ONI Sword Base, Reach
July 26, 2552
Jorge walked up behind noble six and put his hand on his shoulder
"Beautiful aint it, someone should take a picture" Jorge said as the covenant corvette was obliterated by an orbital MAC cannon. "Nice work by the way" he praised noble six's job.
"I aim to please" six responded.
"Five six, get down to the hangar. Dr. Halsey want's a debriefing and commands saying we're all hers" Carter said through the radio.
"Repeat, sounded like you said Halsey" Jorge asked shockingly. It had been years since he last saw Dr. Halsey.
"I did" Carter responded.
"Roger that, on our way" said Jorge. "Don't need command to tell me twice, been all hers half my life". Jorge thought back to when he was taken by Dr. Halsey and trained to be a Spartan. It seemed like centuries ago that they spoke. Both noble six and Jorge made their way to the hangar.
"I requested your assistance commander, and do not need a report on things that occur right outside of my own doorstep" Halsey spoke to Carter.
" What I do require is a detailed account of your previous engagement…" before she continued she looked at Jorge. "Jorge, it's been far too long". Halsey cared for Jorge as she did for all of her Spartans, it was good to know he was doing good.
"Mum" Jorge replied. He felt a lot of emotions pass by. Some part of him wanted to hug Halsey, but he kept his feelings under control.
"What have you done to my armor" Halsey said looking at his customized Mark V.
"Just some… editions I've made" Jorge said.
"Indeed" Halsey said as she turned her focus back to Carter. She began again "Visegrad Relay, it's data center was home to one of my zenoarcheologists professor Lazlo Zorvad" she said. " Perhaps you can shed some light on his death" she looked at Carter.
"If he was a civilian male in his mid sixty's, he died with a covenant energy sword through his abdomen" Carter responded.
"They engaged us as well" Jorge jumped in. "It was just after… just after we found your scientists daughter m' am, she was hiding…" before Jorge could finish Dr. Halsey cut him off.
"Irrelevant" she said. "The elites tell me more about them" she asked.
"Three, Zealot class one got by us the leader by the looks of him" he answered.
"Zealots, your certain" Halsey asked.
"Their armor configuration matched" Jorge replied.
"Shield strength too" six said.
"I gave the order not to pursue, our primary objective was to get the stations relay back online" carter said.
Halsey responded angrily "your primary objective? Commander are you a puppet or a Spartan?". The rest of noble team were shocked at how Dr. Halsey responded to the commander.
"M' am" Carter replied.
"There are those at ONI, myself included that believe the covenant dispatch elite advanced fire teams to hunt down artifacts valuable to their religion" she replied. "Survivor accounts suggest such teams are small, nimble and almost always Zealot class" she said. "No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there, and you let them get away" she said blaming noble team for what happened. Dr. Halsey seemed to show more hostility towards the Spartan III's, even though this was the first time she ever met any of them.
"Data retrieval was not a command directive, even had we known we had other more urgent matters to attend to" Carter justified his actions.
"Like warning the planet" Kat said.
"Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a latch key discovery" Halsey said. "Latch key, not a word he would use lightly". "So let's hope the data module your Lieutenant Commander stole contains it" Halsey said as she slid the compartment open.
"Kat?" Carter said surprised.
"Before you ask I was alerted the moment you attempted to access it's content, as I am with any unauthorized tap" Halsey said. Kat dropped the data module into the compartment. "That data is classified tier one, I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work" Halsey threatened noble two. Halsey wasn't exactly a big fan of noble team despite the fact that they were the ones fighting for the sake of the planet.
"Maybe you'd like to join her" Carter snapped back at Halsey.
"I'm sorry?" Halsey said confused with what he said.
"Were currently under Emergency Planetary Directive Winter Contingency" Carter pointed out. "I'm sure you've heard of the severe punishment for civilian interference with the Spartan deployment" Carter backed up his team member.
"Are you threatening me commander" Halsey asked.
"Just making a reading suggestion M, am" Carter replied. "Let's move noble team" Carter ordered. Jorge stayed behind for a bit.
"Mum" Jorge said.
"That will be all Jorge" Halsey said as she was looking at the data module. Jorge followed the rest of noble team out of the base.
SSV Normandy
Noble six awoke and sat up on his bed. He started thinking about his Spartan training. He remembered how SCPO Franklin Mendez would push them to their limit and beyond. Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose wasn't as hard as Mendez but he still pushed them to be their best. Noble six was one of the lucky ones in his company. Six was taken out right after training so he wouldn't participate in Operation: TORPEDO. A lot of his brothers and sisters weren't so lucky. He remembered what Kurt told them right before their training.
"I'm going to give you the chance to learn how to fight, a chance to become the best soldiers the UNSC has ever produced, a chance to destroy the Covenant. I am going to give you the chance to be like me: a Spartan."
Noble six had learned to respect Kurt and Mendez. If it wasn't for them noble six would have been dead like most of Beta company.They taught him what it meant to be a soldier. Later on in his life noble six realized that the best honor you could have, was to die fighting for your species, even though he never got the chance. Noble six removed his helmet to wash his face. As he was washing his face someone knocked on the door. Six quickly put his helmet back on and opened the door.
"Lieutenant you got a minute" Shepard asked as he was standing in front of the door. Noble six looked at Shepard and nodded. "Alright we should talk in the lounge, there's more space there" Shepard said. Noble six followed Shepard to the lounge and sat down. Noble six didn't expect Shepard's whole crew to be there, but they were.
"Lieutenant, it's good to see you again" said EDI.
"Lieutenant last time we spoke you talked about the UNSC" Shepard said. "You mind telling us more about them".
"Is the UNSC humans central government in your universe" asked EDI.
"It's part of the central government" Six said.
"So then what is the central government?" James asked.
"The United Earth Government" Six responded
"What is your military like" Garrus asked.
"It's bigger than any military here" noble six said.
"How many colonies did humans live on" asked Liara
"It used to be about a hundred colonies" as six responded he put his head down in sadness. They all looked at each other wondering what six meant.
"What do you mean, used to be?" asked Liara.
"Was there some kind of war" asked Garrus.
"I'd rather not talk about it" said Six.
"Just a little lieutenant" Liara urged six to talk about it. She wanted to know so bad, but she knew he wouldn't talk.
"Liara, if he doesn't want to talk then he doesn't have to" said Shepard. Shepard looked at six and smiled a little. "Lieutenant your welcome to talk about it, but if you don't feel like it you don't have to we understand" he somewhat had a feeling six wasn't going to talk. Six nodded at Shepard and left back to hid quarters.
"Nice job, Liara you made him leave" Garrus said sarcastically.
"I was just wondering" Liara replied.
"Something really bothered him when we asked about the colonies" said James. "What do you think EDI?" he asked.
"It's difficult to say, but the way his head went down, he was sad" she replied.
"Maybe it was some sort of war with aliens, or a civil war maybe" Liara said
"Whatever it was, we wont know for sure unless he tells us so let's just let it go" said Shepard. "I'll check on him later see how he's doing, for now everybody is dismissed" said Shepard. Noble six sat in silence in his room. He couldn't remove the memories from his mind, especially knowing there was little chance he would get back to his people. He took a deep breath and relaxed, maybe he could just forget everything.