Authors note: Bhatia was referred to as "lieutenant" which is wrong cause spartan 4's are seperate from traditional military ranks, i realised after the fact rip

It was a quiet fly home. Once they were up in the air, Holland removed her helmet and placed it in her lap. Above the smoke and fumes she could breathe easily. She watched as Covenant ships made their retreat, chased away by the marines as they moved in to secure the city. As the last corvette entered slipspace, the pelicans doors closed. Hornet Squad were in good spirits. Its a job well done for them. Taz and Chrys chatted to each other while Lionel tapped away on his handheld datapad and Jim leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed. Napping, presumably.

Valiant Squad were different. The three remaining spartans were tense and quiet. Now that the job was over, the loss of their captain was settling in. Track and Jenner were quiet, their hands interlocked. Naomi looked down at the floor.

After they docked, the two squads parted to their seperate sections of the ship to recoup. Once out of their combat suits and in their quarters, Commander Palmer thanked them on their performance. Holland smiled and they all saluted, but Palmers words fell on deaf ears.

As the ship switched into its night cycle, the squad settled into their bunks. Exchanges of "good night" were made and everyone slipped into sleep. Except Holland. She lay awake, staring up at the ceiling, replaying the events of the mission in her head. She must have fell asleep eventually cause she woke up with everyone else when their alarm went off the following morning.

—

Captain Del Rio entered the war room to meet the Gray. She observed him entering and folded her arms behind her back.

"Captain, I'm glad you can meet me." She said, her expression betraying nothing. The captain nodded in agreement.

"I'm glad our teams recovered you in time, when the planet has been secured and you're no longer of use to us, you'll be returned promptly." Gray clenched her jaw.

"Yes, I suppose I will."

The captain, noticing Grays change in mood, quickly changed the subject.

"I've been told that you have accumulated some unnoticed details of the attack. I've been given the rundown, but I want to hear it from your perspective." Gray paused for a second before speaking.

"The first thing I noticed was the lack of capital ships, despite detecting slipspace signatures. It was only after I discovered covenant forces in the city that i realised we were under attack. By the time evacuation began, they disabled the generator powering the cities orbital defence platform, which is when a corvette appeared to provide reinforcements. The city was taken completely by surprise." Gray explained.

"What do you believe the end result of capturing you would have been?" Del Rio asked. He reached into his pocket to find a small coin, its face rubbed smooth. He began to turn it over in his palm rythmically.

Gray paused again before speaking. "Well, capture of an AI such as myself could have yielded information about human colonies that are important to the UNSC's survival. Since they don't have the numbers or resources for planetary invasion, they couldn't do this systematically. Not only that, but without me, you would have no idea how they accomplished this attack." The captain took a step forward.

"Then how did they? A stealth frigate? Teleportation?" Gray shook her head.

"I highly doubt either of those could have been it. Frankly, its almost as if the forces were transported to the surface directly without need for any secondary military installations." The Captain stared at Gray incredulously.

"How long have you been in service?" He asked.

"I am not suffering from rampancy, if that is what you're implying. You asked for my information and I gave it to you." Gray snapped. "If there's nothing else you need then I'll be going." And with that, Gray's form disappeared.The Captain frowned and muttered something about "touchy AI's these days" and left the room.

—

"I, uh...didn't see you at breakfast, so I brought you something." Holland said, holding out a cafeteria tray, leaving Naomi more than a little confused. She was stood outside the entrance to Naomi's quarters, dressed in a tank top and kahki cargo pants, with her hair still a mess and semi-confident smile on her face. "I wasn't sure what you were allowed to eat so i brought you the same as last time we ate breakfast together." Holland held a tray of (almost) the same breakfast she had two days ago. When Bahtia failed to give an answer, stunned at the gesture, Hollands confident mask slipped. "Oh my god I knew it, this was too much. I'm really sorry, this was really inappropriate of me to do." Holland began to walk quickly away but Naomi called after her.

"Wait! Holland, its okay. This was really nice of you, but why?"

"Well, Spartans need to maintain a proper diet and..." she paused, looking down. "It was about your fireteam leader, I figured you were taking it kinda hard." It was as if a stone had gotten trapped in Naomi's throat.

"Right...yeah it's a little difficult right now." Holland looked at her, seeing right through the brave face she had put on.

"Do you need to talk?" Holland asked. Wordlessly, Naomi stepped back to let Holland in. After setting down the tray on the bed, she looked at Naomi, who was currently standing stiffly by the door.

"I don't usually, do well with...talking about stuff." Naomi said flatly. Holland just gave her a look and patted the bed next to her.

"You don't have to say anything, I just want to talk." Naomi sighed and sat down beside Holland, causing the bed to sag a little.

"You know I'm a corporal, right?" Naomi nodded in response, starting first with a pot of preserved oatmeal that she shook. As she shook, the pot heated up and then began to release steam. "Well, Corporals don't lead squads. We lost our sergeant a couple of weeks back. I'm the de facto leader until they find someone better or give me a promotion." Naomi paused eating and looked over at Holland. The corporal continued, "I guess we're in the same boat. It's hard losing someone you looked up to and having to take their place. To take their responsibility as your own. Having an entire squad looking to you for guidance and instruction, knowing that if you mess up, it's your head." Holland swallowed and looked down. "But I can either succeed or fail. Inaction is a failure. No matter what, I have to do something. That's the only way to succeed. If you let yourself get frozen in place, then you lose. You get left behind. So no matter what, you have to try and do the right thing. That means being there for people and trying your best." Holland sniffed. Naomi nodded and the room was quiet.

"It's just not the same, though." Naomi's voice cracked. "One of my augments...it links spartans to their armour and to each other. Its less of a link like in a comms system, more like we feel each others presence. Its telepathic." Naomi explained. "When our fireteam leader died...I felt it. Everything. His pain, his confusion. I felt his fear. I got flashes of images as his neurones fired off at random. All of that in microseconds. It was so much at once and then there was nothing." Tears were streaming down Naomi's face at this point. "It's like seeing every colour imaginable, then having your eyes gouged out." She stuttered, before beginning to weep silently, her shoulders shuddering as she took in breath. Holland got off the bed and embraced Naomi. Between them, there was nothing but Naomi's sniffling and the low rumble of the ship that enclosed them.

After a while, Naomi lifted her head from Hollands shoulder, Holland broke the embrace in response. After a brief moment of silence, Holland spoke up.

"But you didn't let him down, Naomi. Without you, we would have never completed the mission. He'd be proud of you." Naomi shook her head.

"When we got back on board, dropped off the AI and got out of our armour, I-I lashed out at them. We were talking about him and I can't even remember what they said, I just yelled at them. Obviously Track and Jenner defended each other. I was way out of line. I've ruined this squad and I've only been in charge for a less than a day." She looked down and covered her face and breathed out a long sigh. Holland put a hand on her shoulder.

"Naomi, you're in grief and mourning. Its normal to act irrationally. When my sergeant died I stopped eating cause of stress." Holland rubbed Naomi's shoulder before continuing: "It's normal to be like this. You just have to apologise to them. Remember what I said: The only way you succeed is by doing something." Naomi nodded and rubbed her face.

"You're right. I can't be like this, not right now." Naomi looked up and smiled at Holland. "I'm just surprised you took the time to make sure I was okay."

"Well, I think people should be kinder to each other these days. Plus, it's the right thing to do." Holland shrugged.

"Thanks, Holland."

"Anytime." Holland gave a small smile, stood up and turned to leave, but stopped at the door. "Oh and let me know when the funeral is, the Hornets will be there." And with that, Holland was out the door and gone. Naomi sat quietly, planning out her apology. She never thought she'd have to open up like this twice in one day.

Hey there! This is a bit of a slower chapter, more feelsy stuff, i hope you liked reading it. My gf offered to start checking my writing for mistakes so there'll be fewer discrepancies and cleaner sentence structure. Thanks for reading!