John, Fred and Linda walked into the briefing room to find several other Spartans inside. Six stood over by a wall, helmet off looking at the holographic emitters at the front. As Linda and Fred and Linda took some open seats while John walked up to Six, whispering in her ear as quietly as possible. Being super human, Spartans had very very good hearing. Chief didn't want them to hear.

"What's going on?" he asked in the quietest possible tone he could give.

A couple of the other Spartan's ears twitched, but if they were paying attention, they didn't show it. "Not sure, President wanted… well everyone you see here," six nodded to the others in the room. "She's spooked,"

"That's why she pulled us from deployment?" he asked getting a nod.

"I know you've been talking to her, but forgive me for saying that I know her longer than you," the commander said. "When she get's spooked… she… well… panics. So be aware that not everything will be told,"

He nodded as Parisa stepped out. Taking a seat, the President said nothing as she turned on the holograms. A scene from a batcam, battle camera, began to play. John blinked one, twice then a third time to fully understand what he saw. The Spartan, a term he hesitated to use for the person he saw, on the hologram was him when he was younger. He wasn't 100% how, but he knew that young face of his and of his team.

The show ended followed by other scenes of other Spartans, younger versions of some, fighting against Elites or Federation soldiers. It was hard to ignore the almost silent hisses of the other Spartans with Six joining in. Something was going on. John glanced towards Parisa, but she was stone faced. Not emotion passed though any part of her body or face. It seemed that politics taught her how to have one hell of a poker face.

Once the holographic images stopped, Parisa stepped up. "What you just saw, obviously, are the images of encounters by the Elites and Federation forces. Obviously, they are clones of all you as well as other, older, Spartans. The purpose and role are currently unknown. However, we are aware of their goal,"

The image changed to a metal orb which was clearly of Forerunner make. "This is Requiem. It's from the Command-and-Control files. It's important to the Strom Faction and these Spartan clones. As such, the Dire Wolf under the command of Six will be deployed to the relic. Find out what they are looking for, stop them. If necessary…" she took a quick glance to John. "… blow it up,"

He got the meaning of that while a few others just nodded. Six stepped forward.

"We leave in 12 hours, make sure to get your equipment ready. If you aren't on the ship by 1100, we're leaving ya,"

With that, the Spartans left. John among them, questions the least of his concerns.

OOOOO

The fire alarms were one of the few things that Kelly was aware of as she moved out of the lab with Malcom over her shoulders. The smoke, heat and lack of oxygen where the main things she noted as she moved. Her enhanced body countering the effects of the fire and lack of oxygen. It wasn't easy to move though the burning lab, but it wasn't impossible for someone like her.

But it was still a struggle as the explosion sent things scattering around making it hard to find footing in some cases. As she moved though the lab as quickly as she could, Kelly took the fire and the situation in. The explosion itself was small, not designed to take out the entire lab. But more alone the times to start a fire and make the whole thing look like an accident. She had seen this kind of thing before, hell she did this kind of thing before when she and Blue team had to take out a few insurgents.

Accidental deaths where easy to explain away and be dismissed. A part of her signed inwardly wondering if this was some bad movie plot. She knew it wasn't, even if she wanted it to be otherwise. She reached halfway across the room when several people in silver outfits entered. Waving to them, she picked up the pace as they moved in with fire extinguishers to control the fire. The firefighters seemed to have spotted them as soon as they entered and moved to create a corridor through the fire.

Picking up speed, Kelly made it out and handed Malcom to a waiting medic while she coughed, trying to get the smoke out of her lungs. Resting on a wall, she sild down it as a medic came up to her and pressed an oxygen mask to her mouth. Nodding in thanks, she took it and held it on her mouth while the he checked her out.

After an hour, the fire was put out and Malcom was sent to a hospital for smoke inhalation. Kelly was quickly given the clear, but told to take the next day off. The wording and tone of her boss told her that this wasn't a suggestion. He handed her her bag and sent her off. Sighing and sitting the train station, she felt in her bag before finding a datapad that wasn't there before.

She was about to pull it out, before pausing and leaving it there. The train came soon after.

Arriving home, she pulled out the datapad and began to read it. It was a report of the security team and several videos of a maintenance team going into several areas, including her lab. After getting her kids into bed, she then spent the night going over the information and videos before what was happening became clear.

"Shit," she muttered as she realised what was going on.

The emails, the attacks, the lab… all of it made sense now. But the company could not make a move, nor could they pass it on to the police. It seemed that corruption was not just relegated to ONI. Tapping the datapad and stroking her chin she needed to be careful on how to mange this situation since she was the one being targeted. Spartan Hights was practically the safest spot in Kenosha if not Mars as a whole.

No one wanted to mess with Spartans, even if they were retired. Graffiti and gang activity was practically zero for 3 blocks around Spartan Hights. This meant her kids would be safe for any reprisals. But one thing was clear, she needed to make a few calls. One being to the President herself.

OOOOO

Six walked onto the bridge of the Dire wolf. No one paid attention, but continued to get ready for departure. She didn't mind as this was something she did with the old nomad fleet she helped govern. Taking the Captains seat, she brought up the flight information.

"Systems check," she ordered.

She received a series of acknowledgements and confirmations that all systems were ready.

"Personnel?" she asked.

"All accounted for," John said as he walked in and stood next to Six. "We're ready,"

Six nodded as Dana's hologram appeared before her. "Course is set,"

The ship shuddered as it detached from the Infinity and pulled away quickly. As they did so, Six looked around, her nerves about the other factions ships hadn't left her. While being in the proximity of a Halo ring was meant to be neutral territories 'accidents' did happen. Once they were far out of weapons range, did she sigh with relief.

"Engage," she ordered and the ship jumped into slipspace. "We have about a week before we get to this Requiem,"

John nodded. "A topic which I would like to discuss with you. Privately,"

"Briefing room," she nodded as she stood. "Samantha, you are in command,"

"Sir," she replied as the two high ranking Spartans walked into the rear briefing room.

Six locked the door as John brought up the image of Requiem. "I've been going through the information with Blue team and Dana to see if there is anything, any reason why the clones want this place or the Storm faction. We may have something,"

Three circular icons appeared next to image making Six raise her brow as a double lobed icon grew slightly.

"This is what concerns me the most," The AI said. "It's the symbol for shield world. From the records that I found they were meant to protect something. But…." There was a bit of hesitation with the idea before she continued. "It can also mean prison,"

Six's brow raised. "Flood?" but both Dana and John shook their heads.

"No/ Definitely not," they said at the same time as a circular green icon appeared with a hexagon with a white dot in the middle and three lines on the bottom sections. "This is the symbol for Flood," Dana continued. "Technically it means Gravemind, but it's used for both,"

"We didn't see the symbol relating to any files on Requiem," John added. "But we did see these two," he pointed to the two remaining symbols. Both of them were blue and had the similar hexagon with a dot in the middle. The only difference between them was that one had two points sticking on the right and left with a line under it while the other had two lines diagonal at the top.

"We have no translation for these symbols," Dana said. "But given that a Sheild world is meant to protect or imprison, they could mean anything from species stored or…"

"Or the Forerunners' worst criminals," John added.

Six nodded as she looked at the images. "I can see why the Empire didn't want to try and take it. Seems like a risky venture," she stroked her chin. "Have the two of you found any good places to set a up a basecamp?"

"Here," John pointed to an isolated valley. "It's the perfect defensible position and gives us plenty of room to manoeuvre,"

"I wouldn't say perfect," Six muttered. "But it is a good place for it…" she looked up at John. "You're not planning on staying, are you?"

Her tone wasn't accusatory but more of a statement about what the Master Chief would do. To her lack of surprise, he nodded.

"This place… it feels, I don't know, familiar somehow," he muttered. "I want to know why,"

Six nodded. "I'll join you if that's the case," her own tone making it clear that she wasn't taking no for an answer.

OOOOO

"Wait…wait… wait… wait…wait…" Church sputtered trying to understand what the newcomer had just said. The problem? His mind refusing to accept what she and DuFresne were trying to say while they treated wounds.

"You are saying that Grif, a lazy fatass who only wants to eat and sleep, his sister who is sex and party crazy and Caboose whose missing all his screws are super soldiers?" he practically bellowed. "Am I the only one who finds this hard to believe?"

"Nope," Sarge answered. "I'm having a hard time believing it too. To think Grif was a super soldier, it's too horrible to even think about,"

"You aren't the only ones," Washington said as he groaned as a bandage is wrapped around his leg. "In hindsight it does make sense,"

"Precisely," Omega smiled evilly. "I knew when I entered that fools mind what he was,"

"And you didn't take advantage?" Carolina asked.

"If I did, I would have brought more than your father's people on us," the AI shrugged. "We knew that they were special. So tried to keep away from them,"

"Which is how he found me," the doctor sighed as he took over.

"So what now?" Simmons asked.

Katarina stood as she finished dressing Washingtons wound. "We chase them," she sighed. "They have a head start but, we need to capture them,"

"Ok why?" Tucker asked.

"Or they'll try and kill us," the doctor shrugged.