Kelly was about to abandon her post to go throw up what little she was able to shove down her throat for breakfast. She was supposed to stand guard in front of the 1000th door in the base but she felt like she was about to keel over. There was a flu going around that had knocked out at least a dozen other marines but that just meant those healthy enough to stand had extra work piled on. Whatever the bug was, it was going to be the death of her. She had never experienced such terrible migraines. It was like her head was being swung around by a Brute. She blinked, and before she knew it, she was on the floor, in a pool of her own puke. She had no idea how she got there, but her partner was gracious enough to pick her up and drag her to the nearest med bay.

The only thing the overworked medical staff could do to help was to provide her with a bed and clean the puke off her face. Kelly was sure the flu was going to kill her, if she was lucky. The migraine was so intense, that she was starting to hallucinate. She was seeing things that weren't there and having memories that weren't hers. It got stranger when she finally fell asleep.

—-

Kelly knew she had gone crazy. High fevers were known to cause brain damage or death if left unattended. She had barely recovered from the worst flu of her life overnight and she knew she wasn't in the right state of mind but she couldn't stop herself from what she was about to do. She was about to steal a Longsword to go find Master Chief.

The night she spent in the med bay, she dreamed of a thousand different things she could not possibly know about; very top secret information included. She saw how humanity fought and how many times Master Chief had saved them all, just to end up lost in space. She couldn't stand the thought of letting the two greatest saviors of mankind either sleep to death or think itself to death. She had to do something.

She didn't know how she knew what she knew but she knew it was right. It was not just crazy delusions of grandeur, that she alone knew how to save the Master Chief. At least, she really hoped not because if she stole one of the most expensive pieces of military technology and had nothing to show for it, then she would be in jail for a few life sentences.

She was just a private, even though she had seen some combat, and was barely qualified to hold the helmet of an ODST, as such, she could not go to her superiors with the "knowledge" she had. It would be a literal fever dream. The only advantage that she had was that no one important cared to remember the face of a private as, until recently, they had a very short life expectancy.

Her plans began one early morning. It was not in the middle of the night, but in the early morning that people in the base were most careless. She went straight to the med bay and waited until all the staff was occupied. An ODST by the name of Buck had to be forcefully hospitalized as he refused to be admitted. His pride as a hell jumper refused to accept that he lost to a fever. Still, since he was forced to the med day, he had left his armor and helmet at his bedside, incase of emergencies. ODST paranoia, she thought. Or maybe it was not paranoia, as she was about to steal from him under his nose.

She approached the groaning ODST slowly, and tried to look nonchalant. She spotted his helmet by the nightstand near him and made sure that he was asleep. As she picked up the helmet, which was heavier than she expected, and reached under the bed for his armor, she found a gun pointed at her head.

"And just what do you think you're doing?"

"A-ah, I was ordered to get your equipment back to your locker. Orders, S-sir."

"Ugh, did Dare put you up to this? That little. . . ugh. Sigh. Fine, it's not the first time she broke a promise, don't know why I'm surprised at this point."

"Sir? What do you mean?"

"Forget it, private. Here, take this too."

With the little strength he had left, Buck flipped the gun in his hand and handed it over to Kelly. He laid down on the bed again, with a new reason, besides the flu, to feel like shit. Just like that, Kelly was able to steal her needed disguise. The next part of her plan, she was very nervous about because it involved bullshitting her way past at least two technicians. She hurried into a supply closet and changed into her ill-fitting, new armor. With the helmet on, she almost seemed like a real ODST.

While walking tall and proud, like most ODST assholes, she walked into the hangar bay like she owned the place. As she neared the latest, most advanced version of the Longsword, people stepped aside while saluting her. She stopped in front of the two people in charge of maintaining the ship and they both saluted her.

"At ease, sergeants. Is this bird ready to fly?" - Kelly

"Ma'am? I mean, yes ma'am! But we weren't told about any scheduled flights?" - Tech 1

"No, you weren't. I need it for a top secret mission. You do know what the 'secret' means, don't you?" - Kelly

"But, we can't let you leave without some kind of order. There must be some mistake." - Tech 2

"Listen, here boots, I got my orders right here and if I don't leave on this thing in the next ten minutes, you'll be in the brig for insubordination for the rest of your enlistments." - Kelly

Kelly then shoved a manila folder, with the words "Top Secret" in bright red written on it, to the two technicians. The two technicians looked at each other before opening it, to find that it was mostly black ink, with the date and time of departure being the only things visible. It was obviously forged but to the people that never interacted with actual military secrets, it seemed exactly what they would expect. They handed it back quickly, and got out of her way. They explained that the new ship had an autonomous AI system and didn't need to be piloted for long distance travel. She quietly nodded and got on the ship.

By the time the base sounded the alarm, she had already input the coordinates into the AI and gone into slipspace. She really, really hoped that the note she left behind and the fact that she had the Master Chief with her would be enough to exonerate her because the messages she got over the radio were not very nice.

—-