Big New Years dump for hopeful good fortunes and writing in the new year. This, Brother of Wonder Woman and a New Story.

Rhaella Targaryen watched with her son Viserys and ser Jamie Lannister of the kingsguard as Tywin's household left the Red Keep and marched towards the old gate. Try as she might for the last two days she could not convince the lord paramount of the Westerlands to stay and retain his position as hand of the king. The man's pride had been pricked too many times over the course of Aerys' descent into madness and her husband's theft of his heir had been the straw to break the camel's back. The forces of the Westerlands trudged down the road, creating a column of dust to mark their progress out of the massive city. Rhaella was not sure how Aerys would react when he returned. Part of her feared that her husband would rage and declare his old friend as a traitor. If such a thing took place, how long would it be before he found the realm rebelling against him?

Still, she mourned the loss of Tywin. He had been, not a friend, but at least a form of consistancy throughout her husband's declining reign. She feared that Aerys' madness would destroy the prosperity that Tywin had produced over his time governing the seven kingdoms. While it was not openly said in the palace after the sorrid affair of ser Ilyn Payne, most everyone knew that it was Tywin rather than Aerys who managed the daily goings on of the kingdom and the city. Already, her ladies reported that the common people of the Red Keep were considering abandoning the castle in fear of the mad king without the old lion to tame him. It pained her that so many thought to flee her home for fear of her husband and turning to regard the newest member of the kingsguard she silently wished that Jamie could have followed his father back to the Westerlands.

Jamie was no longer alone though. Tywin's 'protections' as he had mentioned to Rhaella, were apparently the appointment of ser Shane, ser Robert and lady Jane to wait upon jamie. They would have been squires, had they not only been far too old for that, but were older than Jamie by a more than a decade. She was unsure as to how the presence of three people would keep the Lannister knight safe but Tywin was never one to take half-measures and so she was sure that the three were capable enough.

She did however wish that perhaps their lord might have stayed as well. Lord Kurt Ambrose had come to be something of a refreshing presence in the Red Keep. The man had secrets, of that she had no doubts, but he did not lie easily as others might and at least tried to be honest with the people around him. Rather than lie when a matter came up that he could not discuss or something he did not feel comfortable speaking about, he would simply say that such topics were not up for discussion. Even if she was met with refusal, Rhaella could appreciate and even admire his desire not to lie.

Viserys was amazed but saddened by the cloud of dust that marked the departure of so many people. He did not understand yet the significance of it but Tywin's departure would be felt even by the young prince. She could only hope that even without Tywin to rein in his worst tendancies and impulses, Aerys would not have the opportunity to turn his gaze onto Viserys. Rhaella had worked so hard to keep her son innocent to the horror's of his father's fractured and addled mind, but now she feared that the illusion her son had built of his father might break, or worse yet, that the boy might begin to share her husband's cruel views.

As time wore on and the view from the Red Keep offered not new sights with the final departure of the Westerlands' forces through the old gate, Rhaella retreated back into the castle with Visery by her side. Jamie followed close behind her and the three Terra knights split off, though ser Robert followed them as well at a safe distance.

Rhaella sighed but tried to keep herself positive in the presence of her son. The day was wearing on and Viserys was meant to be taking lessons with the grand maester and his other tutors. As she deposited her son with Pycelle she ordered ser Jamie to remain with him. With only one kingsguard in the city at the moment, she had no desire to leave her son without one of the whitecloaks to protect him. Ser Robert remained with ser Jamie, an obvious body guard for a body guard. Rhaella chuckled at that thought, that her son's protector should have her own protector. She soon found herself resting in her chambers, dismissing her ladies for the day and taking what time she could to relax. Aerys and Rhaegar were set to return in less than a week from the tourney with the royal retinue.

A knock on her door roused her from her quiet contemplation and relaxation and daintily she rose from her seat to answer it. On the other side of the door, lady Jane stood, dressed in, well, a dress. It was not a truly uncommon sight for the warrior woman to be outside of her 'fatigues' as she had hear them called one night at dinner but it was still a surprise to see her out an about dressed as she was.

"Your grace?" She asked. Rhaella had yet to grow used to lady Jane's strange accent and wondered how she might have developed it. It was unlike the normal dialect of the Westerlands, and had a harsher feel to it, but Rhaella didn't find it unpleasant.

"Lady Jane?" She asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I was requested to keep a close proximity to you in order to ensure your safety." The young woman said. Rhaella looked her up and down. Her pale skin was highlighted by flame-red hair and a light dusting of freckles across her face. Her dress was forest green, matching her houses' sigil from what she had seen.

"Protect me?" She asked. "From what?"

"Whatever might threaten you ma'am." Lady Jane said. "Lord Tywin ordered us to stay and protect Jamie Lannister but our captain also provided us with several other high priority targets who's safety we should work to secure. You are at the top of that list."

Rhaella wasn't the most knowledgable in the ways of military matters, but lady Jane's words were not too difficult to figure out. Still, even if she had liked lord Ambrose, she was not about to trust someone who was essencially a stranger to be alone with her in her rooms.

"Oh, your lord is quite gracious." She said. "However, I do not need any protection, the kingsguard will return within the week. Thank you, and pass my thanks to your lord as well." She made to close the door, but Jane foot blocked it and Rhaella found it something of an immovable object.

"If now is an inopportunue time, might I join you for a meal sometime? I hope I haven't offended you."

Rhaella waved away the idea.

"Of course not, I would enjoy having you dine with us. On the morrow I would appreciate if you would join my ladies and I in breaking our fast."

Lady Jane's face broke into a smile

"Thank you your grace, I will see you then." Her foot left the door, and Rhaella was able to softly close it and return to her personal contemplations. She had seen just how capable lady Jane was in her training with her colleagues, and the idea that lord Ambrose had designated her as someone he wanted his people protecting, she wondered who else he had deemed worthy of his protection. Lady Jane had mentioned multiple 'high priority targets'. It was an odd choice of words, that made it sound more like they were in danger from them than people they were meant to protect. Never the less, Rhaella appreciated the thought.

Rhaegar watched as lady Jane broke her fast with his mother and wife. Apparently lord Ambrose had left her, ser Shane and ser Robert behind when Tywin had collected his household and resigned his status as hand of the king. Officially, they were there to take up service under ser Jamie Lannister of the kingsguard, but Rhaegar understood their true intentions. They were there in order to extracate ser Jamie if his father lost whatever was left of his mind and attempted to have him imprisoned or killed. Either ser Robert or ser Shane were close to the Lannister heir at all times, while the other would be off somewhere, where exactly no one knew. Lady Jane on the other hand was usually close by to his mother, otherwise she was would be with his wife. It appeard that lord Ambrose wanted lady Jane to become a part of either the queen or princess' households.

Rhaegar was unsure about what exact purpose lord Ambrose had in store in regards for this new proximity to his family, but he had several assumptions about how lady Jane would use this closeness and friendship with his mother. Rhaella had already all but adopted lady Jane into the inner circle of her ladies in waiting, and Elia had been more than willing to get close to her. Elia at least seemed almost as suspisious of his mother's new companion as Rhaegar was. Given how close she had become to his mother over the last year since their marriage he believed that Elia was more concerned for his mother's safety and wellbeing when considering the motives of the Terran woman.

Aside from that though, the few months had been quite quiet for the royals. Elia's pregnancy was progressing well, and She was so far along now that she was expecting to give birth within the next month or so. The maesters and midwives had informed the royal couple that their child appeared healthy by every metric, and Elia often spoke of just how much she felt their new son or daughter kick. She was overjoyed at with the news, and Rhaegar shared her sentiments every time it was brought up. However, even with the excelent news of Elia's healthy babe and it's imminent arrival, he understood that preparations had to be made. Lyanna was the ice to his fire, and in time, if Elia could not give him the third head of his dragon, me might need to call upon the woman's aid in completing the prophecy.

Already he had swapped letters with her, speaking about her betrothed and how he had shamed her with his siring of a bastard daughter. Apparently, Robert had not even been considerate enough to distance himself from the baseborn girl, as it seemed he spent a good amount of time doting on her. Rhaegar wondered whether her aversion to extra-marital affairs might harm their future together, but shook it off, he could convince her of the necessity of their joining, and if not, then the taking on her as a second wife in the vain of the conqueror would be a scandal he would have to weather if it meant the safety of the realm.

Turning from his own inner thoughts, trying not to dwell on such things at that moment, he turned to look at his father's new hand. Lord Merryweather had been doing well enough since his appointment, though his idea to tax wine had not made him popular amongst anyone. His handling of the kingdom's finances were adequate to say the least, and while he possessed little of Tywin Lannister's natural authority and ability to command those around him, he made up for it slightly by being a man far more open to suggestions from all around him as opposed to keeping strick council.

His father had so far found him acceptable, though Aerys Targaryen cared for little by now aside for his continued supply of wildfire and supposed traitors to feed to it. Rhaegar had found that his father seemed much more attentive to his actions in more recent times, demanding his presence at times and at others keeping him closely under watch. The kingsguard had been less that subtle about informing him of this, after all, they knew of Aerys' declining stability and their oaths demanded protection, not persecution.

For the moment at least, Rhaegar was content with his life. He had a beautiful wife and daughter, and another child on the way. The presence of three warriors of house Terra within his family's castle was disconcerting but better to keep such potential enemies where one could see them, and within striking distance. Rhaegar was not about to let these new interlopers interfere in his destiny.

While the journey from Harrenhal to King's Landing had been too long, The journey from King's Landing to the Westerlands had been a godsend. He requested of Tywin to allow him to break ahead and settle matters on the Plataea before returning to Casterly Rock and seeing no reason to deny him, Tywin had obliged. That night, Kurt had ran nearly thirty miles from the Lannister camp and called for extraction. A few hours later, the blessed sight of a pelican dropship had greeted him and he was ferried back to his ship within another few hours.

As the captain sat at the head of the pelican, he saw the Plataea rise over the horizon just as the sun began to emerge from the east. He couldn't stop the feeling of sadness that welled in his chest for a moment before it was replaced by joy. The Plataea was a mighty ship, and seeing her buried in the ground on Fair Isle was something he always mourned. She should be up in space, soaring between stars, not planetbound and tethered by gravity. Either way that feeling was smothered by the general feeling of warmth that came from returning to his home, the ship that had been his for the better part of twenty years, where all but his first company of Spartans had received their augmentations and with any luck, every generation of Spartans yet to come.

The Plataea was a massive vessel, one of the last Orion-class assault carriers the UNSC had, she was large enough to match some Covenant ships in sheer tonage. Standing at twenty-two hundred meters in length and six hundred meters in width and height, she was one of the largest man-made structures in Westeros, outsized only by the likes of the Wall in the north and Volantis' long bride in the east. Even with that though she was easily the tallest, thrice the size of both the wall and the hightower of oldtown, she was tall enough to be seen from the mainland. However, her true power didn't lie in her size, or even her composition, pure titanium-A battle plating.

The things that made the Plataea special were three fold. The first was a fully functioning S-deck to store and maintain over a thousand sets of mjolnir powered armour. The seconds was an increased hanger to hold the fourty black cat-class sub-prowlers that delivered his Spartans to and from their missions. Finally, she carried a series of cargo carriers and resource gatherers that were currently in orbit around the planet, making routine treks to the nearby asteroid belt to gather raw materials for the ship's advanced fabricators to utilise to create whatever equipment that might be necessary at any given time.

"Pelican Hotel-India-99473 requesting permission to dock with Plataea at hanger four, over."

The radio crackled for a moment before a response came through.

"Roger that pelican Hotel-India-99473 request for docking approved, good to have you back, over."

"Good to be back Plataea, pelican Hotel-India-99473 out."

Kurt relaxed in his seat as the pelican descended down into the one of the Plataea's main hangers. He could see multiple black cat sub-prowlers being attended to by techs and naval personel scattered across the hanger bay. Standing ready to receive him he saw a group of officers who maintained his ship while he was dealing with the natives. Getting up out of his seat he made his way to the ramp of the pelican as it descended. The moment he exited the ship, he was greeted by a mass of individuals.

"Captain, the samples from the northern team have returned, the glaciology team is requesting additional research space and wants to take some of the area dedicated to the geology team."

"Tell them that as of right now we need more men on finding mineral and metal deposites. If we can find what we need we'll be closer to getting the Plataea up and running."

"Captain Ambrose sir. There's been a massive move of native civilians from the northern areas of the island down into our own territory over the last few weeks. The completion of the first apartment complexes have brought new attention."

"We already have a program in place for dealing with civilians. Bring it up with them."

"They're in deadlock sir, they need your vote to break the tie."

"I'll review their proposals and cast my vote by the end of the week then."

"Captain. The Spartans are getting antsy without the opportunity to train in their armour. We can't send any more of them on missions, especially as they cannot take their standard armours with them."

"Set up a sparring area south of the apartment complexes. Tell them that they can use mjolnir to aid in the building process and use it for wargames once it's finished."

Listening to the concerns and complaints of his people and trying to find effective solutions was a difficult process, luckily it was one Kurt had been doing since the founding of the Spartan-IIIs, before he'd even been a captain or had a ship.

"I want full write ups about everything that happened while I was out of contact." He said, hoping that the two days he'd been unable to directly contact the Plataea hadn't seen too many problems. "After that, set up a meeting with the chief uniformed officers. I want to know exactly what's been happening around here."

The door closed and Kurt let out a tired sigh. He had only been back for less than an hour, and he was already tired of dealing with the myriad of problems that arose dealing with a crashed and grounded UNSC ship and its crew. Even with that fatigue though, he smiled. It was good to be home.

"Welcome back Captain. I hope that your mission objectives with this venture were met."

Kurt chuckled as he watched a light form on his desk. The holographic projector activated and standing on his desk was the image of a young woman. She was coloured in deep reds, browns and yellows with small accents of purple in her features. She was clothed in what appeared to be a continuously shifting whirl of leaves, moved by nonexistent wind and cloaking her as they obscured what otherwise would have been a naked figure.

"Hello Autumn, it's good to see you as well. The mission was successful. Has team wolf pack made contact?"

"Spartan Shane A-112 reported in on the first night they were assigned to guard Jamie Lannister and observe the royal family. Since then one of the team have made daily reports on their progress."

"Good, anything interesting?"

"Jane A-203 has made contact with queen Rhaella Targaryen and has infiltrated her circle of aquaintences. She has also made contact with the princess Elia Martell, though she notes that the princess seems to be somewhat suspicious of her."

"An expected response considering our status as unknowns in the greater political and military landscape. Anything on the domestic front?"

"There have been a few breakthroughs regarding the code we gathered from High Charity's central AI. It appears to be far older than the Covenant itself, and opperates with far more complexity than any system they or we use."

"A tertiary group of E.T.s?" Kurt asked.

"Data provided from sources on Reach after an excavation by Doctors Laszlo Sorvad and Catherine Halsey gives us a common translation software to base our decription on. As far as we can tell this technology was left behind by this third alien race and has been adapted by the Covenant, though this tech is far superior to their own."

"Tell me something useful Autumn."

"It's an alien AI that according to our analysis, is over one-hundred-thousand years old Captain. It's neutral matrix shows no sign of decay or rampancy despite being active for that long. This could revolutionise Artificial Intelligence research by decades."

Kurt regarded the AI, who seemed almost nervous.

"And I suppose this new fascination has nothing to do with the fact we're trapped here and you're four years into your lifespan?"

If a visual projection of an artificial intelligence program could blush, Boundless Autumn would be doing it.

"I won't deny that sir."

Kurt just nodded, accepting the answer.

"Just don't lose sight of the real target, find the corruption that AI intruduced into our Slipspace drive and try to reverse engineer it. If we can, then maybe we can find a way back to UNSC space."

"Aye Aye captain." She responded before disappearing.

Kurt walked over to his desk before collapsing into his chair. Boundless Autumn was a capable and effective AI, with a personality matrix that made her personable and friendly with the crew at large. It was one of the reasons so many of them enjoyed her. However, she could be prone to hyperfocusing on a single thing that interested her and slacking on her other duties. So far it had yet to negatively effect the ship or the crew at large, but this new insight into the AI they had encountered during operation Blue Flag was something that could take up her full attention.

Kurt allowed himself to relax in his chair for only a few more minutes before he sat back up straight and set about reviewing the comings and goings of his people. Already, requests and requisitions were piling up now that he was back and everything needed to be handled. There were things that could be delegated, but in the end, it was the captain's job to keep the ship running smoothly."

A bit of an info dump chapter but I hope it wasn't boring. The Plataea is an Orion-class assault carrier, one of the largest ships in the UNSC fleet. I considered giving them a phoenix-class colony ship like the 'Spirit of Fire' but it's a bit outdated to carry an army of Spartan-IIIs, so I went with something more modern, or at least, something meant for warfare. Boundless Autumn is my own creation. The three AI assigned to the canon Spartan-III program were Eternal Spring, Deep Winter and Endless Summer. Since the Spartan-III program now exists on the Plataea as opposed to solely on Onyx, I added another AI, one final season to complete the year. We see reference to High Charity and the mysterious operation Blue Flag that brought the IIIs to Westeros. We also now know that it was a slipspace malfunction brought about by a mysterious AI. We also get some look into the reaction of King's Landing to having Spartans in their homes but overall it's going well enough for them.