Chapter 3

(A.N. I'm retconning the cracker scene from the last chapter, I forgot that happened before augmentation)

John and his team just got sent on a mission to capture Robert Watts, an ex-UNSC Corporal.

This means my nice life is coming to an end, soon, we will meet the Covenant. They've already destroyed Harvest if my memory is correct.

"Russ, why'd you gather all of us so suddenly?" Jorge asked me. I looked at everyone in the eyes with a serious look, "when Blue team gets back from their mission, we will find a new enemy, they are far worse than any insurgents and if given the chance, will destroy humanity" everyone looked at me with a shocked expression.

Douglas stepped forward "You're not screwing with us right? Because if you are it's not funny" I looked at him, "Douglas, does it look like I am joking?"

"What can we do?" Jerome asked. I looked at him "nothing at the moment, just, keep this quiet" all of them nodded.

The intercom in our room started speaking, "049, report to doctor Halsey immediately" I walked out of the room and headed for Halsey's office.

The door slipped open and I stepped in, "you wanted to see me, doctor?" I asked while standing at attention, "at ease, 049," I loosened up. I looked to my left and saw Senior chief petty office Mendez, "I called you here to promote you" I looked at the doctor "promote me? With all due respect, ma'am, I don't know what I did to deserve this" the doctor looked at me and shook her head, "we both know that you are one of the best out of all your peers, almost better than 117, and that's saying something. You, unlike him, always think ten steps ahead and never underestimate an enemy, no matter how weak. This is why you and 117 are always neck and neck in any training exercise" Mendez cut in, "that's why we're giving you the rank of Senior petty office second class"

I was shocked, that is one rank higher than John's soon to be rank, "thank you, but, I believe 117 deserves this rank more than me"

The doctor looked at me with an intrigued look, "why do you say that?" I looked her in the eyes, "John, is a better fighter and will become a better strategist than me one day. I'd trust John with almost anything" the doctor raised an eyebrow, "almost anything?"

"The only thing I don't fully trust him on is my team, they follow me, not him" the doctor smiled, "this is exactly why I choose you over him for this promotion, you can see much further than him, and make plans for it"

I sighed, "very well, I accept this promotion. I expect John will get a similar promotion?" The doctor nodded at my question.

Mendez told me my new uniform will be dropped off at my bunks. I turned to leave, when I left the room I saw John back from his mission, I gave him a nod and headed to my bunks.

Later, all SPARTANS were called together. They told us about what happened at Harvest, my squad all looked at me while I just stared at the Covenant ship, 'I need to make sure Sam doesn't die'

[New mission acquired!]

[Save Sam!

From your previous life, you know Sam will die on the Covenant ship. Make sure this doesn't happen.

Rewards-5000exp, 5 stat points, Kurt living.

Failure-Sam's death]

[Destroy that ship!

Destroy the Covenant ship.

Rewards-10'000exp, 15 stat points, shop feature.

Failure-ship escapes, someone else destroys the ship]

I stared at the notifications for a while, 'I can get missions? Why didn't you tell me this before?!'

[...]

'Helix!'

[Helix is not available at the moment, please leave a message at the end of the tone. beep]

'That's not gonna work on me Helix. Get back here!'

"Russell!" I got snapped out of yelling at Helix by a loud voice, "huh? Yeah?" my squad looked at me," the briefing ended five minutes ago, let's go" I got up, "right, let's go".

We left and went back to our bunk room to grab some necessities before getting aboard the frigate, The Commonwealth, to head to Harvest.

(A.N. leave comments and stuff so I can improve the story)