It had been about a month since my last mission, John hadn't been lying when he said they had banned me from going on missions for a while. I put my helmet on and left my room, John had been moved elsewhere so he was closer to the docking bay if they needed him. I let out a sigh and straightened up, Kelly and I hadn't spoken for ages nor had we seen each other. A marine was running towards me looking out of breath, I let out a sigh knowing something was up.
"Command wishes to see you Spartan 113," he puffed looking tired, he probably ran through the whole ship looking for me but I nodded. I began to head towards command wondering what happened this time, I entered the room to see John and Joseph one of my other friends who managed to survive being made into a spartan.
"Ahh thank you for joining us Spartan 113, now as I was saying you three are going on a mission to get back something the covenant stole from us, after what happened on the last mission miss Caden went on we hope nothing goes wrong, now you all have your AI so USE them this time, don't shove them to the back of your mind this time, don't ignore them listen to them, they have been programmed in more ways then you could imagine, now with that your pelican is waiting in the docking bay," Commander Will explained, I winced at his jab towards me but I mostly ignored it. We began to head towards the docking bay when Kelly shoved past me, I glared at her but took no notice. Once on board the ship we each took seperate seats, I noticed John didn't sit directly next to me like usual which made me feel a twinge of sadness.
"Is everything alrighty Chief??" I questioned quietly, he looked at me but said nothing. I growled silently knowing Kelly had been spreading lies about me, I would take that up with her when we got back. I hated the fact John believed some of the lies she told, I scooted a few seats closer to John which earned his attention.
"Look whatever lies she is spreading about me they aren't true, you of all people know me better then anyone," I half pleaded, he nodded and gave me a hug which surprised me. I hadn't seen him in a month and after that I get a hug, man I should go missing more often.
"Umm hello! Lovebirds! We're here," Joseph pointed out, we broke apart from our hug looking away blushing. The doors to the pelican soon opened and I realised we were back on Reach, I stood and went to leave when Chief grabbed my hand. I turned around and saw him stand up, I gave him a nod and he let go of me as we walked out. John was acting strange all of a sudden, I tried to ignore it as we walked over to what looked to be our squad.
"Ahh Spartans you're here, good now we can go," the marine who seemed to be in charge sighed as we finally arrive, I chuckled as we followed them into a warthog. After a few minutes of driving we arrived beside a beach, just down the mountain covenant swarmed like roaches around a campsite made of strange fabric tents.
"This should be easy," I chuckled loading my gun, I had made sure to grab a shotgun and an assault rifle from the weapons bay before we went. I noticed other people on the opposite ridge, John noticed them too.
"Who are they?" He questioned half to himself, the marine watched as they disappeared.
"We don't know for sure but they call themselves freelancers, they watch us every now an again during missions, they claim to have invented Spartans before us, I believe that since I always see them in roughly the same armour as you guys," the marine explained loading his gun, I gave a thoughtful sigh as we began to creep down the slope. This time we managed not to give ourselves away as we hid in the tree line, this was going to be fun. Luckily we had more marines with us this time which meant more covering fire, I looked at Chief who shook his head as if knowing my plan. I grabbed a stun grenade and a normal grenade from my sides, Chief would have face palmed if his suit wasn't made of a bullet proof metal which was loud when hit against itself. I threw both grenades over the barricade earning a few confused grunts from the covenant, I always like to make my presence known. I charged after both grenades went off shooting wildly, the other marines and John followed me quickly as we shot down anything that got in our way. Luckily we got most of them making them retreat slightly as we entered a few of the tents, I began rummaging through stuff trying to find what the covenant had stolen.
"Over here I found something!" Came the sound of General Davis, we all jogged over to see a large crate filled with UNSC and Infinity weapons.
"Jesus they stole quite a lot, wait, how did they steal this when all weapons are stored on Infinity??" I questioned looking into the crate, I saw a plasma grenade flying towards us so doing a stupid thing I caught it and threw it as it exploded. I went flying into a tree but got up to see a few of the marines splattered to pieces, Chief looked alright and so did General Davis which I let out a sigh of relief seeing him alive. I rushed back over to them and crouched over General Davis as energy crystals flew towards us, most of them bounced off or broke but some hit their mark right between where my armour latched onto me. I winced as I felt the liquid inside them flow into one of my many veins but I simply turned around and returned fire no matter what pain I was in, we began to back off against the cliff face as I felt the pain get stronger as the poison the energy crystals injected into me began spreading. John was too busy shooting at the covenant to notice, I gave a sigh and did something very very stupid.