Halo Legacy

Chapter 3: Lieutenant Allison

The falcons began primary burn, getting the dual helicopter-like blades up to sufficient speed to get require lift. I sat in Falcon Bravo with Three and Four.

Noble Three, Marks, was sitting next to Noble Four, Nikki. His shoulders angled a degree or so closer to his axis, that means his shoulders were dropped sufficiently. He was upset about being denied piloting a Falcon. I overheard the request earlier  while I was loading extra ammunition. Commander, Noble One, or the Fist as a few members dubbed him in certain circumstances, promptly denied the request.

Noble Four was pouring over anomalies in the temporary communication's grid. She also had a few portable signal repeaters strapped around her hip. The slight elevation in her shoulder suggested she found some exciting anomalies as well as something disturbing, but considering Four, it was more likely an exciting find.

We were flying over grassy plains that slightly rippled in the wake of air disturbanes from the two Falcons. I had my sniper rifle laying across my lap. There was a flash of an anomaly. I quickly picked up my sniper rifle and went to maximum zoom. From a distance is appeared to be a rock, but then I noted the odd color... dark navy, inconsistent. As the Falcons flew closer I managed to see the remenants of a gold visor. It was a helmet. I kicked Four who was still pouring over her datapad and made a circle with my index finger, then pointed toward the ground.

"Commander, Six wants us to circle and land. She spotted something."

Noble One in the other Falcon turned to me. I repeated the signals I gave Four. He nodded, relayed the message to pilot of Falcon Bravo. Bravo circled and landed.

I sprung out of the Falcon before Three or Four could even stand. I took a few paces and stood in front of the helmet. I picked it up carefully, whoever wore this helmet was involved in the last stand on Reach. 

It was a navy, standard basic COMMANDO helmet. There was a hole through the visor along with a few spider-web cracks. The HUD videofeed data unit was still intact. I quickly removed the unit while I returned to Falcon Bravo.

"That's what we stopped for?" Three asked. I ignored him and took my seat. Four signaled the pilot to take off and catch up to Falcon Alpha.

I pulled out my data-pad and uploaded the data unit from the helmet's HUD. It was respectful to note the MIA soldier as KIA when found and confirmeId. After a few seconds my data-pad glowed with life as the HUD data was transfered to my data pad. 

<ONI HUD STANDARD HUD/

/RUN IDENTIFICATION OVERRIDE 093 CHARLIE SIGMA

<VERIFYING REQUEST...

<SPARTAN B312 LIEUTENANT ALLISON/>

Lieutenant Allision, a SPARTAN, Bravo Program. Impressive.

"Six, what did you find?" Noble One asked in a private com channel.

By this time Falcon Bravo caught up with Falcon Alpha. I hit my helmet twice and then held up the helmet that belonged to Lieutenant Allison.

My CO visually shifted.

"Identification?" he inquired, his voice not quiet even.

I sent the helmet's information to my CO without question. Noble One with the original NOBLE Team campaigned in the last stand on Reach. I know he personally volunteered NOBLE Team II for the sweep house for Reach for that reason, he needed to know what happened to the rest of his team that he had to abandon to escort Dr. Halsey from Reach.

The only reason that I knew that was because I was good at reading between the lines. The way that the Commander moved, you could tell that he had been here, not just because everyone said he had, but the small nuances in body language show his familiarity and recognition of rocks, mountain ranges, fields etc. That and I studied NOBLE Team before transfer here.

A quick glance at the commander and I knew that Lieutenant Allison was indeed Noble Six, the original Noble Six- no that's not entirely accurate, the previous Noble Six. I took another glance at the helmet, already feeling a greater connection with this brave SPARTAN. I would probably ask to take this helmet to the Reach Memorial that commenmorated all those military personnel that gave their lives during the last stand on Planet Reach.