A/N: Yeah, I haven't written in a while, I kinda (I added "kinda" to my Microsoft word 2010 dictionary just there) lost the story cause I wasn't sure where I wanted it to go but now I have somewhat of an idea so thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy: Operation: FIRESTORM Chapter 8.

Chapter 8

Ship: Face of Danger. Location: Edge of Covenant Remnant Space, disengaging from Remnant Fleet: Never Ending Promise.

We entered the bridge and stood at attention as the captain continued his conference with Fleet Admiral Hood, he seemed agitated to say the least.

"Fleet Admiral Hood and I just finished our conversation regarding your failure on this mission, you have a choice to make here" he said angrily, "I would prefer you be court martialed for failure to complete the objective. However the old fool Hood thought you would be more use to us as a Code GR-1 "asset" to use their term."

I looked at the team, they all had somewhat disappointed looks on their faces, court martial was bad but a GR-1 "asset" could potentially be worse.

"Sir, what is a GR-1?" I asked nervously.

At this point Don comes up behind me and taps me on the shoulder, saying over our comms, "Jack, GR-1 is a project by a branch of the military associated with the SPARTAN Project, however I cannot enter any of their files, it's being guarded by a very powerful AI".

I nodded thanks to him before turning back to the captain, "Sir we will volunteer for the GR-1 program".

He looked at me surprised; he probably thought we would be scared out of volunteering.

"You realize that all the SPARTANs that volunteered for the GR-1 program were never heard of again, including my son, Fred Mearings".

"Yes sir, we realize the risk, but I figure that my team and I would rather spend the rest of our lives helping Humanity in some way, than sit in a cell".

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense, fighting men like yourselves and I hate to sit idle, waiting for something to happen, so I will send your answer to the Fleet Admiral later tonight, dismissed."

We left the bridge and headed back to our rooms which were separate from the rest of the ship, my team being the only SPARTANs onboard got to use the specially designed space without anyone else.

I flashed my card by the reader and enter my room; walking to the back corner of the room I hit a button to open my armor storage locker. I stepped into the small room and several robotic arms reached down and secured my armor, then more arms came down and loosened all the bolts necessary for the chest piece to open so that I could pull my arms out then reach up and grab two bars to pull myself out of my leg pieces it may not be the most comfortable way to get out of my armor, but it sure was the fastest, if we stood and let the four or so techs take it off it would take over fifteen minutes.

Walking over to the bathroom I took off my unitard and showered quickly, before putting on my casual clothes consisting of sweat pants and a white T-shirt. I looked down the hallway to Don's room to see him exit and head towards me.

"So Jack, you up for some video games?" he asked.

"Yeah, that sound great, what kinds do we have, I haven't been onboard long enough to even go into the entertainment room" I answered.

"Neither have I actually" he replied with a laugh.

We walked together to the entertainment room where we started scrolling through the titles under FPS. The system we were using was a new one, not even available to Civilian buyers; I guess being in the military had its advantages.

I myself was a lover of video games, especially FPS or TPS. I was cleaning out my mother's basement, my father having died many years ago, she was getting ready to move to assisted living quarters, when I came upon a box of several old titles including Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Mass Effect. When I asked my mother about them she said they had belonged to my father, also an avid gamer. The amazing thing was that the whole series of each was in the box in prime condition.

So it didn't take long for me to choose a game from the list, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. After importing mine and Don's online profiles, Don and I set about a Survival match on a map called Overwatch, included in one of the DLC's which I purchased with a few credits I had saved.

We entered the game and were immediately interrupted by a message saying, "This game is now available for Neural Interface Control, would you like to enable, Yes. No."

I looked over at Don saying, "Should we?"

"Sure, we'll probably be better since we will be able to control our characters at the speed of thought" he replied excitedly.

I hit "Yes" and immediately the game resumed, but without controller input.

Since it controlled over our NI's, whatever we thought, our character would do, ending up in much quicker gameplay.

We quickly finished the first wave enabling the Weapons Armory, which I ran over too, and entered. Choosing a weapon was easy, I already knew which Rifle I wanted. I took an ACR with ACOG scope and Lambda reticle, with an underslung Grenade Launcher.

Don on the other hand, waited until Wave 3 or so before spending some points on a P99 Handgun. Then we fought off a helo and a heavily armored ground unit called a Juggernaut, which reminded me of a ODST with more armor and less brains, however the next wave had attack dogs which apparently have C4(a very outdated explosive compound) on their back, which would explode if they were killed.

After playing this for several hours we got bored and I went to the gym and got on the treadmill. Setting it for a light jog at about 12/kph I turned on my music and enjoyed some Linkin Park, Breaking Benjamin, and All-American Rejects.

Twelve Hours Later…

I woke up to a message being played across ship-board comms, "All personnel, please report to Cryo for the remainder of the journey"

I sat up and looked at my chrono, seeing I had slept for about eight hours I smiled to myself, that was more sleep than I sometimes got in a week while on a mission, also never go into Cryo while tired, contrary to what most people think, it actually makes it worse to wake up, I mean, throwing up vile tasting fluid/gel is bad enough, but then add sleep loss to that. Also Cryo does not rest you at all, if anything it makes you more sleepy.

Looking up towards the ceiling I asked the ship AI Crystal "How long will we be in Cryo-Sleep?"

"About two weeks, according to my calculations" she replied.

"Thanks Crystal" I said as I got up and put my unitard on, one thing I learned about Cryo, don't cover as much of your body as possible, it can cause freezer burn, which on a pound of beef, really isn't that bad, but try a leg or arm, yeah, you get the picture.

I walked to Cryo and stripped out of my unitard and neatly folded it on the chair next to my pod, leaving me in my boxers, which I then took off and layed on the chair on top of my unitard. I then stepped into the pod and hit the activate button.

While you're in Cryo sleep, the scientists say it's impossible for people to dream, but I know differently, I have dreams, the bad side is, they are always nightmares. They are different from time to time but always with the same feeling of helplessness, that you can't move fast enough, your legs are moving but so slowly it doesn't matter.

As I felt the cold liquid filling my lungs I felt a sense of dread knowing the nightmares would come. Lately they were all the same, I was looking at a ledge of rock and I could see a young girl sitting close to the edge, she would look at me with a sense of finality, like she had done something that couldn't be undone. She would then slowly fall off the cliff, not trying to catch a hold of the rock somewhere, as if she wanted to fall , I would dive for her trying to catch her, but I was moving to slow, I wouldn't make it, and then just before I would reach her she would fall and I would lay there on the edge watching. I couldn't turn away as I watched her face, smile up at me like everything would be OK, before she hit the bottom, I don't need to explain the rest.

My doctor had told me it was my sense of guilt over killing all the people the sympathized with the Covenant, but he was wrong, those people made a choice, I killed them because their choice differed from mine, it wasn't personal, but then again, taking a human life should always be personal, if you could kill and not feel anything then you were a sick person who doesn't deserve to live.

The one thing to always remember is this: Life, both human and alien, always has value, maybe not value as in money, but you should never throw away Life, it is the most valuable thing in the universe. When someone asks me how many people or aliens I have killed I tell them that if you count how many lives you've taken instead of the ones you have saved then you're a fool.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys, I hope you are enjoying the story, I'm open to any and all constructive criticism, by the way thanks Anonymous for the correction, I originally started this story BEFORE Halo 4 appeared to the public, so I had no knowledge of a later version. I'm going to stick with the older version of the BR for Don Caos(just so everyone knows its pronounced as "Chaos") 'cause my friend who is the model for the character likes it better, he says the new one looks like a jacked up Famas(just added the to my dictionary too) from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. I suppose I should also do a disclaimer so I don't get sued. I don't own Halo, CoD, BF, ME, or any other major (or minor) video game companies (yet). I also don't own any characters from the afore mention games, and I do not intend to profit in anyway (except my pride) from this fictional work