29-NOT THE ONLY ONE?

As Jamie walked behind the two lieutenants, he began to think about what he was going to do moving forward, on one hand he wanted to stay behind here at reach and help fight to the bitter end, but on the other hand he also wanted to help the members of noble team survive the catastrophe that was already in motion, and even still a part of him wanted to go too the shipyard in Azod and just on the Pillar of Autumn and go with the master chief and be present for all the events that happened on the ring. As he was thinking he realized something that he had overlooked, the Spirit of Fire was supposed to be at the planets Harvest, Arcadia and the disappear along with that Forerunner shield world, and yet he along with the Spirits crew were jumping all over the place trying to stop whatever the covenant was trying to do before they arrived at the shield world, not only that but he had never encountered the arbiter Ripa Moramee either as the elite that tried to jump Sgt Forge was just an elite minor, as they all drew closer to the bridge they stopped at a security checkpoint which was odd given that the Everchanging was only a Paris-class Heavy Frigate as security checkpoints were often saved for the bigger cruisers and carriers so a checkpoint being on a Paris-class was very strange.

Perhaps noticing his confusion despite the armor surrounding him, lieutenant David turned to him and spoke while Lieutenant Paul went through the checkpoint, "I know that it's a bit strange to see a security checkpoint as a ship this small, but the captain is very paranoid about who enters his bridge, so the fact that he has requested you is quite surprising as he has made even higher ranks than him wait and get verified before they see him, but its not without reason as he has fought both insurrection and covenant and has had a history of finding spies so High Comm lets it slide." he explained to the spartan, as they finished going through the checkpoint. 'That's odd?' Jamie thought with even his enhanced brain that had gone from a soft college life to waking up in a galactic war struggling to wrap itself around this.

Deciding to not bother trying as he had bigger things to worry about the spartan pressed forward his heavy boots and armor making more noise than both of the lieutenants walking in front of him, this amused Jamie to no end as back in his home timeline he was a bit on the skinny side and so walked a bit softer than his friends, and he quite enjoyed sneaking up on them and scaring them, as he reminisced over his past life they reached the bridge of the Everchanging with crew members manning their stations and in the center command chair staring at his console was the captain. As Jamie and the lieutenant walked over the captain looked away from his console to stare at them as they stopped and the three men gave a crisp salute, "We are here as requested sir, and we have brought the spartan as well." Lieutenant David said to the captain, "That you have, at ease and return to your stations." the captain said. As the lieutenant relaxed and went to their posts Jamie also relaxed and began to give the captain a once over, with the captain appearing to be doing the same, the captain was relatively young looking to be in his late 20s to early 30s but with and air about him that gave off the vibe that he had seen his fair share of trouble.

After a moment of silence the captain was the first to break the silence by saying "Welcome aboard Everchanging spartan, my name is Captain Magnus Drake and we have much to talk about." The captain said as he stuck out his hand, "Spartan Sargent Jamie-118 sir, and yes we have much to discuss." He said while shaking the captain's hand, "Then let's get right to it,follow me we'll go somewhere where we can talk more freely." the captain said as he turned and walked out of the bridge with Jamie following close behind him. As they walked in silence Jamie wondered what the captain mean by 'talk more freely' who was the captain worried might hear them, he didn't get to finish that thought before they came to what appeared to be a heavy vault door that was about a foot taller than Jamie even in him Mjolnir armor, after the captain opened the digital and physical locks they stepped into what could have been a studio apartments back home on earth, with furnishing a kitchen as well as many other things that seemed very out of place on a ship in the middle of a war. As the two men walked in and the door shut behind them, captain Magnus made a beeline for the kitchen and started rummaging around the fridge while Jamie just looked around taking is the familiar yet unfamiliar layout of the room that they were in, soon the captain came back what appeared to be a hamburger and two sodas, "Come on over here." the captain said beckoning the spartan over to a couch that looked like it would not be able to support the weight of a full spartan.

"I think I'll stand sir, thank you." Jamie said following the captain, "suit yourself" the captain said with a shrug while wolfing down his burger and taking a sip of his drink. Once he was done with his meal, the captain got a serious look on his face and said to Jamie "Do you know how long the Spirit of Fire has been declared lost with all hands, Spartan-118?" the captain asked while looking at the Spartan right where his eyes would be underneath his helmet seemingly having no fear of the super-soldier that he was staring down. "A few days sir." Jamie said as they had kept in contact on their goose chase trying to stop the covenant, only losing contact when they found the Forerunner shield world. "Wrong." the captain said, "The UNSC Spirit of Fire has been declared missing with all hands for the past 21 years, and yet here before me stand you, with intel that you claim is important coming straight to Reach in something that barely survived the journey, so explain to me everything that you have to if you want to talk to anyone remotely important that will listen in High Command." the captain said slowly, as if to let it sink in. '21 years?' Jamie thought incredulously, but he vividly remembered talking to captain Cutter and Sgt Forge right before entering slipspace, so what had happened, how had they been gone for 21 years. Jamie quickly collected his thoughts as the captain continued to stare at him, so finally he spoke. "Well sir, how I am here after 21 years of being MIA I have no idea, but I can explain what I do know that has happened up to this point in time before in was recovered by the Everchanging with Reach burning below me." he said as the captain continued to stare at him for a full minute before speaking. "Explain it to me then Spartan." he said in a low voice.

And so explain he did, from the very beginning, from first contact on Harvest and Arcadia to chasing covenant across the galaxy and finally the events of the Forerunner shield world, with details about the flood, the forerunner fleet that they destroyed and how the Spirit sacrificed her slipspace drive to destroy it all, and ending with Professor Anders rigging up the pod that had carried him through slipspace all the way back to reach. When he was done Jamie decided that he had earned it, and slowly sat down on the couch across from Captain Magnus, with the captain now drinking what appeared to be a fifth soda since he started his story. "Well that was one hell of a story wasn't it." the captain finally said, with Jamie merely nodding in agreement, "Well that makes you just like me." the captain said while turning to face him, but with understanding along his face as if he had discovered something that now made absolute sense.

"What do you mean sir, I don't believe I understand?" Jamie asked in confusion as the captain downed the last of his soda before turning to the spartan again, "I too woke up not knowing what the heck was going on, before I knew it we were fighting insurrectionist ships and then all of a sudden I realized that I had been reborn, that my past life had somehow ended and that I had been reborn, and into Halo of all things." the captain said while reminiscing about something. 'HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!?' Jamie thought after feeling like the world was collapsing, "What do you mean reborn, how did you know that I was reborn, and what is the world is a system?" he asked the captain incredulously. The captain looked at him with amusement and told him "yep, and we aren't the only ones, Lieutenant David and Lieutenant Paul are as well, that's why I sent them to go get you since I didn't remember a Spartan-118 ever being in the halo wars game when I played in." Jamie just stared at the captain in shock though he doubted the man could see it underneath his helmet "Yeah and as for that system, I guess you didn't get one since your a literally a spartan like, come on dude, but mine is pretty cool the more people i rescue or the more enemies that I kill the more points that I get so that I can Upgrade my ship, that why I changed it to the Ever Changing since when I first got it, it was only a Stalwart-class Light frigate, it has taken me over a decade to get to where I am now." The captain continued on with obvious pride in his voice as the spartan just continued to stare at him in shock of the bomb he had just dropped on him.

The sheer implications that he wasn't the only one was astounding, 'At least i'm not the only one' he thought finally coming to terms with the fact that he was not the only one and that captain Magnus was a reincarnator just like him. 

As the men settled into silence the captain opened another drink then started to talk some more, "I'm sure you're wondering how I'm here instead of in some ONI facility, and trust me they tried their best to grab me, but I was able to meet someone at High Comm and explain my situation, it took one heck of a charisma check but I pulled it off, but a few years back when my ship was upgrading to a Paris-class from a Charon-class a covenant stealth ship managed to record the whole thing and now I've had to deal with them trying to kidnap me for a while as well, so that's why I got that security checkpoint real close to the bridge, it's saved me enough to prove it's worth." The captain said now more calmly that he was talking about his system.

As Jamie digested this new piece of information he turned to the captain and asked "When can I go planetside, I really need to get my intel to High Comm so that they can prepare, plus I need to be on the ground fighting not up here relaxing while more of my brothers and sisters are put in danger." Jamie said to the captain in a serious voice. "There is a pelican ready to take you planetside as we speak, your going to be taken to ONI's Castle Base, since that's where my contact in High Comm is, I've put in a good word for you so you'll probably be able to ask them for something if you ask nicely, just don't go stepping on the feet of any spooks while your there, they have been a lot more touchy since the covenant got here." Jamie nodded glad that he had met the captain since he needed to get to someone who would listen to him and take the information he had seriously, thinking a moment he wondered about what he would do now, he had gotten to reach, now all he needed to do was warn them about the flood and what the covenant had almost been able to do on the shield world. Deciding that it was time to go Jamie stood up from the couch with it groaning is relief now that the heavy armor clad spartan was off of it with captain Magnus getting up as well having finished his drink, as they walked in comfortable silence they left the vault door behind and made their way to the hanger bay.

As they stepped into the bay and approached the pelican Jamie turned to the captain and asked one last question, "I'm going to try and save Noble team and join the Master Chief of installation 04, what are you going to do?". The captain stopped and looked up at the 7 foot spartan infront of him, a fellow reincarnator but with a different start and smiled at him, "I'm going to save as many spartans that I can before following the Pillar of Autumn, Dr.Halsey and Cortana are two of the seven people who know who I really am and they know everything and are with me, the Master Chief HAS to go to the halo and save everyone, we already have a plan in motion to make sure that John won't be alone this time, and we'll try and save cortana as well, I really liked her model in Halo 4." the captain said seriously before finishing with a smirk at his last remark. 'Amen' Jamie thought before giving Captain Magnus a crisp salute, which the captain promptly returned before he turned and got onto the pelican that would take him to the surface of Reach, his home.

(A:N)What did you think :)