Location: Unknown, Former Empire territory.

People dressed in grey-white coats walked up and down rows of tanks coloured green with a form of amniotic fluid. Every now and again they typed something into a glass tablet in their hand before moving on. One of them took their time looking at the containers. His legs didn't hurt. They rare did thanks to them being bionic and not because aching joints. Unlike the others, he took his time looking into the tanks were the soldiers of the Empire… no, of the faith were being created.

Things like money, resources were nothing to them. They had both in abundance, they had been saving for years and now was the time to use them. While they were officially part of the Empire, that didn't stop them from moving with this project. They owed their allegiance to nobody except their own. As the scientist walked down the line making notes, he received a message in the network. Frowning, he made his way to one of the most secure areas of the base. It was guarded by four Spartan Enforcer units.

The Spartan Enforces were an idea put forth by the UNSC as a kind of copy to the Covenant Hunters. They would be picked out of the largest and toughest of the Spartans and given an experimental cross between YGGDRASIL and MJOLNIR armour. It was still power armour, but was more like a mech in some respects. A slab shield on one arm and a modular arm cannon on the other. The weapon, currently a 3 barrelled chaingun, could be changed out with other weapons such as a gauss cannon, railgun, missile launcher or even experimental plasma weapons.

While the Enforcers were slow when compared to other Spartans, they were still fast when compared to regular humans and to some degree hunters. But the armour and firepower made up for the lack of speed. It was a mark of shame for the faith that they didn't utilise the idea before Atlas, but then again Sarah did have more resources and Spartan information at her disposal. As the man approached the four Enforces brought their weapons up. They made no sound, but the man sent them his command codes. Once they had lowered their weapons, he was allowed to proceed.

As he entered, he could feel the eyes of gun cameras on him at all times. He was used to it, and it wasn't much of a surprise. This area, Alpha sector, was where their most important soldiers were being kept. They were still growing as flash clones were only good for cannon fodder, not their Spartans outside of organ replacement. So, it was the slow way for their post important tools of war. As the man walked, he took note of several completely empty tanks. Their ident codes indicating that they were part of a very important gene stock.

He smiled as he finally figured out why he was being called.

OOOOO

John burst though the door to the main server room, his assault rifle up and pointing in every direction. Seeing nothing, he advanced inside but not lowering his weapon. Underestimating the enemy was one way of ending up dead. It was a lesion that was drilled into him, and the other Spartans, in training. It was the basics for being a soldier, be aware of your surroundings. Doing that could mean life and death.

Looking around, John took the room in. It was large with towers of servers set in rows like buildings. Lights blinking periodically but some of them had a solid red light. It didn't take a genius to figure out that that meant that the information had been deleted. He needed to hurry. Glancing at a timer at the coder of his HUD, he inwardly he gave a sigh of relief. He had time to stop the deletion of the information and find what the President needed. In the middle of the room was a central server tower with a console open ready for input.

He didn't walk over to it immediately, but moved carefully. Something felt wrong. It felt too quiet for this to be natural. The hum and whirr of machines was there, but there was an underlying silence that he couldn't put his finger on. But there was a familiarity about it. Something he hadn't…

He turned around unnaturally fast and began to back up to the console. One eye fixed on his motion tracker, the other focused in front of him.

"Dana, scan my area," he calmly said. "Scan particles in the air,"

"Sc…" she began but trailed off. "Chief, is your suit secure?"

That only conformed his suspicion. "It is, order an evacuation now and get all nukes locked onto the station,"

"Orders are out," Dana said. "I've informed the President and the other leaders… I'm sure you are aware of all protocols,"

"I am," he replied looking from right to left.

It did explain one thing however. The past two floors were devoid of any kind of life. He didn't think much of it as all Empire forces probably moved to defensive positions. The evidence presented here went against that. There was also the fact that Imperial forces fell too quickly which allowed Federation forces to quickly take over. The question was how did it get here?

He stopped as his senses detected something behind him. John moved quickly and spotted something he never expected to see. Even when he was fighting them, John always considered other Spartans to be part of a special kind of family. Something that no one else could understand. But the creature in front of him was no family of his, at least not anymore. It wore the white and blue Spartan armour of Atlas, but that was where the similarity ended.

Parts of the armour was torn and cracked allowing bulbus organic masses to emerge. One side had no armour visible, just a mass of tentacles moving in no discernible pattern. But its helmet was the part that showed John that this creature was no longer his brother or sister. Its visor was cracked with a single pale green eye, no humanity behind it. Fear locked into it as it moved around.

Whatever happened next, John was going to give this creature, his former sibling, the death it needed, it deserved. Bringing his rifle up he held down the trigger unloading all of his rounds into the flood form. Maybe there was still some humanity in the creature as it didn't stop him as it's shields popped and fell back onto the floor. Ichor rand from it as it lay there while John slammed his boot into the creature's chest.

As he did that, the sound of cloaking devices deactivating echoed in his ears and John looked around. 5 infected Atlas Spartans stood around him in positions ready to pounce. Much like the one he killed, these had sections of mass protruding from their armour. But what got his attention were the gauntlet claws on their arms. Three long plasma blades extended from large emitters on their forearms pulsing with the promise of a violent death. Something John wasn't willing to accept as they jumped on him.

OOOOO

Atriox growled and roared in anger as he smashed the humans head into the wall. Crushing it, paining the black and grey wall with grey matter and cybernetics. The hologram of a mat sat in the middle of the table and looked on unimpressed at Brute's senseless brutality. But the leader of the Banished didn't care as he turned to look at the image of the red hologram of the human.

"You said it would be here," he growled. "You said that I would find what I was looking for. Yet I have found nothing! Nothing to show that you right, this is what I get for trusting humans,"

"It is there," the man in the hologram insisted. "The problem is much like the ancients' designs; they are hard to find. Without a human…" the last part angered the Brute. "…you get nowhere,"

He growled again. "I am aware, but for some reason this place seems to counter us out every possible angle,"

"I am aware, however that is not the fault of my men," the man said, his tone staying neutral. "The Ark, as you well know, had its own monitor and was under attack by the flood. It's of no surprise that the installation is blocking accesses,"

The Brute growled in annoyance again. "What do you propose we do?"

The man seemed to take on a holy tone at that point. "Find the monitor with one of my men. Hopefully, Omnitchnus willing, he will help us in our holy mission,"

Atriox almost gagged at that. He had enough of that from the Covenant but the humans? He expected more even if they were squishy. But he entertained the human, for now.

"Very well, I will make may way to the control room and see if I can find the monitor," he said before cutting the link. "A despicable religion," he turned and walked out. "The universe will be better without it and their followers,"

OOOOO

The scientist walked up to the viewing platform were a woman sat. She was young, smooth skin, fair hair and a decent complexion. Attractive yes, but not model or actress, someone you would want to be with. But it wasn't her looks that the scientist wanted, it was her mind. That was the most precious thing in this facility. Unlike him, she wasn't augmented. No cybernetics adorned her body due to her condition of implant rejection. Something that they tried to work on but with varying success.

So far, she hadn't had a successful treatment. She turned to him with a smile.

"So, you got my message," she said.

"But of course High Ascendant, it is my idea and your genius that put this project together," he bowed. "We must see it to completion,"

She smiled at that and turned to look into the observation room as lights turned on. The lights lit up an arena that spanned 70 meters in all directions. It was littered with objects that were meant to simulate an urban battlefield. At either end stood two groups. Both stood still and at attention waiting for orders. All 8 of them wore a tank top, combat trousers and boots. The only difference being in colour with one side in red and the other in blue. In front of them were a table of weapons waiting for them to be picked.

The woman moved to a microphone on her chair. "Pick up your weapons," she said.

Red team went with pistols all around, one picking up a DMR two picked up assault rifles and the final one picked up a pair of SMG's. But the ones in blue picked up a mix. One picked up an assault rifle, one a DMR and knifes, another a sniper rifle and the final one picked up shotgun. The selection of weapons pleased the two before the woman announced that the bout could begin.

They moved with the two scientists recoding everything. Images, weapons data, bio enhancements and more. But they only cared about the blue team in this bout not the reds. The reds, while some of their best, were expendable for this little test. One died thanks to a car being dropped on them, another a knife to the throat, another was killed though several walls and the final one was killed with several 8-gage rounds in their gut.

Blue team had won and both scientists smiled as they looked at the data, almost giddy with excitement about what they had found. "It seems that there is more to their genetics than meets the eye," the woman said.

"Indeed, and with mass production… we will dominate the galaxy," he smiled.

She nodded at that as the four clones of Kelly, Fred, Linda and John stood at attention, waiting for orders. "Indeed we will, but we still have something to do,"