Hi guys, ok so I'm going to be taking a Christmas break. I may update one of the stories before the new year but cannot promise. Enjoy this update and merry Christmas and see you all in the new year.

A yawn escaped Marcus Vental's mouth as he kept his eyes on the readings in front of him. In the 10 years since he had been posted here, there was very, very little of note. Sure, there was the odd glitch, but the base he was in was so well made with several redundant systems made to ensure that communications kept coming and going across the Empire. The work was good and highly paid despite the fact it was boring as hell. This was one of the most secure places in the galaxy and he didn't mind it one bit.

Another yawn as one of the 10 people team, a woman by the name of Jessimine, walked in. "Hey Markus could you check pod 1034," she asked. "We're getting some odd readings,"

"Sure," he replied as he brought up the pod.

The pods had a simple number system. The first one, or in this case two, digits indicated the floor while the last two indicated the pod itself. It didn't take him long to bring up the pod and get an image of a nude woman on one side of the screen with medical and technical data on the other side. While he couldn't see it, the woman was suspended in a form of bio electric gel that kept her alive while the wires in her head connected her to the HIVE itself.

Marcus looked at the data before him. "She seems fine, what's the problem?"

"I got a strange reading from her a few moments ago," Jessimine said as she walked up next to him. "Almost like she was trying to communicate with someone,"

He frowned at that as he turned to look at the data again. "I'm not detecting anything," he said. "No indication that she managed to use outside communications. You have your pad?"

She nodded and handed over her data tablet. Looking at it, Marcus could see what she was talking about. Around 5 minutes ago, that pod infiltrated a local communications bus and used it to send some kind of signal. But he wasn't sure how as that connection was quickly cut. There was no indication that the signal was received, but the fact that the pod was able to send something out was of major concern.

But why was the tablet showing that the pod did access communications but the main system wasn't? He paused and stroked his stubbled chin trying to think.

"The pods are tied into the main systems, right?" he asked and Jessimine nodded.

"The subjects are hard-wired into the main systems of HIVE," she nodded. "They can access multiple functions of the communications and information network. But they would only be able to authorise and guide those systems and not able to use them as individuals,"

He sighed. "We may have to terminate 1034," he muttered as he looked at the data. "According to this, she managed to bypass the system and send out a signal. I also think she managed to edit the system to think that nothing happed but forgot out the tablets,"

Jessimine sighed as well. "That's the 5th pod we'd have to terminate in five years," she muttered as Marcus handed her the pad.

"I know, but you know the regs. We cannot have a pod thinking for itself," he shrugged.

Jessimine nodded and typed something into her pad. "I'll get the order…" she began but the screen on her tablet began to flicker before completely cutting. "What the?" all of a sudden, she and the base were plunged into darkness which was quickly replaced with red lights and alarms.

"SYSTEM ALERT SYSTEM ALERT, MAIN POWER OFFLINE…." The voice said.

The both of them ran out of the command room to look over the base. "Shit EMP," he muttered.

That was the one thing that they feared. The base was hardened against a lo of things. Nukes, bio and chemical weapons, mac round attacks and more. But an EMP, they weren't prepared for. While the tech wasn't rare, it was rarely used because it couldn't identify friend from foe. They couldn't discriminate so EMP hardening was only done towards nukes and not a dedicated EMP weapon.

That's when they saw one of the protocols kick in and the pods began to open up.

OOOOO

The controls felt right in her hands as she aimed the Pelican towards the temple. The Chief said he wasn't close enough, so she needed to cut the Prophet of Truth off before he could fire the rings. She needed to do this, she needed to help the Sargent. Gritting her teeth she aimed for the glass, or material close to glass, of the temple and pushed the throttle forward. The Pelican crashed though the glass and skidded onto the firing platform.

It was a bumpy landing, but nothing she hadn't done before. Unstrapping herself, she gabbed the shotgun she had brough with her and ran out of the dropship. As she stepped out, one of the brutes began to stand. She quickly ended his attempt by firing a single round into it's face.

"Johnson, sound off," she called out.

The sergeant's coughing grabbed her attention and she turned to see him pulling himself up on a raised platform. "Get outta here!" he yelled.

"Not without you," she said as she looked from side-to-side shotgun at the ready.

"You delay the inevitable," Truth said as she saw one of the brutes stand which she responded with a shot causing his armour to fall off. "One of you will light the rings," seeing more brutes stand she grabbed her pistol and aimed at the brutes with both the shotgun and pistol in both hands. "You cannot hope to kill them all,"

Miranda looked around seeing the Brutes stand. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't fight. She wasn't a super soldier like John, nor was she a skilled enough soldier like Johnson. Looking to the pistol in hand there was only one option, even if she hated the idea.

"Your right," she muttered as she turned to aim at Johnson.

"Do it," he said as he approached her but she hesitated. "Me, then you," something prevented her from pulling the trigger. "Now!"

She just started before pain shot though her body as several hot spires pierced her body. Consciousness left her as she fell, not dead but somewhere between life and death. Voices met her as she felt herself move. But she couldn't make out what they were saying, or hat was happening. Nothing felt real, her body felt like air as she began to drift somewhere. Her mind felt like it was everywhere and nowhere. She blinked as she soon found herself at the helm of a starship looking cover a pair of pilots in front of her.

A battle was raging in front of her and her mind began to register what she was seeing. An insurrection fleet was attacking a repair station and she was part of the fleet defending it. looking to her side, she took in all of the data of the battle. Ships, composition, tonnage, weapons and more. Her mind processed all of the information before her before she began to plot an attack on the enemy fleet.

It was a hard and fast approach to do damage and draw them away from the station. The mac guns were the first top open up followed by a hard and fast burn towards the enemy fleet in a crescent direction towards the enemy fleet. As they approached, they fired several salvos of rockets forcing the enemy fleet to split. Once they did, her fleet began split as well in pairs of two aiming for targets of opportunity. As the UNSC ships approached and began to fire on the single ships, her vision began to flicker.

Her mind soon followed as some kind of fog began to cloud it. Shaking her head, she tried to think what she was doing, what was happening. Opening her eyes, she found herself on a field on earth looking out at a sunrise, but that didn't feel right. Nothing felt right. Pain shot though her and alarms began to sound. Her eyes, her real eyes opened only to be met with flashing red lights coloured her vision while her senses returned.

"What the…" she muttered before the unmistakeable sounds of gunfire.

That returned her mind and she shot up to look around to see herself in some kid of cryo-room with other pods. It seemed that they also reacted to the gunfire as they sat up looking around. Pulling herself out of the pod, Miranda moved over to the edge and looked down with several people joining her to see several black armoured ODST's taking on similar looking soldiers but in red and black armour.

"What's going on?" she asked.

OOOOO

The Reds and Blues just stared at DuFresne in front of them. While they haven't seen him in years, they still recognised his clean shaven and dark-haired look. While there were a few greys, his outward appearance was still the same. They looked at him up and down before the shock wore off.

"Doc?" Church asked. "What… how….wh…." he tried to speak but couldn't find the right words.

Carolina stepped forward. "Omega? What are you going here? And who is she?" she asked indicating to Kat.

"This…" Omega stated indicating to the doctor next to him. "…is Doctor Katrina. Who has been looking after me these past years. As for me, well, I'm not quite Omega, but that's not really the issue at the moment,"

"What is?" Washington asked.

"Wait, aren't you here to pick us up?" Simmons asked with hope. "Get us out of here?"

"I'm afraid, not," Katrina said as she looked at each of them. "I'm not sure what you guys have heard but the UNSC is gone, we are in a war involving multiple stellar nations fighting over what's left of human controlled space,"

"There's a war on? Great, final I get to…" Sarge started but Carolina silenced him a single stare before turning back to Kat.

"If that's true then why are you here?" she asked her hand drifting down to her pistol.

"If I may," DuFresne said before switching to Omega, "The empire, one of the enemies for the people I work for, have fielded a type of soldier that has similarities to Agent Maine,"

"The Meta," Tucker hissed.

"Yes, now you are aware that other than Project Freelancer, that there were other projects in the works, right?" both Carolina and Washinton nodded at that.

"Yeah, the Spartan project along with project Mjolnir for our amour, but not as advanced," Washinton said.

Omega nodded. "That right, but that's not all you got," unnoticed as he spoke, Kaikaina and Dexter eased back slowly and carefully. "Before the Spartan Project, there was Project Orion. A failed project that was made to make super soldiers. Many died, few turned criminal but in exchange for a few resources, the UNSC offered Project Freelancer funding as well as several off the book's resources if they took in members of Project Orion,"

"How many?" Carolina asked. "I'm guessing that Maine was one of them, but 'members' implies more,"

"That's right Carolina," Omega said as a new unexpected voice chimed in.

"Err guys…" Donut said causing everyone to turn and stare as Kaikaina and Dexter Griff had taken Tucker and Donut hostage with knifes at their necks. "This is not what I was hoping for,"

"Four in total," Omega contained his smile never wavering. "Agent Maine, the Grif Siblings and one other,"

"Bro…." Kai growled as they pulled back.

"I know," Dexter muttered. "When you see the signal run,"

She nodded at that as the two freelancers aimed their weapons at the two. "Drop the knifes," Carolina ordered. "We can talk about this,"

Dexter Grif just laughed. "Help? There is no 'help'. We are not going back to the labs," as he said that he kicked Donut in the back sending him into Carolina who couldn't stop him in time and the two fell back and crashed into the others.

Tucker wasn't far behind as the two Grif siblings made a run for it. Trying to untangle themselves from each other, the Red and Blues tired to get up as fast as they could, but a smoke grenade detonated clouting their vison and preventing them from seeing where the Grif siblings went. Kat and Omega moved to help them up, but the teams quickly recovered looking to the two of them with accusing eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Simmons was the first to ask. "How did they manage that? Grif is a lazy fat ass and his sister is, for lack of a better word, a slut, and now both of them have practically vanished,"

Kat and Omega looked to one another with look of 'do you want to tell them?'. After a moment Kat sighed and looked up.

"The Orion program was both a failure and a success," she started. "More of the former than the latter. Those who survived had what a super soldier needed. Increased strength, better oxygenation of blood, intelligence increase and more. But it wasn't universal, some had more than others in some areas and decreases in others. In Maine's case, he had just about everything like strength and speed. But he had a lowered willpower and intelligence leaving him open to being brainwashed by AI. Dexter Grif developed an understanding in vehicle operation, but he also developed a hyperactive metabolism that requires him to eat a lot. His sister developed an overactive sex drive. They are super soldiers, just bad ones,"

As she finished, all she got was stares of blank incomprehension. "I have… several questions," Church started before Carolina stepped in.

"Wait you said four, but you mentioned three names. Who's the fourth?" she asked earning a chuckle from Omega.

"Who do you think?" he asked.

Eyes went wide followed by a series of groans from the two teams.