//------------------------------//
// Chapter two: More questions than answers. 
// Story: Halo: old conflicts, new locations. 
// by acmincorporated 
//------------------------------//

I awoke in a cold, damp room. I checked myself over, I was still wearing my armor, but bandages had been stuffed in the gashes I got from my many battles on reach. I lifted my right arm in front of my face, and checked the data-pad strapped to it. According to the readings all my vitals were in the green and the bleeding had stopped, but I had two fractured ribs.

I looked around the room, I was in some kind of cell, the room was divided into two parts, the actual cell, then behind some rusty iron bars was a wooden table with some chairs around it, There was a notepad with a few pencils on the table. In the cell was a bed that was way too short for me, at least two feet too short. I heard some footsteps and turned to look at where they came from.

“You awake?” Said a familiar female voice from the other side of the cell door. standing a few feet from the cell door was the female guard from the market. Since she was still wearing her armor, I guessed she was the one responsible for guarding my cell. 

“Sir the prisoner is awake!” She called out of the open door leading to the hallway. After a few seconds the leader from the market walked into the room. The female guard snapped to attention and saluted her CO. He returned her salute. 

“Sergeant, go to the other room, I'll handle the interrogation of the prisoner.” He ordered, as he made his way to my cell. The sergeant saluted again and left the room, closing the door behind her.

“So, let's start with something simple.” He said pulling over a chair to sit on while we talked. “What is your name?” I stared straight ahead, doing what I was trained to do during an interrogation, I looked straight ahead and don't say anything. 

He waited a few seconds for my answer, when he didn't receive an answer he let out an exasperated sigh. 

“If you do not cooperate with me you will be locked up indefinitely.” He stated in a threatening voice. 

“Next question. What are you?” He asked getting up from his seat and walking over to the rusty iron bars that made up the cell doors. 

“You took out my entire squad without any trouble at all and I feel you wanted to be caught.” He stated flatly, he waited for a response and when he got none, he turned and headed for the door. 

“I'll give you until morning to decide if you want to cooperate and answer my questions, until then you will remain in lockup under guard.” He said walking out the door. 

“Sergeant.” He called into the hallway The sergeant from earlier came trotting down the hall and saluted him as she stopped in front of him. 

“Yes sir!” She said as he returned her salute. 

“I want you to guard this prisoner until I return, if he does anything suspicious report it immediately.” He ordered, walking down the hallway.

The sergeant walked into the room and took a seat, glancing at me every once in awhile. 

“What did you do to the captain to make him so mad?” She asked in a nonchalant tone, casting a curious look at me. I simply just continued to sit there as I tried to think up a plan to escape and get back to UNSC forces. 

She realized that I wasn't gonna talk so she just looked away mumbling something I could not hear. I continued to think, I glanced down at my data-pad and had an idea.

I tapped on my data-pad and brought up the comm frequencies and was about to set up an emergency beacon on the E-Band when I saw there was a distress signal already playing.

Glancing at the guard I walked over to the bed on the other side of the cell and layed down on it, laying on my right side so I could bring the data-pad next to my ear without drawing suspicion.

I set the volume so I could just hear it, and played the distress signal.

“This is ODST fireteam wilco-two-three, we are surrounded and request immediate backup on our beacon, over. I repeat this is. The beacon repeated.

As I shut down the beacon I began formulating a plan to get out of here. 

I checked my data-pad for the location of the beacon, it was point five klicks south-west, that was a twenty minute hike.

I had to locate my weapons before I could even leave the building, so that would be between one and ten minutes of searching. I was certain that they were nearby.

Now all I had to do was inact my plan.

I sat up on my bed and looked over to the mare that was trying not to fall asleep.

“Hey.” I said, causing her to nearly fall out of the chair she was sitting in.

“What do you want?” She asked in a particularly bad mood that I had startled her.

“Tell your boss that I'm ready to answer some of his questions.”

She got up and walked out of the room as I got up from the bed. I went over to the bars and leaned against them as I waited for her to return.

A few minutes later she walked back in with the commander from earlier in tow, she stood by the door. As he approached the cell he started to speak. 

“So the sergeant there said you were ready to answer my questions.” He stated. I nodded in answer and he continued. “Good, then we can handle this situation a lot quicker than expected.” He pulled over a chair using some form of telekinesis which I had never seen before.

He took a seat and started the questioning. “What is your name?” He asked. Waiting for my response.

“UNSC Spartan 312 of Beta company.”

“That's quite a mouthful to say, anything else we can call you?”

“Noble six.”

“Okay, Noble six. Where did you come from, and how did you get here?”

“That's classified Tier three information.”

“You are not in the position to tell me what is and is not classified.” He stated flatly.

“Make no mistake I am still in this cage not because I have to be, but because I want to make first contact with the first non hostile alien species a good one. If I deem it necessary I will leave here and there is nothing you can do to stop me.” I stated matter of factly with no emotion in my voice.

“If you think for one minute that you could escape here then you-” He was interrupted by a pony running in through the door and saluting him.

“Captain, The princess wants to see you. She said it was important.” He said panting, he apparently had been running a long way.

“Alright, thank you private.” He turned back to me. “We're not done here.” He said as menacingly as he could.

He left the room with the private in tow, leaving only me and the other guard.

“What could be more important than interrogating an alien prisoner? I thought to myself. “Unless...” I glanced at my data-pad, it could be just a coincidence, but my gut told me otherwise. If they were going after fireteam wilco then I'd have to get out of here and get to their position fast.