Letters
Dear Shar,
I hope that you are doing well. Survived the last engagement that I was sent to. Did manage to break a few bones though. That's what I get for jumping out of a falcon to try to save a teammate. You probably haven't met him yet, his name's Fred. I think he'd like you, though he likes most people. I told them all about the game that we played. John was glad to know that you were still alive. Will called being the next person to play you in a game. I don't think John understood the game. He didn't understand why I was a horse. It was sort of cute, really. I hope to hear back from you soon.
Your friend,
Kelly
Dear Kelly,
I'm glad to hear that you survived. I've jumped from a few falcons, and pelicans, myself. It never ends well. I try not to do it often. I'm sorry that I can't tell you anything about the last mission I was on. Black ink and all of that. ONI doesn't want me to say anything. Well I'd like to meet this Fred guy, but I do not believe that I'm going to be anywhere near your team or have free time to play games for a while. Tell Will that the first chance I get, I'll play him in horse, and that I will thoroughly make him a horse. I'll make your entire team horses. Never really thought of anything John doing as being cute, though I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it. Oh, I do have one bit of news that I can tell you, I got promoted.
Lieutenant-312
Dear Shar,
I don't plan on jumping out of a falcon again. I'm just glad I survived this time. Plenty of things that John does are cute, at least to me. Guess you are getting busy, we are as well. It seems like every time we finish one fight there's another to go to. I've already seen three planets glassed, one of them we were still on but at the last minute they pulled us off of it. I'm starting to really worry that we are losing the war, and we can't win it. I keep trying to get John to talk to me about it, but he doesn't believe that we can lose. I always admired that about him, his drive to win back in training really got us through a lot, but right now it is just annoying me. We're running out of planets to run to.
Sincerely, your friend,
Kelly-087
P.S. Congratulations on the promotion. Though I'm sad I can't call you Master Chief, or even Chief, any more.
Dear Kelly,
I know how you feel. I haven't actually seen a planet being glassed; we always seem to leave before I can see it. I'm a bit worried about actually seeing it. It does seem like we are running out of planets. Each time we can win on the ground, but our ships are being destroyed in the air. I'm starting to lose hope, though I think you should listen to John. It isn't so much we could lose, but that we can't afford to lose. It is either victory or death, those are our only options. The fate of humanity is at stake, so there is no choice but to keep fighting. Try to look at it the way John does. You are going to win; there is no other outcome that can be accepted. Though, if you still find him annoying tell him to shoot me a message. Don't want some other woman getting to him first.
From,
Shar
Dear Shar,
Thank you, I really think that helped me. I feel better, and John's attitude isn't annoying me as much. Honestly, loosing is not something that we Spartans are used to. John always made sure that we won back in training, and the fact that we are losing now…I guess it shook me. I bet you didn't lose much when you were a trainee. Sure Chief Mendez tossed worse stuff at you then he did at us. There is something still bothering me. We can win, we as soldiers, but how can we win the war if the Covenant is still better than us in space? That is where my hope still fails me.
Gratefully your friend,
Kelly
P.S. Back off, sister. John is mine, and I'm not going anywhere.
Dear Kelly,
I didn't lose. Ever. Though I did come close to losing once. It was an exercise against another team of trainees, and they let the best strategist of our class take the lead. They almost beat me, but I guess I got lucky. The Chief did toss some really hard things at us, toughened us up for what we were going to fight. It helped that we knew we were going against the Covenant. I'm sorry that I don't have an answer to your fear. I don't know how we can win in the skies; I've only really paid attention to the ground fighting. We need frigates commanded by soldiers like Keys, then maybe we would stand a chance, but, without those kinds of leaders, I don't think there is any way that we can win in space.
Your friend,
Shar
Dear Shar,
You're right; we do need more proper leaders like Keys. His outside the box thinking might just give us a chance against the Covenant. Problem is he only has one daughter, and although from her actions she seems to have his courage, I don't know if she has the same strategic mind. Either way she's only one person, and we need a Captain like that on every ship. I do know that if we can get on a Covenant ship, we can take it down. I learned that at a very high price, but it can be done. I'm sure if someone like you tried it they wouldn't have much trouble.
Faithfully your friend,
Kelly
P.S. I saw an ODST the other day with blue highlights on their armor like you. I was very sad to see that their right arm was flesh.
Dear Kelly,
That's still one more Keys then we would have without her. I've never been on a Covenant vessel. I might have to try that. I've thought about what they look like on the inside, what they would look like being destroyed. I've wondered if they look as beautiful on the inside as they do on the outside. I'll have to find a way to get on one. I wish I could tell you about the last mission I was on. I want to say more but my lips are sealed. I can tell you, we're still working on ways to make it easier to kick Covie butt on the ground.
Your friend,
Shar
Shar sat at the terminal, staring at the screen. It had been a long time, too long in fact. She hadn't received a message from Kelly in a month, and she was starting to get worried. She checked the official roster of Spartans and found that Kelly was still marked as active and alive, not that it was ever reported when a Spartan died. At least they got a MIA after their name. When she died she would simply vanish from all records, having never existed.
Though if Kelly had died in combat, she would have been marked as missing, but she wasn't. So then why had Kelly not written back to her? Maybe Kelly didn't want to write to her any more. Shar wouldn't have been surprised. People didn't seem to stay in her life for very long, and how much contact she'd had with Kelly was more then she had with most. She'd really started to think that Kelly was her friend; that she wanted to know Shar, but the sudden cold shoulder hurt her. She turned off the terminal and moved back to her cot, lying down. She lay on the blanket just staring at the wall, thinking of all the reasons Kelly wouldn't write to her any more.
Kelly frowned as she checked her messages again. "What are you doing?" Kelly looked up and smiled a bit as she spotted John. "You do know it will tell you when you have a message?"
Kelly frowned at him. "I know that, I'm just expecting a message from Shar but she hasn't written back. I sent her a message weeks ago." Kelly turned her gaze back to the screen and John sat down beside her. They were silent for a few seconds before Kelly spoke again. "Do you think something happened to her?"
"She's a strong soldier. Maybe she just doesn't have the time to write. She said she was getting busier. Have you checked the list of active Spartans?" John put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.
"I did, she's not on the list. She's not even on the list of missing Spartans. I can't find a record of her anywhere. I know that she said she did a lot of secret stuff, but that's a bit overboard." Kelly leaned a bit toward him. "I just don't know of any other reason that she wouldn't write back to me. She seemed to be my friend."
John moved his hand so that it was around her shoulder. "I'm sure that everything will be fine. You told me that she doesn't lose, so there's no way the Covenant got the better of her."
Kelly closed her eyes. "I hope you're right."