Epsilon Eridani System, UNSC Omaha, October 25 2539

Little more than twenty four hours ago Maximilian had been sat in the cramped hanger bay aboard the Phoenix Class Colony Ship the UNSC Prestige, rubbing shoulders with tired, battered marines and tear streaked evacuees from the now glassed planet of Valais. But he had been forced to leave what he felt was his rightful place standing with these people by a pair of ONI officers who appeared in a dark pelican which had then taken him aboard this ship.

Maximilian now found himself sitting in a clean and well lit room on an exceedingly plush leather chair, waiting to find out why he had been brought here. As requested Maximilian had ditched his standard issue Mark V armour and now was wearing his military formal best, the dark grey double breasted tunic and slacks with high and shined leather boots, across his chest he bore numerous medals and awards.

Maximilian's supreme tactical and strategic thinking was way beyond that of nearly all Spartans and most officers too, it was something that had won him much praise and respect, as well as they accolades that he wore with pride across his chest. On his lapel Maximilian bore the chevrons and eagle emblem of a Senior Chief Officer , a rank which he had earned and held with high esteem. There was some talk of batted about by officials that he rescued from Valais while they were all aboard the UNSC Prestige about he finally being made a Master Chief, but it appeared that would have to wait.

Maximilian looked up as the double doors on one side of the circular room parted, a blonde haired woman walked through carrying a particularly confident and almost playful gait. Immediately Maximilian recognised her as a Spartan and stood up, he looked her up and doing seeing if he could spot any clues as to who she was, processing all the bits of information that he could spy. The lady Spartan wore the same dark grey attire that Maximilian did and upon her breast there were medals, even though they were noticeably fewer than those that he held, and her lapels bore the emblem of a Petty Officer First Class.

Maximilian studied her further as she approached, he could make out no details about her from her uniform immediately, but then he stared at her medals for a split second longer and noticed that one of her decorations was the blue and orange ribbon of a Colonial Cross. Maximilian himself had one, as a number Spartans, but he ran through a list in his mind of all the female Spartans who had them, there was a total of 11 he could remember. Then the Spartan thought about their ranks and then deduced that only 3 of those who held them were Petty Officer First Class, Joanna-076, Rebecca-108 and Carris -137. He knew she wasn't Joanna for he had known her well, they had both been part of the now disbanded Spartan battle-group Gold Team and seen out the first decade of the war fighting at each others side. But he had not seen her in years and the last he heard she was now listed as MIA following Sixth Fleet's destruction during the glassing of Lys. With that possibility firmly shut out Maxilimilian knew this woman striding across the room had to be either Rebecca or Carris, he though but he had nothing, but he decided to take a stab in the dark.

"Good Morning Rebecca" Maximilian said.

"Oh" Rebecca said with a hint of surprise in her voice "You know my name, how charming, but sorry I can't say I know who you are"

"Maximilian-055" He said shaking her hand before inviting her to take a seat, he felt very pleased with himself that he had managed to correctly deduce who she was, even if it did depend on one last roll of the dice.

"Thanks" She said, "I have heard of you Max now I think about it, weren't you responsible for putting down the rebel insurrection on New Budapest?"

"Ahah, you heard correct" Maximilian laughed bashfully scratching the back of his head, the Insurrection on New Budapest was something that Maximilian had become famed for early his career.

On many planets the rebels had used the Human-Covenant War as an opportunity to try and overthrow the colonies whose military forces were stretched to breaking point and New Budapest had been no exception. The rebel forces took over the capital city of Danube in a few short and bloody days of fighting and soon enough they controlled the planet. Maximilian was responsible to lead the strike team into Danube. In an attempt to stop the revolt as its root, he had scaled the side of a high-rise the rebels had taken as their headquarters and assassinated all the members of their leadership quickly and quietly. As chaos spread through the insurrectionist's ranks and infighting spread, a small number of ODST squads under his command had retaken the city and a matter of weeks later the whole planet had been bought under UNSC control once again. The Spartan did not really feel as if this was anywhere near what he would think was his greatest tactical achievement but when the Spartan II Program went public this is the one the Section III ONI propaganda smiths jumped on and ran with.

"So" Rebecca said brushing a few strands of her hair out of her eyes, "Have you been roped into this as well?"

"Unfortunately yes, I was helping with the evacuation on Valais when I was called up" Maximilian replied "Somehow I think I could be doing more good there than here"

"I guess" Rebecca said "But while I hate having to be bought at here at their beckon call I'm assuming it's something important. any ideas?"

"Not a clue, they haven't told me anything"

"Same" Rebecca sunk deeper back into her chair, Maximilian could tell she was feeling particularly uncomfortable in this environment of complete information black out.

Before Maximilian could say some comforting words to her the doors that she had entered the room by slipped open once again and another two Spartans entered the room. The first was clad in the black uniform of an ONI officer, well decorated and bearing the gold barred patch of a Lieutenant Commander. The Spartan's face was rather gaunt with a well defined and pointed jaw line, thin lips and heavy green eyes. Maximilian felt that while he could tell that he was a Spartan from his proportions he didn't exactly look much like a soldier. The other Spartan following him was still wearing a set of mottled green MJOLNIR armour that looked like it had been through the ringer; it was covered in scuffs, scrapes and scratches. The man was colossal even by Spartan standards, he stood a head taller than the other spartan and ,while that was exaggerated slightly by his armour, he was built like a grizzly bear in; carrying his HAZOP helmet under his arm revealing his unshaven and scared features beneath a bald head.

"Good Day" The Lieutenant Commander said. The tall Spartan simply gave a nod in greeting.

"Good Day to you too" Maximlian said "I am..."

The ONI Officer cut him off "Senior Chief Petty Officer Maximilian-055, it's a pleasure to meet you" He then turned to Rebecca "The same goes for you Petty Officer First Class Rebecca-108

"The pleasure is all yours" Rebecca said curtly leaving the ONI Spartan taken slightly aback.

"I assume you are the man behind this operation. Hence the ONI uniform" Maximilian said quickly to break any fast building tension.

"You are partly correct, I am Lieutenant Commander Cyrus-142. I am the one responsible for calling you here to the Omaha, but I was merely given that duty from Command. I am a member of the operational team, as are you and my armoured friend here is our fourth, Petty Officer Second Class Ivan-015" The ONI Spartan exposited

Maximilian recognised the name Cyrus-142. Digging back into his memory he was sure that he had heard the name Cyrus mentioned asone of the Spartans to have gone MIA during the Harvest Campaign. Normally he would have pushed for details but he didn't really want to quiz the commander or question it, this was ONI there were dealing with now, if they wanted everyone to think a Spartan was MIA they could make it happen in a heartbeat.

"Then if you are not even in charge, do you even know why you had to call us here?" Rebecca said, not trying in the slightest to hide her irritation.

"No I do not, but we shall all find out soon enough. Admiral Crane should be with us any moment now"

"Hmph" Ivan grunted as he dropped his pack onto the clean white floor with a heavy thud "If you had told me we had to wait, I could have got changed"