Ch. 2

Coming out of my reverie I just stared at the monitor on the bridge as this random planet below was glassed by the covenant. We had been here on a retrieval mission for a group of VIPs. After Reach I was assigned to be Captain of the UNSC Retribution, it's a warrior-class destroyer custom outfitted with the latest tech. Hell, it even had some sweet Forerunner add-ons that make what we do even easier. Our current objectives have been going behind enemy lines to planets that haven't been glassed yet and retrieving VIPs or if we get the chance sabotaging anything we could. One of the Forerunner add-ons had been a full ship cloaking device. We can't run it for long, but we can run it long enough to get in and out with a job done.

When the beam from the Covenant SuperCarrier disappeared after doing the deed I turned to my Executive Officer. "XO Hamilton, I'll leave it to you to jump us out of this system. I have a couple of things to take care of." I said to him, and he replied with a salute and started to give orders to the flight crew. I then headed to my quarters at a quick pace, and when I arrived I slipped in and locked the door behind me. Right after I locked the door I turned to the wall that didn't house the door when it opened and punched it as hard as I could. When my metal fist contacted the metal wall it made a big intention. As I stepped back from after my short outburst and I looked at the wall filled with similar indentions, it never gets easy watching genocide.

After cooling down I walked over to my desk and took my helmet off and laid it down facing me. As I sat down in the chair Artemis appeared in front of my helmet and gave me a sad look.

"Felix, you can't keep blaming yourself," she said trying to comfort me.

"It is! I could have stopped that! I could have snuck onto that supercarrier and destroyed it!" I yelled out.

"No Felix, you couldn't. That's not your job." She started softly.

"I'm a Spartan that is the very definition of my job!" I said.

"No Felix, that's the other Spartan team on the ship's job. Your job is to be the leader of this ragtag crew of misfits and hold all of them together." I just hung my head down at this statement.

"I'm one of the best, if anyone can do what I want to do it would be me or John. I just feel like a statue on the bridge standing there while everyone else is out there fighting." I muttered out.

"Maybe if you'd get out of your armor you wouldn't look like one," Artemis said with a chuckle and I chuckled along with her. She then proceeds to cut to the chase, "I've been telling you this, and I will always repeat it. Your crew has the most combat experience than any crew in the UNSC. They are tasked with going behind enemy lines to rescue people that in all honesty, they shouldn't. You think any Captain can come in that has far less experience than them and try to manage them efficiently? No, but you can. You're a Spartan and those in the know, they know you are one of THE Spartans. Everyone here will follow you into hell and back. They know if worst comes to worst you'll fly down there yourself to drag them out. Your ODST platoons have the longest life expectancy, more than any other ODST in the whole fleet. You've literally flown a Pelican down and picked up an ODST when he was staying behind to buy his unit time to evac."

"I owed Miller 20$, I wasn't going to let him die before I paid him back." I quipped with a little smile.

"That's exactly the point, right there! You would die for your men, and they would die for you." I said with a smug look on her face.

"At least the UNSC could have given me a promotion to Captain, who would have ever thought that a Petty Officer would be the Captain of a ship." I grumped out.

"Now Felix, you're just being petty. Everyone knows that a Spartan's rank doesn't mean anything." Artemis laughed out and I joined in feeling a little bit better. Before I could complain some more she got a surprised look on her face. I looked down quizzically at her and she explained why she had that look. "Well Felix, I finally broke the encryption to the Fall of Reach Halsey report. Put your helmet on and I'll pull it up for you."

That surprised me, she had been trying to break the encryption for months. It was such a momentous time for us and I wanted this file to reminisce on. I lifted up my helmet and placed it back on my head. As Artemis was bringing up the files on my visor I reached over and pulled a drawer open then pulled out a softly glowing crystal. Once the files were done populating a wall of text had appeared in front.

(A/N: This is copy and pasted from Halo Wiki. I hate long lead-ups in stories, so figured get into the fray ASAP.)

O.N.I. Agent Zero

Fall of Reach: Catherine Halsey

September 04, 2552

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After the destruction of the corvette, Halsey called Noble Team to her laboratory for a debrief, where she learned of the death of her colleague, Laszlo Sorvad, who had been stabbed through the abdomen by a Sangheili Zealot reconnaissance team. After arguing with Carter-A259 over Noble's failure to apprehend the Sangheili and Catherine-B320's attempted access of Dr. Sorvad's restricted files, she learned of the nature of Sorvad's "latchkey" discovery, a way to decipher data found in Babd Catha Forerunner complex beneath Sword Base. After dismissing Noble Team, she began the decryption process of the "Latchkey" data in the Forerunner complex.

On August 3, Halsey split Cortana into two, assigning her "copy" to work on the decryption of the Forerunner data in the underground facility below Sword Base, while her other half would prepare for the Spartans' mission; Operation: RED FLAG. When the UNSC Iroquois arrived at Reach from Sigma Octanus on August 12, Halsey visited the ship. During her visit, Captain Keyes came to see her, and they discussed their daughter Miranda, the Keyes Loop, the Spartans, and Operation RED FLAG. Later in the day, she visited Camp Hathcock to see John-117 after his debriefing. On August 27, she met most of the remaining Spartan-IIs at the FLEETCOM military complex in the briefing for RED FLAG, it was sometime after this that Halsey was listed as KIA, probably after the glassing of Sword base

Later, Noble returned after receiving orders to destroy Sword Base and all sensitive data. Halsey once again called Noble Team to her, revealing Noble's true orders to them: to transport a data storage unit containing a fragment of the AI Cortana, now uploaded with the information from the Forerunner facility, to the Halcyon-class light cruiser UNSC Pillar of Autumn, which was holding position in the Aszod ship breaking yards. Halsey left for CASTLE Base under the escort of Felix-116 while the remaining Noble Team members delivered the package to the Autumn.

Dr. Halsey then continued working in ONI's CASTLE Base. She volunteered to remain behind to ensure that all UNSC technology was secured from possible capture. She initiated Operation: WHITE GLOVE, eventually destroying several AIs (including Cortana's "older sister" Kalmiya) to keep the Covenant from accessing UNSC databases. With the expectation that the Covenant would glass the planet, and the knowledge that even if they didn't, she would be facing an entire army of Covenant ground forces, Halsey was prepared to sacrifice her work.

However, this changed when Spartans Fred-104, Kelly-087, Vinh-030, Isaac-039, and Will-043 appeared at the entrance to CASTLE Base. With the firepower to potentially fight their way out, surviving CASTLE Base's destruction became viable. She gave emergency aid to the Spartans for their injuries, but a data anomaly detected by her accompanying AI, Kalmiya, attracted Dr. Halsey's attention.

The data had been accessed by Araqiel, an AI that worked for Colonel Ackerson, one of Dr. Halsey's main competitors within ONI. After tracing the data access, Dr. Halsey stumbled across the AI, left behind by its master. Araqiel then threatened her, going as far as to tell her he would fill the room with poison, and that she would be reported. In response, Halsey typed in archaic line commands - the base code undergirding all AI functions which she had been instrumental in writing - to access his code directory and personal fail-safe, erasing Araqiel from existence. After he was destroyed, she pilfered through Ackerson's files, discovering a number of things including the location of Onyx, evidence of the Spartan-III program, and a map of the mining tunnels CASTLE Base had been built upon. The latter particularly interested the Doctor as the file had been classified at X-Ray level, making the file abnormally important for an ancient geographical survey. Halsey thus deduced that there was something of importance under the mountain and that it could be accessed through the mining tunnels under CASTLE Base.

Assuming that at the very least these maps provided a backdoor, she ordered her Spartans out of the base and into the mineshafts. She then triggered CASTLE Base's self-destruct mechanism and activated the fail-safe on Kalmiya. Together with her Spartans, Halsey evacuated CASTLE Base, moving deeper into the shafts below.

Over the course of the next five days, the Spartans and Dr. Halsey searched the mines, looking for either an exit or what Dr. Halsey would dub "the most important discovery of the millennium". On the fifth day, Fred discovered an entrance into a large Forerunner structure, and within, the Forerunner Crystal. However, in acquiring the crystal, they inadvertently released a spike of neutrino radiation, drawing large numbers of Covenant forces directly to their location.

Following a Covenant attack, Halsey and her team retreated into a hallway and were forced to seal off the entrance. Soon after, contact with Isaac and Vinh (who had volunteered to buy time for the others) was lost, and they were presumed dead. They quickly discovered that the hallway was a dead end, and Halsey and the surviving Spartans remained stranded at this location for some time.

Days later, a group of Spartans, including John-117, rescued Dr. Halsey and the remaining Spartans and evacuated them from Reach to the captured Covenant ship, Ascendant Justice.

Dr. Halsey later saw the importance of destroying the Forerunner Crystal after it caused a Slipspace anomaly that nearly resulted in the destruction of the Ascendant Justice. After escaping Reach, the group fled to the asteroid belt that the Spartan's first mission had been in. While there, she stole the rebel governor's spacecraft and, along with Kelly-087, whom she had sedated, escaped into Slipspace. When asked by Admiral Whitcomb as to the reasons for her actions, she gave a simple UNSC code "Three-Nine-Two," which meant that she was on a high-priority mission. She entrusted the Forerunner Crystal to Petty Officer Felix, telling him to keep it safe, hidden, and to do whatever it took to keep it from falling into enemy hands, as the Covenant would be able to go a hundred times faster in Slipspace should they obtain the Crystal.

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"Huh, they know quite a bit," I said sitting there a little stunned.

"Well, they don't call them ONI Spooks for nothing. Though it's kind of nice that they still don't know about me." She said with a sigh of relief.

"Wait they don't know about you?" I asked with a surprised look.

"Nope, Dr. Halsey went off the books for me. Well, she really went off the books for you." She said with a dazzling smile and I just returned it.

As I and Artemis continued chatting, the familiar sound of the slipstream drive starting hummed through the ship. That caused me to let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. The tension in my shoulders relaxed and I leaned back in my chair. But before I got comfortable an emergency call came from the bridge.

"FELIX, THE CLOAK HAS BEEN DISABLED SOMEHOW!" XO Hamilton yelled out in a panic.

"On my way," I said in a grim voice as I jumped up from my chair. Before I could take a step the ship shook hard and I was flung a couple of feet away. As I hit the floor I heard a crunch coming from my hand and before I knew it a bright light enveloped the room. When my vision cleared everything seemed to be ok. I stood up and started to check myself over and everything was alright. With that, I made my way to the bridge to figure out what's happening.

As I reached the bridge and saw everyone frantically working I looked up at the display. Seeing nothing but open space around us and no sign of the Covenant I let out another sigh of relief. I turned to my XO and waited for him to finish giving orders and to give me the rundown. It didn't take too long, we've been through more harrower escapes.

Finally, XO Hamilton turned to me and reported, "Sir, the SuperCarrier let out some kind of pulse which knocked the cloak off. They then fired on us and we took damage to the port engine before we escaped into slip space. Though, I do have to say I thought we were dead when a bright white light engulfed the ship."

I nodded along to the report and kept quiet on how I caused that white light. "Ok, we need to do a couple more quick slip space jumps and then make the trek back home. Contact headquarters and let them know of the damage so they will be prepared when we return."

After giving the orders a continued to stare at the screens feeling something wasn't right. The slip-stream engine hummed as we slipped away from our location. After a couple of jumps, one of the communications officers came over with a pale look on his face. Preparing for the worst I turned to him and said to him, "Report."

"Sir, we are not picking up any UNSC communication," he stated.

"Did we lose comms in that attack?" I questioned him.

"No sir. Let me rephrase it, there is no UNSC comms. It's like it doesn't even exist." he clarified.

That shocked me to my core, there should be no way that comms would be no existent. Preparing for the worst I turned to the XO, "Hamilton, forget the random jumps. We might have a worst-case scenario. Set up a direct slip jump to Earth, I think the Covenant might be attacking."

Hamilton saluted and started to bark out the orders and the Comms Officer returned to his post trying to pick up anything. As I was staring at the screen Artemis chimed in, "Felix… I'm picking up something interesting."

"What is it Art?" I questioned her.

"I'm picking up a satellite that should have been destroyed hundreds of years ago. This doesn't make sense, we know that it was destroyed by a sun," she stated.

"What are you trying to say Art?" I asked her.

"Well Felix, I pinged all the different frequencies of that past. By all indications I'm speculating that we're in the early 2000s…" She finished

"Well shit." I cursed out.