Machines can't feel.
Machines can't hurt.
Machines are human made objects that are used to get a job done. For years, thats what Jocelyn grew up believing. That she was simply another one of those machines, with the worst luck to exist.
So who woul...
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C O N F I D E N T I A L B A S E NOVEMBER 10, 2556 17:23 HOURS
"Jun." Lexi, a new spartan, says walking up next to the man sitting at a table. "You've been staring at that folder for almost ten minutes now sir, some of us are starting to get concerned." She chuckles, sitting down.
"Hm?" He looks up at Lexi before nodding. "Ah, my apologies. It's, been awhile since I've seen this is all."
"What is it?" Lexi tilts her head and leans over a little. The tablet had in big black letters- SPARTAN B-312 [ONI CONFIDENTIAL] on it. Lexi frowns and nods. "Noble Six."
"Yeah." Jun sighs, pressing in a quick password, opening the file. "Todays her birthday apparently. She would be 32 today."
"She?" Harry, one of Lexi's team mates, comments. "I thought Noble Six was a man."
"Heh...no Jocelyn was very much a woman." Jun laughs, shaking his head. He presses into an album and opens a picture of a young woman with braided dark brown hair in crimson armor, holding her EVA helmet on her hip. Her green eyes were peircing and very apparent even in the picture and she only smirked slightly at whoever was taking the picture.
"Oh wow..." Lexi blinks. She felt like she had been lied to. This whole time she was convinced the infamous Noble Six was a buff man. Of course, everyone thought man when they heard hyper lethal thanks to Master Chief. She looks at Jun who was examining the picture very intently.
"There may be one of her and Carter in here somewhere...I know Emilie liked to taunt them."
"Wait-Commander CarterA-259?" Harry sits down, suddenly interested.
"Harry has a massive man crush on your ex leader Jun." Lexi explains.
"I do not."
"You're not the only one my friend." Jun chuckles.
"What..." Lexi stammers and her voice seems to vanish when Jun glances at her. "What was she like? Noble Six?"
"Joce?" Jun looks back at the file. "Oh, she was a bitch." He laughs, earning a surprised look from Lexi and Harry. "Stubborn, blunt and defenitely not a follower. She and Carter fought ninety percent of the time she was even on Noble. Even when they were unoffical, they still bickered like an old married couple. It did get annoying after a while. She and Kat had a severe rivalry, they got along just to keep Commander off their backs. Jorge was the only one who could handle her. Emilie and her were like brother and sister I'd say. She was my cards buddy. She had this medical issue that threw her into seizures, they thought they had fixed it, obviously they didn't. Dunno how they let her stay in the military."
"Was she as amazing as everyone makes her out to be? All I hear is how she was just a few steps lower than John-117." Harry leans his chin into his hand.
"She certainly was a solider, when she pulled that trigger she always hit something. She had purpose for every single one of her bullets."
"I assume she never used an assault rifle?" Lexi chuckles.
"Only on occasion. She was more of a Shotgun-DMR-Sniper type of solider." Jun responds. "Wow...there is a lot of ink isnt there...?" He mumbles examining a picture of her file. "How did he ever get past these censors I wonder..."
"And todays her birthday you said?" Lexi asks. "So do you just...go through their files?" She tilts her head.
"What?" Jun looks up again before laughing. "No-No nothing like that." He waves his hand dismissvely. "Come with me." He nods, grabbing his cane and walking ahead. Jun wasn't old by any means but he was slightly disabled after a bullet to the left hip. It was obvious in the terrible limp her had.
Lexi and Harry exchanged looks and stood, following after him curiously.
"I do something different for each members birthday." Jun shrugs nonchalantly. Outside of the base, they walked to a small shed like warehouse. Jun unlocked the door and walked inside, the two new spartans following close behind. The lights flick on and Jun approaches a metal bookshelf appearing set up.
It was half painted a scarlett color, and in several places had small Noble Phoenix on it. "This is Jocelyn's gift. I've been working on it for a while." Jun nods setting his cane on a table and limping closer to the shelves.
"What...what are you gonna put on it?"
"Her helmet. They found it surprisingly. Never...never did find Jorge or her dogtags..." Jun's expression wavers a moment before her blinks himself out of it. "I'm in the process of fixing up some other things too," He turns and points to a DMR laying on the table. "That's Carter's."
"Looks like a regular gun..." Harry shakes his head. They approach it and the two realize it wasn't just a regular old DMR.
"Its hand made." Lexi breathes. Jun clicks his tongue.
"Ding ding ding." Jun nods picking up the weapon. "Carter rebuilt guns in his spare time as a hobby. His bunk was always littered with parts from it. It'll go on Six's shelf." He says. "Can't get the trigger quite right...I'll get there though." Jun opens a drawer and pulls out a case with several knives in it, however there were many spots where a blade was missing from an imprint where it should be. "Emilie's. He wanted certain blades from different planets and systems. Said that when he retired he was gonna make it his life goal to collect them. He...never got that far. He was the youngest out of us ya know. Even Six was older than him."
Jun tucks the case away before pulling out a light blue scout helmet, chipping with paint, a hole in the center. "Kat's helmet. I'm fixing it up to hand off to some other Spartan who needs it." Jun says. "Maybe they can get it upgraded...I dont know. I might keep it. Not sure yet. He nods.
"What about Jorge?" Lexi blurts out.
"Hm?" Jun looks up and then chuckles. "Oh. Kelly will be bringing Jorge's gift. Its...more for me than anything, as a condolence but...I think he'll like it."
"What is it?" Harry questions, still very interested in the hand made weapon.
"A replica of Reach. A smaller sized hologram version of the planet." Jun nods, pulling a tablet with a dark screen from the drawer. He turns it on and stares at the screen. "And then theres Thomas. He...would always only ask for the smallest of things. Jocelyn and him would've gotten along. They were both as fiesty as the other." He laughs weakly.
Lexi heard the grief overcome the older solider's voice. She looked at the tablet and bit her lip. It was a simple team picture, but instead of Jocelyn-there was a man with dark hair standing between Commander Carter and Spartan Jorge. He had his arms wrapped tight around the twos necks pulling them into a low hug pose while Liutenant Commander Kat was on one side of Carter, rolling her eyes and Jun and Emilie were laughing.
"If you two will excuse me...I need to get to work. I won't have time for a while." Jun says aburptly. Harry and Lexi respectfully nodded and gave loose salutes. Jun returned them and watched them leave.
Lexi closed the warehouse door behind her and looked at Harry.
"Remind me to never take you for granted Lex...I...I don't think I could hold myself together like he does." Harry admits quietly. Lexi laughs weakly and pats his back.
