to be Jorge's mother, to discuss the recent events at the Visegrad Relay Outpost. Kat gave her the data chip that was found on one of the bodies."

"Jun and I were then sent to recon a covenant held area called the "Dark Zone", where our recon satellites could not see. We encountered resistance before we reached the Zone, and we helped defend a group of militia that had not evacuated. They were defending cases of weapons that had been smuggled into the facility. They then showed us a route to a hydro-electric plant through a riverbed because the main gate did not work. Near the plant, we found the source of the dark zone, a covenant pylon which created a field that disallows any UNSC scanning equipment. While Jun set up an explosive charge to destroy it, me and the militia defended him against a pair of Hunters and a team of Spec-Ops Elites. Pushing further into the Dark Zone, we found a Covenant Corvette and a huge landing zone where the Covenant were deploying their troops. Kat recalled all teams and told us to prepare for the next day."

"After our recon mission, Noble Team helped a Marine force destroy 2 AA guns to clear the way to another pylon. Once we had neutralized the AA gun, Jorge and I boarded a Falcon and went to find a pylon that was protecting the area from our forces. The Falcon was disabled as it crossed the energy field and crashed, killing all but me and Jorge. We neutralized the shield around the pylon and were extracted shortly before the pylon was shot by a MAC round from the Grafton. Shortly afterward, the ship was split in two by a Glassing Beam from a Covenant Assault Carrier."

"Noble Team regrouped in a cave nearby. Kat devised a plan to go to the Sabre program launch facility and send two of us to help destroy the Carrier. Since I was a Sabre test pilot, I was chosen, and Jorge went with me to infiltrate a Corvette that was to go to the Carrier to refuel. We planned to use a Slipspace drive to destroy the corvette and Carrier remotely, but during a firefight in the corvette's hangar bay, the timer on the "bomb" and the dropship's engines were damaged. Jorge stayed behind and manually detonated the bomb after he threw me out of the hangar bay. Moments after the bomb detonated, a massive Covenant fleet entered the system."

"I landed near the city of New Alexandria. After hiking to the city, I linked up with Marines evacuating civilians to Traxus Towers. During the evacuation, I helped a group of ODST's clear a landing pad for us. Once we had gotten the civilians evacuated, I assisted a group of marines in activating a pair of AA missile batteries to defend the evac transports against a corvette that was destroying them as they left."

After I had deterred the corvette from returning, I was reunited with Noble Team, and we helped in defending more evac transports and destroying Covenant Jammers throughout the city. Afterwards, we regrouped in the ONI tower to assess the situation, but as Carter contacted Colonel Holland, the Covenant began glassing the city. As we ran for the radiation bunker to shield us from the beam, an Elite Field Marshall, from a Spirit dropship, shot Kat in the head with a Needle Rifle. We descended into the bunker, and emerged to find the city in ruins."

"Per the Winter Contingency, any data on the location of any of the Inner Colonies or Earth was to be wiped or destroyed, and Sword Base had a lot of it, and not enough time to get rid of it all. Noble Team was called back to Sword Base to destroy it, but when we got to the area where we were to plant the bomb, we were called to a different area by an unknown AI with a very high security clearance level. It turned out that Dr. Halsey had ordered the destruction of the Base so that she could deliver to us a package for the Pillar of Autumn. She said that the package, an AI, had chosen me to take it to the Autumn in the Azzod Shipyards.

When we left the facility, Jun was to take Dr. Halsey to Castle Base, While Carter, Emile and I went to Azzod to deliver the AI. During the journey to the shipyard, we were attacked by a group of Banshees, and Carter was critically wounded when a Fuel Rod explosive detonated in front of the dropship. And you know the rest." Captain Del Rio furrowed his brow a bit. "I do, Noble. Thank you. Now leave me, I need to file a report to FLEEDCOM. And we'll reach Earth in about 1 day." "Sir, before we leave, is there any word on the Autumn or Carter's condition?" "The Autumn just jumped to Slipspace about 5 minutes ago, and your commander is stable. He'll recover, with proper medical attention, in about 3 days, which is quite fast for the extent of his injuries, but he is a Spartan, so I shouldn't be surprised." "Thank you, Captain" Nobles 4 and 6 saluted and left to go see their commander."

Author's Notes (Cont.) Chapter 5 is finally done! And that means that the Reach part is over as well! That chapter was one of the hardest to write because it took so long. If you are reading this, then that means that you hung in there and read the chapter, or just skipped over it and came down here to read this. If you read, thank you for bearing with me. If you didn't, oh, well, your choice. This is my last frequent update as well. The updates will now come about once a week. Sorry. (This chapter is exactly 1682 words long… ugh.)