Harvest Files: Arizona

Prologue: Remembering Harvest

PROLOGUE: Remembering Harvest

A few days ago...

A man walked the halls of the UNSC Heavy Frigate "Mother of Invention" with no set destination in mind. He wore a simple black t-shirt with the familiar Project Freelancer logo set above the heart over a pair of black running pants and black combat boots. His jet black har was cut short and cropped tight, and his emerald green eyes focused straight ahead of him with a blank expression. He raised his right hand to trace a long scar that started at the end of his right eyebrow that curved down to an inch under his right eye.

"What's up with you, Zona? You look a little down." The man looked to his right to see a figure clad in purple and green Mk VI MJOLNIR armor leaning against the metallic grey walls. The man recognized the armored figure as his squad leader, Agent North Dakota.

"Oh, hey North," Zona muttered. "And I'm fine. Just a little tired, that's all." North stepped off the wall and approached Arizona, concerned for his friend/squad member.

"We both know that's a lie, Zona. Something's bugging you. Are you thinking about the four months you involuntarily spent on Harvest?" Zona slowly nodded. North had heard the story before, and it wasn't a fairy tale ending. Arizona was lucky to have escaped alive.

"Look, North, it's nothing. Really. I just haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep as of late. With all these missions and the Requiem's new retrofits needing testing, I've just been working a lot more and haven't been getting enough sleep to balance it out." North nods his head as if understanding Zona's situation, but he doesn't believe his story. Zona's story was partially true though.

"Zona, Nick, you should stop lying. You're a horrible liar." Zona just gave half a smile at the comment.

"Maybe not, but I'm still better than you." North chuckled a bit. "Well North, yeah. I wa s thinking about Harvest. It's been a year since I arrived there, it'll be a year after my escape from Harvest in July, and it'll be a year after my arrival back here in September. It's....not easily forgotten."

"I know Zona, I know." Arizona snapped after that comment.

"No you don't, North! You don't know what four months of continuous and painful experimentation feels like!" His hands were clenched at his sides as he spoke with now anger instead of timidness. "Darren might be dead now, but the pain of what he and that bastard Prestons caused me will never go away, no matter how much I try to forget! And it sure as hell won't go away when I kill Prestons." North raised the tone of his voice.

"You're right, Zona! I don't know how you feel! But I know the pain of betrayal and the loss of everyone in Tech Ops 11 except Silver! Gold killed them all right in front of me while I couldn't even try to stop him!" Zona looked shocked at the tone of North's voice. He almost never yelled like that. Usually the only ones that yelled were Oregon when he gets angry at anything out of conduct, or Arsen when his temper flares up. To Zona, this was a surprise.

"So, Zona, are you done now?"

"I guess. I'm going back to the Requiem. I need to think some things through. Comm me if something happens." After North nods, Arizona continues walking over to the secondary docking port where his stealth ship, the Requiem, was held. It was a Nyx-class Sloop ship used by ONI operatives, but this was refitted for combat duty. It only held one mini-MAC cannon instead of the two it was fitted with for more maneuverability, as well as 6 Archer missiles and a few Point Defense automatic cannons to protect against missiles. Being an ONI stealth ship, it was fitted with a top of the line stealth system and cloaking device. The ship, although small, could hold five aboard.

As Arizona entered, he immediately headed straight to the bunks located in the mid-section of the ship. As he sat down, his thoughts went back to that day a year ago when he received the transmission that would change his life.