A/N: Hi guy's, ok so I'm going to retcon a piece of information that I added about Atlas having 200 Spartans. The more I think about it, the less it makes sense. So please ignore that piece as I'll be changing it so that each faction has a number that reflects their strength.

New Titian, Atlas Republic Capital world, Tirus city, Commander's Palace.

When compared to other cities in the human sphere of influence, few could match the cities of Earth or Reach. But since both worlds fell and Warlords emerged, plenty of cities have grown to match the grandeur of those from Earth or Reach. Tirus city was one of those cities.

Build using the latest Atlas tech, the city was a combination of technological wonder and armoured fortress. But the draconian rule made it an undesirable place to live. Neighbour vs neighbour, family vs family. Prime fuses for rebellion, which never happened as everything was monitored, without population even knowing. Big brother, or in this case, sister, had full control over the lives of their citizens.

All of this was controlled by the Sky tower, a heavily fortified tower that overlooked the city. It served both as the Commander's residence and military headquarters. This was big sister's house, and very few could get in.

Commander Sarah Palmer was that big sister who controlled everything her citizens did. Unless they were Spartans. She lay back in her seat with her legs spread letting one of her concubines lick her pussy. The bald male just sat on his knees licking her as she read the latest reports on the frontlines. Her territory bordered Mars, the Empire and the GHR. The latter was easy to deal with, but the Empire was hard to predict.

Their movements were slow and calculated. Each move they made had some purpose behind it, they weren't just capturing worlds for standard reasons. Their movements made it look like they were looking for something. But what? That was the question.

She moaned as her concubine made her cum. He then backed up and looked up at her.

"You may go," she said.

The man nodded before leaving. But as he did, two women walked in pushing in a trolly of food. Just like the man, they were bald as well. They also wore a tight white and latex like maid uniform. As they walked in Sarah pulled her underwear up and her tablet to one side before looking over the food.

"Any news?" she asked picking up a drumstick and eating it.

"One piece of news mistress," one of them said as she handed her another tablet. "It sems that Mars has found the Master Chief,"

Sarah took the tablet and began to read the report. As she read, she continued to eat, thinking. Her lip then began to curl into a smile.

"Well, I think…" she tried to say before reading the next report. "Hummm…. That's concerning," she muttered placing the tablet on the table next to her. "This will require some planning,"

OOOOO Mars, Kenosha, Spartan hights.

John sat looking out at the night sky unsure about what to do. He looked down at his hands, his thumbs moving around each other. When the UNSC was still around, things were simpler. But now? Now he was turned from a basic Spartan to a commander of a battlegroup. There was just too much for him to think about, even as a Spartan. He looked up again and just wondered what to do.

"Can't sleep?" a voice said making him turn to see Kelly walking down the stairs to the next floor.

John looked at her up and down questioning her choice of night dress. She wore a set of, not too revealing, leopard print lingerie undergarments. Inwardly John just smiled, but outwardly he turned back to look at the city.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Too much on my mind,"

"I know the feeling," Kelly said as she sat next to John. "I know what it was like. You just feel… I dunno… empty, bad… like there is too little yet too much…" she laughed a little. "Almost like you have no idea what to do,"

"Yeah," Chief nodded not wanting to admit anything.

But Kelly could read him like a book. "This is mostly due to the brainwashing John, the conditioning. Without the UNSC, our main group, we just lose our purpose for existence. We just become empty shells until we find out who we truly are. Not machines, but humans with our own minds and personality. That's the problem with us II's, we were conditioned. While that makes us loyal, it's also our greatest weakness. When our purpose for existence is removed what do we become? Who do we become?"

Jon said and did nothing just looking out at the city. "It's something that I have to face right?"

"Not alone," Kelly smiled. "There's a therapy group for us II's. Some of us still cannot get over the UNSC falling. I'll take you tomorrow, if you like,"

John looked to her with a weak smile. "I'd like that," he said before looking out at the city. "I should get back to bed," he muttered as the two of them stood.

"Yeah," Kelly agreed as she cracked her arms and neck. "My hubby gets lonely real quick,"

She moved up the stairs quickly and John slowly followed but stopped. He turned to look at the living room before continuing up.

OOOOO Firestorm Destroyer, Unknown system.

The hanger bay's destroyer was filled with rooms and mechanics moving around. Warthogs and mongoose's getting fitted and repaired by engineers and troopers on patrol. The crew Hillsborough-class destroyer, Firestorm, moved around fixing, upgrading and patrolling as they waited for their next orders. As they moved around, a Pelican drop-ship flew into the hanger and landed while two black and red armoured female Spartans walked up. As soon the ramp hit the deck, Locke walked out only to stop in front of the two Spartans.

"Tanaka, Vale, what are you two doing here?" he asked as he crossed his arms.

"The commander wants to talk to you," Vale said. "The HIVE is waiting,"

Locke just grunted and pushed passed them walking off. Jun walked off the pelican and stood next to the two Spartans who looked to him.

"What the fuck happened?" Tanka asked.

"Blue team," was all he said.

"They were there?" Vale asked with a surprised look.

"Only two, Fred and Linda," Jun replied as he moved past them to the armoury.

Locke walked into a large circular room with a circular pillar in the middle of it. The pillar had an open section that was about torso hight. Inside was a glowing broken red holographic orb that kept moving around. As soon as the door closed, the orb began to pulse for a moment before it began to speak.

"What happened?" the voice said.

Locke winced at the voice. The orb's voice sounded like a chorus of men and women talking at the same time with an electronic echo. He had heard it many times before, but it was something he would never get used to.

"Name, rank, number, frequency," it said.

"Jamerson Locke, Commander, SP 44589520, 557 hg," he said calmly.

The orb fell silent for a moment before a female voice dominated the others. While the male and female voices were still there, this female one overshadowed the others.

"Commander Locke, status report," the orb ordered.

"Mission failure," he answered. "Blue team got away,"

"How?" the orb demanded.

"It seems that the luck from the Chief has rubbed off on them," he said calmly. "They got a look at the outpost's…" he paused for a second thinking of the right word. "… assets but are unaware of their purpose,"

"Seeing it already jeopardises our plans to find the gate," the orb blasted making Locke wince again. "This failure could have major repercussions across the frontlines," it fell silent for a moment before coming back in a calmer voice. "Mars is becoming more of a problem, plans will be escalated to remove them from the playing field,"

"I don't think that will be necessary," Locke muttered.

"It has become necessary due to recent intelligence. They found blue one," that made Locke's eyes widen.

"They found him? How?" he asked as he straighten up.

"Unknown, our spies have only informed is that he has been found,"

Locke stroked his chin. "This does complicate things,"

"Indeed, it does," the orb agreed. "We cannot allow him to gain access to any HIVE facilities. I don't think I need to explain why,"

"You don't," Loke agreed. "So, kill order?"

"A kill order has been sent to all forces across the frontline as well as a self-destruct order for any HIVE facility," the orb said. "Locke, we understand what you think of the Master Chief, therefore we are granting you a hunt order. Kill John 117,"

Locke smiled.

OOOOO Mars, Kenosha, Presidential palace.

Fred and Linda stood before Parisa at a relaxed attention as the President read their report. The two Spartans said nothing as they watched the President grow even more concerned about what they found at the outpost. Eventually she placed the tablet on the table and rubbed her temples. Even the Spartans could see the headache coming on to the President.

"This is going to be a bigger headache since Freelancer," Parisa moaned.

"That bad huh?" Fred asked with a smile.

"Probably worse," Linda muttered in her calm tone.

"Don't start, please," Parisa pleaded. "I have enough to worry about with Atlas and The Empire without the two of you arguing," she said and picked up the report again. "So, you think it was a trap?"

"Most likely," Fred said. "The way it was set up… it felt that they were targeting us… specifically,"

"Well, that makes sense," Parisa nodded. "The two of you are among my elite forces. You've been a problem for The Empire and others for ages. It's not a surprise that they try to target you now," at that she smiled at them. "Which brings me to some news and a new assignment,"

That made Fred blink, but Linda did nothing which unnerved Parisa. "Really? What's the assignment?"

Parisa pulled out a tablet and handed it to Fred. "I'm transferring you two to Special Task Force Blue," as she spoke Fred and Linda looked at the tablet. "Which is under the command of your brother, John,"

Fred almost dropped the tablet and Linda's face finally showed some emotion. "John? You found John?" Fred asked.

Parisa smiled and nodded. "Yes, we found him. He's at Kelly's place, but she has taken him to a therapy group for the other twos. It's going to take some time for the Task Force to be completed, and you two are in need of a break. Spend it with your family,"

"Yes ma'am," the two saluted before leaving.

As soon as they left Parisa's smiled dropped as she picked up Fred's report and read it again. She rubbed the side of her head again with a groan before she reached over to her phone.

"Kat, how's that project going?" she asked.

"Almost finished, why?" Kat replied.

"I think we are going to need it, soon,"

OOOOO September 3rd 2552 Reach.

With the loading underway, Six focused her eyes on the horizon keeping a look out for anything coming their way. The loading was expected to take an hour, if there were no problems. But reality had told Six that, no plan survives first contact. It was something she learnt over and over again. Her mind shifted back to Jorge, and how their plan was in vain. One rouge shot from a plasma rifle made the timer on the slip-space bomb fail. One shot. She couldn't help but smile at how not funny it was.

"Six, come in," Lynch said breaking her train of thought.

"Six here," she replied. "What's going on?"

"Some of the vehicles broke down," he said with sounds of yelling though his mic. "We're going to try and fix them,"

"Don't bother," Six said quickly knowing the problem. "We modified the injectors and flooded the tanks with diocloxine to get more speed out of them," Lynch's curse in his native language made it clear how unhappy he was about that. "Do we have any forklifts,"

"Yes, but it's going to take longer," he muttered. "Th…" he tried to finish his sentence but someone jumped in.

"ALERT, MULTIPLE CONTACTS!" someone called.

"Who's this?" Lynch demanded.

"Bridge, I'm picking up multiple Covenant signatures!" the officer said.

"Classes?" Six asked as Lynch began to yell at the civilians to move quicker.

"Banshees and spi….oh shit," his voice went cold. "We've got a cruiser coming,"

Six looked around at the marines, who all shared the same look on their faces. "Lynch, you get that?"

"I got it, but we still have supplies waiting," he replied.

"Prioritise, water, food and ammo," Six said as she made out several spots coming towards them.

"On it," Lynch agreed as the comm cut.

Six then picked up her rocket launcher and turned on the lock on system. "Pick your targets, don't waste your ammo. Make every shot count,"

"Yes sir!" the marines called as they readied themselves.

As the banshee's moved closer, a few of the marines began to fire their weapons. Bullets flew though the air forcing the fighters to split up. While it made it harder to hit them, it also prevented them from focusing their fire. The lead banshee continued on firing its plasma cannons. The rounds hit harmlessly against the concrete and sandbags as the marines moved out of the way. A few of the marines fired at the banshee, but it moved out of the way as the rockets roared past it.

It didn't account for Six's laser. She had placed the rocket launcher down and grabbed her laser. The lead was going to be a problem, but not for long. As she aimed and charged the laser, the lead noticed her and turned towards her and began to fire. She didn't move as the rounds hit her shield. Her fingers tapped along the long the handle and on the trigger until the lead got close enough.

"Goodbye," she said as she pulled the trigger and the laser cut though the fighter with ease, turning it from a threat into a heap of molten slag.

The lead fell and smashed into the wall then to the ground. "Fire at will!" Six ordered.

A moment later, the marines began to fire their rocket launchers forcing the banshees to move or get destroyed. Some of them, however, flew right into a rocket sending them down to the floor. No one cheered as they focused fire, trying to take down as much as they could.

"Six to Dire-wolf, come in," Six said as she discarded her laser for rocket launcher.

"Wolf here," someone said. "We're moving as fast as we can,"

"Not what I'm calling for, are your autocannons and railguns working?" she asked as she fired a rocket at a banshee trying to strafe the wall.

"Yes, but they don't have much ammo," the officer said.

"That's fine, we're focusing on the banshees, you target the drop-ships," she said as she reloaded.

"Understood," the officer said as Six turned back to the banshees as more came flying in.

"Take cover!" the spartan yelled as a fuel rod round flew towards them.

However, a group of marines didn't move out of the way quickly enough and got caught in the blast. A few of them were wounded, but the others didn't move. The marines close to them covered a medic as he went to check on them. Six moved up with him to give him more cover. A banshee flew in close, trying to take the two of them out. But it got hit by a rocket from the side sending it spinning towards them.

Six reacted quickly as she grabbed the medic and pulled him to the side as the fighter crashed into the wounded killing them. "I'm sorry," Six said before getting up and fired another salvo of rockets.

"We're running low!" a marine called.

"We got drop-ships!" another marine yelled.

The Dire-wolf's guns activated and turned to fire at the incoming drop ships. Close behind those was the cruiser.

"Lynch! What's going with the supplies?!" Six practically yelled.

"We've got about a third onto the ship!" Lynch yelled back.

"Good enough, get everyone on," she yelled.

"Understood!" Lynch replied.

"FALL BACK!" Six yelled.

Squad by squad, the marines got up from their positions and moved to the stairs at the back of the stairs. But because there were rockets in the air, the banshee's got bolder and fired both their plasma and fuel rod cannons at the fleeing marines. Some of them didn't make it and left on the wall by their comrades. Six followed the last squad as they moved towards the stairs down to the floor.

As they moved the Dire-wolf's guns had turned to the banshee's trying to keep them away as the marines got onto the ship. The civilians were already on, so the marines had little worry outside of their own lives.

"Come on move it!" a Sargent yelled pushing marines onto the ship.

Six looked back and fired her final rocket at a drop ship before throwing it to one side and just running. The rocket missed and the banshee which targeted her continued on trying to take her down. But a railgun shot put an end to that. Six made it into the ship as the door closed and locked. The engines turned on as she made her way up to the bridge. As she walked in, the bridge crew were talking about setting off. Six paid them no mind as she jumped onto one of the gunner's seats and began to take out banshees targeting them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking," Lynch said over the comm. "Hold onto something,"

The ship then jerked as the engines turned on and the platform it was on moved so that the front of the ship faced up. A loud roar then echoed across the ship as the thrusters were turned up to their max and the frigate took off. Everyone gripped onto something as the ship exited Reach's atmosphere. As the ship reached space, all the bridge crew looked out to see the massive Covenant fleet above Reach. A sense of dread filled them all as they looked at the ships in front of them.

Lynch shook his head and turned to navigation. "Activate slip-space," he ordered.

The officer he was talking to just blinked before he registered Lynch. "S…sir?" he asked.

"Slip-space, now! Anywhere!" the Capitan ordered and the officer nodded.

"Right, right," the officer muttered and he began to spin the drive up.

"Hurry!" someone said as plasma rounds headed for them.

"Come on, come on…." the officer muttered.

The ship just stood drifting slowly as the plasma inched ever closer and closer. But before they could hit, the ship disappeared.