One hour later
Location: Axiom main base
Marcus and Stinger's pelican descended towards the main base, coming to a halt about twenty feet above the ground. The landing gear unfolded themselves and the craft descended to the ground, coming to a halt as the metal of the landing gear made contact with the surface of Reach. Marcus, who was holding the Covenant device, and Stinger jumped down from the craft to the ground and, as if on cue, sergeant John was there to greet them.
"Good work you two," he said. "Keva won't be a problem for us anymore and-"
He suddenly paused when his eyes caught sight of the device in Marcus' hands. He looked at it and, without asking, took it from Marcus and examined it.
"Where did you get this?" he asked them.
"We found it in the underground hanger at Keva outpost," Stinger told him. "The Covenant were doing something to it, probably setting it up, and we killed 'em and took it,"
John 'hmmed' and ran his hand over the object, stopping at he touched the orb at the top of the small tower in the middle of the object and closed his hand around it.
"We'll get out scientists to try and find out what this thing is," he said. "In the meantime, you two get back to the barracks and get some rest, and remember: keep quiet!"
Marcus and Stinger looked at each other and Stinger shook his head and walked towards the barracks. Marcus, however, did not join him. Instead, he walked away from the barracks after John. He needed to speak to him, privately.
"Try and figure what it is," John said to a tall blonde haired scientist, who nodded and took the device and walked towards a large building about fifty metres away.
He turned and walked towards the nearby cube shaped building. As he reached it, in which the door opened automatically for him to enter, a hand rested on his shoulder from behind and he turned to see Marcus standing there.
"Marcus!" John exclaimed, surprised. "What are you doing? I thought I told you to go and get some rest,"
"I will," Marcus replied. "But first, I need to talk to you, sir,"
John looked at him for a moment as if he were crazy before he sighed in annoyance and nodded.
"Alright, inside," he said.
The two walked into the building and the door closed behind them. A holo-light a few inches below the ceiling instantly turned on, lighting up the room. John walked behind the desk and sat down.
"What is it you need to take to me about?" he asked Marcus.
"It's…It's," Marcus began. He paused for a moment, trying to find the courage to tell John what he wanted to tell him.
"Yes?" John urged him.
"It's…It's this…It's me keeping quit," Marcus managed to say. He sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. "I can't keep doing it, sir. It's not right,"
John sighed and stood up. "Marcus, you know why you can't tell anyone else,"
"I know that, but, to be honest with you, sir, I don't care whether I get kicked out of this taskforce or the UNSC. I just don't feel It's right that…that me and the others who have faced the Covenant…that we have to keep quiet about it,"
John sighed and placed a hand on his desk. "Marcus, to be honest with you, if I were in your place and had the chance to tell the others in the taskforce, trust me, I would. But, the UNSC High Command has ordered me to tell you and the others that have faced the Covenant that you can't tell anyone else in the taskforce, who has not faced the Covenant yet, about the Covenant presence here."
"No!" Marcus half-shouted, shaking his head in disbelief as a look of anger etched across his face. "That's not fair! How can you obey orders like this!"
"Alright, that enough!" John shouted, silencing Marcus, but not taking the look of shock and anger off his face. He took a deep breath to calm down and stepped towards Marcus. "Marcus," he said. "I don't want to keep you and taskforce in the dark, but I have orders to follow. No, don't interrupt me, Marcus. Now listen! We have over sixty taskforce members, including yourself, as our last hope in this war. If you go and open your mouth about this, then we're under threat of taskforce members, I don't know who or how many, going on solo missions. I can't have that and neither can the High Command, okay? Now you are to go back to the barracks and get some rest and keep quiet, and I mean it!" he concluded, adding a dangerous tone on the last four words.
Marcus went to reply but paused and sighed and nodded and turned and walked towards the door, which opened automatically as he approached it. As he stepped into the doorway, he looked over his shoulder at John one last time and shook his head and walked back outside, the door closing behind him.
John sighed and walked back behind his desk and sat down and placed his hands on the top of his head. This was getting too much for him. He did, in a way, agree with Marcus. It was not fair that the taskforce had to be kept in the dark from the Covenant presence, but he had to take into account that there was the threat that some of the taskforce members were going to go after the Covenant, something that could threaten the taskforce and possibly even the entire Human race.
He would just have to hope that Marcus did not open his mouth and kept quiet about this.