Alright folks I know the following part of the story will not follow the real timeline, not that anything important really happens but it's just a heads up. It's also in this chapter I will introduce a few of our main characters.

Soon ready for war

The year 2580 secret ONI SPARTAN training facility on planet Reach.

Adam Fox walked happily though the halls of the facility while he whistled a nice and happy melody. Right now he was making his way to the simulation training center. As the name said it was a place where young SPARTANS were tested in combat and other tasks in an ultra-realistic virtual world often controlled and overseen by scientist like Adam and one of the facilities many AIs.

He arrived to his destination and entered the empty small room. Most of the space were taken by computer equipment and monitors. At the far end of the room, facing the door; was a large one way window into another room at the same size as the other. This room only contained a single surgical table on it was a 15 year girl old with light brown hair; she looked like she was asleep. She was only dressed in her bra and underwear and a lot wires were attached to her head, chest, arms and legs.

"Hey Duke, how is our newest recruit doing?" Adam asked out into the empty room, in a little annoyed tone as studied one of the monitors. Not long after a small holographic red colored figure of a man in fishing equipment showed up on a small holo-pad on one of the desks he flickered for bit before stabilizing.

"She is doing great, sir. I have never seen such a young SPARTAN excel this quickly before. I had to increase the difficulty of the simulation a few times to make it challenging for her." Answered the AI with a few small static noises and flickered one more time. The scientist took notice of this and asked what was happening to the AI with a bit of worry.

"Ah its nothing really, it's just that I run a lot of tests and projects at the time as I control this simulation. It's just putting bit more pressure on me than I had anticipated" Duke explained with a small smile, touched by the human felling worried for his safety.

"Alright if you say so, can you give me a view of the simulation? I want to see how she's doing with my own eyes." It was more of an order than a request but the AI didn't care and complied and open a new screen on one of the monitors to the right of Adam.

Adams ears were instantly assaulted by the sound of explosions from plasma grenades, exploding covenant vehicles and screams from dying aliens. Adam just watched the image of the girl, now wearing a new model of the MJOLNIR armor*, almost dance though the covenants ranks with an energy blade in her right hand and a M6G magnum in her left hand. Adam almost felt pity for the poor aliens who stood in her way as she tried to get to a crashed pelican dropship were the survivors tried to hold their own against the overwhelming covenant forces.

To Adams big surprise the girl not only made it to the pelican and managed to hold the line but also, with the help of the few marines who still could fight on, retake the plaza until the rescue team came and picked them up. The simulation ended.

"No SPARTAN have ever been able to retake the plaza before, are you sure you didn't go easy on her?" Adam asked the AI with a smirk. The AI sent him an evil glare before it replied with its arms crossed.

"Not at all, as I told you before I had to increase the difficulty a few times. She is fighting at a level where average SPARTANS wouldn't succeed." The AI said annoyed that he had to repeat himself but continued.

"But what is surprising me the most is that she hasn't undergone any augmentations at all." The scientist just stared at the AI in disbelief at what he just heard. He hadn't been overseen this recruit for long and had come to the conclusion that she already had been though the surgery.

"B-but that's impossible! How can she do all this without augmentations? I know she is HIS daughter but this is just absurd." The scientist loudly protested in total disbelief and a bit of anger at the AIs statement. The AI waited for Adam to calm down a bit before it gave him its answer to his question.

"I understand how you feel Adam, I didn't believe it at first either but what happened to her farther 23 years ago must have something to do with it….But I never had any doubt that Cortana** would be an average SPARTAN, after all her father is the great John-117."

_Ω_

Same year unknown location

He ran for his life as fast as he could, heart pumping so hard that he thought it would break though his skin if he didn't take break soon. He didn't a thing of what had happened the last hour. All his friends and battle-brothers were either dead or scattered across this god forsaken area. In the far distance could explosions and fighting be heard over the com-link he could occasionally hear their desperate cries for help and their painful screams as their bodies were torn to pieces by these monsters. Yes monsters, they had to be monsters. He had seen the enemy many times and never had he faced foes like these… these things.

He came to a sudden stop. He was too exhausted to carry on and he just sat down next to a wall in the ruins of a destroyed building. In his hands he still held his rifle tight into his chest. He calmed down a little and took off his helmet, it made him sick and he couldn't take hearing more of his dying friends. He barely got his helmet of before emptied his stomach on the ground to his right. He gasped for air then burst into a maniac laughter as he mashed the back of his head against the wall, tear rolling down his cheeks as he also began crying. He could feel it… yes he could, the sweet embrace of insanity and he welcomed it with open arms.

He was so deep and drunk in his insanity that he didn't notice the creature that had killed many of his comrades enter the ruin. It just stood in front him, waiting for him notice it and stopped laughing. Eventually he noticed it and stopped laughing and just stared at it. It looked a lot like him in terms of body form it was covered from top to toe in armor as black as the void between the only colors was the four lines of dark purple light coming from its otherwise featureless helmet where the eyes should have been.

"Are you… Are you going to kill me l-like you killed all my friends, you human monster?" He asked in freighted but still clearly insane voice as he smiled manically at the monster and tightened his grip around his rifle. The human only nodded and in an instant it had a hand around his throat and in the other it had his rifle. The rifle was thrown away and he felt himself being lifted up from ground until he couldn't touch it with his feet. Then the human spoke for the first time.

"This is the end of you, Forerunner scum." With that the human grabbed with its now free hand the Forerunners shoulder and began to pull the head and the rest of the body in opposite directions. It did not take long before the human had separated the Forerunners head from the rest of the body. The human took a deep breath and then let it out again.

"End the simulation, now." He commanded out in the thin air. A moment went by before everything went dark. The human opened his eyes as he felt himself slowly falling the half meter to the ground. He was on a circular platform with a lot of floating ring around him producing a sharp white light. The light in the rings disappeared and drifted up in the ceiling when he touched the ground. A small set of stairs led down from the platform to the rest of the room. At the bottom of the stairs was a small group of people waiting for. They were all dressed in either combat suits or in some weird-looking lab clothes but one of them stood out between the other. She wore what best could be described as an advanced combat suit styled into a long dress on top of her head rested a shining steel colored crown. Her skin was dark brown*** like everyone else in the empire and like everyone else the color of her long silk like hair was black. A beautiful white tattoo decorated forehead with harmonic patterns. This was his empress and sister, Jael Talma****.

"Ah Siflion*****, I see you're finally done with the SINNER****** training for the day. Now hurry up and get out of that ARCH-GUARDIAN******* armor of yours the politicians are tearing down the throne room as we speak because the new trade agreements between the 500 world under my command, they are just so annoying." The empress complained to her brother as they and the rest of the small group left the room and headed towards the empress' and her families' private chambers.

"Don't worry sister, you know I will always protect you even if it's just some loud mouthed politician." The SINNER said though his helmet with a stern voice. The empress just rolled her eyes and gave him another small smile.

"Ah that brother of mine is going to be the end of me with all that protection. I'm 456 years old and he still thinks of me as his dear helpless little sister." She thought as she laughed of her overprotective brother inside of her mind. They soon arrived at the empress' chambers. The small group left the two siblings alone as they stepped in to the big room. The empress threw herself on the massive bed and watched as her brother got out the advanced combat suit lucky for Siflion he had a normal civilian full body suit under the armor, he knew his sister was more interested in him than a normal little sister would be. He smiled a little for himself then he saw the disappointed expression on his sister face when she discovered the body suit.

"So brother, what do you think of the new armor? Is it better than the old one?" The empress asked now that she couldn't get to see what she desired to see as she rolled onto her back to get more comfortable. Siflion Thought for a bit before he answered.

"I think the new Nanotechnology is a great addition. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to fight on the battlefield. I can't wait to test it on real Forerunners and the Flood they won't know that hit them." A small sinister smile made its way across his lips. Jael rose from the bed a made her over to her brother and hugged him, he returned it.

"Soon brother… Soon we will get our revenge; soon we will be ready for war."

Alright I hoped you liked it. I got a lot of things to explain to you all so let's get started at once. Uh before that I want to hear your opinion on the last part of this chapter. Is it too much for Jael to have such strong feeling towards her brother or is it alright? Now let's get started.

* The new model of the MJOLNIR armor is the MJOLNIR Mark VIII; it is lighter, stronger shields, better suit computers for the AI (making the AIs work easier), a large array of better different sensors and a whole new addition is a small wrist blade sharpened by a laser cutter.

** Cortana Jinx is the daughter of John-117 and the retired SPARTAN IV Julia Jinx. Cortana was born the year 2565 her parents have been married for 3 year before they got Cortana. Julia helped the retired Master Chief adapt to the civilian society and they quickly became close. Cortana enlisted to the SPARTAN program at the age of 13 by the request ONI. ONI is interested in her because she is the only offspring of a SPARTAN and daughter of John-117 who had been given the special genesong the Librarian gave him.

*** Alright I know that the human empire had more than 20 sub-spices of humans but I am just going with one (the ones you see in the terminals in halo 4 and that's why they all have brown skin and black hair)

**** Jael Talma is the current empress of the human empire, all emperors and empress has been of the Talma family since Empress Torres. She is trained by advance military units (something like the ODST) she is a genius at politics and she love to tease her brother and have strong feeling towards her brother.

***** Siflion Talma is one of the strongest SINNERS to ever have existed. He is captain of the infamous SINNER team, the Night Lords. At the battlefield he can become the monster his ancestors wanted to create to frighten the Forerunner forces but most of the time he's a calm and quit warrior that observe the battlefield and hit the enemy where it hurts the most. He love his sister but not at the same level as she does.

****** The SINNERS is the empires answer to the SPARTANS. They are all humans who have undergone extreme augmentation surgeries to boost their speed, strength and reflexes. All SINNERS have their own personal AI to oversee the functions and programs of their combat suit and help the SINNER in times of battle. The SINNER program has been in constant development ever since it was founded by Emperor Tyral Talma in the year 75000 B.C.E. Right now there are 110 SINNERS at the empires disposal in teams of 11 each.

******* The ARCH-GUARDIAN armor is a newer version of the GUARDIAN armor which all SINNERS are issued with. Because of the great costs of producing the ARCH-GUARDIAN armor is only given to the captains of the teams. The difference is a nanorobot system in the ARCH-GUARDIAN. These small robots are made of a rare biological metal which allow the nanos to reproduce inside the wears body. The nanos are tasked to fight infections (manly the Flood) and other unwelcome intruders in the body, close wounds, even repair the armor plating on the armor itself and help the body through battle like gathering extra oxygen from the lungs and then transport it to the rest of the body, making the body more effective. Because the nanos are small biological machines they're able to adapt to almost any environment over long periods of time.