Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Six POV

The Spartan examined his helmet and was satisfied to find it in good condition. He was afraid the close encounter he had with a rebel's homemade bomb on Harmony had left a mark.

The Warthog hit a sudden bump, lifting the occupants in the air before gravity pushed them back down. The Spartan glanced at the private who was driving. He was still shaking with nervousness. Despite the Spartans being the defenders of Earth, a lot of people, including his fellow soldiers, saw himself and the other Spartans as an intimidating sight—almost as frightening as the Covenant.

Six glanced down and inspected himself. His blue and white armour wasn't shiny like before but dented and grimy from all the past days in the field. Command pulled him out of the action and chartered him a ride to Reach before he could even clean himself.

The Spartan snorted. Six. That was to be his new name. This 'Noble Team' he was being rotated to thought he wouldn't last long. He was determined to prove them wrong. He wasn't just some newbie marine; he was a Spartan III veteran. He was sure that he'd been in this war just as long as any other Spartan who was still living and breathing.

They were approaching the base. He couldn't see it, but command told Six that it was positioned just over the hill. Six placed his helmet over his head and checked its systems. His Heads up Display was working, his shield levels were charged, the ammo counter reported his weapons were locked and loaded, and the motion tracker showed massive activity up ahead. They were nearing the base camp. Six looked up in time to see two Falcons passing the ground vehicle overhead, both heading towards the base.

That must be our transportation.Was Noble Team returning, or were they getting picked up for a mission?

Either way something was happening, and Six was determined to prove himself.

It seemed as if this base camp was more of a field than base, no fence, no airfield, and only a few portable buildings. He gave the scene a brief scan before settling his eyes on building A1: Noble Team's FOB. The private pulled the warthog up to the gray tent just as the Falcons landed. No one was on board, save the pilots. Noble must still be in their barracks.

Six turned to thank the private, but the kid flinched at his movement. Irritated by the rough ride and the individual's actions, he exited towards the barracks not looking back at the Warthog. While passing the Falcon, he caught a glimpse of a man sitting inside it, causally filling a mag with 14.5mm sniper rounds. He was bald with a tattoo of a fist of arrows on the side of his head, but what stood out was his green MJOLNIR armour.

He must be part of Noble Team.

The man raised his head and stared at him, slowly guiding the last round into the magazine, but Six continued into the nearby building without so much as a word.

As he approached the main tent, Six heard a conversation developing. The one talking sounded like he was on audio; it must be a call.

"Contact with the relay outpost went dark, we're afraid the local insurgents are behind it, their activities are similar enough to their actions on Harmony five months ago. We sent in a marine recon team to check it out, but we soon lost contact."

Another speaker replied, "And now you're sending us?"

At that moment Six walked in and his attention was immediately drawn to a fellow Spartan sitting on an ammunition crate. His armor was red and grey, and he was sharpening his kukri knife to a wicked sharp point, yet what caught Six's interest was the skull design etched into his helmet. The Spartan paused and looked up at him. Six, in return, lurched forward preparing to introduce himself when another Spartan intercepted him.

This one was a woman who wore light turquoise armor with light armor attachments, but what caught his attention was-

Kat?

Six easily recognised the short brown hair, the tough face, and a scar on both her forehead and right cheek from hils old basic Beta company training days. She blocked Six's advance with a cybernetic prosthesis arm. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow from behind his visor. Few, if any, soldiers were allowed to fight on the front line when they're critically injured, but here was another example of how much CIC was willing to bend the rules for the Spartans. Not that he particularly blamed HIGHCOM, as the war wasn't going well.

We need as many Spartans as we can spare after all…

She seemed to be studying Six as if he was a bug under a microscope before she dropped her prosthetic arm and said, "Commander."

At this, Six saw the final two men who were at the end of the room. He was shocked to see that one of them, a gold and green armored man, was huge—the heavy machine gun resting beside him hinting at his enormous strength. He must have been reaching seven-foot-five, easily. He had his helmet off and he looked older than the other Spartans. They were in their twenties and early thirties, but this guy looked like he was in his forties. Six did a double take when he realized the guy was older because he was one of them, a Spartan II.

He must have been part of the first class of Spartans to ever be created.

Beside him was a man who fit the description of a commander. He had a serious face, hair cut to army regulation, and he looked like he was ready to salute at any given moment. His blue Spartan armor was the same color as Six's, but it lacked the white color that criss-crossed on his. He gave Six a quick, intimidating glance before turning back to the table behind him.

On the table, Six could see a holo-communicator where an image showed the veteran face of Colonel Holland, acting commander officer of all special warfare personnel on Reach—the only man from ONI that Six trusts.

The giant Spartan spoke in a leathery voice, "So that's our new number six?"

Number 'Six.' Yes, that's my name now and exactly what I was expecting.

The skull-faced Spartan spoke next, "Kat, you read his file?"

The woman he was addressing responded, "Only the parts that aren't covered in black ink."

Six turned and expected to talk to the commander, but he was talking to Holland again.

"Anyone claim responsibility?" He asked.

"So far all signs point to the local insurgents. Recon the area, report back, and get the facility back online. Holland out." With a flick, the hologram disappeared ending the conversation.

Carter finally looked away from the screen and now addressed his new team member. "Lieutenant?"

"Commander, Sir."

"I'm Carter, Noble Leader. That's Kat, Noble Two, Emile, and Jorge—Four and Five." He said, pointing to the various members of Noble team as they filed out of the barracks towards the falcons.

"Just one thing, Six." He continued, leading Six out of the barracks and into the flurry of dirt and pebbles being kicked up by the Falcon's massive dual rotors. "I've seen your file, even the parts the ONI censores didn't want me to. You work well alone, but we're a team." He said, settling into the troop bay of the transport helicopter with Six. "That lone wolf stuff stays behind, got it?"

Six nodded again and responded flatly, "Got it, Sir."

Jun elbowed Six in the side lightly as the Falcon began to rise towards the mountains.

"Welcome to Reach." He said, amused.

-Author's Note-

Aww sheit… Here we go again…

So, basic rundown!

A while ago, this fic was originally written by Christian Knight. JTF Adopted the fic a while after it was abandoned by him, and while I had edited it with him, over time it got to the point where I had been writing everything anyway. I left the fic mostly up to him following the most recent chapter (29) just to see if he would touch it, and he never did. Today, he told me flat out that he was abandoning it, and I honestly hated to see it die like that.

I, along with WhateverRex & jjoutlaw, two editors I know well, will officially be attempting to do something no one has done before us! FINISH THIS DAMN FANFICTION.

"Fr this shit needs to be finished, ON GOD" -WhateverRex

"A team of writers can't fuck this up, right?" -jjoutlaw

See! Nothing but optimism!

As of now, this first chapter is just getting posted to show that I'm adopting it onto my account. I have the original files from Christian, along with the fact that most of the more recent added chapters were written by me anyway without JTF helping all too much. Getting back up to where both the rewrite and the original were. The goal is to fix a lot of the mistakes, along with finally getting around to expanding into halo 3 and bringing this long journey of passing the torch to others to an end.

Read and review, and if you somehow enjoyed the third reading of the same intro, consider giving a follow and a favorite!

-PyreElegy