I do not own Halo or any of the characters. It just occurred to me that it's only a few hours at most between Earth and Requiem using Slipspace. Oops. Yolo.

Arrival

Ethan stepped out of the shower and sighed. He was getting tired of running with DeMarco. DeMarco had fallen in line fairly well, and was starting to act like a decent leader, finally, but Majestic was still struggling to work together properly. Ethan opened the door to his room and stopped, seeing Palmer sitting on his bed, reading on her data pad. She looked up at him and smiled.

"How was your run?" she asked.

"Faster than I wanted," Ethan said.

"DeMarco say something stupid again?" she asked.

"No, but I really didn't want to have to be around him today," Ethan said, sitting beside her on the bed, then pulling her over to sit in his lap.

She leaned back against him, tilting her head to the side against his. "So, when are you going to take me hostage and go AWOL?"

"Probably after we get to Requiem," Ethan said. "What're you reading?"

"Reports, mission briefings, and personnel dossiers," Palmer said. "Boring stuff like that."

Ethan nodded, giving Palmer a light squeeze. "I love you."

"I love you too," Palmer smiled. "Not too much longer. We reach Requiem in two days."

Ethan nodded. "I have mixed feelings about that."

"So do I," Palmer nodded. "But I'm sure it'll go better this time. After all, it's a research mission."

"With a job description that includes the words, fuck with Jul 'Mdama's forces," Ethan said.

"It does not!" Palmer said.

"Look it up," Ethan smirked just as Maria added it to the copy on Palmer's data pad.

Palmer flipped to the description and scanned over it before rolling her eyes. "Very nice. Fortunately I know that if it had actually been in it before just now, I'd have lost my job by now. And then you'd need a new supervisor."

"Solid pass," Ethan said. "You're the best handler I've ever had."

Palmer rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to justify that with a response." She set the data pad aside and sighed, settling back against him again. "I'm thinking Rio. Or Hawaii. Or Fuji."

Ethan chuckled. "I was thinking somewhere a little less populated. I know a place. Maria noticed it on our way back a few times ago."

Palmer smiled. "Alright."

Ethan scooted down, lying on his side, holding Palmer against him and sighing. Palmer rested a hand on his arms and sighed.

"You know I can't sleep here," Palmer said.

"Hostage," Ethan said, pulling her tighter against himself. "Legal immunity."

Palmer shook her head and smiled, settling in, deciding not to argue. A few minutes later, both had drifted off to sleep.

"Focus Majestic!" Ethan called over the gunfire. "You're letting them get too close!"

"We've got this!" DeMarco shouted back. "We can do this Majestic! Give them hell!"

Majestic rallied, forcing the line where most of the virtual Covenant were killed back. Then, they were all tagged by a group of Jackal snipers that popped up on the far end. Maria ended the simulation, and Ethan walked over, kneeling beside DeMarco.

"What'd I do wrong?" DeMarco asked.

"Nothing," Ethan said. "You couldn't have known about the snipers. That's where luck comes in, because their target and accuracy are randomized. It was just bad luck that you were all hit. You did well."

He stood, walking back out of the way of the training as Majestic was standing, nodding to Maria. "And begin."

Majestic spun, but saw nothing. Ethan smirked. Cloaked Elites. Got them every time. Except, it didn't. Thorne spotted one and began to spray it, killing it after a moment and Hoya sprayed in a semicircle, hitting five more, which they all targeted instantly, destroying them all. After that, they were much more careful and successfully finished the training event fairly close to Crimson's own time. However, in the process, Madsen went down. The next simulation was against Hunters. Again they failed.

"You all will be able to pass these three simulations, at the very least, before we reached Requiem," Ethan said. "And you will not stop running these drills until you either can no longer raise your rifles, or until you can successfully pass all three consecutively without losing anyone."

Majestic all stood and prepared to go again.

Ethan nodded approvingly as Thorne slid under a Hunter, standing and turning, driving the barrel of his assault rifle into the Hunter's back under the armor and began to spray, dropping into a crouch and angling the rifle upward. After a moment, the Hunter was destroyed and the simulation ended. They'd done it. And with about twelve hours to spare before they reached Requiem.

"Well done Majestic," Ethan said. "You may just survive Requiem after all. Okay. Go put your armor and weapons away and rest. Be in the Armor Bay in exactly eleven hours."

Majestic all saluted and left. Ethan turned to Crimson.

"Spartans, I have bad news for all of you," Ethan said, all of them remaining stoic but watching him intently. "You may actually have some competition this time around. Even worse, DeMarco turned out to be a halfway decent leader after all. As such, I expect you all to show Majestic exactly why Crimson is the top Spartan Team on Infinity, even if I can't join you for some reason."

"Yes sir!" Crimson saluted.

"Oh, and one more thing," Ethan said. "Stop fucking saluting me! You know how much I hate it when you do that."

"Yes sir," Jason smirked. "That's why we do it."

Ethan chuckled, shaking his head. "Get out of here. I've got a date with Sarah."

"Ooo, how romantic," Amelia grinned. "Chow hall food."

Ethan laughed. "Tell me about it."

They all left, heading to the Armor Bay before Ethan left to meet up with Palmer.

Ethan inhaled slowly, smiling as Palmer's shampoo greeted him, along with a slight hint of her body's natural scent, arousal and sweat mixed together. As weird as it sounded, he loved the way she smelled. The smell was strong, but intoxicating. Her sweat smelled slightly musky, but her arousal smelled sweet. Almost comically so. When he was able to smell both, it reminded him of smelling wild flowers. Which, in turn, reminded him of their vacation at the cabin.

He smiled, tucking his face a little further into her hair and Palmer smiled, cuddling into him tighter. His smile widened. He loved this side of her. The side that didn't care what the rules said and was more than happy to just stay in bed with him all day, even though they were breaking the rule of no being alone together in the room, no sex on the ship, no relationships between commander and subordinate. There were probably a few more, but those were the ones that would get her stripped of all rank, billet, and probably thrown in the brig, if the commanding officer wasn't Lasky. And if Ethan didn't have legal immunity, which in this case extended to Palmer.

"We should probably get up," Ethan said, the fingers of his left hand trailing lightly up and down her spin, feeling her shiver slightly at the sensation.

"Probably," Palmer agreed, not moving a muscle.

Ethan smiled, kissing the top of her head and setting his head back down. However, after a few more minutes, he finally sighed, sitting up and bringing her with him. Palmer groaned, then sighed heavily.

"Fine," Palmer sighed. "Let's go do our jobs."

Ethan smiled, kissing her for several seconds before she pulled away and stood before they could decide they had other things they'd rather do. Both got dressed and headed to the Armor Bay, finding Crimson and Majestic already present and in the process of getting dressed. Crimson wolf-whistled the moment they walked in and Ethan rolled his eyes.

"Keep it up Crimson," Ethan smirked. "Don't forget who's in charge of your training."

Crimson all grinned. "Aye Sir!"

Ethan shook his head. "Smartasses."

Once they'd all gotten their armor, they all headed to the armory, then to the vehicle bay, Palmer heading up to the observation platform.

"Ladies...and other Spartans, listen up," Palmer began, Ethan rolling his eyes. "Your new work place is a planet first discovered by humanity six months ago called Requiem. Some of the old hands know what you're in for. The rest of you...you're due an education. The eggheads upstairs want to set up a research station, but before they can do that we have to end off some Covenant Squatters. The Covies...they believe this is the home of one of their gods. The way I see it, if those freaks wanna meet God, it's our duty to help them along."

At that exact moment, the ship lurched violently, an alert blaring instantly and Maria reporting the ship had just struck a Covenant super-carrier and destroyed it, suffering no hull damage, and minimal damage to the ship's shielding. Everyone sprinted for their Pelicans and Ethan stopped on the ramp of Crimson's, looking up at Palmer and blowing her a kiss, Palmer rolling her eyes before Ethan pulled his helmet on and took his seat beside Jason.

"You sure you don't wanna stay and enjoy the benefits of an empty ship?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, we wouldn't blame you if you did," Amelia said.

"Nonsense," Ethan smiled. "We all know you lot are helpless without me."

"We'll see," Erin laughed. "Dropping in five."

"I hate doing ODST inserts," Frank said just as the Pelican took off, shuddering and shaking as it sped toward the planet, Covenant ships moving to fight them, only for other Pelicans, of the hundred the Infinity was launching, or the Infinity itself to blast them.

"Just be glad you're not in a drop pod," Ethan snorted. "No shielding, no guns, no armor plating, and no steering controls."

"And no way in hell my ass will ever be in one," Frank said. "I'll Master Chief my way to the ground and rely on armor lockup before I drop in a pod."

"Careful what you wish for, Frank," Jason laughed. "It can always get worse."

"Landing in twenty!" the pilot reported.

"Show time Crimson," Ethan said. "Let's remind the covenant why it lost to a bunch of hairless apes, shall we?"

"Speak for yourself!" Amelia snorted. "I'm definitely an angel."

"I was thinking more Neanderthal, but we can make believe," Ethan teased.

"Hey!" Amelia laughed. "I'm telling the Commander!"

Ethan laughed as well as the Pelican shuddered slightly as it neared the ground, the back opening, allowing them to all offload into a desert. As they did, Spartan Miller, Palmer's intel assistant, letting Crimson know that he'd be their handler for the mission. As soon as they were all off, the pelican took off again and Ethan grinned at a pair of Warthogs sitting beside them. He climbed into the driver's seat of one and Jason got on the gun while Amelia too the other Warthog's wheel and Erin took her gun. Frank turned, heading for a cliff off to the right side where he'd be able to snipe from.

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