Chapter 1

  -Seven Months Later-

  January 21st, 2525 - 03:00 Military Standard Time.

  New Alexandria SpacePort, Reach.

  Nathan slowly blinked awake, the sounds of the cryopod hissing around him coming into focus. A minute later the sounds of the cryo-technicians thawing out the rest of the nonessential personnel reached his ears. He stared at his reflection in the frosty glass until it lifted away, his senses finally fully coming back to him as he was exposed to the semi fresh air of the cryo bay.

  This was it. After an extensive twelve weeks of OCS or Officers Candidate School, and an additional eight weeks of specialized training to endure rapid field deployment or RFD methods, he was finally going to reach his first real assignment. Attachment to an ODST Unit operating under a Fleetcom Commander. Fleetcom or Fleet Command, being what passed for the United Nations Space Command's local head of operations planet side.

  He was ready.

  A moment later he was standing on the deck, dressed in his under-suit, and the feeling of cold steel tingling against the still sensitive skin of his feet. At least, he thought it was steel.

  Nathan wasn’t entirely sure, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized it wasn’t important.

  The cryo-technician responsible for his wake up call stood in front of him asking the standard questions as his mind wandered. The Tech checked his vitals, and cleared him a minute later.

  Nathan let out a soft sigh when it was all done, glad to be finished with his post cryo-sleep check up. Then walking down the hall and over to the cargo bench, where he was directed to gather his belongings. Without much preamble he grabbed his duffle bag and sat on a bench adjacent to the cargo bench. He dug through the bag finding himself a fresh pair of socks, and his boots, before he begun lacing them up.

  'One small step for man, one giant leap for me.' He smirked at the thought, as more of his fellow 'Nonessential personnel' filtered over to the cargo bench.

  A gruff staff sergeant stood in the doorway directing the newcomers one at a time, to sections that would dispense their luggage.

  A voice disrupted his musings;

  "Hey buddy, mind if I get by ya?" it came out in a slight Irish accent, which took Nathan a bit by surprise. Not many carried such accents out in the colonies. A quick glance revealed the voice came from a slightly shorter than average red haired man with soft features stepping up and pointing past Nathan.

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  He nodded, and shifted his bag so the young man could get beyond him.

  Nathan turned, lacing up his combat boots and tucking in his freshly dawned black ONI regulation fatigues, ready to write off the young man. Wondering just what his next move was going to be, the young man behind him spoke up again before he could step away from the cargo bench.

  "New to Reach, are ya?"

  Nathan froze, wondering if he was really that transparent, or if the young man was talking to someone else.

  Of course, Nathan couldn't be that lucky.

  As he turned to face the young man, he spoke once more.

  "Not much of a talker eh?"

  Nathan turned fully, taking in the stranger fully for the first time, eyeing him and reading his name tag.

  'James T. Carter' The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place why.

  Nathan pointed dumbly at himself just to make sure he was who the young man was speaking to.

  "Yeah mate, I'm talking to you." James said, pulling a shirt over his own under-suit.

  Nathan paused for a moment after hearing the confirmation, before deciding to answer the first of the stranger's questions.

  "That obvious, huh?” Nathan finally squeaked out. "Sorry, it was my first time in Cryo too, so I'm still kinda spaced out." Nathan said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. He was only slightly cowed for his rude behavior towards the man.

  "You're all good mate, I've just been traveling a lot, so it's easy to recognize someone new to Cryo-sleep. I don't hold it against ya."

  Before Nathan could muster a further response, the staff sergeant in charge of the disembarking piped up shouting; "C'mon ladies, we don't have all day! Get your shit, and get out of the way!"

  Nathan started to walk with James, just as a crowd formed and started pushing them along towards the bulkhead door for disembarking.

  "Jeez, talk about no bedside manner..." James muttered under his breath before turning to Nathan as they walked. "I'm James by the way, nice to meet you." He said with a carefree smile.

  "Nathan, and the pleasure is mine." Nathan shrugged, as he replied.

  As they made their way down the corridor, boots clacking along on the alloy floors, it finally hit him just where he had heard the kids name before. With a suddenly stiff back, he braced himself for the confirmation. “You’re Commander Winston Carter’s boy, aren’t you?” Nathan held his breath for what seemed like an eternity before he was met with a sharp laugh, which slowly devolved into a proper chuckle.

  “Took you that long to figure me out?” James said, wiping a tear from his eye. “Yeah, the old commander is my pops.” James paused for a moment before responding with a question of his own. “I take it you’re one of his new spooks?”

  Nathan relaxed, walking casually again after realizing he wasn’t going to be chewed out. He let out a breath before speaking. “You could say that, I'm a new field agent under his command.”

  A few minutes passed in silence as they passed through bulkhead door after bulkhead door, until they finally reached the final descending ramp onto solid ground.

  As they descended that final disembarking ramp, Nathan let out an audible gasp at the view of the sprawling city around them.

  “Well, this’ll be fun.” James said with a smirk still resting on his face. “Welcome to Reach, Lieutenant. It's gonna be one hell of a ride.”