I'm sure there's quite a few people wondering why I'm redoing one of my stories. And in answer: I decided it was time for some revising (don't worry, I'll leave the old one up!). It's nowhere near finished yet, but I figured I'd post the first chapter of the revision and see what people thought of it. After that...well, we'll see. Reviews and constructed criticism are appreciated; flames will be used to clear the brush off the creekbank.

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo.

Prologue-2515

North America

The little girl looked at her mother and father. She didn't understand what was going on, but knew the strange men in funny clothes were taking her somewhere. One of the strange men called to her, saying it was time to go.

"Come on, Mommy and Daddy! We're going away!"

"No, sweetheart. You're going alone. Daddy and I can't come with you."

She realized that she was going away for good, alone, and she didn't like that one bit. When the strange men came to put her in the funny-looking car, she clung to her mother's leg and refused to let go. The men couldn't pull her off: this particular four-year-old was exceptionally strong. They looked at her parents for assistance. Her mother knelt down to eye-level with the child.

"Sweetheart, I know this is hard, but it's for the best. I promise you'll be well taken care of, and Daddy or I will come visit you at times."

"Promise?" The girl's voice wavered, scared and sad.

"Promise."

She didn't really understand, but she knew her mommy had made a promise. Mommy never lied to her, and that was enough. She followed the men into the car and drove away from her home. Her mother and father waved her goodbye.

"Do you think we'll ever see her again?"

"I promised her we'd visit, Pete. And I have no intention of breaking that promise. We've given the military our baby, so the least they could do is allow us to see her once in a while."

"I hope so. Something doesn't feel right, though. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something wrong with this whole arrangement."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes. Meanwhile, we'll have to trust the UNSC to take good care of our daughter for us."

Present day-September 4, 2552

Unknown Freighter Orbiting Earth

Sol System

It was an old tramp freighter, almost not worth the bother to be kept in orbit anymore, but at this point the UNSC couldn't afford to waste a single bit of potential salvage. But if what she was hearing through the networks was true, the Covenant had just had their noses bloodied, which would buy them a little bit of a breather. Which means now is the right time to get some answers. Provided I don't waste anymore time dawdling here. Dark eyes narrowed as she suited up, donning a helmet and ensuring a fifteen minute air supply.

"You know they're going to go crazy once you get aboard that freighter, right? They're not going to just let you leave the system." The voice, so much like her own, echoed through the helmet's COM system.

"I know. But I have to know for sure if there's nothing left. I have to see it with my own eyes, and if there's any chance…." She swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I have to try, at least—it's more than any of the others are planning to do."

"You suspect someone's hiding something, then?"

"Damn straight. Especially considering what skeletons the newest Security Council member has in his closet. And from what I understand, he's the reason no other ships are going to find answers."

The voice in her ear sounded irritated. "And you're sure you're not doing this to tweak his nose?"

"Well, there is that, but I'm not going just to piss him off. That's more of a bonus." She stepped to the airlock and shut the door, beginning the cycle that would take her into the vacuum of space: she would completely bypass the bulk of the security measures by simply going around them to the freighter, and she trusted her backup to handle the rest. As soon as the outer pressure door opened, she launched herself into space, straight towards the freighter: if her aim was even the slightest bit off, she was dead. Forcing herself to breath lightly, she drifted towards the freighter and, by the grace of whatever deity was watching, grabbed the outside of the airlock.

"Well, that wasn't so bad at all," the voice commented in her ear.

"I got lucky." Cycling herself through the airlock, she waited for the green light. When it came, she went through and made her way along the deserted corridors to the bridge—again, no mean feat since there was no gravity on board the ship, but she managed.

"Alright, we're here. Think you'll be able to power this bucket up?"

"Oh, easily. Just make sure you're able to fly it first."

"Ha ha," she grumbled, sliding a computer chip into an open receptacle. It took more time than she would have liked, but finally the freighter powered up, and her new pilot began moving towards the nearest Slipspace point.

"We've got an incoming message from Sydney HighCom. I'm using a blocking message, but they're pretty insistent." The voice came through the ship's audio systems now, instead of the helmet speakers.

"Are there any ships moving to stop us yet?"

"Not yet, but they might if we don't reply soon. Any ideas?"

She remained silent, considering all her options. Ignoring HighCom wasn't a good idea: they'd simply blow her out of the sky to prevent a security breach. And, as much fun as annoying ONI was, she really didn't feel like facing Colonel Ackerson quite yet, not if he had something to hide.

"Broadcast reply, text only: "ONI isn't telling the whole truth about Reach, I'm going to find what they're hiding. Appropriate precautionary measures are in effect. S-000."

"'S-000?' You really want to draw Ackerson down on you with that?"

"Not particularly, but hopefully it'll keep them busy for awhile. Long enough to get the hell out of here and head for Reach."

She really wasn't expecting it to work, and held her breath the whole time she powered up the Slipspace drives. Amazingly, no one opened fire, and she was able to make her jump unhindered. Okay, they seem to be letting me off the hook—THIS time. But that was the easy part. There was no time for second-guesses, now: she was on her way.

HALO HALO HALO HALO HALO HALO HALO HALO

A few weeks later, at exactly 1800 hours, the UNSC Security Council (except for one member) received a mission report that none of them expected to see:

The Covenant did not glass all of Reach. A moderately-sized patch of the planet, though small in comparison with the whole, was left untouched. Closer examination revealed this area was the area surrounding a former ONI base of operations, codenamed CASTLE. It appeared that the Covenant were interrupted in the middle of an attempt to literally 'dig out' the installation. It was also apparent that, before their interruption, they were planning to hang around for a while: wrecked ships from the battle were piled in one area above Reach and construction of a platform had been started using pieces of the dead hulls, with the exception of those that had been destroyed sometime after the battle for Reach.

Since the Covenant were no longer in the area, and since there had to be a greater reason for their interest besides being a human installation, I landed nearby and took a look around. Underneath the CASTLE complex was something none of us would have expected to find, but apparently the Covenant were looking for: a vast room beneath the surface, with tunnels branching off in every direction, and inscribed with a multitude of symbols and glyphs. Evidence of a fairly recent battle leads me to believe that some UNSC members did, in fact, survive down there. Although the battle led to some significant damage, there was enough still intact to document for further study. A video feed will follow shortly. Considering the location of CASTLE base was placed directly above these tunnels, it is conceivable that ONI was aware of these tunnels, and of the possibility that the Covenant would come looking for them. However, there is absolutely no evidence of these tunnels in UNSC data networks, nor of any attempts to warn of an impending attack on Reach.

Someone's been lying to us.