Surprise, surprise, this story is still alive! This story was just too fun and interesting to forget, even if it has been ages since I worked on it. I will attempt to add to it as often as possible. No promises.

On a separate note, I do have an overall story planned out, but I am open to ideas. I'm not the biggest lore nut for the Halo universe, so if you see anything that isn't lore-accurate, or have an interesting idea you would like to share, feel free to PM me.

Chapter 4: Still a Noble

Unconscious on a salvaged seat repurposed as a bed, Six slept restlessly. Her body twisted and turned as the nightmares of her capture and her torture replayed over and over in her head. The scene may have just been a dream, but the pain felt real. A carbon copy of when she was aboard the Covenant Cruiser. It still hurt, and Six hated that it did. Her limbs, her muscles, her skin... her face; everything hurt.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally awoke from her nightmare. She was completely dry and her skin was flaking terribly. Six exhaled slowly, placing a hand on her other forearm. Had she still been wearing her skin-tight suit for her Spartan armor, Six's irritated skin would drive her crazy. However, her torn up skin-suit was off to the side, neatly folded on a silver surface lighted by blue circuits running along-side it. Confused, Six looked around. The floors, the walls, and the ceiling of the enormous hall she was in were all running with a similar circuit-based pattern. It was unfamiliar to her, neither UNSC nor Covenant.

Six made an effort to sit up, but was stopped by the pain resonating in her supporting arm. She collapsed back down onto the bed. Her wounds were still too great. Unable to move off the bed, Six scanned the room. Around her were other beds similar to hers, each one with an injured UNSC marine on it: Some were asleep, while others were awake and suffering. Medics were walking around treating the most severe wounds, prioritizing the most time sensitive cases.

Six tried to get up again, but was once again stopped by the immense pain. "Whoa whoa whoa. Relax, Spartan." A medic walked over to her and place a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down onto the cushions. The medic was a rather small man, especially without the standard Medic ammo and equipment kit around him. It was set down off in a corner of the hall.

He folded his arms and shook his head, a goofy smile plastered to his face. "You're a hardy soldier if I've ever seen one, Ma'am. You're not even supposed to be awake." The medic temporarily left to grab his kit and brought it back to Six. "You have a few deep cuts and bruises. They've been treated, but they need some time to heal. Just rest."

For the first time since Six could remember, rest sounded good... But still... she didn't know where she was. It bugged her. The fact that the place looked like a non-permanent infirmary didn't help. She leaned back on the padding and closed her eyes, trying her best to sink into the cushions. "Where are we?"

"In one of the installations near where a lot of us landed."

"Be less specific. What planet?"

"..." The man furrowed his brow. "Where have you been?" He looked back down at his pack and ruffled through the contents for seemingly no reason. "God only knows where we are."

"What do you mean by that?" Six sat back up, but unsurprisingly was once again met by extensive pain. She ignored it.

"Rest. I'll tell you once your up and walking." After a brief pause, Six fell back onto the cushions, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep as the medic left. She fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

_oOo_

Six came to again, her chest rising and falling in a rhythmic pace. The spartan opened her eyes and looked around again. There were nearly twice as many injured marines as when she first woke up, but twice as many medics and combat surgeons. That meant that more and more of the Pillar of Autumn crew were finding their footing. It was a little relieving.

She placed a hand on the cushions and attempted to push herself to a sitting position. Her limbs didn't hurt nearly as much as they did the first time, and she could comfortably sit upright. Thank god for that. Six continued and attempted to stand up. Her legs felt heavy, and her arms were a little weak, but she was able to stand up and support herself on the wall. Her body was all bandaged up from top to bottom, even her face had plenty of wrapping around it. It wasn't the most comfortable thing ever.

Six grabbed the bandages around her head and pulled them off, feeling around for the bruises and cuts. There was almost nothing there, just a few bumps here and there where cuts used to be. She was doing just fine. Six took a deep breath in and released it along with her previous tension. Although she still didn't know where she was or what the hell was going on, she felt a lot better physically, not to mention she felt rather satisfied that Elite General fuck got his brains blown out right in front of her.

"Nice to see you up and walking. About time I introduce myself. I'm Sam." The same medic from before walked up to her carrying his kit and pack. He held out his hand to shake. Compared to her, he was very short, nearly a full foot smaller. It wasn't all that surprising because she was a spartan, but at the same time, that meant the dude was only around 5 feet tall. A stump little medic.

Six dropped the thought. "Tell me what happened. Everything starting from the evacuation of Reach."

"Oh," the medic dropped the pack he was carrying. "Straight to it, I see... I'll tell you. At least sit down while I remove your bandages." Six promptly sat back down and the man began removing her bandages. Underneath the covers while she was still laying down, Six hadn't noticed that she had been dressed in a tank-top and camouflage cargo pants by someone else. After all, the skin-tight suit for her spartan armor was folded over next to where she slept.

Sam removed the bandages from her right wrist, scar tissue still around the stab wounds. "Okay. The Pillar of Autumn blind jumped once it was free of Reach's orbit. When we came out of slip-space though, the Covenant were already there. The Autumn got hit bad. The nearest "planet" we could land her on was... well, this. It's not even really a planet, it's a giant ring next to another planet."

"... A ring?"

"I know. Sounds crazy. I'll show you outside once you're walking. Anyways, all the lifeboats ejected while the Captain tried to land the ship on the ring. He did it, but he got captured by a group of split-lip... Everyone was running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. Luckily, someone found the Captain and broke him free... a couple hours later he drops in flying a Covenant Dropship. Funny thing is he actually came here with you in tow, handed you off and went flying away just as fast."

Once the medic removed the rest of Six's bandages, he tossed them in a plastic biohazard container. "So yeah. We're on a giant ring in space running away from the Covenant."

Six stood up and nodded her head to the medic. "Thank you."

"Are you already leaving?"

"Yes."

"But... your suit isn't here, you don't have a kit, and we don't even have a spare rifle for you. You're kinda dead in the water." Six exhaled and rubbed the scars on her arm. The short medic had a point. She had no equipment anymore. Wherever her suit was, it was far from where she was, and Six wasn't sure if she was in any shape to fight, not without her armor.

The spartan took a deep breath through her nose, the smell of blood and disinfectant agents flooding her nostrils. She didn't like the smell. "Where is Captain Keyes?" she asked.

"On his way back now. He should be here in a couple hours. In the meantime, find your bearings. I'll notify you of when he arrives."

"Thank you." Six sat back down as the medic took off to take care of others.

Through the entire conversation, she hadn't noticed that she had been clenching her teeth. Six tried to relax, ignoring the odd taste in her mouth and sitting back on the bed she was on. She'll figure out what is going on.

_oOo_

In the bay of a hijacked Spirit Dropship, two people stood next to a Covenant supply case. One was UNSC infantry, the other was a SPARTAN-II soldier. Superficial plasma burn marks charred and scorched the surface of both of their kits. Paired with the purples, blues, and oranges of extraterrestrial blood on his arms, John-117 and Private Dover could have been passed off as a modern art sculptures.

John lifted his helmet off and took a deep breath. The dimly lit compartment was easy on his eyes. The smell on his armor, however, was not nearly as friendly. If someone told him that the Covenant were made of hot tar and rotten eggs, he would believe them.

The dropship banked to the side, forcing John and Dover to reach up and grab a hold on the ceiling of the bay to steady himself. Once the ship leveled back out, John set his helmet down. The supply case next to him was strapped down using a few jury rigged restraints. They weren't industrial-grade, but they would hold long enough.

"We're coming up on the fire base, Chief." Cortana said. Chief nodded and put his helmet back on as the ship descended onto the tarmac. With a quick shift and a thump, the Dropship settled down into its spot and its engines shut off. The doors opened and sunlight spilled into the bay. UNSC personnel were filing to and from the nearby structure, a few watching with slightly befuddled expressions as the Chief and Dover pulled a heavy crate from the ship's bay.

Shortly after, Captain Keyes walked out of the ship himself. "With me to the debriefing," he said, facing the two. "Others will deliver the armor."

As Master Chief followed Keyes towards the structure, a forklift passed them and stopped in front of the crate, picking it up and heading off to another entrance of the structure. Chief could only assume that the armor was going to its owner, of who he still didn't know the identity of. "Cortana, who is the spartan we rescued?"

"SPARTAN-B312, a Lieutenant. She was last deployed to Reach as a part of a spartan group, designation Noble Team… also responsible for getting me to the Pillar of Autumn safely." The group went inside the building and passed a security checkpoint. "Her record is extensive. I can't say much, but she used to be a Grim Reaper of sorts."

"She was your escort?"

"My courier, to be more specific. She's the main reason the Pillar of Autumn even made it off of Reach. Without her, the Pillar would have been glassed."

"And her team?"

"One made it out, Jun-A226, four others were confirmed KIA, and up until now, she herself had been declared MIA." Master Chief and the others entered a sectioned off room with a large table in the center, a makeshift briefing room. "By the looks of it, the Covenant captured her and interrogated her in an attempt to learn about the Pillar of Autumn. Doesn't look like they got anything from her though."

Everyone settled in the room. About fifteen people were around the table, Captain Keyes at the head of it, Sergeant Johnson and Master Chief at his sides, and the other involved marines around the rest of it. They began the debriefing.

_oOo_

22 Hours Later

Six woke up to a woman tapping her forehead. Once she was awake, the woman sat down and began fiddling with something. The woman wore glasses over a set of small brown eyes surrounded by thin wrinkles and crow's feet. She was dressed in the jumpsuit that non-combatant Pillar of Autumn crew members wore, hunched with a few slim tools in hand over an illuminated table set up by Six's bed. Six had no clue what she was working on. When she leaned up to see, she noticed her own armor off to the side, neatly and anatomically organized on a tarp spread on the floor. The woman beside her was repairing her undersuit on the table, patching any rips or irregularities in the fabric.

"Your armor had been forced open." The woman had a strong Sopronian accent. She set her tools aside and pulled the thick square spectacles off the bridge of her nose. With a slight pause, she stood up out of her seat and picked up the left gauntlet of Six's armor, rotating the piece as if she were inspecting a fine diamond. "The locks were bent badly, and most of the systems were short-circuiting, even the failsafes. You are very lucky it did not shock you to death. Isten ajándéka."

Isten ajándéka, Hungarian meaning Gift from God. Six's jaw tightened a little as she glared through her scarred, guilty hands. Her prolonged existence wasn't a gift, and definitely not one from god. If Six ever received heavenly guidance, it would come in the form of a quick death. The spartan straightened back up. "Is the armor still functional?"

"It is now. When it was brought to me, it wasn't. The outer plating was almost irreparably warped, and the insulation on the shielding alternators would have fallen apart if a current any higher than 1,000 amps went through them. That wouldn't do for equipment that requires at least 10,000 amps."

The woman set the gauntlet back down, continuing her assessment of Six's armor. "The set was salvageable though. Any damage heavy enough to pierce the armor plating was on replaceable components. Your helmet was more challenging to repair, but its SIOS firmware was intact. I am surprised that was not among the damaged components. Had it been, no repairs I could have done would have made the armor functional again. Az ördög szerencse."

Az ördög szerencse, Luck of the Devil. Six believed that one much more. She exhaled, her breathing much steadier than it was a couple hours ago. It was a relief to know her armor was still intact. Still, one thing confused her more than anything else. Six had thrown her helmet down on Reach, right before she was captured. It should have been glassed, next to all the dead Covenant she left there, so why was it there with the rest of her armor? Only reason the rest of her armor was there was because she had been wearing it when the Covenant detained her. The only reasonable explanation Six could think of was that her captors consciously grabbed the helmet and brought it along with them. Why though?

Six dropped the thought for the moment, leaning forward to inspect the newly repaired pieces of her kit. "Is there anything missing?"

The technician shook her head. "All the armor is here."

"What about the pouches? Was there anything in those?"

Six would have guessed the woman knew exactly what the spartan was referencing, because she walked over to a corner of the tarp where several pouches were spread out, organized neatly in a grid-system. The woman picked out one of the pouches and brought it over to Six. Six opened it and pulled out four pairs of dog tags. As Six looked at each one, brushing the dust off of them, the technician beside her sat back in her chair. "Your brothers and sisters?"

"In arms."

After a moment of silence, the technician bowed her head. "Mindig hűséges. May the fallen rest in peace."

Mindig hűséges, Always Faithful. Six reflected on each pair she held. Jorge, Kat, Emile… and Carter. His hit her the worst. Jorge had given her his tags with a resolved grin on his face. He willingly went, torn apart by slipspace in a matter of milliseconds. Six had to pull Kat's and Emile's tags off their dead bodies, but their deaths were quick.

Carter forced his tags into her hands long before he died. In a Pelican flying over Aszod, seconds before she bailed out into the canyons below alongside Emile, Six could see the pain in Carter's eyes, buried beneath a stone cold facade that had formed long before he became a spartan. He was scared, afraid, no matter how well he hid it.

He bled and bled for ten minutes before he dove his Pelican directly into a Scarab over the cliffside, falling in a tangle of fire and shrapnel to the rocks far below. Carter's death was a slow one, one he didn't deserve, courtesy of the Covenant.

"Mindig hűséges," Six repeated, putting each pair of tags back in the pouch. A sour taste in her mouth lingered as the technician put the pouch back in its assigned spot on the tarp. Six stood up and stretched, arching her back with her hands over her head. She felt well rested, having slept for a full 24 hours after being rescued, and was ready to get back to work. "Who do I report to?"

"Directly to Captain Keyes. Get dressed. Someone will escort you after we get your armor on."

"Directly to the Captain?"

"Yes. Now hurry!"

After Six changed into her undersuit and dawned her armor with the help of the technician, she stepped out of the makeshift infirmary. It seemed like something big was going on because everyone was marching with haste through the corridors. It was organized chaos. Six almost didn't notice that a 7 foot tall SPARTAN-II soldier was standing on the other side of the doorway.

"Noble Six, this is the Master Chief," the technician said, borderline shouting above the noise. "He will escort you to Captain Keyes!" Six watched as the aforementioned spartan approached her and extended his hand out to her. Last time she met a member of the SPARTAN-II program was when she met Noble Team. Everyone except for Jorge was third generation. Six extended her arm and shook SPARTAN-117's hand.

"Noble Six."

Six noticed his voice was low and gruffy, yet still audible amongst the commotion. Six nodded her head in affirmation. "Master Chief, sir."

The Chief dropped his hand back to his side and turned to walk down the corridor. Six matched pace. "Captain Keyes is waiting top-side. You will be briefed once we're airborne."

"Airborne, sir?"

"Affirmative."

As the two walked through the halls, Six heard her integrated headset hiss to life with an incoming local transmission. The voice was familiar. It sounded like Dr. Halsey, but less condescending. "SPARTAN-B312, glad to see you alive and kicking."

The female spartan was silent for only a moment before she opened her voice channel and sent a transmission back. "Who is this?" she asked.

"The Pillar of Autumn's ship AI, Cortana. What do you know about our situation so far?"

"The Autumn crash landed on a planet-sized ring and the Covenant are hunting the survivors."

"Unfortunately, it's more than that," Cortana corrected. "We are crash landed, and the Covenant are hunting us down, but it isn't just a ring. It's a weapon capable of wiping out life on a galactic scale, and is of very high religious importance to the Covenant. If they gain control of it, they can wipe humanity out."

Under different circumstances, Six wouldn't be able to tell whether the whole thing was a damn joke or not… But things have been crazy enough that Cortana's claim didn't sound too far out there. Six went with it. "What's our course of action?"

"Prevent the Covenant from accessing the weapon's control room. I was able to pull some data from the structure we set up in and found out that the ring has a cartographer, a map we can use to locate the control room. It's in a building system about 2,000 klicks from here. Captain Keyes is mounting an assault on it. He's hoping we can locate the control room before the Covenant do. You'll lead the charge alongside the Master Chief."

"Understood." Six and the Chief came out of the tunnels to open air. Half a dozen Pelicans were stocked full of marines, ready to go when the order is given. However, they were waiting. In front of the only Pelican with two open seats stood the Captain himself, Jacob Keyes. The two spartans stopped a few feet in front of him and saluted.

"At ease." Six and the Chief stood relaxed with their hands behind their backs. Captain Keyes turned to look Six in the visor. "Glad to have you back, Noble."

"Glad to be back, sir."

"I assume Cortana vaguely briefed you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you understand what is at stake?"

"I understand, sir."

"Good. You and the Master Chief are the spearhead of this operation. Secure the Cartographer, and find the control room."

"Yes, sir."

Keyes saluted the two and ushered them onto the Pelican, backing up to a safe distance. "Godspeed, spartans." Each ship's thrusters roared louder, blue flames of the jets threatening to burn the grass before the bodies of the ships they belonged to lifted off the ground. Six watched Captain Keyes as the bay doors slowly closed shut, the warm light of the ring's artificial star slowly being replaced by the dull blue-white glow of the Pelican's light fixtures.

Noble Six leaned back in her seat, her visor facing the ceiling. The mission was straightforward enough, but years and years of experience taught Six that straightforward almost never meant easy. They would come across heavy resistance and heavy losses. Their goal was a super-weapon, and the Covenant would stop at nothing to gain control of it. It wouldn't be easy.

But she was still a Noble, and it wouldn't be a Noble mission if it were easy.