Humanity's Lost Identity

Chpater 2- Old Players Return (Old)

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Reach

Building Of UNSC Science Development

Top Floor

Time: 9:23 AM

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Dr. Catherine Halsey and Dr. Ellen Anders stood over a holographic table. They were trying to improve a problem that one of the Colonies was having with its Orbital Defense network. There was currently a holograph of a massive cannon in parts displayed on the table before them. The AI, Cortana, was watching and giving input when needed. John-117 was off to the side watching carefully.

"What if we re input the heat sinks to calibrate with the firing sequence..." Anders said as she tapped on a few buttons. Halsey watched carefully and shook her head.

"That could certainly be a potential solution... but it slows down the over all charge of the weapon.... creating possible scenarios that we can not foresee..." Halsey replied. Anders sighed and nodded as she scratched her head.

John watched in amusement as he rested against the wall. He was over 2800 years old as were a lot of people. One of the things that Halsey and Anders were credited with is the stopping of The Aging Process. People were of course, given a choice, but most people wanted to live, at least, for a few centuries.

35 years after the events at Requeim, the UNSC and the NCS came across another forerunner world named Solace. It held many different things, one of which were the plans for the Anti Aging Serum. The Forerunners never got around to making it. So the UNSC handed it over to Anders and Halsey. Sure enough, 5 years later, people were lining up for the stuff.

Besides Some UNSC officials, no one really ever ended up going past 1750 years. They decided they had their fill of life and asked to have the serum removed. Within a year, their aging catches up and they die of old age.

John stood there in his Mk XVIII armor. It was roughly based on ForeRunner designs. It was self repairing with a three layered shield. He had a standard assault rifle on his back. Sure, they had advanced weapons, but most Spartan-II's liked the classics.

He currently had no helmet on. His helmet actually retracted into the armor based on a mental command from the user. Only Spartan-II got this kind of armor so far. It was a dark green in color much like his first armor and also had 7 stars down the arm. Wether or not he liked it, he was the Spartan commander for all versions from the II's to the VII's. When confronted by his wife and fellow Spartan, Kelly, why he didn't change the color of his armor, he responded simply. "I like how it looks" he said.

The VII were an interesting bunch. After re colonization of Reach began after the war's end, fragments of data were recovered of the original Spartan II program. This was enough that Halsey was able to rebuild it into what was known as the V's. A few errors here and there eventually lead to the VII's, where they were now.

"John...?" Halsey asked. John snapped out of his trance and looked to her. "You look like you were deep in thought. What was it about?" Catherine asked with a curious tone.

"Just thinking, Ma'am." John replied. Halsey nodded and turned to AI present. "Cortana, save this for right now. We will come back to it in a few days after we have had time to rest."

"Very well." Cortana replied. She moved her hands around a bit as she shrunk and saved the doctors work. Halsey took a drink of her cold coffee as she sat down at her desk. Anders was going through some of her personal projects.

After the Spirit of Fire had been relocated, Halsey apologized to Anders for how she had acted and despised her former student. After much time, Anders eventually forgave Halsey and the two began to work together on more and more projects until eventually, they were partners.