Fred and Linda made their way towards John's office. As they moved, Fred cracked his neck and gave a loud yawn which caused Linda to slap him on the shoulder.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Manners," she shot back before they entered John's office.

Their brother sat on his chair, his armour still on. As the two entered he indicated the two to sit before talking.

"I just got word from Parisa," he said calmly before handing the two a tablet. "Kelly's down,"

Both of them looked to him with eyebrows raised. "What happened?" Linda asked as Fred took the tablet.

"Someone bombed the hospital where she was giving birth. Both the child and her husband are dead," he sighed before continuing. "She's currently in another hospital. Recovering from the bomb blast. Parisa already went to check on her. Physically she's fine, mentally…" he trailed off letting the words hang in the air. "I wish I was there,"

A pregnant pause settled over them as Fred placed the tablet onto the table. "You aren't the only one," he said. "This, this is just…"

"Bad," Linda muttered. "We're lightyears away, in the middle of packing up during a war and there's nothing we can do to help,"

"There is one thing," John said. "We can write her a letter, each. Something to boost her morale to help her get better,"

The two nodded at that. "That may help. But where do we start?"

John shrugged. "Well-wishing is all I can think of. Maybe a few words of encouragement?"

"This is ironic," Linda muttered. "Here we are trying to figure out how to console the only social one of our little family,"

John and Fred stifled a snigger and nod. "Maybe it would be best to just write something," a familiar voice said.

The three turned to see Cortana enter the room with one crutch instead of two. "Cortana, I wasn't expecting to see you up," John said with some surprise.

"I got bored waiting around," she said as she pulled up a chair and sat down. "So, I came to see how my favourite Spartan team is doing. Not well from what I can see,"

"Yeah, Kelly's new born and husband have been killed," Fred said.

Cortana nodded and looked down. "Not much I can help with that I'm afraid. All I can say is that, she needs love and support. It coming from her close family, I'm sure it will cheer her up,"

"Is there anything specific we should say?" Linda asked.

Cortana fell silent for a moment thinking. "As I said, love and support. It can be short or long, but as long as you let her know that you are there for her, then it should be ok,"

"Then that is what we should do," John nodded with the others nodding as well.

"There's another reason why I'm here," the former AI said as she looked to Fred and Linda. "I've been reading about what happened. But President Parisa seems to have an interest in John," at that moment, there was a slight edge to her voice. "So why does she have an interest in him? What did you tell her about him?" she glanced over at John with a look telling him to stay quiet.

"Well…" Fred started but his sister took over.

"It's because that Parisa was John's childhood friend," as she said that Cortana shot the Chief and accusatory look. "And he made a promise to marry her when they were young,"

"Oh, is that so?" Cortana asked folding her arms. "What happened to 'don't make a girl a promise, if you know you cannot keep it'?"

"I didn't know, what was going to happen," John defended.

"Is it a bad time to say that when she rescued us, she asked a lot about you," Fred offered nodding to his brother.

Cortana's eyes flared at the Spartan, but if he reacted, he didn't respond. "Sounds like she's quite fond of you,"

"What happened with that?" John asked in an attempt to divert the conversation.

"Yeah, it was just after the UNSC fell," Fred responded.

OOOOO UNSC Destroyer Naginata March 10th 2554, Onyx orbit.

"Incoming enemy fire!" one of the bridge crew yelled and the ship shook as something impacted the hull.

"GHR fleet moving to intercept!" another member called.

"Major Parisa, come in," the captain said.

Parisa, now in her ODST-styled Spartan armour, grabbed her battle rifle and SMG before she hit the comm. "Parisa here, I read you 5-by-5,"

"Were getting pounded here, we're outnumbered and outgunned. Prepare for emergency drop,"

"On it," she replied as she moved over to an open pod before claiming it. "Kilo team ready for drop,"

"Dropping, we'll be back when we get reinforcements," the Capitan said before the pods dropped down the planet below.

Parisa gritted her teeth as she felt the vibrations of the pod as it entered the atmosphere of the planet. Normally, she liked the drop, the thrill of going in feet first. But today, there was too much at stake. It was like when she landed on Earth, something just felt wrong, that thrill wasn't there. As if something inside her wasn't going to allow her the satisfaction of a little pleasure in her life.

The pod thudded onto the ground and her hatch popped open. Taking a deep breath, she moved out as she drew her BR. The hill base stood defiant on what used to be a training area for one of the Spartan III companies. But all UNSC markings had been removed, replaced with the GHR logo. A hexagon with stars surrounding stylised GHR in the middle. The troopers were dressed in a drab brown with a darker brown for the armour.

As she and the UNSC remnant moved up to the base taking cover when needed. GHR soldiers used to be former UNSC soldiers, so they were putting up one hell of a fight. They had numbers, but the one thing that they didn't have was high quality equipment. Granted, they tried to maintain their weapons, but low-quality outdated equipment, was still low-quality outdated equipment.

Rounds bounced off her shields as she advanced firing her BR, taking out a few of the soldiers in front of her. Her fellow Spartans did the same as they all advanced onto the base backed up with ODST support. One group forced the GHR to fire at them, while another moved up behind them and closed in fast. Parisa was part of the first group keeping the main force's attention on her.

The turret fire kept their heads down and took out a few of the ODST's. But it allowed for the second group to move up behind and clear enough of the GHR troopers to allow for group one to move up towards the base.

Upon reaching it, Parisa yelled out to the Spartans and ODST's to secure whatever they could while she and a tech moved over to the consoles. As soon s they did, she pulled an AI chip and inserted it into the slot while the technician made his own adjustments. A moment later, a hologram of a Japanese Samurai stood before them.

"Beginning decryption," he said.

"Just find them," Parisa said as she pulled out the photo of her and John.

"Hai," the ai said as Parisa stroked the image of the photo.

Memories flooded back to her, the lake especially. She remembered how he saved her. How he made that promise. All of that came back, time slowed…

"Major, MAJOR!"

"Huh," Parisa looked around until she noticed a black uniformed officer standing next to her. "Oh, you," she muttered darkly as she slid the photo back in her pocket. "What do you want?"

"Has the AI finished?" he asked.

"Shingen," Parisa said truing away from the ONI officer. "What do you have?"

"Not much," he confessed. "Most of the data here is corrupted,"

"How is that possible? This place was operational last year," the officer said.

"Weather, Covenant, viruses, could be due to anything," the technician said as he worked on a control board. "There's a lot of systems that have been hacked, and not in the normal way,"

"Define 'normal way',"

The tech just looked up at him, shook his head and got back to work.

"I said…" the officer began but Parisa held him back.

"I suggest you keep quiet," she growled. "Don't forget, you are here as a courtesy to ONI. Not as an obligation. So, you better watch what you say, and remember that you hold no power over us,"

The officer's lips tightened but he just grunted, turned and walked away while rubbing the back of his brown hair. Parisa turned to Shingen.

"Did you find the entrance?"

"I have a general location," he shrugged. "That's all I can get, unless corporal Jones can get more memory access,"

The technician looked up and shook his head. "Most of these are fried. Whatever happened here was a big shit-show," he stood and rubbed his shaved head. "We best get moving,"

"Agreed," Parisa said as she pulled the chip. "Let's go,"

OOOOO a few hours later.

It didn't take the force long to reach the entrance to the inner core of the Dyson sphere. The problem was getting it open. Shingen, several technicians and a few experts on Forerunner tech began to work on it while the troopers set up camp and defences. Most of the equipment that they had came from the old Spartan training area. It took a while for them to modify the equipment in order to do what they need to do. But once it was done, they got to work.

Parisa help set up a turret fortification while keeping an eye on the entrance. GHR was here for two reasons: Spartans and Halsey. Blue team would have been the main objective, as having them would give them a propaganda victory. But it was the Spartan III's and Halsey that was their main goal. According to UNSC intel, the Greater Human Republics were looking to get fully trained Spartans to supplement their forces.

Since the leak, everyone knew how to make their own Spartan. The problem was time and resources, which few had in this ever-dividing galaxy. Halsey was another matter however. Most of the children she took were from the outer colonies, GHR children. The reason was obvious as to why they wanted her. Parisa sighed as she sat on a chair made out of sand bags and looked to the gate that took Blue team into the core.

Seeing Blue team was one thing, but Halsey? She didn't know what to do. Ever since she found out, she cursed the name Halsey. Anger filled her as the memories of the transformation came to her. The pain, the fear and more filled her as she became something greater than human. She could only imagine what John and his 'siblings' went though. All she could think of was punching her in the face and hoping she survived so she could do more. But orders were orders.

Secure the Spartans and Halsey and wait for extraction. If she wanted to punch the good doctor, she'd have to wait.

Days past as the crew worked on the gate, but only 4 days in and the GHR found them. They launched periotic attacks on the defences every few hours, testing what the UNSC had. That put pressure on the team to speed up the accesses to the gate. Parisa pulled one of the dead GHR soldiers to the side before bullets coming from the entrance forced her and the others to get back into cover. The turrets opened fired peppering the entrance with bullets followed by yells of pain.

A soldier then fired a rocket though the entrance preventing the attack from advancing. The yells made clear of that. Parisa stood and moved over to the excavation team.

"How much longer?" she asked the lead. "We're running low on ammo and the pouches from GHR aren't going to keep us supplied,"

The lead, Dr Mathew Simmons, shook his head. "I'm sorry, but this language is complex at best. I…"

He stopped as the portal activated and everyone backed up. Moments later, Blue team and Halsey walked into the camp followed by the young Spartan III trainees followed by their Drill Sargent Mendez. As they emerged, Halsey looked around with some surprise.

"I wasn't expecting anyone to come and get us, I thought you had all died," she said before her eyes locked on Parisa. "W…" she began but the IV grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up.

As she did guns cocked and were pointed at each other. "Let her go now," Kelly demanded keeping her shotgun levelled at Parisa.

"Hold it Kelly," Halsey said. "She's not going to harm me, are you?"

"She's better not," Mendez said not taking his aim off the Spartan IV.

"Don't count on it," the Major said as she let go of the doctor who fell into a heap on the floor.

Fred moved to pick up Halsey while Parisa took her helmet off. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Spartan IV Major Parisa," she replied looking to Fred. "I'm an old friend of John," as she spoke, she took out the photo and handed it to him.

While she couldn't see the look on his face, she could feel the shock and confusion on his face as he past it to his siblings. "You are from Eridanus II,"

"Yes, and I used to know John when I was younger. Look I have a ton of questions, I'm sure you do to but let me bring you up to speed. The war is over, we won, but we are on the brink of collapse due to a leak from ONI. That leak spilled every dirty little secret they had, from assassinations to the Spartans and more," she then looked to Halsey. "Which means that the people coming through that door, are wanting to rip you piece by piece and defile your corpse for what you did,"

"How pleasant," the doctor muttered.

"So, who are we fighting?" Kelly asked.

"The Greater Human Republics. When the leak went out, a lot of the outer human colonies rebelled with the local UNSC garrison. They are the rebels, but they won their territory," Parisa said as another attack began.

"Ok but why are they here?" Fred asked as Blue team and the Spartans III what weapons they could before taking cover. "I mean Halsey I get, but what else,"

"You and the III's, they don't have any Spartans who aren't in training. They want to change that,"

"Ah," was all Fred said as he came out from cover and took down three troopers in rapid succession.

As the last one fell, the radio came on. "Attention UNSC scum," a voice said. "This is General Fang; we have the temple surrounded. We will let you go if you give us Blue team, the Spartan III's and the Child Taker Halsey. You have an hour, choose wisely,"

"How did he know we are here?" one of the III's asked.

"Probably picked up the power surge for the gate," Halsey said. "And as Parisa said, ONI files have been leaked. They probably knew what we were here but didn't know where,"

"So, what's the plan?" Kelly asked. "We cannot give them anything,"

"We won't," Parisa said as she stood.

OOOOO

Outside of the cave entrance, the GHR troopers moved around getting ready for another assault on the UNSC. Time was almost up, and this time there would be no holding back. A few of the troopers were setting up a sleep gas that would take out even the most stubborn of Spartans. If people wore masks, they wouldn't last long as the GHR elite, Republican Guard, would be deployed next. GHR's equivalent for the ODST's.

"5 minutes left," one of the troopers muttered. "You think that they are going to go for it?"

"Nah," one of the Guard muttered. "They're imperialists, they don't like anything that doesn't go their way,"

"Yeah, that I can…" he began but a sharp pain shot though him and his vision became blurry.

Looking down he saw the reason; a blade had pierced his chest. His brain didn't fully register as sleep took over and darkness took over.

People began to yell going for the nearest weapon they could get a hold of. Bringing their weapons up, eyes stayed sharp keeping an eye open for a shimmer of light. The indicator for cloaking tech. But they spotted nothing as one by one, necks snapped and blades pushed though torsos and necks. Someone tired to go for the radio, but it had already been taken offline by something.

Before she could bring it back online, blood began to pour from her neck draining her life away. Within a few minutes, the area was clear and Parisa with her Spartan IV team dropped their cloaks and looked around.

"Ahh shit," a blue armoured Spartan muttered. "No Pelican,"

"Yeah," a yellow Spartan agreed. "That's going to be a problem,"

Parisa said nothing as she hit her long range comm unit. "Major Parisa to the Naginata come in," she said a few times.

"Major, this Naginata, we read you loud and clear," a male voice soon came in. "What's the situation?"

"We have them, requesting pickup,"

"Understood, but we have a problem. The UNSC is fracturing faster than we expected and we couldn't get our hands on more ships. We have three, one destroyer and two frigates. We are outnumbered up here, if we deploy our Pelicans, they'll detect us and move to intercept,"

"That is a…" Parisa started, but she paused and a smile crawled across her face.

OOOOO

General Fang sipped his coffee as he watched the screens for below. Keeping an eye on his men and the enemy was a good way to remind them who was in charge. He stroked his goatee as the timer he set reached zero. Smiling he was about to reach for the comm, but alarms began to sound across the bridge.

"What's happening?" he asked standing and looking around.

"Multiple gate energy and UNSC radio signals. All over the planet," one of the bridge crew yelled as he tried to get his systems under control. "Sir, I don't know what's happening, but our systems are saying that gates are opening up all over the planet. Similar to the one we detected half an hour ago,"

"They figured out how to use the tech," Fang muttered. "Deploy the pelicans to the strongest signals, if they found another way out, we have to stop them,"

The bridge responded in the affirmative and orders went out. About half an hour later, the fleet's Pelican compliment exited their respective ships and headed down to the planet. With a few more that they didn't notice.

OOOOO

UNSC Pleicans landed close to the main gate. As soon as they landed, everyone began to make their way onto the transports. But the most important people were split up between the Pelicans. That way if they lose one, they won't lose all. As the last of the Spartans got on, GHR Pelicans came on radar. Their time was up.

Parisa was the last on and she moved up to the co-pilot seat of the Pelican and helped the pilot take off. All UNSC Pelicans took off at speed towards their ships. Dogging enemy fire, the ships made it half way to their ships before problems started to arise. GHR longswords deployed and took out two of the Pelicans before they moved back to their ships. Instead, the GHR decided to try something, unique. Three larger than normal Pelican's headed towards them.

Instead of having a compartment for troops, they had something else. As the first one got in close, it fired a harpoon into the rear of one of the UNSC Pelican's. It then used his superior thrusters to hold it in place while a couple of zero g troopers to move in and make sure that no one tried anything. The Pelican cut its engine as it surrendered. The Harpoon Pelicans then napped two more while the other's headed to the ships.

"Stop!" Fred said. "They've got Halsey,"

"We don't have the time or the firepower," Parisa said.

"But she…" he began.

"But nothing, they got what they wanted. If we go back, they won't hesitate to take us out. Even if Halsey wasn't part of their objective, they have more than enough Spartans to get started," she sighed. "Like it or not, but we have to get out of here now,"

Fred grunted, but fell silent as the Pelicans landed in the hangers of the ships before taking off from the system.

OOOOO Present.

"… and a few days after, GHR released the video of Halsey getting executed," Fred said as he repressed a shiver. "That wasn't pleasant to watch,"

"That's an understatement," Cortana agreed.

John sighed as he looked out of the window at the landscape while the others talked. Lost in his thoughts, he could only think about what could have been different.

OOOOO Underground Lab, Kenosha, Mars.

Kat didn't notice the door open until a voice spoke out.

"Hi Dr Kat," a cheerful voice said, but was then suddenly replaced with a dark threatening voice. "What kind of evil are we going to get up to today? Mwahaha,"

"I think you know Agent Maine," Kat said as she turned around to see a man dressed in a purple outfit. "Sorry about this doctor, but I need to talk to Omega,"

"Awhhh," the friendly voice echoed in disappointment but was replaced by that threatening voice. "Ha, see she always liked me. And yes, I do know about Agent Maine. I loved his destructive rampages,"

"Then you maybe aware of his secret,"

"What secret?" Kat said nothing but moved to the side showing him a holo-screen. "Oh, that secret,"