Editing John-117/Silver

Following the debriefing, Silver team had an encounter with the rival Cobalt team, who complained about being sent to do "cleanup duty" at the Visegrád comms relay while Silver team "got all glory", though the Master Chief warned Cobalt to take the mission seriously after witnessing what he did at the Sanctuary relay. John kept trying to explain himself to Ackerson, who kept deflecting the topic and instead inquired about Dr. Halsey's experimentations on him and the other SPARTAN-II's, in particular the insertion of Cortana into his mind, to which he expressed concern and sympathy. John reiterated that he was feeling fine. He decided to walk the streets of Reach City, bumping into Admiral Parangosky in a secluded corner. However, she told the Master Chief that she was no longer with ONI, having taken the fall from Halsey's scandals, but would be willing to listen if Ackerson continued to distrust him. Before parting, Parangosky provided John a device to contact her when the need arises.

Coming to odds with Ackerson and suspicious of a cover-up regarding Cobalt Team, John revealed to Kai something that he had not told Ackerson: that he had also seen Makee alive and well with the Covenant. Aside from that fact, he continued to insist of his findings to Ackerson, who revealed that he had already interviewed Corporal Perez, who "did not corroborate" John's story. Furious that the one other eye-witness had apparently betrayed him, the Spartan tracked Perez down to her family's apartment and demanded to speak with her. She attempted to turn him away, but her mother, thinking John was a "boy Talia had brought home", invited him to dinner, where John reluctantly interacted with their family. When Talia left dinner due to the awkward situation and her cousins making jokes at her expense, John found her outside on the rooftop, where she finally admitted to not telling Ackerson the full truth due to feeling guilty for being the sole survivor in her squad. John comforted her and gave her advice, then tracked down flight trajectories for all Spartan Teams, realizing Colbalt's mission to the [[Visegrád Relay]] was highly classified and likely involved the Covenant when he saw no results show up for Cobalt.{{Ref/Film|Id=Sword|TV|Episode=[[Sword (TV Series)|Sword]]}}  

Upon reaching the relay, Silver Team was apprehended by FLEETCOM and disciplined, with John's suspicions "disproven", as a flight path now showed Cobalt being sent to a different planet. They were to be suspended from combat missions and John was to be relieved of duty until taking a mandatory psychiatric evaluation, with Keyes relaying the message personally, telling him that he argued with ONI and Ackerson against giving him a court martial. Riz and Vannak left John alone, and Kai tried to reason with him to reconsider what he had seen, but when he continued to insist on what he had seen and attempted to invoke his rank, even she left him. On his way to his evaluation, John picked up his signal to Parangosky, then knocked out his ONI escorts before escaping. Upon meeting up with Parangosky at a ramen restaurant, he divulges to her his suspicions, but she warned him not to go against ONI and to play along with their charades. John furiously realized that Parangosky never truly left the agency, and when he stood up to leave, several men in the background also stood up, but Parangosky motioned them to let John walk away, but not before warning him she could no longer help him if he continued going against ONI. John then met up with Perez's mother, who explained that she had gone to a church to pray. Upon John seeing her there, Perez, seemingly the only person to believe his experiences on Sanctuary, revealed that she had translated a message from the [[Arbiter]] [[Var 'Gatanai]], explaining the Covenant's intent to destroy Reach in the name of "Great Journey". Shortly after, explosions rocked the planet as the invasion of Reach began.{{Ref/Film|Id=Visegrád|TV|Episode=[[Visegrád (TV Series)|Visegrád]]}}

Finally reaching FLEETCOM, John and Riz discovered from Vannak that Ackerson took their armor and Kai had disappeared. As Perez was assigned to assist with the evacuation, she attempted to say goodbye to John, who after an awkward pause, gave her the quarter he had found earlier as a token for luck. The Master Chief then met with Keyes, who had stayed behind and admitted that John was right, specifically that ONI had covered Cobalt Team's demise at Visegrád. As Keyes gave a motivational speech to the marines who were also left behind, he somberly relayed their situation, that they would likely not survive the Covenant invasion, but called Master Chief up and introduced him to the marines to boost their morale, telling them to ensure the evacuation of as many civilians as possible and to show the Covenant they "fucked with the wrong planet".

 

As Keyes insisted on fighting with them instead of evacuating, John told the Admiral to go with the civilians and that he would be needed later. Master Chief, along with Riz and Vannak, led the defenses below the FLEETCOM tower, but were called back when the Covenant advanced up the tower and threatened some of the last evacuation ships. They were too late to save Keyes, as he gave his life to eviscerate a Jackal assault group and ensure the departure of a ship piloted by Perez, but found Halsey and Soren-066 on the tower. Another assault group of Elites soon attacked, and John, recognizing Var Gatanai from Sanctuary, engaged him in combat and attempted to fight one-on-one with energy swords, though another Elite unceremoniously butted in and shot John down. The Arbiter, frustrated by being denied the duel, executed his companion and moved to finish John, but Makee, who was with the Covenant, told Gatanai to stand down and leave. Vannak sprung to action upon seeing his squad leader down, attacking the Arbiter with a needler, but Gatanai pulled out a shard stuck in his armor and impaled Vannak with it, killing him when it exploded. John screamed at the loss of his teammate while being dragged to safety by Riz and Soren.