The Lancer.

Back 'n Black

“It’s hell down there.” The general said, grabbing at his scruffy 5 o’clock shadow of a beard. He leaned over the holographic table; the gridded layout of the low-population colony glowed blue, green, and red. Blue showed what was neutral; geography, mostly. Greed signified UNSC and allied forces already on the ground; which wasn’t even close enough to suffice. Red, of course, glowed the shapes of Storm Supercarriers and armies.

It was obvious why they were there; the large Forerunner ruins found inside a system of caves sparked Storm interest. For a month now, planet-side defenses have made a miracle hold against the three supercarriers there. Marines had been sent to reinforce the situation, but it was obvious what was needed:

Spartans.

Not UNSC Spartans, of course. With the current events surrounding the destruction of Requiem; it’d be impossible to receive a Spartan IV Fireteam. Luckily enough for the general, he had the option of the Freelancers; home to some of the best Spartans available.

“I understand, General. Will one team suffice?” The doctor said over com to the stressed man.

“As many as you can spare, Doctor. The UNSC thanks you deeply.” The general bit his lip in disbelief that he would actually receive the help he needed.

There was a pause that horrified the general. The thought of someone making that generous of an offer and changing their mind frightened him.

“General Price; tell me, will I be sending my Spartans into a Suicide Mission?” Doctor Bailey said, very serious about the wellbeing of her Spartans.

“In all honesty ma’am, I wouldn’t lie about the improbability of this task I ask of you. This colony doesn’t have the largest population, but the city that’s under siege has held its own for months. If your Spartans are as good as I am told, I can say I have high hopes for their completion of objectives.” Price said, chin in the air as he gave his speech to Bailey solemnly.

“I can give up two fireteams for you. Codename Gridlock and Zulu.”

“I blame you entirely.” Vance said rubbing the back of his throbbing head.

“It looks nice. Well, as nice as one of those can look.” Jessica said as she tapped the back of Vance’s head, causing his pain.

He had received a new neural implant the other day. Not only was it not destroyed and melted like his old one, it was upgraded to prevent future damage. Vance would, against his will, receive a new A.I. in the morning as he returned to work at the Freelancers. After his leave of combat for the past couple months, he’d obviously be a little rusty, but he immediately requested a combat op.

“Do you have to go tomorrow?” Jessica said sadly. It was fake, obviously, but Vance was tempted to give it thought.

“If I’m breaking in a new A.I. then I’m going into combat. Pretty much what I did with-“ Vance stopped his train of thought suddenly, it even showed on his face.

“Vance…” Jessica said, wrapping her arm around his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. It did little to affect the pain, but the gesture helped.

“It’s what I did with Dex.” Vance said quickly and painfully, obviously trying to rush past the topic.

“No A.I. will ever be like him, Vance. No A.I. ever will live up to that level of personability.” Honestly worried, Jessica knew that the entire mission Vance would spend comparing the two.

“It’ll be Smart. Aparently my experience with them has granted me with a Smart Combat A.I.” Vance was tired of the subject. He stood up, jokingly flicked his nose at Jessica, then walked into the bedroom to sleep, Jessica soon behind him.

”There’s nothing like ghosts. No matter how hard you try, you can never fully get rid of them. Whether you believe in spiritual ghosts or not, the ones in your mind are real. You make them when they die. Sometimes this is a good thing. Your mother or someone else you love being with you in your weakest moments. Or, there are the vengeful ghosts who blame you for their deaths. I’m not that kind of ghost, am I Vance?”

The next morning was long. For hours Vance stood on a shuttle on its way to port; the home to the UNSC Valor. The halls were long and well lit, like most UNSC frigates. The only difference was that Vance noticed the blood stains still imbedded into the floor from the last time he’d been aboard.

Though he’d been on this vessel before, Vance got lost on the way to the briefing room, arriving ten minutes late.

“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is General Price. Let’s get right down to business now that everyone is here.” Price looked at Vance as he sat down, trying not to be noticed.

“This is Paladin, one of the older colonies. It, luckily, survived the Great War with the same tactic as the one that has held it together thus far.” Price opened a hologram showing the planet. As he spoke, the hologram panned over large AA guns. During his pause, Price opened up another hologram of the three Supercarriers above the city. “These are our objectives. In a drive-by like fashion, the Valor will fly over the first two Supercarriers, dropping both of your teams off before be begin an assault on the third. Are we clear?”

“Clear.” The entire room answered, a mix of male and female voices, Vance included.

“Alright. You’ve been assigned cryo pods. You will be awakened a few hours before showtime. In that time, you will meet with your team and become prepared. You are dismissed.” General Price saluted before he walked out of the room. The Spartans followed suit.

The walk to the cryo pods was long and silent, every Spartan thinking deeply about the hard fight to come. Vance kicked his feet as he walked slightly slower than the others.

“Being a Spartan automatically turns off the Red Shirt Rule, right?” Vance laughed as he spoke loudly, the cryo pods in the next room.

There was no response to Vance’s comment. Those who had met him beforehand were weird-ed out to his new sense of humor, and the others thought him obnoxious. All around negative reviews.

“Jeez, tough crowd.” Vance said as he stepped inside of the pod with his name printed across the top. He stepped in and the white mist began spraying.

"Try not to get yourself killed down there, Vance."

Moving On

"You'll never replace me, Vance. I was completely unique in the UNSC. No matter how hard you look, no other A.I. will live up to the standard I set for you."

It had been a few hours since Vance had woken from his sleep back in cryo. He had been armored up and the teams would be updated to their HUD in half-an-hour. First, however, Vance had to meet his new Smart Combat A.I. "Corina".

She wasn't new; two years of tested field combat proved her to be the best match for Vance under strict and precise personality and efficiency by 91%.

The room Vance walked into was quiet and dark. It seemed no one was inside this room, the room her was ordered to enter.

Suddenly, a yellow light popped up, a hologram who's brightness flared Vance's visor for a second.

"Hello." the female voice said kindly to Vance, waving a single hand for a second before dropping it to her side again.

"Hey there." Vance said awkwardly. After a pause he stepped forward to extract the A.I.

"Most people I've met insisted on pleasantries and small talk before they plugged me in their skull." Corina shifted her hips and placed a hand on her side, tilting her head to drive the sassy point of the sentence home. Vance stopped his outreached hand and looked up at her. "Or are you one of those strong, silent type?"

Vance smirked and removed his helmet, revealing his smile. "Not even a little." Vance grabbed her glowing yellow chip and slotted it in the back of his neural implant after he plopped his helmet back onto his head.

"Alright, I'm all set. HUD feed is live and clear; no lag at all. Your vitals are set, and we're ready to do whatever it is you need to do next." Just then, the HUD updated, ordering Vance to the lower deck to meet with his team. "Didn't you have thirty minutes to meet me?"

"This is a really big ship." Vance whined as he walked out of the room.

---

"Zulu Team." A Spartan decked out in green soldier armor raised his hand into the air, four other walked around him.

It was the team Vance was going to depend on for the next stretch of time; and they were going to depend on him.

"Alright. I'm your CO for this operation; the name's LC Jesse Owen. I'd prefer just Owen over everything else. Anyways, let's make this simple; starting from top to bottom rank, sound off." Owen talked calmly and smoothly. He was the kind of leader that people liked to serve, even Vance.

"LT Vance Rojas; Vanguard and A.I. carrier; I go by Vance." He said sternly and officially. The others followed suit to his tone.

"Ensign Kevin Porter; Gunner; I prefer Kevin." He said fairly confidently. He wore Operator -variant armor.

"Chief Warrant Officer Tonya Walters; Designated Marksman; I prefer Walters." The woman armored in Pathfinder variant said.

"Warrant Officer Thomas Yolsov; Mid-Range Expert; I'd prefer Tom." He wore Air Assault variant armor.

"Gunnery Sergeant Craig Olin; Standard Training; I'd prefer Olin." The youngest of the group, apparently. Vance patted the recruit armored kid on his back, understanding the awkwardness of being on your first team.

There they stood, a team, only minutes from drop. Vance wondered what would be said next, but that train of thought was interrupted by a voice over the intercom.

"All Spartans, prepare to drop. I repeat, prepare to drop. T-minus three minutes until first drop. Fireteam Zulu will commense drop one in T-minus three minutes."

"Almighty, sounds good. See y'all on the flip side." Vance saluted casually as he grabbed his shotgun and magnum, jamming them into their slots in his pod. He sat down and began to wait.

"What'll you think we'll face down there?" Corina asked casually.

"Nothing we haven't seen or killed before." Vance smiled, tapping his fingers against his chair.

"Everything is to be seen. Nothing is to be underestimated. Doing this will get you killed, not matter how hard you fight or how skilled you are...

People will die on this mission. Your job is to not be one of them."

Alone Together

"Combat. You always made me do things that almost got you killed. Don't do that to this new one, she doesn't deserve that."

The pod crashed through several floors of the Super Carrier; a blast of purple and green overcame the window as it passed through every floor. Finally, after the long ten seconds of crashing, Vance's pod lost momentum and landed on a floor. With too little force behind the pod, it simply fell over to its side.

Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and Hunters alike scattered around the room, confused as to what was happening. One elite, tall and strong, looked down at the pod; a type he had seen before in his past experiences. The window was foggy and no movement was detected inside. The entities inside seemed dead until the pod shot open, breaking the elite's legs.

No time to grab his primary, Vance ripped his magnum from its holster and opened fire on the enemy inside the room, it had seemed to be a hangar. As he moved to cover, Vance saw the bodies of four grunts and four jackals fall over before he needed to reload.

"I suggest you acquire a more suitable mid-range combat weapon quickly. Reserves were in the pod."

"I'll be fine. Any read on the rest of Zulu?" Vance finished he reload. He popped his head out of cover and managed to kill an elite. "Fucking cockroaches."

"Owen is two floors above you. The rest haven't activated their comms. Neither have you."

Vance flicked on his comm unit and he rolled to a different set of cover, a plasma grenade making the other less comfortable. Vance shot up and threw a grenade, realizing too late that he didn't let it cook enough for it to stay on their side.

An elite picked the frag grenade up and prepared to throw it back. Vance shot back up and unloaded his magnum's clip into the elite, dropping it. The explosion killed several elites, including the commanding officer. When that happened, all grunts and jackals retreated to gain ground in the hallways.

There was an unexpectedly long amount of time for Vance to catch his breath and communicate with his team. They planned their attack and a point to regroup at.

But that was the first mission that need completing. Everyone was scattered, their chances for survival diminished exponentially. It'd be more likely than not that they won't be able to meet back up again, and Vance had to prepare for that.

Regroup

The frag grenade exploded, forcing several grunts, jackals, and one elite to the floor. The smoke and confusion allowed Vance to close in. With Corina's aid, he quickly pumped out shells from his shotgun into the remaining fodder before tackling the elite major in his way. Before he could react, the elite grabbed Vance and slammed him into the wall.

"Dick!"

The elite went to grab the sword from his waist, but Vance was too fast, shooting the elite in the chest, knocking out its shields and forcing it to stumble. Full force and frustration behind the blows, Vance laid down a flurry of fists, finishing the combo with three elbows smashing against the sides of the elite's head. It fell to the floor, motionless.

"You don't seem to shoot very often, do you?"

"I'm like a factory of hand-made ass kicking." Vance cracked his knuckles as he continued deeper into the hull of the ship.

As he continued down the ship, Vance began to hear sounds of battle, which included UNSC weapons. He began running down the long, circular shaped purple hallways until he saw the fight: Owen and Olin up against a wall holding off covenant as best they can.

Luckily, Vance was behind the covenant for once. He saw Owen, who looked right at him, so Vance waved, walked up to an elite, and snapped its neck as it reloaded; kicked a grunt into a wall; slit a jackal's throat; and shot another elite in the back before the rest of them knew what was going on.

Vance opened fire, killing four covenant before having to dive behind cover. Owen and Olin opened as well, killed the covenant who had their backs turned. Within a few minutes, they were all dead.

"Good to finally see the war hero in action." Owen stepped to Vance, offering his hand to shake

"Wha? I'm a war hero?" Vance shook with a confused face behind his helmet.

"Of course! Yeah, the whole Greek thing, the stuff on Requiem, and New York, and that Colin guy? Out of most of us IV's, you're definitely one of the most famous." Olin said with a glint of excitement.

"It's so weird you knew all of that in the exact order, man. Get a hobby." Vance place a hand on the newer Spartan's shoulder and turned back to Owen. "What's the game-plan boss-man?"

"It seems Walters and Kevin have regrouped and are making their way to the engine room. I say we regroup there and get this done and finished with. Sound good?" Owen said oddly nicely.

"Yeah, sure. But, um, how are we going to get off this damn thing?" Vance looked around the massive purple hallway.

"We'll think of something." Owen nodded as he turned to continue onward to the engine room.

Vance nodded as he began walking as well, Olin closely behind him.

"I like him. He's very nice."

"Same. It's nice to not have a dick for a CO."

"What?" Olin asked, not hearing what Vance said.

"Nothing. Wasn't talking to ya, dude."

"Oh, okay." Olin said, seemingly disappointed.

"The odds are stacking in your favor, but for how long will that last? With your luck?"

File Not Found

"Hey!" Jessica ran into Vance, throwing her arms around him. "How'd everything go?"

"Blew up a super-carrier. Nothing special. No one died, surprisingly." Vance smiled, mockingly flexing his muscles as Jessica shook her head at his notion.

"I mostly meant with the... The A.I. How'd that go?"

Vance looked around him before looking back at Jessica to answer.

"Fine."

"Just fine?"

"Yeah, just fine. Hey, can you drive home? I tired, and when we get there I wanna hit the gym." Vance quickly switched the subject.

"Yeah, sure. Okay." Jessica turned around and began heading over to her vehicle, disappointed that Vance didn't want to talk.

"Done." Colin clapped his hands together as he backed up from the operating table.

"Updating HUD. Shields loaded. Weapons check: Shoulder cannon online, M739 SAW online, wrist-mounted flamethrower online. Upgrades complete. I am now twice the war machine I was." Wrath stood and looked at his hands and chest-plate, happy with his now even more overpowered body.

"Don't go and get yourself blown-up again, sweetie. If you're out for that long again, someone could bust your chip." Lust said, a seductiveness still underlined her seriousness.

"Now, when can we attack the Freelancers?" Colin said, eagerly.

"Now, don't be brash. Charging the entirety of the big and scaary Freelancer army would kill us all. This operation will require more... Tact..."

The air was cold, fogging up Vance's visor just the slightest enough to annoy him. 

Vance's muscles strained as he crawled through the tall grass agonizingly slowly. The night was dark enough that a man without a visor wouldn't be able to see very well. Luckily, Vance wasn't one of those men. 

Ahead of him, the Spartan coated in black rose from the grass, sniper rifle in hand. 

"I've got this perch." She whispered. "Keep low."

Vance and the two other Spartans following close behind him continued on through the night. For the next thirty minutes, they moved remarkably slow to their objective. 

When Vance stood up, only feet away from the wall of the base. He held no shotgun, which was his normal weapon of choice for any mission. He didn't even hold a primary weapon; the SOCOM M6 in his hand would, and will, have to suffice. 

With his hand in the air, switching from open to a fist, Vance readied himself. When the sign was done, he quickly turned the corner, entering the base. The automatic door opened, three insurrectionists stood with their backs turned; unfortunately for them. 

"Three tangos, drop 'em."

Three shots, three drops. The Spartan quickly and silently stepped over the bodies. 

Vance activated his Promethean Vision module for a split second, giving his A.I. Corina a lock on them. 

As he went up the stairs before him, Vance almost didn't react fast enough as another Tango turned the corner to go down the stairs. Vance reached to the item on his back, grabbing it's handle. He pulled out the black machete and jammed it right into the insurrectionist's neck. 

"Watch it, you got patrol coming home. Get out of there." The sniper from the perch said, whispering loudly. 

"Go for the objective." Vance whispered as he pointed at one of the Spartans behind him. As he and the other Spartan Freelancer waited at the top of the stairs, they could hear men reacting to the dead on the floor below them. 

Suddenly, the other Spartan came running back up to Vance, holding a large tube.

Vance grabbed it, slotting Corina from his helmet to the tube. 

But out in the open, the Spartan holding the tube suddenly became ridden with a barrage of arms fire from an assault rifle. Vance reacted, a single shot to the head ended it, but the Spartan's suit was compromised, blood pouring out of bullet holes all over him. He died within seconds of Vance noticing one in his neck. 

"Damn it. We gotta go! Somebody call a recovery unit, we need to leave!" Vance ordered as he fired at charging innies. 

"I got an put for you. West side, second floor. A nice window you can get out of." The Spartan outside said loudly over her booming sniper fire. 

Vance didn't hesitate. He located the window, recovered Corina, and bolted down the hallway and out the window, smashing through glass and landing into a roll. The Spartan behind him followed suit. 

"Freelancer Command, this is Spartan Vance. We need immediate evac and recovery on us ASAP. Mission is complete."

"Here's the target, Doctor. Any particular reason you had us retrieve this?" Vance asked a he handed doctor Bailey the tube he extracted only hours before. 

"Insurrectionists are necessarily known for their scientific prowess. The fact that they have a biological device that Corina can crack with ease is... Disturbing." The doctor played around he lab at a suppressing rate while she replied to Vance. 

"So, this isn't a good thing?"

Bailey stopped and turned to Vance. "Not even in the slightest. Anyways, how are you liking the armor and weapon modifications?" Bailey's tone shifted from serious to joyful quickly. 

"Well, the machete's nice. New shifting plates make it easier to maneuver. Other than that, I didn't really see a difference." Vance picked and poked at his armor as he spoke, observing his fresh new duds for the first time, ignoring these features beforehand. 

"Well, in case you different notice, I gave your UpperCut VI a redesigned body transmission function that not only gives you 0% disability with your robotic arm, which includes the lag-time, but your suit generates more power to allow your arm move strength."

"Huh. Dope." Vance looked at his arm, completely covered in armor, but below that was more metal and wires. 

"Ahah! Got it! Inside of this tube is... Genetic data belonging to Spartan Will-916...?" Bailey's exited tone faded to a fortified, slow speech. 

"...What for?" Vance asked sternly. 

"Doesn't say. But from what it looks like, I'd say it's enough to get a fairly identical clone."

"That's not all. When I was in there, I felt... Echoes... I just now put my finger on what it was. The Lust Unit you've encountered before Vance."

"There's no way Will gave them those samples." Vance said defensively.

"Oh, I know. Says here it was extracted from 'stolen UNSC blood samples'. We won't worry about that."

"But why would Lust want to clone my dad?" Vance sat down, pondering deeply to no avail.

"Well, whatever it is, there's no way it's good."

---

"Aw... Look at my little boy, all grown up. Come here, honey. Give mama Lust a kiss."

"I'm afraid that would be difficult with this armor on, mother." A man said, seriously. 

"Why do you always gotta be serious, Cain? Just because we got serious work doesn't mean you can't smile!" Colin said, a smile on his face under his helmet. 

"I apologize father," Cain let himself smile a little under his helmet as we "smiling isn't my strongest suit."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't strain yourself. Welp, kiddo. You've been briefed. Don't come back if you fail!" Colin patted the shoulder of an Insurrectionists pilot as he stepped into a falcon, Cain walking close behin.

"Initiate Operation Dragoon. Good luck sweetheart!" Lust waved as Cain stepped into his Falcon and flew off.

"You're all weird. House playing freaks..." Wrath grumbled to himself as he exited the hangar. 

Son of the Morning [Part one of Five]
 

I just wanted to let you all know that this is what I've been working on for the past few weeks. Just some revisions and then it'll all be uploaded.

 
The horizontal lines made every movement seemed staggered, just like any other holographic video; it was common for the blue tint to slightly obstruct vision in every move. But this guy was fast, smooth, effiecient, and highly trained. There was no debate; he was a Spartan. But who? Why would he assist the enemy of what almost every active Spartan stands for?
 
The video showed this soldier, simply known as Vile, slaughtering dozens of UNSC marines with swiftness and ease.
 
Vance stood as doctor Bailey walked back into the room, hands pressing buttons on the Keyboard as her uncharacteristically worried look shadowed her face.
 
"I take it he can't be allowed to keep on keeping on?" Vance asked Bailey, breaking the harsh silence suddenly.
 
"You're one of the few agents I have on hand who can do this. I'd send Agent Nine with you, but he's already in a combat situation." Bailey didn't look Vance directly in the eye as she spoke just loudly enough for Vance to hear her.
 
"Doctor. I've got this. This isn't a suicide mission. If this guy with the stupid, ominous name wants to screw with our people and our stuff, I'll stop him. Trust me." Vance put a comforting hand on the worried doctor's shoulder.
 
"Okay. But, you won't get very far without some intel. Linda'll brief you in the War Room. Pick Corina up in my lab while you go there please." Bailey's tone returned to her fairly corky, exited self.
 
"Ma'am." Vance, in all honesty, was all talk. As he walked out of the room, making his way to Bailey's lab, Vance played through that video over and over again in his mind. The fluidity of the moves, speed that rivaled his own. Vance was worried. Not just about that, the troubling news about Lust cloning his father, Will, a Spartan II. Too much happening all at once.
 

---

 
"Tracking seems as though he was last seen on this colony."
 
"Alright, cool. Any UNSC or Freelancer presence at all?" Vance said, speaking over the noise of the Falcon he was riding inside of.
 
"Minimal."
 
"Okay then. I just got this awkward feeling, like I'm naked."
 
The Falcon landed, very touch-and-go. The second the Falcon was close enough to the floor, Vance jumped. Checking his LZ, he reached on his lower back and pulled out a HUD marker, so he and his pick-up Falcon will always know the LZ.
 
Vance kept a low profile, walking through UNSC controlled zone, and stalking about the rest, as he should have. When he eventually found an insurrections fire-base, he could have found a better opportunity. One insurrectionist soldier, seeking privacy, walked out into the dark to dehydrate in the shrubs nearby, just outside of the visable light in the midnight darkness.
 
Because he wasn't that cruel, Vance waited for about 30 seconds for the man to finish, zip up, and THEN he wrapped his arm around his throat and threw him into the bushes.
 
"Shhh. Wanna make a deal?" Vance said quietly, face to face with this terrified child, cause he was too young to be a man.
 
"Uh."
 
"Good. You know this Vile guy?"
 
"Uh..."
 
"Good. Where is he?"
 
"He's... Uh..."
 
Vance, not wanting this to last any longer than it has to, clutched the boy's throat and slammed him into the ground.
 
"Quit wasting my fucking time!" Vance said intensely, still whispering.
 
"Three clicks west of here! He's going to be leading an attack on a marine base, I swear!" The boy said, almost too loudly.
 
"Good. Now, here's the deal part of this whole escapade: I let you live, you don't alert anyone. Okay?"
 
The boy nodded.
 
"Awesome. Now, see this knife?"
 
The boy nodded.
 
"See how sharp it is?"
 
The boy nodded.
 
"I hear sirens or people chasing, I'll escape, like I always do. You know what'll happen next?"
 
The boy nodded.
 
"Damn right you do. This sharp knife goes right up the smallest hole I can find on you. See ya later."
 
The boy nodded.
 
Vance tossed him out of the deeper bushes and into a puddle.
 
A freshly made, warm, foul smelling puddle.
 
"Was that really necessarily?"
 
"Yes ma'am."

Son of the Morning [Part Two of Five]

"Movement, up ahead. About a dozen tangos."

"I see it. Suggestions?" Vance sprawled out in the wet grass, dark red armor still not illuminating under the morning son.

"I'd say stealthy approach, very slowly, pick them off one by one. Then, locate, engage, and eliminate Vile. But then again, you won't listen to me. You never listen to me." Corina said, almost sarcastically. 

"I like that idea. I really do." Vance said as he stood upright, loading his shotgun as he walked through the open field to his targets. When his shotgun was full of shells, he placed it on his back and began loading his magnum sidearm.

"WOAH! Hey! Who the hell is this guy!?" on Insurrectionists exclaimed, the ballad of less than a dozen rifle rising followed him. 

"Hold." A light, but intensely deep voice said softly as it's owner stepped forward, palm uplifted. 

"I take it you're Vile?" Vance placed his magnum on his waist and lifted his hands to his side in a "Can you dig it!?" like fashion.

"Correct. And I take it you're the Lancer?" Vile's black and blood-red armor gave him a dark-evil fashioned style.  His helmet, like the rest of his armor, was shiny and new. His red visor seemed to glow of an unnatural light. His head was fairly large and spiked, a set of spikes on either side of his head, his visor a thin line down the middle. His chest plate seemed to point down with three arrow-shaped plates. His wrists had sharpened, back-pointed spikes came out of the side of his forearms. 

"Wow." Vance stood in amazement at the set of armor before him. "You look like a douche."

There was a snickering from all parties: Corina, Linda on comms, and the soldiers behind Vile. 

"But, yeah. Some people call me that, I prefer Vance, by the way." Vance smirked under his helmet. 

"The way they described you... A smart-ass who doesn't know how to shut up didn't seem to be on the list of what I expected." 

"Oh, cute. Yeah, okay, hold up!" Vance yammered before recollecting his thoughts. "Are we just gonna sit here and roast each-other like high-schoolers or are we gonna bring the ruckus?"

In that moment, Vile seemed to travel all 500 yards in a split second, bringing his hand up to cut Vance's face. With a remarkable reaction time, Vance dodged the attack and hit Vile with a low gut blow, then coming around with an elbow to his back.

Vile recovered quickly, rolling with his added momentum and charged once again, drawing his knife. He slashed at Vance's gut. Just after a jump back to keep his insides in, Vance drew his machete, swinging it down to split Vile's head. Vile brought his knife up, clashing the blades to Vance's advantage until Vile's second knife was revealed by jamming it into Vance's kidney region, making him stagger back in pain.

"Oh, damn it!" Vance exclaimed with shock as he tried to pull the blade out.

As he did that, extreme pain filled Vance's mid-section. A boot jammed the entire handle into Vance's torso. Before the red Spartan could react, Vile was behind him, yankin the knife out of Vance by the blade.

Hunched over, Vance grasped his wound as his armor tried to fill him with bio-foam. Another boot placed itself on his back gently before pushing Vance over. 

"You're getting old, Vance. I've seen you fight. A vid of the fight with The Greeks. All these injuries have taken their toll on you." Vile mocked Vance as his bleeding began to stop and he attempted to stand. "I expected-"

Vile didn't know how, but he was on the floor, and fists were flying at him fast. In a flurry of knuckles and rage, Vance managed to send a spike off of Vile's armor into the air before he countered; Vile working his was to standing before sending Vance in a suplex. 

Recovering quickly, Vance stood in a martial arts stance unknown to Vile. He struck with a right jab, which was blocked by Vance's left while his right elbow came up and slammed into Vile's face. Vance's hold on Vile's arm tight, Vance got three more elbow hits and a knee to the chest before Vile broke free. 

"Haha! That's what I like! That's what I expected." Vile stood in a pose similar to Vance's earlier one.

"The dragon just needs a little bit of a poke to-" just then,  Vile's hands came up, protecting his face as Vance spirited at him. Vance slowed, bent his knees as he got close and shot up, bringing both fists up into the bottom of Vile's jaw, sending him in the air and on the floor.

"THAT, is what you get for pissing me off. Asshole." Vance turned around suddenly and pulled his magnum on the Insurrectionists.

"Run. I can kill eight of you, reload, and kill the last three before your assault rifles crack my shields. Trust me." Vance threatened effectively, making the soldiers heel-face-turn and run. 

"I just did the math. If the held the trigger in your general direction, you'd be dead before you killed three." 

"And THAT, Cor, is why they don't have a speaker on you." Vance sighed as he turned around to the staggered enemy.

"You really are the undying fighting spirit of the UNSC. I guess I didn't quite get that part." Vile stood. "We're both hurt and tired. I say we meet back up in... A month? And try this again. Goodbye." Vile turned and waved as he casually walked off, stopping as he heard the cock of a shotgun.

"I don't think so."

Son of the Morning [Part Three of Five]

"Tell me, are your orders to capture me and bring me into questioning... Or...?" Vile smirked behind his helmet as he turned to the Spartan behind him.

"They showed me an issue that needed taking care of." Vance said with a low, intense voice.

"So, you're taking care of it. Well, we really cant be having that." Vile pressed a button on his wrist just before Vance loaded two shells into his chest. Before he could take in what just happened, Vance was staggered by a great impact behind him.

He turned, and to Vance's horror, Wrath was already charging with a fist in the air. It impacted Vance's chest, sending him about three yards backwards. When he hit the floor, Vance shifted his weight back, rolling back to his feet.

"I don't need to say much as to how fucked you are right about now. So, let me keep it short:

HACA Mk. Delta 2 Suit Online. ALL WEAPONS LOCKED ON.

Wrath lifted both arms up, his right resembling a amped up SAW with a heavy barrel and a shotgun under it, while his left resembled a grenade launcher under a railgun.

"That's a little much, don't you think?" Vance complained as he moved to evade. He managed around the first railgun charge and the barrage of SAW rounds, but the grenade launcher knocked Vance off his feet, into the air, and into the nearest tree, sending the sound of a large crack into the air, and Vance could only hope that it was the tree.

"I agree with you, soldier. This would be far too easy. As cruel as I am, I would never suffer a warrior to die like a dog. But, then again, I can always make room for exceptions." Wrath said as he lifted and reloaded his grenade launcher. He pointed it at the downed Vance and laughed as he went to fire.

With his reflexes amplified by the adrenaline, and the fact that he's literally got one shot, Vance drew his pistol and fired down Wrath's barrel.

The explosion destroyed Wrath's weapon on his left hand. While he slotted that away for his normal hand, Vance came in for the attack, shooting Wrath in the head point-blank with his shotgun. Wrath retaliated immediately, bending the barrel of Vance's weapon and pushed him back down to the floor.

Enraged, Wrath grabbed hold of Vance's ankle and began slamming him on the ground with all of his might before throwing him back into the tree once again.

Vance quickly lifted his helmet to cough out blood without it covering his HUD. He couldn't breathe. One of his ribs were broken and jammed into his lung.

I can't die here...

Wrath growled as he stomped forward towards Vance menacingly slow.

"Vance. Hit the tree."

Wrath's growl became laughter as he got closer.

"Vance! The tree."

I might die here...

Wrath loaded his shotgun.

"VANCE! HIT THE TREE!"

Vance jumped back into his own mind as Wrath let out a confused roar of pain. With a couple seconds to assess the situation, Vance looked back at the practically broken tree behind him. Vance slammed his elbow into the wood to finish the job before yanking the hull of the large and tall tree towards him. with a roll to the side, Vance's body gave in, rolling down the hill into a large puddle.

The air was heavy and hollow, no relief came from each breath like it normally did. Everything was black and gray; the gray seemed to be the mist in front of the black background. there were figures, seen only by outline in the mist. Vance went forward towards them, only to fall on his face. There were screams of children before invisible hands helped him upright.

"Hello?"

"Do you hate us?" The sound of both young boys and girls spoke as on voice along with the eerie echo.

"Who are you?" Vance asked sternly, the force of his voice sending a stinging pain in his chest. "What'd happening?" Vance asked, short of breath.

"We want to live."

Vance looked up while on his knees, looking eye to eye with a familiar looking little girl.

"There's nothing stopping you. If you want to live, just live."

"We can't." A older boy, about teenaged said, standing to Vance's right.

"Who are you?" Vance said, the boy resembling the girl in the same, familiar way.

"We don't know." Two younger boys said together, holding hands. The youngest of them, probably twins. The pair still bared that same resemblance, but Vance couldn't place it at first, but, as he saw them holding hands and walking away, he knew. He didn't know how, he just knew.

"WAIT! WAIT, hold up a sec-"

Everything flashed white. A blaring noise tore at Vance's ears, and the sound of a choking rattle hit him before the sight of a struggling nurse with her neck his hands. When he realized what was happening, Vance let the girl go, she just gave and fell motionless on the floor, alive, but motionless.

Vance sunk back into his hospital bed, trying his hardest to remember a dream he just had. Something he realized. Something he learned.

By the time help for the nurse came, Vance gave up on the memory.

If it was important, I'd remember it...

Son of the Morning [Part Four of Five]

”What went wrong! You had him! The smallest threat to our plans unraveling it by the seams! We have an army! We have an army of freedom-fighting zealots, two Spartans, the combat portion of the most intelligent A.I. the human race has seen in THOUSANDS OF YEARS! AND ONE. FUCKING. MAN!” Lust lashed out, uncharacteristically angry, her pink hologram flaring red with every shouted word.

”Your freak got too full of himself and there was some sort of… Ghost… When I fought him.” Wrath remained cool in a somehow still angry way. As he spoke, he was sitting below a repair robot.

“Ghosts, luck, whatever else, it all doesn’t matter. Vance needs to die. Wrath, Cain, myself, we’ve all gotten close. So close, but the bastard lives!” Colin shouted, his fist slamming on a wall as he finished his statement while entering the dark laboratory. “We go. We attack! We take our zealous army! We take all we have! We go, together, slaughter every freelancer we see, and make sure we hang that damned Lancer’s head like a medieval banner.” The cruelty and frustration poured from Colin’s mouth.

“The man fights like he has nothing to lose. He doesn’t ever stop fighting, even when the odds are not in his favor. We can’t delay salvation. We get the opening, we end it. No lingering, no taunting, none of that last word shit. We kill him.”

The air became stagnant. The anger and rage, even though only one source was organic, seemed to make the air heavier. Colin charged forward, yanked Lust from the panel, and handed Wrath a SAW.



“After about five retries, I perfected the new design for your armor. But, beause of the major differences, I wouldn’t put this under the UpperCut models.” Bailey said, with a confused look but a voice full of glee.

“Looks the same to me.” Vance moved around in the odd feeling suit.

“The cosmetics are the same, yes. You’d bitch and moan for weeks until I switched it back if I DID change any of the appearances. The upgraded HUD is less cluttered and only displays valuable information. The suit now allows speed twice that of most other suits available and gives you strength that matches your… Unique Model IV augmentations more closely.” Bailey listed as she read a tablet before her.

“So I’m smarter, better, faster, stronger?” Vance smirked as he spoke.

[color=yellow]”Calculating… Only three of the four statements above are correct, Vance.”[/yellow] Corina said sarcastically.

“Ouch. If I wasn’t a hardened killing machine, that mighta hurt a little.” Vance replied.

“The main difference is the actual armor itself. If a blunt impact hits above a certain amount of force, then the armor will adjust to spread the shock out to dramatically reduce damage.” Bailey wasn’t done, but her thought was soon forgotten by the visitor who enetered the room.

“Can we talk?” The unarmored Will said to Vance casually.

The two walked together down the hallways of the Freelancer station for a few minutes before a word was actually exchanged.

“You know I can help.” Will said plainly.

“I know you can. I just don’t see why you would. This is my fight, Will.” Vance, now unarmored, rubbed his short haired head awkwardly as he spoke.

“It is. I know as well as any of us about having bad guys, Vance. But these things aren’t just misused A.I., are they?” Will stopped.

Vance went forward a few more steps before stopping and turning to talk. “No.”

“And that Vile guy. I saw the tapes. And I know who I saw. So, one of two things are happening. Either you’re a treasonous terrorist, or that bio-sample was used to make him.” Will’s voice became more and more stern as he spoke.

“I was fighting you, but trained by me. So, I have no reason not to believe Colin is alive.” Vance looked away as he spoke.

“It’s okay to fight your personal bad-guys, Vance, but you’re going to need help to fight all these demons.’ Will put his hand on his son’s shoulder.

But Vance just pulled his body away.

“They’re demons I made. They’re my sins. And I’ve always fought with all I had, but that was never enough to escape all these mistakes. Dex’s evil echoes want me dead, and a monster I made joined them. Now, they made something that can easily be the embodiment of the mistakes I made with you. My service to the Freelancers, the UNSC, everything has built up to this threat. Dad, I don’t see a happy ending to this. Just pain and fighting until my body gives and I don’t exist anymore.” Vance’s voice cracked as he sunk his face into his right hand, his front still turned away from Will.

“Vance…”

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be just like you. Even when you killed Mom’s husband right in front of me. Even when I went months before I even heard where you were or what you were doing. All I wanted to be when I was a kid was to be a Spartan. Just like dad. Locking myself in my room all day pretending I was a soldier in my games. Named the characters after you and everything. No matter how much I wanted to be like you, I could never bring myself to love you, or even like you. You were just another name on a list of people who didn’t want me. So many people who didn’t want that kid, Vance. Why was he bigger than us? Why was he faster, stronger, just all around better, but spent the whole day moping around and stayed locked up inside his house? A step-dad who didn’t want me, a few girlfriends who didn’t want me, aunts, uncles, cousins, family in general who didn’t want me, a school who didn’t want me. That’s all I ever wanted: to be wanted. When I joined the program, I was 16 in a program that only accepted middle-aged people. No one wanted me there either. But when I became a hero, when I helped destroy a major insurrection movement, I was suddenly wanted. I was damaged in an almost impossible to cure way, but I felt wanted. I was wanted before that, a little smart assed friend speaking in my head, smarter than he could ever realize, couldn’t understand why he couldn’t live without me. When he was gone, when I was without him in that alien jungle, I felt truly terrified. When he gave his life to save mine, I had never felt more alone. He died for me twice, yet his ghost in my head saves me to this day. The biggest regret I have is that I couldn’t get rid of Renegade forever. Dex died to fragment him, and Dex faded again after saving my life for months. I may not survive this, Dad…” Vance finally turned to Will, tears pouring from his faded brown eyes. But suddenly, they lit up, still faded, but faded with a fire burning white-hot behind his irises.

“…But I’ll make sure they don’t either.”



"Brothers! Sisters! Today, we fight to end the oppression the UNSC and Freelancer operatives have afflicted on us all! We will take the Freelancer space station, we will take their ships, and we will liberate this system! And we will not stop here! We'll hop from system to system until we take free-man's home back: We WILL take back Earth!

Son of the Morning Finale: Death of a Sin

Vance's rag-doll body slammed against the hard, cold metal wall. He hit the floor with slightly less force than he hit the wall. Such force would break every bone in a normal man's body, with his Spartan II inspired augments, custom to him in the IV program, he only broke some skin.

"Not so un-killable without your precious armor warrior?" Wrath mocked, his voice low and electronic like some sort of sci-fi villain*. His armor, a modified version of a past Villain's, Delta, bared a onyx and red colored paint-job. his right arm remained bare while his left held his almost iconic SAW by the top of the gun. All 9 feet of metal, wires, and anger stomped towards Vance menacingly.

"Yeah." Vance struggled to articulate his word as he stood up, knees shaking. "It must really boring for you to smack me around like a practice dummy." Vance smirked as he spoke.

"Fighting you has always been boring. You just take hits until you get lucky enough to disengage combat for a period of time. It's like fighting a fly. But then again, the fly always seems to get SMASHED!" As Wrath exclaimed, he sent a heavy boot in Vance's direction, aiming to smash into his chest like the blunt object that it was. he Spartan rolled to the side, grabbing a sidearm off the floor as he did. after placing a knee and a boot on the ground to stabilize, he fired all eight shots into Wrath's faceplate to no effect. Out of ammo for his magazine, Vance threw the pistol to the side and got off of his knee and onto both feet.

Vance knew how he needed to kill Wrath: extreme speed and luck that makes sure Wrath wanted to beat him to death like usual instead of shooting him. With his armor, Vance could easily be torn to pieces by that LMG. He needed to get to his A.I. core chip, most likely slotted into the back of the titan's head.

Wrath did the opposite of what Vance hopped, pulling out his SAW and firing the high caliber rounds in full auto.

The first bullet that hit made contact to Vance's arm, numbing the entire limb in a matter of milliseconds. Blood shot out like a bullet from a firearm as Vance's perspective went into slow motion. The other SAW rounds came at Vance at scary speeds still. Vance knew that if he didn't move, he was dead.

The Lancer needed to run towards the nearby armory, the weapons inside and the bullet resistant windows could be a life saver. The only problem was that it was behind Wrath. It was risky, but that was Vance's specialization: High Risk, High Reward.

"Hey, 'sup BITCH!?" Vance hollered as he began sprinting towards Wrath like a madman. Wrath aimed at him with his LMG, which Vance timed perfectly to slide-dodge the bullets by inches before Wrath's A.I. could target lock. Vance's organic, numb arm was ragdoll, swinging around and bleeding as Vance stood and began punching at Wrath with his other, robotic arm.

The flurry of heavy punches managed to force Wrath to step backwards to keep balance. He attempted to grab hold of the smaller enemy to no success and was backed into the wall of the armory before he attacked successfully, kicking Vance to the side and into a column, denting the metal.

"Impressive, little warrior. You are truly the undying fighting spirit of your military. Of course, the undying part being symbolic." Wrath didn't have a mouth, or even a real face, but the tone of voice definitely implied a sharp-toothed smile from ear to ear.

"Do you know... Do you know how many times I've been killed? Medially, I mean? if you want to get technical, the bat-shit-crazy A.I. you fractured from killed me. The guy who wore your armor got me spaced. I've been smacked around by Forerunners, Prometheans, other Spartans, whatever. You aren't the first to try to kill me you overpowered fuck--and you're certainly not the last." Vance smiled before scrambling to his feet and running into the open door ofnthe armory, which was very large to add.

Wrath let out a sadistic chuckle and lifted his arm. A wrist grenade launcher slotted out and fired at a locked-on box of ammo. The following explosion shook the entire station. Wrath's HUD was even scrambled. When he recovered, Wrath walked away, knowing well that without his armor, Vance would have been completely evaporated aside from a few piles of ashes and scattered bones. Maybe some eyeball juices.

The Lancer was dead.

---

Several Hours Before Final Conflict

The knock at the door was hollow and metallic, Jessica knew exactly who it was.

She opened the door to see Vance practically fall on her, so suddenly she though he was injured.

"Hey." Vance said softly.

"Hey, you okay?" Jessica said with less finesse, a more worried tone clustered her words.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm... I'm just tired from the trip." Vance lied.

"How'd the mission go?"

Vance let Jessica go and looked at her, seemingly concerned or confused. "How'd you know I-"

"Agent Nine tells me. After few of my puppy eyes and a 'Pllllleeeeeaase?', all of his 'Sorry, it's confidential' B.S. crumbles over vid-comm." Jessica joked with comedic voices and a big smile.

"Usually I have to get him drunk, 'cause I don't think that'd work so hot for me." Vance smiled before he walked into the apartment and tossed his dufflebag through the open door and into the bedroom.

"I wont be here for very long. I'm gonna go visit my mom's before I come back for my official 'leave'. I'll only be here for a few weeks, too." Vance sighed, obviously unhappy about leaving.

"Well then. Let's make sure we make the most out of the time we have now." Jessica put her arms around Vance's neck with a wishful look in her eye.

Vance ducked under her arms, grabbed at Jessica's knees, hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her through the bedroom. "LET'S GET STARTED THEN!" Vance exclaimed with a joyful laugh.

The FCC has had the next few scenes removed due to: Inappropriate content and boring lovey dovey shit. Please enjoy this complementary Gifs for compensation: http://replygif.net/thumbnail/147.gif
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4wadtxe1W1qiwk0do1_500.gif
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma4eerTqA01rcciplo1_500.gif Thank you for your patience!*

---

Continuing Final Conflict

"HEY! Wannabe War-Machine!"

Wrath turned, not believing what he was hearing. "What? That's not--WHY DO YOU NEVER STAY DEAD!?"

"It's called a back door bitch." Vance smirked as he raised the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and fired both rounds, the first too low and staggered Wrath back from the splash damage. The second, however, hitting Wrath directly, sending him into the air and into a wall.

Vance walked over to the heavily damaged Wrath, who struggled to get up as his body sparked and his chest began to break apart. Each step closer Vance took, the bigger he looked to the defeated Wrath. But the seriously pissed off A.I. didn't totally miss with his explosion, the entire right side of Vance's face seemed raw and burnt to the second degree. If he go off of this station alive, he'd bare that mark the rest of his life.

"So. You finally killed me, and your sins are almost absolved. Kill Lust and Dexterous Renegade is gone forever."

Vance was dead silent and brooding as he yanked Wrath's chip from the back of his body's head.

"How does it feel? To be so full of... Wrath?"

Before the damned A.I. could say anything else, the chip was snapped in half and thrown into the fire of the armory.

Vance roamed around the destroyed Freelancer facility. Marine and Spartan corpses laid about the floor. Vance knew so many of them. The Spartans were killed by one obvious and dealt with assailant, but the Marine and Insurrections slaughtered each other all about the facility. The gunfire stilled echoed through the halls, sounds of battle off in different areas of the place.

The gunshots were suddenly drowned out by the familiar sound of a shotgun blast close by. Vance's back ran with pain and soon joined his arm in being numb. He fell to his knees before he realized he'd been shot. He heard the cock of a shotgun behind him and felt a barrel against the back of his head. Vance closed his eyes and, to his surprise, his life didn't flash before his eyes. Those four kids showed up, outlined by blackness as the shook their heads, walked away, and began to fade.

For some reason, this brought tears to Vance's eyes before he heard the shot of a gun.





*- lol joke

Son of the Morning Finale: The Broken Lance
 
Vance reacted, spinning around and grabbing the shotgun from the unknown assailant, who was found to be a Innie. But Vance was too late, cause the gunshot he heard did happen, but it wasn't for him. Blood shot out at Vance's face from the soldier's wide-open throat.
 
Now armed, Vance looked over to the origin of the shot, gun raised in the air. All he saw was blue before the full extent of the pain in his back pellet wounds hit, almost sending him to the ground before a hand came to help him up.
 
"Vance? Vance! You okay?"
 
"What?! NO!" Vance freaked out at the blue blur before him. he pushed it away and aimed hit weapon before his ears stopped ringing and his vision cleared.
 
"Whoa, Whoa! son, it's me." Will put his hands into the air, his signature MA5K carbine on his back along with his machete. His armor was older, class three, Will's older set of armor. It's blue paint almost seemed secondary to the scratches, burns, dents, and other charming characteristics.
 
"What? Dad? I-- AH!" Vance stood straight up for a second before hunching over to fall, Will catching him again.
 
"Hey, kid. Go easy. We're gonna get you a fast equipping suit box thing, or to the circle things.' Will said while trying to keep Vance propped up, his son slowly beginning to go limp.
 
"Jesus Christ, I've bled so much." Vance smiled, trembling to the sheer pain his entire body felt, everything including his arm was no longer numb.
 
Will sat Vance down on the floor, propping him up against the wall, holding his head upright as he did so like Vance was a toddler, but he needed it.
 
"Keep your eyes open, Vance. This fight isn't over. We need you." Will was crouched in front of Vance, looking down at him.
 
"You know who's good at saving the world? You. John, too. That Moroni guy's pretty tough too. That Manny guy looks tough too, but he can be a dick. Blaine seems to have everything figured out. Get them to save the day... Get them to the big climatic final battles. I can hardly keep my eyes open. I'm gonna take a nap now, Dad. I'm gonna close my eyes for a few minutes, and I'll see you on the other side. You're old... So I shouldn't have to wait too..." Vance's words became more and more slurred as he spoke, the gap in between words widening before his eyes seemed to loose their natural blue glow, fading to a dull, ocean colored blueish green, all life gone as he closed his eyes and hunched forward.
 
Not even a second passed before Will reacted badly. He grabbed Vance by the chin and slammed his head against the wall, everything snapping back together. All color poured back into his almost glowing cyan eyes and the color returned to his lips as well.
 
"Ah due! What the fuck! OW!" Vance quickly clutched his head in pain.
 
"You're not giving up on me so early you little runt! This is your fight! Remember? Your fight, and I'm helping. All of those people handle their fights and live to help finish others' another day. we may die today Vance, but not while those bastards are still blowing our shit up! Now, GET UP! Get up for that girl back home. Get up for your mother. I know it's hard, I loved her too. So do it for her, GET THE FUCK UP!" Will barked. Vance couldn't see his father's face, but he could tell he was furious, so he shot up like a man without pain and with a mission would. He wrapped his arm around Will's neck, limping along while Will walked down the hallway to the armor station.
 

---

 

Five Hours Before Final Conflict

 
"What is it?" Jessica said from behind the closed bathroom door, sounding very sickly.
 
"My mom is at the Freelancer station." Vance said, confused as he started packing.
 
"Why?"
 
"She wanted to see me. My trip home was planned months ago. Something's gotta be wrong. Hey, you okay?"
 
The answer she gave, a simple yes, was a lie. Jessica was on her knees above the toilet vomiting.
 
And she was seven days late.
 
"Alright. I'll need a ride to the port, Jess." vance said loudly, as his unpolished packing skills proved annoying as he had to quickly unpack and actually fold his clothing.
 
"Okay!"
 
The two finished getting ready and were off to the space port. Vance grabbed his red dufflebag and leaned in to kiss Jessica.
 
"Sorry, but, have you been chugging vinegar?" Vance said with a smile as Jessica pushed him by the shoulder. He took his head from the car and took off into the port.
 
In a matter of hours, Vance was at the Freelancer Station, charging in, hardly listening to the things some security guard was saying.
 
"Mom!" Vance said as he rushed to hug his mother who he had not seen in over a year. She was in a chair on the far side of Doctor Bailey's lab. "Mom, what's wrong? what are you doing here?"
 
"I wasn't safe at home, son. This tall man in a suit of armor came into the house and asked me where you where." Aundrea, Vance's mom, was midway into her forties, yet there was no signs of aging on her part, as compared to Will, Vance's father, who was the same age, who looked well into his fifties.
 
But for the first time in a long time, Vance's mom looked scared.
 
"Damn it! What did you tell him, mom!?" Vance yelled, not angry, but heavily concerned to the point whereto two could be confused.
 
"I told him to shove it whatever hole in his armor lead to his asshole." Aundrea smiled, her normal confident bravado returning.
 
"He went for my... Doctor. How soon can armor up?" Vance turned to Bailey.
 
'Vance, you can't go charging off to fight these people. Not only do they have an army, but you don't know where they are." Bailey said calmly, putting her hands out to try and calm Vance down.
 
It didn't work.
 
"Mom, get on a shuttle and go to Earth. You'll be safe from attack there. Bailey, five minutes." Vance ordered around as he charged out of the room.
 
"He's so protective of you." Bailey observed almost silently, that bit reaching out loud.
 
"He's my baby. When he was a kid, he used to fight monsters to make sure it was safe for me to sleep at night. When he was older, he'd get into fights wit kids who would mention me in an unkind way. No matter how much I tried to stop him, he was always my loyal little soldier.
 
Vance was ready to armor up, his skin-tight gel layer applied and his combat robotic arm attached. He walked with his mother to see her off the station, his brooding face evidence enough that he was ready for some revenge.
 
Vance hugged his mother and she kissed him on the cheek before she left for the shuttle. When the doors closed behind her, Vance turned sharply and walked over to get his armor equipped.
 
But suddenly, there was a rumble that shook the whole station. Vance turned and looked back out of the window and into space. He could see what looked like a huge gnash in space off in the distance.
 
Slipspace rupture. The ships shot through; three frigates built for battle. Vance calmed down for a second before he observed the name of the biggest ship: the UNSC Samuel Bolivar, the famously reported stolen ship.
 
The full extent of the terror didn't hit Vance until he saw a shot ring off, and the shuttle his mother was on practically turned to ash.
 

---

 
"There. Now, stay still. Have you worn this set of armor? It looks new." Will observed on the newly armored Vance, returning in his standard Red armor based off of the Warrior and Pathfinder variants.
 
"Once." Vance grunted, still in pain.
 
"Give yourself and your armor to recover. Let it replace your lost blood and fill your new orifices with bio-gel." Will suggested.
 
"No joke; the way you said that makes it sounds like my bullet wounds are new assholes." Vance laughed, clutching himself.
 
"They kind of are."
 
"So I heard you two were still kicking. Of course, I just had to come and recede that mistake."
 
"Vile." Vance glared as he tried to stand, Will motioned for him to stay down as he walked forward.
 
"Please! I'd much prefer my actual, not so douchey name. Please, it's Cain." Cain bowed as if a crowd was clapping.
 
"Vance. Stay down until your HUD says you're more than 90% combat efficient." Will ordered as he slowly stepped towards Cain.
 
"I'm a 23%."
 
"Exactly. I got this."

Son of the Morning Finale: The Blue Titan

Cain, on a base level, was at a disadvantage. His primary weapon, a shotgun, was easily outmatched by Will's MA5K Carbine at the range they were battling in. Cain took cover behind a large wall, and Will lost him.

"Damn it." Will said to himself, backing up in front of Vance, protecting him.

"Take two more steps back." Vance ordered before smacking a piece of equipment onto Will's lower back.

Suddenly, everything went blue, yellow, and red, revealing the outline of everything, even through walls. A big, red figure crawled around a corner and stuck its weapon around the corner.

"Oh shi-" Will said as he grabbed Vance and threw him behind cover before joining him.

"SERIOUSLY? Ow!" Vance complained as be clutched his still injured arm.

"Vance, how the hell do you turn this thing off!?" Will tampered with his older model HUD to no effect, resorting to tearing the vision pack from his back, smashed it, and threw it at Vance.

"Luddite." Vance snarled.

Will poked his head around the corner to see what he could see concerning his enemy. When he did, he saw only the barrel of the shotgun before his reacted. His left hand moved the barrel upwards, Cain's slightly slower reaction time causing him to shoot the ceiling. Will's right hand, one of the hallmarks of Spartan II's physical strength, came up and impacted Cain's stomach, but it didn't just stop there. With a huge grunt, Will brought Cain up and above his head, and slamming him down to the floor behind him.

"Holy shit!" Vance kicked himself away, the action getting a little close for comfort. "No, really Dad! Just fuck!"

Will's assault stayed on its violent course. He kicked Cain in the face as be tried to get up, grabbed his MA5K and unloaded the clip into Cain's chest, cracking his shields with the very last bullet.

Cain let out a hopeful, happy, and spiteful laugh in a literal "HA!".

Will flipped his empty carbine around and smacked Cain in the face over and over again until he was able to dodge one and escape the bad position he was in.

"Okay, this is ridiculous! Time to do something stupid." Cain began pressing buttons on his tac-com. "Administer RumbleDrug."

All of a sudden, Cain almost fell over, a blood cutting scream filling the room as he spastically moved about before suddenly stopping and standing perfectly still.

"So... Lets see how your strength fairs against me now." Cain said with a huge smile and a slight chuckle. As Will and Vance stood in awe of what just happened, Cain took off his helmet as his shields recharged.

He had Will's face.

"You weren't kidding." Will said to Vance, not breaking eye contact with Cain.

"He's a skinnier; younger, douchier you!" Vance jested, laughing to mask the pain as his suit braced the broken bones in his back.

Suddenly, the black and red blur bolted to Will, it's fist leading into Will's lower torso, followed up by wrapping its arm around Will's neck and falling backwards, smashing the stunned blue Spartan's head into the ground. Seconds later, Will stood up.

"Yeah! Kick his druggie ass!" Vance commented from afar.

"Seriously, enough with the comments from the peanut gallery!" Will shot at Vance, who kicked backwards some more as he put his hands up defensively.

Cain came in for another attack, which Will was prepared for. The two attacked and countered over and over again. Will lined Cain up, ducked under a right hook, and tackled Cain into the wall, clutching the inside of his knee and pulling Cain close enough to do it two more time and slam him on the floor.

The second they touched the floor, it seemed, Cain brought his feet up and shot Will off of him. Will rolled back and recovered quickly.

Both drew their weapons, Will his machete, Cain his very large knife, which might as well have been a knife.

There was a delay between the charge and the showing of the melee weapons. It was intense and quiet, Vance itching to step in. In just seconds, his suit would allow him to engage in combat with 80% combat capability.

Will waited for Cain to make the first move, the first slip up. His high to begin to fade, this his reaction time beginning to follow suit, just like Ryan did.

The charge was instant, the winner obvious, the loser dead.

No matter what drugs were in his system, Cain could never match up to Will's strength and experience, even if he was his clone.

The two charged forward, Cain realizing just soon enough that Will would hit first, so he brought his blade up to defend the attack. Will's Blade, a personal gift from Doctor Halsey, was made of the strongest metals known to man and the sharpest, most powerful diamond sharp edge. It went through the stainless steel knife like butter and through Cain's neck even smoother. The angle wasn't so that Cain was decapitated; but the entire right side of his neck was split open, shooting out a waterfall of blood onto the floor in a mater of seconds.

And in that moment, Vance was finally combat ready.

Son of the Morning Finale: We Were Brothers Once

WARNING: The following chapter is nothing but violence. Not my normal flurry of fists violence, either. Like, blood, graphic description, awesome assbeatings. It's crazy. I donno why I put a warning there. Read the damn thing.

Vance ran only a few feet in front of Will, who kept a close eye on their 6. The attack was waning. Everybody on the station was either dead or a supersoldier, and all of the Freelancer Spartans were ordered to pull out and escort VIP's aside from Vance (On request), Will (On request), and several other Spartans.

Neither Vance nor Will had seen them since Vance engaged Wrath.

When the initial attack hit, there was no time to armor up, those who were armored owed their lives who fought off targets while the VIP's tended to them. Several unarmored Freelancer Spartans died by the hands of Wrath, Cain, and pure numbers of the Innie drones alone. Colin, Vance's target, was nowhere to be found.

"Where do you think he is?" WIll asked, trying to pace with the younger, faster Vance.

"He's here. We find friendlies, we'l find him." Vance said, almost ominously.

Vance stopped suddenly when screams and shots rang into the air. He peaked around the corner to Colin attack a younger Freelancer Spartan (Model IV).

The Spartan, who was in a full suit of Recruit style armor, attacked with no weapon in hand, a battle rifle on his back. He charged forward, fast as a bull and winding up a punch.

The exact kind of strategy both Vance and Colin were train to combat.

With ease and fluid movement, Colin clotheslined the poor Spartan, sending him to the floor. Colin drew his standard issue knife and jammed it up under the chestplate. A sad, painful coughing noise came from his helmet as blood and spit seemed to pour out the neck.

"Trained with the best, beat out the rest, am I right?" Colin laughed, wiping the blood off of his gauntlets and onto a dead marine's pant leg.

"Does it look like I came here to joke?" Vance said defensibly as he walked around the corner, motioning Will to stand back.

"I figured I'd be the first you'd come after, yet, here I am, last man standing." Colin laugh, his new, white armor stained with blood.

"You were." Vance said plainly, the silent anger that came to him at the sight of his greatest sin nearly drew him insane right then and there.

"You know, I had a thought." Colin said, ever the casual one. Just then, Vance noticed the almost robotic change of tone in his voice just before his teammate and friend Agent Nine, or John, slit his throat last they met.

"What if we switched places? What if I had Maddy and you wanted her? What if I was the prodigy and you had to work at being a Spartan? What if, ever choice we made that lead up to the day we met changed so our places were switched? Do you think you'd do the same?" Colin said, pacing around the body covered room with his hands high to his side and his head nodding upwards.

"Probably not."

"Why?"

"Cause I'm not a piece of shit like you. I don't think I'm a huge prodigy who surpassed his teacher the day he met him. I'm not some whiny brat who couldn't control his tiny developing brain to follow simple orders MISSIONS from his teacher sending him to big missions in his place. I am not a man with the complex of a high-schooler. I AM ME AND YOU ARE YOU." Vance ranted, a few tears coming to his eyes under his helmet, but you could easily hear it in his voice.

"I loved her." Colin said blatantly.

"I loved her too-"

"THEN WHY'D YOU KILL HER!" Colin exploded, grabbing his DMR from his back and firing down the hallway at Vance, who rolled back behind the corner.

As he waited for a moment to move into his shotgun's range, Vance heard a sliding noise he at first thought to be a grenade, but turned out to be a blood covered armor ability.

He grabbed it and jammed it into the slot on his lower back, the function of what he just equipped appearing on his HUD.

Much to his sadness though, Vance heard the groan of the dying Spartan who probably saved his life and won him the fight right before a gunshot that killed noises and the man.

Vance popped around the corner confidently, marching towards Colin like the man on a mission that he was. Colin pulled out his sidearm, his primary weapon's clip empty, and unloaded all eight shots at Vance's direction, which was suddenly covered by a large, body size blue shield.

The Hardlight Shield, a bulletproof Forerunner shield that worked well to deflect almost any kind of firearm. So, Colin's magnum did nothing.

Vance's fast pase began to turn into running, and soon he slammed into the back of the retreating Colin, smacking him into the wall. Before Colin could get up from his shock, Vance sprinted over, sliding on the ground and kicking Colin in the face, knocking the back of his head against the wall. Hard.

The flurry of hits to follow were merciless. The pent up aggression, frustration, self destruction, and pure, unadulterated anger unleashed on one, single, physical attack on Colin's entire body. Vance kicked him into the wall in the face, chest, legs, everywhere several times before standing the surprised terrorist up. As fast as his augments and armor allowed, Vance unloaded his knees and elbows into Colin's lower torso and the side of his head. To finish this particular attack, Vance literally grabbed Colin's face and jammed it into his knee over and over and over again until the visor cracked open. When this happened, Vance shoved the defeated man into the wall and onto the floor.

Vance turned and walked a step away, pulled out his shotgun, and put it inside Colin's still occupied helmet.

As Vance was about to say the standard "Any last words?", he noticed the sound Colin made. It was wheezing. He couldn't breathe. Agent Nine's knife cut so deep, that Colin would never be able to take his armor or helmet off unless left out in short doses. When Vance realized this, he almost felt sad. He almost felt like this sad, bleeding, beaten man before him was like a lost little brother. Hetook the shotgun out of the helmet.

"Vance... I can't... Help me..." Colin begged, barley able to collect enough air to speak.

"I know." Vance said as he walked over to pick up the pink chip that Vance knocked out of Colin's head moments ago. "I've decided that I'm done being the good guy who mercy kills everything." Vance said coldly as he wrapped Lust's A.I. chip around some cloth from a downed marine and put her in his ammo container on his waist.

"But... Vance... I... Help..." Colin reached out, literally reaching out for help. Vance was no monster. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't do this to the kid.

Vance grabbed Colin's hand firmly, a huge smirk arriving on Colin's face.

No one knows if this was why Vance did it, that smirk set him off to know he'd betray him again, or if he had just decided from the beginning to do this.

With a yank towards him with one hand and a fist flying forward on the other, Vance effectively knocked Colin out for the rest of his life, making sure he was well away from the marines by the end of it.

Weeks Later

"Hi."

"Hello, Vance. How are the wounds recovering?" Doctor Bailey asked, brushing dirt off of Vance's shoulder.

"Fine, fine. I plan to go on vacation with my girl, so. Hey, listen, think you can do two things for me. One's real easy." Vance said, almost ominously again.

"Yeah, sure, whatchya need?"

"A question answered."

"Go for it."

"Is there any way to deconstruct an A.I.? Like, a really smart one? To like, delete every letter one at a time in her coding or something?"

"Yes, definitely. A slow quality scramble should do the trick. Disassemble any and all data and return it to it's original source."

"Cool. What about this?" Vance handed her a piece of cloth. After some fiddling around, they had their answer.

"This would take about five days to slow scramble. Really high processing A.I. there. Where'd you get it?" Bailey asked, leaning in towards Vance.

"The secret is why it's a favor."

Bailey sighed, "Yeah. Alright. I can do that Vance. Now run off on your vacation. Take care of yourself."

"I'll see you soon." Vance said as he smiled and walked out of the room.

END

Epilogue

The Freelancer station, any one of them or anyone near or in it wouldn't see Vance for another couple of years.

Jessica, Vance's girlfriend, was reported missing from her work at the hospital within the next few days. That building did not see her for a few years as well.

In his travels, Will set out to find Vance years later, only to find him in an hour of need, of a favor, of one last chance, but Vance refused and never saw him again.

Agent Nine was the first to see Vance, years later.

Jessica and Vance were presumed dead one year later.