Chapter Text

The noise of the Pelicans engines spinning up, was piercing. Today a noise that was comforting has now turned into one of anxiety. We are in line getting ready to get on the ship. Audri looks back, helmet in one arm and a stoic look on her face. As her eyes meet mine, she smiles. Her fist taps her the top of her head, asking if I was ok. I replied with a thumbs up. She continues to smile as she puts her helmet on her head. Her SPI armor gleaming in the light of the rising sun. The SPI Mark II armor is like ODST armor in the fact that it is lighter and can be mass produced, just like Spartan IIIs. The MJOLNIR armor that the Spartan IIs received were powered and meant not only to augment the Spartan inside, but also to make them close to invincible. They could fight out in the open because of their armor. Our armor was a quarter the power of theirs. We had to fight from the shadows. The one thing the SPI armor had going for it was that it was fitted with special photo-reactive panels. These panels made the armor act like the skin of a chameleon, it mimics the colors and textures of what is around it. My helmet is already on. I check one more time to make sure my sniper rifle was strapped to my back. I look down at a tablet displaying a topographical map of the mountains we were headed to. Nothing looked promising. One position would leave us open in the back where as the other would leave us completely out in the open. Taping a spot that I think would be a good vantage point I pick up the backpack that was at my feet. Audri picks up a backpack with all the spotter gear and gets on the ship. I take a deep breath, stow my tablet in the cut out in my thigh armor and step onto the Pelican. Taking a seat near Audri, I click the bar over my shoulders and sat back.

“Hold on grunts,” our drill instructor yells over the engines “It’s going to be one hellava ride”

I take one look out the back of the Pelican taking in the plains of grass that we were setting up on. I stare at it, taking the whole scene of the plains. It was peaceful. It looked like it hadn't been touched by the war that was raging on about hundred miles away give or take. As we lifted off the ground, herd of deer dart from an unknown hiding spot and sprint across the plains. The whole place looked like a picture that would be in a doctors office, beautiful but not something stunning. I put on my helmet and my HUD clicks on, creating a dull blue glow on my face. The HUD shows Audri next to me and a map to the position I chose. She looks over to me she gives me a final thumbs up.

The hatch seals shut, and we begin our ascent to the stars.

My name is Michael. I am a Spartan III Beta Company. I have no last name just a number, 051. B051 to anyone outside of our company. Audri, Adam, Min and I make up Foxtrot Squad. We are trained snipers put into pairs: Adam and Min. Audri and I.

Since the time we were 8 we have been training for this very moment, the first real combat we will see. We were created to fight the Insurrectionists, a group of people who want to be separate from the United Nations Space Command. The Insurrectionists got their hands on a FENIRS nuclear warhead, so Beta Company is headed to planet Victoria to stop them.

“Beta company go ahead and get some shut eye,” a metallic female voice says over our coms. “Its going to be a long trip.”

I close my eyes, take another deep breath to calm myself and I fall asleep.

I was 8 again being herded into a dark room with 500 hundred others all the same age as me. The only light in the room is focused on the stage. A man walks out in an olive drab uniform with a Smokey the Bear hat. He looked like a battle harden vet that still in his prime was forced into a desk job. He stood with authority that you could only get from serving the UNSC for more than a decade, it showed on his right chest that he accomplished many things. His green eyes met mine, and it felt as though he was looking through me. Even though he had no visible scars his eyes showed mental ones. Ones of losing brothers on the battlefield, and scars of losing the ones that he loved, due to the Insurrectionists. I held his gaze for as long as I bare before averting my eyes.

“Hello and welcome to hell,” he yells over the noise. We quieted immediately, scared of what he might say next. “I am Gunnery Sergeant Hawthorne, but you all will refer to me as either Sir or Gunny. This place will be your home for the next 10 years of your life. You will learn to love it and hate it. Either way you will respect this place. You are here to become the best thing to fight against the Insurrectionists. Most of you will become Spartans whereas the others will fail. There will be death and pain but no matter what you will remember your duty to serve the UNSC. To my left there is a man for a single file line in front of him. Grab a vest, a helmet, a parachute and a gun.” The man walked off the stage, and the others hesitantly start to form a line in front of the man that the Sergeant pointed to. I make it to the front grab all the gear and don the armor and my helmet. I tighten the helmet as much as I can, apparently the helmet wasn’t made for children.

The people who had already got the gear were ushered outside into a field, where the man in combat dress was standing. It was dark out the full moon provided a little light. He was illuminated by one flood light behind him. He waited for the rest of the of the others to come out before he spoke.

“Strap your guns to your chute. You will split into groups and head to a Pelican from there you will be given your orders.” He yelled over the noise of the of the engines spinning up.

I split into a group of other kids and walked onto the plane. I took a seat and we started going up. Fear was rising in my chest as we climbed higher and higher. I felt like I was going to cry. They left the hatch open so we could see the ground pull away from us. It felt like forever as we climbed higher and higher into the clouds. Our ascent stopped and we started to fly in a direction away from the base.

“Get up grunts and form a line,” a big man commanded after some time. We stood and formed a line. I was pushed to the front. The wind whipping back my hair. Adrenalin was kicking. I felt like pissing myself.

“Make sure your parachutes are strapped tight. When the light turns green ,you will jump out of the plane or I will push you out. On the strap of your parachute you will find a red handle. When you jump wait five seconds before you pull it. If you don’t, its a long way down. Once you make it on the ground ,you will have 24 hours to make it back to camp. If you don’t make it or if you die, no search party will come looking for you. Consider anyone else a threat. Its kill or be killed out here. Besides the other recruits trying to kill you there will be others who are a higher rank than you who will also be trying to kill you. The camp is directly in front of you,” pointing out of the Pelican “ It is a good 100 kilometers from here. Good luck,” he yells again. He speaks something into his mike, and the light turns green. He looks at me waiting. I look out the hatch. I can't do it. I am shaking. My feet start moving towards the edge. I take one look behind me seeing fear painted on all the faces. I look back to the edge and jump.

The wind rushes into my ears and takes over my world. I panic what did he say something about waiting for a couple seconds before I pull the red cord.

1.I try to find the cord I am supposed to pull.

2.I cant find it.

3.Im going to die. They wouldn't let us die, would they?

4.The ground is coming into view really fast.

5.I find the cord and pull it as hard as I could. I wait for the jerk of the parachute opening, nothing happens. I pull harder and harder hoping something would happen. Nothing comes. I look to my chest and see a green handle and pull that as hard as I could. Suddenly a jerk knocks the wind out of me. The chute opened. I laugh relieved that I wasn't going to die. I look above me and see other chutes as people jump out of the Pelicans. I look down, I can see the tops of the trees. I am heading for a clearing of tall grass.

I hit the ground, the sudden impact sent a shock through my legs. I can't see anything but my hand finds what feels like a clip. I push it and the parachute falls off my back. A noise catches my attention. Looking to my left a girl comes into view. She is short and gangly with brown hair.

“Hi,” she says smiling her teeth showing up white against the darkness.

“My name is Audri. You dropped this,” she says as she hands me my gun.

“Thanks,” I reply taking the gun from her.

“What's your name?” she questioned looking at me with her head cocked to one side.

“Michael,” I answered as I stood up brushing myself off.

“Well Michael we better get back to camp,” she said as she started to walk in the direction of the camp. I followed not far behind. I was happy to have someone to walk with. We walked for a bit in silence, before i decided to break the silence.

“Why didn’t you kill me when you saw me?” I questioned as we started into a forest of tall pine trees and towering sequoia.

“I don't know. I just don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t have to. I mean we are here to kill the Innies not each other,” she replied in a quiet voice as she continued to walk in the direction of the camp.

“Thank you,” I said as I followed behind her.

A branch snapping made us stop. I looked around me trying to find the origin of the sound. The moon was setting, but it still gave me enough light to see at least a little further away. I noticed my heart was beating fast and I was breathing heavily. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Closing my eyes I tried to remember where the noise came from. Another twig broke, breaking the silence of the night. I turned in the direction of the sound. I opened my eyes and leveled my rifle in the same direction. A shot rang out, and the bullet hit my vest knocking the wind out of me and sending me to the ground.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we got our first recruit to kill." a deep male voice said as it came closer to where I was. He kicked the gun away from my hand. I was gasping for breathe each one I took in did nothing to help.

"Too bad this one looked like he had potential," a higher voice said. A gun barrel was pressed against my forehead, at this point my bladder control left me and I felt warmth in my groin.

They noticed the spot on my pants and started to laugh.

"Look. This little pussy pissed himself," the deep voice laughed as he moved the barrel away from my face and struck my balls with the barrel. Spots exploded in my vision as the pain lanced through my body. They were both laughing hysterically at my pain.

"Hey!" a high pitched voice yelled. Both older boys looked in the direction, like dogs as they saw a new ball thrown in a different direction. The loud crack of a gun going off, and the deep voiced male's head exploded out the back. Blood spraying onto me. His limp body hit the ground with a dull thud.

"You little bitch," the higher male voice said as he started shooting in the direction of the first shot. His back was to me which left him vulnerable. I started searching with my hand trying to find my gun. I aimed it at the mans head and pulled the trigger, but I was too late. A shrill filled the air. Audri was shot. His body fell to the ground like the others did. I stood up and ran to her side. She was crying silently grabbing a bleeding bullet wound that went through her right leg.

"Ow ow ow," she kept repeating through sobs as she rocked back and forth.

“Im going to help you, ok. We are going to make it back together ok,” I said as I helped her up. I put her arm over my shoulder, and we started to limp back to camp. It was a long trip back, but we made it. We weren’t the first, but we weren't the last either. Half of the original group made it back. They were all sitting in the grass field. I walked to a tent with a big red cross on it, and I dropped Audri off. A nurse assured me that she would be ok. I found a nice spot of ground and laid back to stare at the stars. That was the last peaceful moment of my life.

Two years later, we were standing shoulder to shoulder in a sterile room. All of us look like pint sized soldiers, military buzz cuts, standing straight and tall. A doctor walks in, a nurse following behind him with a cart full of needles in packages and vials of clear liquids. If there was anxiety or fear you couldn't tell by the faces. The doctor was two people away from me. I could already smell his cologne. It smelled like pine. I hear Audri take a sharp breath in as the needle pierced her skin. The syringe gun gave a little sucking noise as the liquid entered her veins. She was lead away to another room.

“Well son you are the last one,” the doctor said as he gently grabbed my wrist and turns over my arm.. The needle was cold as it entered my skin, but the liquid was colder.

Whatever was in the syringe it hit me into in a second. I felt a different hand on my shoulder and my elbow leading me to another room. The room was white and cool, lit by a fluorescent lights. A dentist chair occupied the left side of the room, a machine was on the wall next to it. My legs felt like rubber. It was hard for me to keep myself up. The nurse led me to the chair. The chair had wrist straps and ankle straps for reasons that where unknown to me. I sat down in it thankful to get my weight off my legs. She started hooking me up to the machine, something on my finger and a needle in a vein on my hand. She tapped the needle in place and started strapping me into the chair. Once she was done, she gave me a final look, and I noticed the pain in her eyes. I started to get tunnel vision, and her face and her pain was the last thing I saw before I gave into the medication.

“How is he doing,” a voice I had grown to know said, it was Gunny. The world was fuzzy, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get anything to come in focus.I couldn't move any of my limbs. Panic started to rise in my chest as my mind slowly realized that there was nothing it could do to pull itself out of the paralyzed state I was in. All I could do was listen to the world around me.

“His augmentations are coming along well. This one will come out perfectly,” the doctor said. As if talking about baking cakes.

“How many have we lost already?” Gunny asked. Paper was rustling as he flipped through some medical documents. “We knew there would be some casualties, but I didn’t expect this much.”

“Yes, the total so far is about 100 and that is only for the drugs. We don’t know how many more we will lose once we start the bone augmentations,”

“So there might be more? What is so different about these children compared to the children used in the Spartan II program?” Gunny questioned in a soft but stern voice. Just by his voice, even in a drugged state, he was extremely angry at the doctor. No matter how many times he yelled at us for screwing something up or for whatever reason he chose we always knew he had respect for us. Maybe even cared. In return we respected him and feared him.

“Well, sir when the gene pool was widened from the original standards outlined by Dr. Halsey we knew there would be more who couldn’t handle what we are doing to them. Even she had children who either came out of these augmentations maimed or dead. Either way we are doing this to protect others. These Spartans should be proud of what they are doing,” the doctor said matching the intensity of Gunny’s voice.

“Will they feel anything if their bodies reject the augmentation progress?”

“No, the anesthetics we gave them where mixed with a couple CCs of morphine. If the augmentation process failed they wouldn’t feel anything. “ the doctor replied his voice sounding grim. There was the noise of shoes on linoleum as the doctor walked out of the room I was in.

“Rest easy Spartan, this will be the last test you have to go through with me at your side,” Gunny whispered as he touched my arm assuring me that I would come out of this alive. The door opened on last time and I was left alone.

My dreams will filled with the first night I arrived at Onyx, it all played back in my head like a DVD set on repeat. Having to kill the older recruits was my red test. I was ordered to see the bases psychiatrist once the higher ups had found out that Audri and I both had to kill to survive. I remember a lady was very angry at Gunny for having us do that. He said he hadn’t expected the recruits to have to kill anyone on the first day at the base. Audri went to more sessions than I had to but either way they were brief. We where set one after another, sometimes when I would be out in the waiting room I would hear her crying and my heart would lurch. At the time I didn’t know what that meant. All we did during those sessions was talk about what we felt when we pulled the trigger. I told the psychiatrist that all I felt was relief. I was asked why I felt like that all I could reply with was, I felt that way because I saved one of my friends. After the last session,I was left alone.

When you dream under anesthetics, that means that the guy didn't do his job right.

-waffleb051