Parisa looked around as she took stock of the people around her. Most of them were naked as they were from the AI tanks. Medical personnel had been dropped in to assist the people there. Most of them reported muscle atrophy with the former AI's which wasn't surprising. What was, was those who didn't have that problem. The medical staff couldn't figure out why, but moved onto more urgent matters. Two of them were Cortana's 'sister' and Miranda Keyes.

The latter of which managed to fight off several Empire troopers with unsteady fingers and body. The human body had always been a strange machine, even in the 2500's. It did surprising things when it really shouldn't. But for now, she put that out of her mind as she took a swig of her drink. She had just gotten word that Aniko had stopped the Halo from firing and was now processing the POW's she had.

The fleets were also dominating the Empire ships above them. It wasn't much of a surprise. HIVE was a wavespace based quantum entanglement mass communications network. It was so secure and reliable across light years; it practically made every other communications method useless. So, the Empire exclusively used it for all kinds of communications. Now that it was gone, everything was left in the dark. Parisa made a mental note to discuss what to do with Empire territory when she met up with the other leaders.

She moved over to a spare seat and sat down taking another swing of her drink. This battle was effectively over. The Empire defeated; Zeta Halo secure… it was mission complete. 'What now?' was the only question she was asking herself. She didn't know how long she sat there thinking until Cortana came up.

"We have a problem," the former AI said.

"Define problem," Parisa said with a hint of being tired.

"I've been talking with my… sister… and it seems that the Empire were looking for something well two things," she said. "The Harbinger and Composer. I have no idea what they are and all storage here has been wiped,"

Parisa nodded. "I assume there was a backup?"

Cortana nodded with a smile. "The command-and-control station,"

Parisa smiled as well.

OOOOO Command and Control station.

John looked over the hologram of the station to see most of it was in the red, his side. They hadn't fully taken over the station but thanks to the fall of the HIVE, they were getting very, very close. Empire forces were dwindling and unable to communicate, unable to reform into an effective resistance, but that didn't mean that they didn't try. Spartans, ODST's and other special forces were used to being able to fight without direct command.

Even Empire forces, who normally had direct command system, were trained as HIVE couldn't be everywhere. The main problem was that they were so used to having an overarching command structure telling them what to do. Because of that they struggled with what to do. John, however, didn't. He had every movement that the Empire made and informed Federation troopers to counter them.

"Chief come in," Parisa then spoke over the radio.

"Spartan 117 reporting," he replied quickly.

"We have a problem, we have at least two new targets but the locations are unknown. HIVE is down and the storage banks are down. We cannot access the information, however the station you are on was used as a backup for all HIVE information. We need you to get to the backup storage and get that information," the President explained.

John looked to the map and found the location. Unsurprisingly, it was in an area that was covered with enemy signals. He smiled slightly as a plan came to mind. But another thought came to mind and he typed in a few commands onto the console. The map zoomed onto the room and accessed the information. While he couldn't get the information stored inside the server and storage far, he did see that the information was intact but a red alert was alerting him to something.

Looking up the code, he saw that it was a system purge. Upon further investigation, the code was sent if the HIVE was destroyed. While he questioned why such a code was fitted, it was of no relevance right now. All he could see is that he was running out of time.

"I have eyes on the farm," he said. "However, it is going to be wiped soon," as he spoke, he grabbed his assault rifle and made his way out of the room. "Making my way to the room now,"

"Understood," Parisa said. "Good luck,"

John smiled at the as he focused and made his way upwards.

OOOOO

Aniko landed on the hanger deck of the Infinity with the POW's close behind her. They were guarded by a group of shotgun wielding marines, not taking their eyes of the cyborgs. While they had part of their cybernetic appendages removed, that didn't stop them from being a major threat to the ship. But they did have a dedicated place for them where they were being taken.

The spartan stepped to the side and took a drink offered by one of the staff and took a swig of it. She let a satisfied moan as the liquid slid down her throat. Her body ached with pain and exhaustion. Even a spartan needed rest, and she needed hers. As she drank, she wondered what to do to relax. Maybe she'll finish that book she was reading, or join the soldiers for a movie. She debated what to do as a brown aroused Spartan limped towards her on a pair of crutches.

Aniko immediately stood and saluted but the Spartan just got close, she dropped her crutches and pulled the younger Spartan into a tight.

"I'm so proud of you," Six said as she held her daughter with a smile.

Akino just smiled and held her mother back enjoying the moment.

OOOOO

Keely leaned back in her office looking at the information begin fed to her. Since her armour and modular weapon system was accepted and the monty put forth, she had some time to streamline the armour to make them cheaper and easier to produce. It was a form of R&D that she wasn't quite aware of when she first worked for the weapons company. But she understood it a part of how companies operated.

First, they started out with a series of prototypes. Then they present said prototype to the board or buyers. If they get the green light, then they could further develop the items before they needed to start manufacturing them for a set amount of time along with replacement parts. She had some experience of this when she was a Spartan. While their armour was meant to be maintained by armours, she and the other Spartans were trained in basic power armour maintenance.

Just like a soldier who needed to fix their weapon or a tanker who needed to repair their tank, basic maintenance was needed. She made a note to make a manual for basic repairs before she moved back to the resources and logics she needed for the project. Finishing up the report, she stood and cracked her limbs before checking her clock. Time for her to clock out. She smiled as she made her way out of the building and back home.

While she didn't feel comfortable in the suit, she didn't have an option to change in. Geeing onto a chain, she moved over to a chair and sat. She got a few looks, but she ignored them. It wasn't new and she had gotten used to them long ago. Now she just shrugged the looks off of her like water. She pulled out her phone and checked her messages but nothing was of note. Some of her friends chatting and organised an outing, the odd message from the President's office about John movements.

Sophia, Aniko's sister, sent her a bill of some groceries which Kelly was more than happy the pay for. Six's youngest was always happy to help. She was one of a group in Spartan hights who helped out the families of the Spartans who lived there. While people didn't avoid Spartans, but there was always the one company or person who refused to help because of what they were. On Mars that one turned into a couple of hundred which presented problems for them.

But that was reality, people feared or disliked change. It was 7 stops before she got up and left. As she moved the bustling streets, something felt odd. Her senses tod her something that she needed to check. Taking an unnecessary right she still felt her senses alert her. Taking a couple more turns the feeling never went. Someone was following her. Taking one of the backstreets, she melted into the shadows with years of long practice. It turned out to be a good thing as a couple of people entered the alley.

There were three of them in total, each of them wearing baggy clothing with clear signs of concealed weapons. The gang tattoos were quite distinctive but Kelly decided to say silent as the here moved further into the alley.

"Where the fuck did that freak go?" one asked looking around.

"I don't know but she should be here somewhere," another muttered. "We'd better get paid double for this,"

'Ahhh so it's a hit is it?' Kelly thought as they moved passed her.

Eyeing them up, she considered her moves. She was the fastest out of all the Spartans, meaning that she could knock these gangsters out before they realised what even happened. Instead, she decided to mess with them. Moving slowly, she picked up a stone and threw it towards where they walked. It clattered making the group turn and draw their weapons. Kelly inwardly sighed at the sloppy lack of trigger discipline and how they were holding their weapons.

But she didn't begrudge their reaction time. Picking up some more rocks, she threw them in different directions. Now they were terrified as they looked around them in panic. Their weapons shook as they tried to aim at the small noises around them. Kelly sighed again as they moved with a lack of discipline and situational awareness as they left and opening for her to move in.

"Hello," she said as she pushed forward.

The three were slow in trying to stop her, given the only thing they could do was turn. She slammed into them and pushed them into the wall which such force she knocked them out. With that done, she contacted the police and disarmed them. Unloading the pistols and tying them up. Not for the first time, she wondered about having Spartans in the police force. There had been some discussion about it, but it didn't go anywhere.

For starters, Spartans were meant as weapons of war, not police. While you could change the curriculum to accommodate that, it wasn't the same for the cybernetic and genetic augmentations. Those were geared for combat and there wasn't any police variant of them that could be used outside of speed and maybe strength. While there was an argument to made for countering rouge Spartans, that could be solved with using another Spartan or two from the local garrison as most had a least squad of Spartans.

The other, more main problem, was the fact that not everyone liked Spartans. While they were useful during the war, how they began still left something of a sour taste in people's mouths. Taking children and trained them to be weapons wasn't just unpopular, it was despised by people who saw the UNSC as little more than a military dictatorship. Which could be argued was somewhat accurate.

In short, Spartan police would only look bad to any government who employed them. A greater symbol of oppression. It didn't take long for a cop care to arrive and two officers exited. The blue and black of their uniforms clear even in the shadows of the alleyway. As they arrived one of the gangsters woke up.

"Huh wha…." She muttered as she looked around. "Oh shit," she muttered.