The Pelican touched down on the ship's landing decks, and the Spartans piled out. As Speck walked over to his platoon, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"Lieutenant Colin Montgomery. Codename "Spectre". Although you seem to prefer Speck? ODST now, eh? I remember when your father first showed me pictures of you."

Speck turned and found himself looking into the eyes of UNSC Fleet Admiral Harper. A legendary leader, he had commanded the UNSC Navy under Hood, during the defense of Earth. The man had known Speck's father and mother, who were currently enjoying a life on Europa. Speck saluted and stood to attention quickly.

"Sir. Sorry I'm late, I had to hitch a ride-"

"It's fine. I've been wanting to talk to you anyway, Speck. The higher-ups want you in a spec-ops team after your work was observed today."

Speck was confused to say the least.

"Me, sir? But... I'm just a Helljumper."

"After today, I'd be tempted to say you're Spartan material. Taking on a T'voan alone, and 2 Brutes? You're cut out for better than you think, my boy."

"Permission to speak, sir?"

"Granted."

"All my friends are in the 7th Shock Troops, sir. I can't leave them. Not after all I've been with them through."

The older man chuckled, before speaking up once more.

"We're not pulling you from the 7th. You're one of their most capable men, and a great field asset. We're trialling a small fireteam, codenamed Scorpio. The Spartans you helped will be the majority, but you, another ODST, and 2 marines will be deployed with them."

Speck gulped before deciding to ask the old commander another burning question.

"Sir... can I know who the other non-Spartans are?"

"Of course. You and 2nd Lieutenant Amelia "Artemis" Beaux are being deployed from the ODSTs. You two seemed to be very cohesive as a pair, and she seems very fond of you. Also being deployed are Maria Degrossi from the UNSC Army and Michael Rorke from the Marines."

Speck smiled. He knew Artemis, she was a French-Canadian ODST and a brilliant comms expert. She wore armor of the Recon ODST type (think Dare's armor from Halo 3: ODST). Speck wondered how she was doing.

Artemis sat on her bed, looking at a screen that was projecting the devastation of the city. She was fairly scared, several good friends had been deployed down to San Francisco for evac roles and to top it off the Covies had been involved in some role.

But most importantly, she was worried about Speck. She made her affections for him obvious around the other troopers, but Speck himself was either oblivious or far too shy to voice an opinion.

She liked to assume it was the latter.

She wasn't too sure what it was about him, to be perfectly honest. His pale skin, green eyes and black hair seemed to be hypnotic to her (and when he wasn't listening, the other soldiers tended to tease her immensely about him).

She sat there still, absent mindedly playing with her reddish brown hair and at points almost tearing a bit out. She was therefore ecstatic when Speck trudged through the door, in the t-shirt and cargo pants that the majority of ODSTs wore off-duty.

"Colin! You're safe! With all that destruction I thought..."

"I'm fine, Amelia."

"No, you weren't! You got blindsided by a Brute, we watched your helmet cam!...By the way, who were you making eyes at?"

"Oh, her? S-she saved me from the Brute. Her name's Monika, I think."

Amelia mumbled a small curse under her breath.

"Competition from a Spartan... He's mine, I swear..."

"You say something, Art?"

"No, no, Speck. Just singing along to a tune~"

Speck muttered a small, shy sorry before walking into the bathroom, turning on the shower.

Artemis smirked to herself, before laying down again and setting off to sleep.