Halo: Black Ops (a fan fiction)

[Rick Amsler]

Hello Ladies and gentlemen, I have been a halo costumer for the last few years and have made a short profile for the spartan costume that I made.

This spawned a small book that I am in the process of writing, I will post the chapters as i finish them.

 

 

HALO

  BLACK OPS        

By: Richard L. Amsler
Prologue

// from the personal log of Dr. Catherine Halsey //

09/15/2517 – My team had an interesting encounter today, on our way to visit a new candidate for the program one of my guards bumped into a boy no more than eight. However the reason this was in any way strange was, when we reached the house of the recruit; one of the guards had lost his data card and his watch. Thankfully Mendez and I had seen fit to place specialized tracking equipment in all of the items that leave the base.

09/18/2517 – After a small search with our tech team we were able to pin-point the locations of our equipment. After brief questioning and triangulation of a search pattern we have the thief’s location, no shock to find that it was the boy we bumped into earlier.  I have decided to recruit the boy; perhaps tomorrow we will pick him up.

//end log//

 

Chapter 1

8/14/2552 high orbit above reach,

The explosion was huge; the sight of a covenant super carrier being blown sky high was quite spectacular; it seemed that noble team had completed their mission. I knew that the transmission to noble team was classified and that ONI would like to believe that their coms were secure, but then nothing was secure against me and my A.I.

I could only watch for a few seconds before I had to focus on the task at hand, I was transporting a newly outfitted gauss warthog and a bay full of civilians to the UNSC Intrepid.

I reached for the control to open a com channel and said, “UNSC Intrepid this is pelican transport B-85; I am on route, ETA is 15 minutes have the slip space drive spun up and ready to jump I would like to be able to make another trip back here to pick up another group of civilians.”

A military voice came back over the com, “Confirmed Transport B-85 we are spinning up the drive now.”

I turned to the pilot, “you have the ship.”

The pilot confirmed and I walked to the bay. The civilians looked extremely frightened, I pulled off my helmet; it seemed to help pacify them. For some reason the armor and helmet of a Spartan seemed to cause anxiety in the average person. I steadied myself to address the civilians, “In roughly 15 minutes we will dock with the UNSC Intrepid; once there you will quickly follow the attendee that will be waiting for you there. He will take you to the secure area for slip-space jump, please pay attention to what he tells you and don’t wander off.”

I really hated working with civilians; it was like they just had to ignore everything the average officer had to say, but when a Spartan came into the room they obeyed out of a sense of mild fear.

“It could be worse.” Striker explained, (Striker was the Smart A.I. I had made around seven years ago. While most Smart A.I.’s tend to degrade after six years, Striker has escaped that fate. This is mostly due to the fact that he was created by me; when he first began to display the signs of rampancy I inserted his chip into the reader in the back of my helmet this allowed me to save all of his vital memory and dump any non-important data into a separate memory unit for safe keeping; this act allowed for the continued expansion of his systems)

“Now that the super carrier has been destroyed, Reach should be safe from the covenant, well at least long enough to evacuate the planet.”

I put my helmet back on as I turned to walk back to the cockpit, “Not funny; it is also just as likely that the carrier did get a signal off.”

“Well you want to bet on it?” Striker asked.

I ran through the probabilities of each outcome calculating each in turn. “You’re on; if I win you have to play two games of chess instead of just one.”

“Very well, but what if I win, what do I get?” Striker asked.

“Well if you win…” I started, before I was cut off by the pilot. “Sir we have multiple contacts entering orbit!” He exclaimed.

“Hostile?” I asked.

“Yes sir. Thirty plus covenant cruisers inbound!”

I had to think, dang it just stop and think. Then it hit me, “Does this pelican have an electromagnetic field at the back of the bay?”

“Yes sir. Why?” The man asked.

“Open a channel to the Intrepid.” I ordered.

“Channel open.”

“Intrepid this is transport B-85, ETA is 3 minutes. We are coming in hot I am going to provide an exit trajectory for you. Be ready to leave when the transport arrives.”

“Spartan I cannot just abandon Reach!” the captain of the Intrepid answered.

“Captain Reach has already fallen.” I replied.

“I don’t care! We can still help, if only to evacuate civilians!” The captain shouted.

“Sir I am sorry but the Intrepid is not a warship, you would only doom everyone you would try to save. You can only save so many.” I answered calmly.

“Very well Spartan we’ll jump as soon as you’re down. Intrepid out.” The captain replied.

I turned to the pilot, “Activate the field then unlock the airlock hatch I will com you when I am clear. AND DON’T SLOW DOWN!”

“Sir?” the pilot questioned.

“I need to barrow the hog, and I am afraid I am going to need a rain check on that escape plan.” I said as I walked to the back of the pelican. “Buckle up; things are going to get a little bumpy!” I shouted to the passengers; as I walked to the back hatch. As I walked to the airlock I checked to confirm that the passengers had secured their straps and saw that a young boy was having trouble getting his buckle fastened. I walked over to the nervous child and gently fixed the straps.

“Don’t worry you will be just fine, just do what the others tell you.” I said. The calmness of my voice steadied the boy, so I stood and walked back to the airlock.

“Bay is locked down; open the doors.”

The hatch door slowly opened till it was a small opening in the roof. I climbed the ladder and sealed the hatch behind me. The outer hatch hissed and opened after the atmosphere had been removed. I crawled across the surface of the pelican until I had reached the warthog the pelican was transporting.

“Release the clamps” I ordered through my helmet mic. The clamps holding the warthog in place retracted leaving the hog floating behind the ship.

“Pilot you make sure that ship jumps the second they have the chance. I am going to have to find my own ride.” I ordered.

The clamps holding the hog released and left the vehicle floating behind the ship. I leapt from the hull of the ship towards the warthog, and landed next to the gauss cannon. As I made my way to the gunners position I made a fast plan. I knew that Covenant ships had no shields immediately after a pin-point slip-space jump, so I needed to be fast. I quickly rotated the turret and aimed directly at ont of the many plasma turrets, hoping for a series of secondary explosions. A split second before I pulled the trigger I realized that I should have set the weapon on a timer. But the thought came too late and as I felt the trigger depress beneath my insulated fingers the world started to spin and I began to lose consciousness. Just before I did however, I thought to myself ‘well looks like I get to be bait again; I hate bait.’

 

 

09/15/2517 - Thirty five years ago

I hate bait, especially when it is the perfect bait. A data card, that’s just hanging there practically begging me to take it.  The lady’s escort is military; that chip definitely has to be bait. But the watch on the hand of that Sargent might be useable. Let’s see; a double clip latch, this will be easy.

I guess I can take the bait and sell it, might make some money, and make it someone else’s problem.

 

09/24/2517

Dr. Halsey, that’s what she said her name was, Dr. Catherine Halsey. She said that her office wanted to recruit me (whatever the heck that means) I asked if she meant that they wanted to hire me for my services. She said no, and then I asked “well what do you want me for?” to which she asked how I felt about the military, I said “I respect them, but I hate the military for killing my parents.” She asked what my name was I replied “Rick” she asked for my last name but I wouldn’t tell her. (That is simply because if I had she would find out about my parents, who were ranking officers within the UNSC and she would not understand why I am not in a military school). Dr. Halsey asked if she could see me tomorrow, I told her that it might be possible.

 

09/25/2517 – the next morning. . .

It seems that Halsey is true to her word, because I woke up in the troop bay of a UNSC pelican with a group of soldiers in training gear each sitting next to a kid (around my same age), and of course Halsey. When she saw that I was awake she smiled at me and nodded. [seeming to simply acknowledge that I was awake.]

 

Dr. Halsey felt that trainee R-259 was just a little to calm at waking up in the hold of a pelican. There is only one reason that Halsey can think of; is the fact that Rick lived on the street, and must have been picked up and placed in homeless shelters in the night before. But what really surprised Halsey was how he sat up (picture perfect military posture) she couldn’t fathom where he learned how to sit like that, she began to wonder if his parents had some sort of military background.

 

“Crap”, that was the only thing that came to mind, (how the heck are you going to get out of this one Rick) well there are still a few secrets and tricks up my sleeve that I might be able to use, but I need to get them to lower their guard. So the first thing I had to do was get them to think I was in 100% compliance with their “recruitment” of me, so I became a solider. It was what my dad taught me “to follow orders” so that is what I was going to do - follow orders, or at least till I see a chance to escape. Thanks to the training my father gave me that chance came quickly, for as soon as the pelican landed I knew the group was about to move, so I stood at attention. This came as a total surprise to the man sitting next to me, (he had a patch on his chest that read Barns) with my sudden movement he grabbed my arm but realizing that I wasn’t going anywhere released it. The tension he was radiating seamed to bleed away as he visibly relaxed, from across the hold I heard Halsey whisper “perfect” I looked in her direction and she was still smiling at me. I hate those kinds of smiles; they’re the kind that says “guess what I have the perfect place for you.” I have seen that smile to many times at the orphanage when someone was adopted, but at the orphanage the smile really meant that you were no longer the problem of the caretakers.

 

Before I could finish the thought the door opened to reveal a small landing field a short distance from a base I decided I could try to get away here. I heard the man say “right face cadet” so obligingly I turned to my right facing the door, “forward march” I began to walk just fast enough so as not to attract scrutiny from anyone especially Barns. As I walked he came up beside me and I could see that there was a small baton hanging from a belt clip on his waist (A simple matter to unclip). As I continued to look around I saw four or five more pelicans each with a group of children and each had a man or woman escorting them. Of course the children wanted to go home so they all tried fruitlessly to pull back to the pelicans, at which point the man or woman pulled the baton from their waist and touched it to the side of the child. When the baton made contact with the child’s side they let out a small yep and stopped struggling I realized that this was my chance, I very carefully pulled the baton from Burn’s belt and asked, “Does this hurt?” He looked down at me and began to say something but before he could finish I thrust the baton into his side. (I had raised the shock level to a charge more suitable to an adult) Completely surprised he didn’t even cry out he simply fell to the ground unconscious. I took off on a dead run for the tree line. I heard a woman shouting for someone to stop me, but I managed to make it to the tree line before anyone could do anything about it.

 I kept running for about five minutes after making the trees, unfortunately I was now completely lost, except for knowing where the base was. But going back there was not an option right now; I had to figure out where I was. I decided to climb a nearby tree to see if I could find a recognizable land mark. However it was not to be, the whole area is heavily forested and the base is located in the middle of nowhere (I bet I am on a different planet, I thought to myself)

Well nothing to do now except wait for a search party and take all their gear.

The search party didn’t arrive for another 20 minutes, which allowed for a great deal of trap setting. Now, I didn’t want to set anything that could harm them but I did want traps that would either incapacitate or immobilize them. The only thing I had that could accomplish this task was the baton I stole from Barns, which meant I had to improvise. I hurried about collecting supplies for a camp site after I accomplished this I started a fire, I now had the perfect trap. I set my camp site under a large branch that easily hides me from sight. When they finally arrived they seemed to simply stumble upon the camp site, obviously trying to trip any sort of traps that I might have set up.

But that is not the kind of traps I set, my trap involves only one thing (me) so I decided to wait up in the tree after all anything can happen.

 

// from the personal log of Dr. Catherine Halsey //

09/25/2517 – R-259 (Rick) continues to impress me, it has only been two days since he was recruited and he is the first trainee that has ever managed to incapacitate a trainer and hide away in the forest.

//End log//

 

// -PERSONAL LOG- Sergeant James Barns //

09/25/2517

Chief Petty Officer Mendez seems to think I am incompetent because that crazy kid got the jump on me. Apparently I no longer have the privilege of being a trainer; I am now the chief mess officer. I had hoped one day to get off this rock and get a ship of my own, but it doesn't look like I am going to get that chance now (I hate my job).

//End log//

 

Well that is all for chapter one, feel free to post your thoughts.

[Coldfreeze]

It reads really smooth, only feedback I can give is that Rick seems too clever and cunning for a boy his age and too skilled. For the rest I loved the bit on Reach.

[D-38 Boss]

Pretty good.

 

The narrative skips around a bit much, but it's not hard to follow.

 

I'll be keeping an eye out for the next chapter.

[Surveillance]

I liked. Clean, concise, easy to follow.

 

A bit jumpy at times and over-telling, but it was a damn fine job for a first chapter.

 

I'll be watching for the next.

[BaconShelf]

That text size obliterates my eyes.

[Rick Amsler]

It reads really smooth, only feedback I can give is that Rick seems too clever and cunning for a boy his age and too skilled. For the rest I loved the bit on Reach.

 

This is actually something that I thought long and hard about, because Rick is actually an 8 year old rather than a 6 year old, and was accepted into the program only because Halsey could not nail down a birth date (as well as the advanced nature of his abilities.) This allowed me to deepen the story of the character a little and give him a deeper set of skills than those of a regular kid. This is why there is such a bad transition during the meeting between Halsey and Rick, I am actually going to be rewriting and adding material to that section of the chapter.

 

I actually have 5 chapters finished right now but I was unsure of the maximum post lengths for this forum so I am only posting one chapter at a time. I need to make a few additions and revisions to chapter 2 before I post it though so it won't be posted for a few days. 

 

As for my overall hopes for this book, I am going to try and connect the stories of Halo "Reach" and Halo "The Fall of Reach." 

 

Thank you all for the feedback.

 

And now

 

Chapter 2

 

8/14/2552 high orbit above reach, (Temp date – find covenant battle calendar date)

 

Shipmaster Orto ‘Qintomee stared at the display that showed the planet that he and his brothers were preparing to destroy.  As the good Commander he was ‘Quintomee turned to his tactical officer Vien ‘Nicaaee, “Shield status?” ‘Nicaaee replied’ “Capacitors charging shields will be up in a moment.” ‘Quintomee turned back to the display and saw a small transport ship, he chuckled; the small transport ship was no match for the plasma cannons on his cruiser. He leaned in as the ship released an even smaller object. “Scan that object!” ‘Quintomee ordered; “Sir it is a small land vehicle,” announced the Sensor officer, “they must be loosing it in order to gain speed.”

This seemed to be an obvious attempt for the vermin to try and escape, so without hesitation ‘Quintomee ordered, “Cleanse this space of their filth.” As he watched the display however ‘Quintomee saw a flash and then a streak of light from the object. Then the command deck shuddered with an explosion, “Commander Plasma turrets 4 and 5 are down and we are unable to raise shields!” exclaimed ‘Nicaaee. ‘Quintomee was enraged, the Humans had dared to fire on his ship; “Sir I am detecting another object!” the sensor officer proclaimed, “It is on the display.” The view expanded to show a rapidly spinning object, “What is it?” ‘Quintomee asked, as the object began to slow its rotation. Then the object became clear, it was one of the human demons! “Send out a retrieval team, I want its head.”

 

 

8/14/2552 high orbit above reach,

When I finally came to I saw that the cruiser had drawn within just a few hundred meters of me.

“Striker; Status?”

“You have been unconscious for two minutes, The Intrepid made a successful getaway, and there is a covenant ship approaching to kill or capture us.” Striker responded.

“Transfer yourself to the control chip and stand by; we seem to have quite the fight on our hands.”

“Of course sir”

The cruiser had drawn even closer by this time and had dispatched a phantom that was heading in my direction.

“Transfer complete sir; any orders?” striker asked.

“yes; begin operation possum.” I ordered.

Operation possum involved the shutdown of every suit function except life support (in the regular program every system is shut down but in my case I need life support.), which in theory should prevent a disabled Spartan from being removed from the battlefield by the covenant for the purpose of information gathering. I had developed the program about five years prior but ONI refused to have the program implemented in the suit software. Needless to say I put the package in my suit anyway. Which should mean that I should appear to be a lifeless body flying through space, sure the covenant are still probably going to pick me up but they won’t expect anything living.

 

After they picked me up I shut down life support so that they wouldn’t detect the power usage. Five minutes later the phantom docked with the cruiser in order to transport me to what I expected to be an examination bay that turned out to be more like a prison block with an examination table in the center. The elites that were carrying me dropped me on the table and left the room, but not before I heard the door seal shut.

“Striker bring systems back online and locate security cams.”

“Cameras located sir.” Striker said, “They are located at 1, 4, 6, and 9 o’clock.”

“Confirmed, bring the jammer online first.” I said. The jammer was another upgrade I placed in my armor without the approval of ONI. As one of the first pieces of tech that I immediately recognized as important to both my survival and the survival of my team, I knew that the ability to jam both incoming and outgoing enemy signals was too big of an advantage to not be able to employ. This is why every member of RAVEN team has one.

As the rest of my suit systems came back up I assessed the situation, “A.I. Check, Weapons, concealed knife under shoulder and stealth loud pack Check, enemies, none.”  

“Striker did you get a detailed analysis of our route here?” I asked, “And was it enough to find the layout of the ship?”

“Yes sir.” Striker replied “but as to the layout of the ship that is your territory.”

“Display route” I ordered, which caused a three dimensional image to be displayed. After analyzing the route I was able to make the connection.

“Striker display scans from infiltration mission 38 beta; and show the schematic next to our route here.” This command brought up the information I gathered on a recon mission of a covenant cruiser seven months ago.

“Enable manipulation.” I said. Slowly I moved the route I had traveled to this room until it matched the schematic of the ship.

“Ok Striker, what do you say we get a little payback.” I asked Striker.

“I think I will like that sir.” He replied.

 

09/25/2517-7:00PM- Thirty Five years ago

It is about time. I’ve been waiting here all day for either the sun to set or for the stupid guards to leave; sunset came first. I finally have the chance to surprise them. After a quick check of my tools I decided to take a number count. Four, I had to figure out how to take down four guards. But I might be able to distract them, earlier I had gathered a small bundle of rocks; I might be able to cast the rocks into the trees and make them wonder. I picked up one of the rocks and threw it so that it would land just past the light of the fire; when it landed, the rock made a satisfying crunching noise as it crashed over the leaves. The guards all looked in the direction of the noise; one of them stood and started to walk in that direction. Another guard grabbed his arm and said, “What do you think you’re doing?” 

He replied, “I am going to see what made that noise, and if I am lucky it is that kid. I want to head back to base.”

“Are you crazy, anything could have made that noise?”

“I don’t care, I want to head back.”

The second guard kept on trying to convince the first by involving the others, “come on guys help me out here.” But as the guard turned, he noticed that the other two guards were sleeping. Hitting the other he pointed at the two sleeping guards.

 “What’s up with them?” He asked as he turned back to the other, but instead of the man he was expecting what he found was, me. He managed to get off a startled “what. . .” before I hit him with the baton, knocking him out cold.

I couldn’t believe it was that easy, or was it that the guards were just that dumb? Oh well, they have at least managed to provide me with some supplies that will last for a while. I guess I will just have to make these people suffer a little before I go back. (I hate myself but there is no other choice, there is nowhere else to go.)

 

// from the personal log of Dr. Catherine Halsey //

R-259 is still hiding; even though he is hiding from and attacking our search parties he is proving to be very resourceful. I am very glad I recruited him.

//End log//

 

09/31/2517-six days later

Well I think they have been punished for long enough. Time to fight my way back in, or I guess you could say time to fake my way back in. The hard part is going to force myself to take a small beating (probably from those stun batons) but still appear like I am fighting my hardest against them. The really hard part however is making them believe I don’t want to go back, when that is in fact my goal. I spent the day gathering supplies to give the searchers a landmark.

 

I made a small shelter (up till now I hadn’t needed one because it had not rained) a stash of all the gear and supplies I had taken off of the different search parties over the last 6 days, and a small camp fire. Now all I had to do was wait for the search party to get here. I was actually surprised when they finally came, because there were at least 15 guards and they all had their batons in hand, and eyes searching everywhere. They didn’t have to search for long because after they searched through most of my gathered supplies I walked into view holding a small rope and said, “Haven’t you people learned your lesson yet?” Apparently not, because they immediately formed up and started walking towards me. Why are these people so stupid? “Will you people never learn? You cannot face a stronger opponent face on.”

 

While I was saying this I pulled up on the rope I was holding and it caused a chain reaction that pulled tight another rope that when taught it was held aloft at fourteen inches, this caused a second reaction of every guard falling flat on their face. As soon as the first guard began to fall I was moving, sprinting towards the line of men. I pulled out the stun baton and proceeded to stun as many of the guards as possible before they recover. I got to about six before they started to get back up and got four more before they provided resistance as I was coming up on number ten he thrust out with his baton hitting me in the side unfortunately for him I have been building up a sort of resistance to the stun of the batons, and I hit him in the face with mine which knocked him out. This brought my count to 11 of the 15 which meant I needed to try to lose against four guards. The other remaining guards had simply fallen back into a small group. Then they simply charged me, I managed to hit one before they jumped on top of me. I received two more stuns before I blacked out, losing consciousness.

 

// from the personal log of Dr. Catherine Halsey //

Day 6 R-259 has finally been retrieved; it took three stuns to finally take him down. He managed to take down 12 of the 15 men who were sent to capture him. He also said something to the men that makes me curious “You cannot face a stronger opponent face on.”  It reminded me of what we are trying to accomplish here.  I am beginning to wonder why he doesn’t have a juvenile record.

//End log//

[Rick Amsler]

Ok so sorry for the double post but i have finished editing chapter 3

 

Chapter 3

 

9/24/2552 25 days after the fall of Reach

O.N.I. interview

Overseen by /Major Grant/

Questioning // Commander James Barns //

\\BEGIN VIDEO LOG\\

The door to the room opened allowing a middle aged man with major’s insignia to enter.

“Hello Commander I am Major Adam Grant; I am here to ask you a few questions about your stationing on reach in 2517.” Grant said.

“Furthermore for the sake of recording you will address me as sir.”

“Now can we begin?” Grant asked.

“Yes sir” James said.

“Commander what do you know about the Spartan designated as R-259?” Grant questioned.

“As of yesterday he was written up as missing in action. He nearly ruined my carrier in the UNSC, and if it hadn’t been for him the UNSC Intrepid would be a lifeless hulk somewhere in orbit of Reach.” James answered.

“When was the last time you encountered Spartan R-259” Grant asked.

“It was shortly before my transfer to the UNSC captivator. At the time I had been convinced that he was determined to ruin my chances for promotion, but I was much younger then,” James responded.

“Commander, what do you know about the Spartan squad known as Raven team?”

“I only encountered them once they had no I.D.s and would only allow themselves to be referred to by their team name R.A.V.E.N. They ran one completely successful mission behind enemy lines and when they returned to the ship that I was stationed on they were immediately transferred to a different location.”

“Do you personally know any member of Raven team?”

“No sir,” James replied.

“Thank you Commander that is all. You may go.” Grant said.

\\END VIDEO LOG\\

 

 

09/31/2517 Thirty Five years ago

I woke facing the celling. No, it’s not the celling; it’s the overhang of a pod or bunk of some kind. I felt like someone was watching me, so I looked around; and found nothing. Well nothing that is; other than the very large room with at least two dozen or more of these pods in view each had a child about my age all standing next to a line on the floor, and each child had a man or woman standing next to them. Shock, it hit me the moment everything moved back into place in my mind (military); before I could move to get out of the pod the electric shock came. It must have been at a very high setting because it was extremely painful, but I refused to give the guard any satisfaction from me; I bit down hard to keep from crying out, and quickly toed the line on the floor.

A man who clearly was in charge told everyone to fall out; as I began to move he stepped in front of me held out his hand and said, “Not you.”  And so I waited; while I was standing I noticed that each child had a letter followed by a set of numbers I looked at my clothes and saw that mine read R-259.

“Well I guess I have been drafted.” I thought to myself. As I looked up I saw that Halsey was walking towards us, “well Mendez you seem to have your work cut out for you with this one.” She said. The man, ‘Mendez’ frowned at her, “it will be easier than the others I think” he replied. “Don’t be so sure Chief, I think you will understand what I mean soon.” She said smiling “Now you better get him up to speed with the other cadets. We don’t want him to be behind.”

Mendez said to follow him double time. I kept up the best I could; which luckily for me was easier than I had first feared. As we jogged I saw the group of cadets doing jumping jacks. I angled towards them but Mendez grabbed my arm keeping me from joining the group.

“Not yet. You have other things to do first”

We jogged for a mile or more before coming to a building; Mendez led me inside where I was met by beauty. It must have been an A.I. for no living person could be that perfect; and well people don’t glow.

“Hello Rick, I am Deja. I will be your teacher for the next few years.”

(You have to be kidding me; an A.I. for a teacher, how could that possibly work?) As the thought flittered through my mind I realized that Mendez left the room leaving me with the A.I. Well this was just great.

“Please sit.” Deja said; normally I would have just ignored the request, but I was already sure that the doors were locked from the outside. So it was not like I had anything else to do; I walked over to the front row and sat down.

“Thank you. Now are you familiar with the battle of Thermopylae?” Deja asked.

“Wasn’t that the battle between 300 Spartans and the entire Persian army?” I questioned.

“Yes” She replied, “now please pay attention; there are a few details you still need to understand.”

“Fine but I want something if I am going to have to sit here all day.” I said.

“Like what?” Deja asked.

I thought for a moment and then replied, “How about the reason I am here. That would satisfy me.”

The hologram of Deja flickered then said, “I can’t tell you that but I may be able to request that Halsey inform you of the reason. Will that suffice?”

“Yes, for now at least.” I said.

That seemed to be acceptable because Deja began what I assumed was the lesson; so I began to take mental notes. She talked quickly, so it was a little hard for me to keep up, but I managed as best I could. She talked about the battle of Thermopylae where an entire army was held back for days by a mere 300 solders. She also showed the principle of teamwork as a pack of wolves took down a moose. It seemed obvious that these people wanted me to be a team player (whatever that meant here) so I was starting to tune out the lessons when the door opened and Mendez strode in and told me to double time it. I followed him back to the facility where I was given a bottle of water. I drank it quickly and handed it back to the man who gave it to me.

 

It was at about that time I saw Dr. Halsey walking towards us, she didn’t look very happy but her anger apparently wasn’t directed at me.

“Well Rick you seem to know how survive out there.” She said, all the while she stared at Mendez.

She looked at the troopers and Mendez and said, “That will be all, I can take this for here.” One of the troopers started to protest but when she glared at him the man looked as if just that single look could kill.

She responded with a single word, “Dismissed.”

After the men had left she said, “Come with me we need to talk.”

We walked all the way to the wall at end of the bay where she stopped in front of a door and asked me a quick question, “You have two choices here. You can listen to what I have to tell you, or you can leave in order to return to the world you left, a child pickpocket bound to end either dead or in jail. It is your choice, what will it be?”

I pondered the question for a moment before responding; I considered the fact that she was right about what would eventually happen to me (I may have been willing to accept the offer when I arrived here but now things had changed, I needed to find out what was going on here but it was more than that I wanted to know, and the only way to find out was, I guess through that door.) I looked her in the eye and said, “I can’t go back, not now.” fully knowing that this was the expected response.

Halsey opened the door and began to walk down a hallway filled with countless doors leading who knows where. Halsey stopped at one of the doors and showed me in.

Inside proved to be a small observation room overlooking a lab with a table of some kind that looked as if a person was meant to be strapped down on top of it.

“This is why you are here.” Halsey said, “An experiment that hopes to create the perfect soldier through genetic manipulation.”

“So you are kidnaping a bunch of children because?”

“Because they can become better trained than a regular solider and very specifically you and the others have biology that is more likely to accept the serum.”

I looked at Halsey with a small look of confusion and asked, “Then why did you decide to tell me all this knowing that I would have no choice in the matter in the long run?”

Halsey smiled, “Because you have more potential than any other recruit that has arrived here so far.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Consider what you have you have accomplished in the last few days. You have managed not only to avoid but carry out successful grabs for supplies from the best trained men and women of the U.N.S.C. and that is why you have the most potential.”

 “But you want more than that don’t you.” I stated.

Halsey nodded, “Yes Rick, you will have to give much, much more.”

 

8/14/2552 aboard a covenant cruiser above the planet Reach.

 

“Well Striker I guess it is time to go loud.”

“Yes sir, activating the loud pack.”

A mere second later the pack I have carried on every mission since its development activated, and in a matter of seconds the pack transformed into a jump-jet with a small mini-gun on a controlled turret.

“Time to make some noise,” I said, and charged the door to the room. As I neared it the door sprang open to reveal a Sangheili in minimal armor.

A look of surprise is rarely ever seen on a Sangheili, but I saw one now, a look like no other, and that look of absolute terror in its eyes gave me slight satisfaction as my fist crushed its split jaws knocking it unconscious.

“One down several hundred to go; now, Striker give me a route to the engine room.”

I knelt down and retrieved the plasma pistol from its side; not exactly my weapon of choice but you have to work with what you’ve got. With the route to the engine room lighting up my HUD I started off down the hallway.

 

As always feel free to leave feedback.

[Rick Amsler]

Ok guys and girls I have finished my quick edit of chapter 4

 

Chapter 4

 

09/31/2517 thirty five years ago

“How much more?” I asked.

Halsey looked at me with a look as if she was thinking about something; and said, “Rick I would like you to become something greater than a solider. I can see you have great potential but it needs to be honed, focused, it will allow you to become even greater than any of the other trainees’ here. But you must recognize it and push yourself to be the best; now with that in mind do you think you can do that?”

“Ma’am I believe you but I have no need or will to be a soldier.” I replied.

“May I ask why?” Halsey asked.

“3 years ago my parents were stationed aboard a U.N.S.C. vessel that was destroyed by the insurrectionists while in port. I had been on my return trip from a military ‘retreat’ when it happened. Now many would not expect a 5 year old to behave rationally at the news of his parent’s death, but I did. I don’t understand why but I overheard a couple of adults at the memorial saying ‘it is almost as if he has the mind of someone 3 times is age’ and so I decided to grow up and that was it. I never struggled in class or in anything after that point, but it remains a mystery to me. Yet the fact alone is my sole reason for not wanting to become a soldier.”

Halsey paused a moment to collect her thoughts before saying “Well I want you to listen very closely because I am only going to say this once.” She waited a moment and said, “your parents were in the UNSC because it was what they loved, and I want you to understand that they died doing what they loved. Now with your understanding I want to consider what I have said, and tomorrow I want you to give me an answer. But know this you are here now no matter what your choice; and if you chose to be here willingly it will be faster.” She stood and walked out of the room. About 2 minutes later a soldier can and escorted me to a completely empty hanger with a single pod in the center. A small work out setup in the corner and some combat pits placed out along one wall. ‘Well this is cozy’ I thought, as I walked towards the pod.

 

 8/14/2552

Aboard a covenant cruiser above the planet Reach.

Alarms the only thing the can truly kill; or at least in the sense of trying to stay hidden and as a black ops soldier, a person learns to avoid setting off any kind of alarm, but as a captive on a covenant cruiser the only thing I can do to avoid an alarm is speed. With my combat knife in one hand and my commandeered plasma pistol in the other I continued to sprint towards the engine room. And then bam; six fully armored and armed elites appeared in the cross-section ahead of me. My mind raced at light-speed as I closed the distance to the intersection. Time seemed to slow as I set into a lifetime of reaction and reflex. One of the elites noticed my swift approach, the knife I was holding seamed to leap from my hand towards it. The knife sank hilt deep into the neck of the elite who noticed me, killing him without a sound. As he fell I gave control of the turret to striker, “minimal burst we don’t need to draw more attention than necessary.” The turret opened up on the elites as I reached them; I ripped the blade out of the fallen elite’s neck and spun to attack the nearest elite. My target was in the process of bringing a heavy sword arm down towards me when my knife smashed first through his mouth and then through the top of his skull. The body of the elite fell instantly limp causing the blade to miss me by the smallest of margins. I stood prepared for another attack only to find that the remaining three had been downed by the skilled efforts of Striker.

“Good job Striker.” I said.

“Thank you, sir.”

I stopped for a moment to clean my knife and change out the plasma pistol for a new weapon; of the weapons the elites carried I chose a needle rifle as it brings the most punch to ammo ratio, and continued to move on. As I approached the engine room I paused to consider the best way to destroy the ship, because simply destroying the engine wouldn’t destroy the ship. Well whatever I have to do I need to clear the room. So let’s go with brute force; I opened the door to the engine room and walked in like I owned the place which took the 20 plus covenant by total surprise.

Thinking to myself it’s time to take it over the top I said, “Listen carefully. Surrender or die!” 

It seemed that the appearance of a heavily armed and well prepared Spartan was enough to freeze them all into indecision for several crucial seconds, allowing me to close the door and destroy the controls that operate it. The six elites recovered the fastest; which I have learned is a typical of their species, the 6 elites in the room sprang into action with 4 immediately attacking me and the other 2 sprinting for what I believed to be the control room. I reacted quickly aiming the rifle at the lead elite and firing taking him down then training on the second taking him down just as quickly. As I turned to engage the other 4 elites I noticed that they were all down, “Striker, did you do that?” I asked, as I scanned the room. All of the other covenant seemed to have disappeared, but I kept an eye out for any movement.

“Yes sir, I believed that it would be easier to continue if I helped out any way I could.” Striker replied.

I activated the jump jet, rocketing myself to the control room. As I walked in I began the process of overloading every system I could access, adding levels of encryption that not even a paranoid would ever consider using. As I executed the program I sprinted out of the control room and leapt off the balcony onto the main floor. As I ran to one of the undamaged doors I grabbed an energy sword from one of the fallen elites and continued past to the escape pods. Now normally this would not be a very wise course of action, however the alarm I had set to tell them all to abandon ship should aid me slightly. And right on cue the alarms sound.

 

As always feel free to leave comments.

[Rick Amsler]

Chapter 5

 

6/1/2517 thirty five years ago

Waking up in my pod the next morning I quickly evacuated the pod as I had learned from the day before; but the bay was empty. Well almost empty, as I scanned the bay I noticed that Halsey was already here, and waiting for her answer. When she saw that I was awake she walked over to me, and asked, “Have you made your decision?”

I nodded giving myself time to compose my thoughts, and finally said, “I will do my best and become the best that I can be, but I cannot work alone.”

Halsey smiled at me, “That is very good; I will bring some others for you.”

She turned and walked out leaving me in the bay once more alone.

 

6/7/2517 thirty five years ago

Waking up for the sixth day in a row alone in the bay, I began the routine I created on my third day in this hanger in near solitary confinement. It began with a brisk jog around the bay for about 5-10 minutes, but I never could really tell how long it is because they didn’t have a clock anywhere in the bay. After the jog I moved to the jungle gym area; it had similar characteristics to a jungle gym; but it was much more than that, actually it appeared more like the skeleton of a fort. I would do as many lift exercises as my dad and teachers had taught me but in reality there were not very many. After that I moved to some of the machines; now at the start of the week I had no idea whatsoever on how they worked or what their purpose was. But as the week progressed I began to learn how to use them and they quickly became my favorite area to… well work, but then what else was I supposed to do it not like I was going anywhere.

So while I was hoping that Halsey will bring some new recruits to train with; I had not expected her to come in that day with 4 children, while I was working with the strength building equipment. As she approached she nodded at me and said, “Well Rick here are your new teammates.”

“Teammates?” I asked questioningly.

One of the newcomers replied saying, “You know what a team is right?”

His trainee ID read V-252 and he was accompanied by another two boys and a girl.

“So we are going to be a team?” I asked Halsey.

“Yes. And I believe you are going to be the best group by far.” Halsey replied. She turned to the group of kids that had walked in with her and said, “Meet your new team leader trainee Rick-259.”

 

 

 

6/15/2517 thirty five years ago

Well I guess it was more of a punishment than a blessing to be a team leader. This is mostly due to the fact that if any of my teammates misbehaved, the trainers expected me to correct the issue. I found this out today when one in team training when one of the trainers underestimated the amount of power each member of my team has learned bring about. The trainer was trying to teach basic hand to hand combat tactics when Nick-195 side-stepped an incoming blow and used the trainer’s own momentum to propel him into the padded wall. Unfortunately the trainer hit hard enough to be knocked unconscious.

That was when one of the other trainers walked up to me and ordered me to make the team run 15 laps around the bay. When I started to protest the trainer lifted his stun rod warningly. While I knew I could defeat the foolish man, I instantly knew that the punishment in the long run would be greater; so I nodded and ordered my team to run the 15 laps; which was the equivalent of 3.75 miles, suffice it to say my team was not happy.

That night I learned that most of my team came from a very similar background to mine. Alexis or Alex as she insisted on being called, came from a very prominent military background, and although at the age of 8 she had been trained in several different fighting styles. Vince had an easier story; abandoned at birth he was in and out of adoption facilities.  Growing up on the street he was able to learn many things that the average kid normally would, from hand to hand combat tactics to stealth evasion. Edward is the most interesting of the bunch. He grew up in a well-known politician’s home, and while I cannot say anything for his ability to fight his strategic ability is not to be ignored.  And finally Nick while I suspect that his name is actually Nicolas he won’t say, Halsey said she found him in the streets of New Mombasa, but more than that we have not been told. I assume that his story is similar to Vince and mine but there is no way to know for sure.

 

The next day we once again began the routine we had come to know; jog, run, stretch, bar drills, lifts, machines, hand-to-hand, repeat. It was during one of our hand-to-hand combat sessions that Chief Mendez walked in; as we had become more mindful of our status here as military cadets we promptly formed a line and stood at attention. Mendez searched us over, just as any other military officer would inspect troops. After his inspection ended he walked to an area directly in front of us and began to speak, “I know that you have been personally selected by Dr. Halsey as an advanced team. I however have yet to see how this improves what we are trying to accomplish here. So I have planned a mission of sorts; you will be tasked with the retrieval of an object inside a camp occupied by hostile troops. The goal is to remain undetected for the duration of the mission, and retrieve the objective.” Mendez paused and looked us over then continued, “I will give you a small map of the area, how you chose to proceed is up to you. You will be given no weapons or supplies, and you must first escape the compound without detection. Finally this task must be completed within a week from now.” Mendez handed me two small pieces of paper and walked out. Without hesitation I unfolded them both, the first held the map Mendez told us about, the other had a simple sentence on it, {I have not told Halsey.}

 

 

8/14/2552 aboard a covenant cruiser above the planet Reach.

The trip to the escape pods was remarkably easy; I only encountered a single grunt in his way to the pods. I didn’t even bother with him as I flew past, which much to my delight this caused him to run even faster and scream, “Demon, this is your doing!” Which was quickly followed by a small decompression blast as a section blew outward into space. As I passed though the next bulkhead I sealed the hatch, pressurizing the hallway once more.

As I approached the escape pod bay my chances of surviving seemed to be falling quickly, as hatch after hatch was empty; with the pods having already been launched.  I decided to go for broke and forced one of the airlocks open. Once inside I needed to find a way to open the outer hatch.

“Any ideas Striker?” I asked as I plugged into the main computer and saw that the countdown timer was at 3 minutes.

“Just decompress and blow the door.” Striker suggested. I quickly decompressed the airlock and set a pair of small detonation charges on the outer door, the timer was down to 1 minute 39 seconds when I pressed the detonation switch.

If it hadn’t been for my visors auto dampening feature the blast would have blinded me. I pushed off the interior hatch and flew into space, giving myself my first view of the damage. As I looked around I saw that there was another cruiser inbound, and trying to collect the escape pods. The timer beeped the 30 second mark, “Striker full power to the boosters.” I ordered. I forced a maximum burn of the jump jets in an attempt to get far enough away from the impending explosion.        “10…9…8…7…” Striker counted down.

“I can make it, I can make it.” I told myself.

“4…3…2…1… detonation”

The flash was blinding even through the complete darkness of my visor; then the blast wave hit and I saw the heads up display for my armor flicker as the energy shield absorbed impacts of small pieces of debris. Then my visor cleared and I saw a large chunk of the ship rocketing towards me. I put myself in to an even faster descent towards the planet hoping that I could out run the massive piece of debris. As I hit the atmosphere I knew that I was safe; for my speed allowed me to keep ahead of the now burning debris.

I slowly began to maneuver myself out of the flight path of the incoming fireball. As soon as my flight path moved out of the way I needed to find out just where I was going to make land fall. As I tracked my speed, attitude, and direction, I located my landing area; and I thought to myself, “Well Rick your home.”

 

Well I hope you liked this new chapter - feel free to comment

[Caboose The Ace]

^

 

A question how long, on average does it take you to write a chapter?

[Rick Amsler]

^

 

A question how long, on average does it take you to write a chapter?

 

 

Depending on how good of an idea i have for the chapter and weather i am doing something else at the time between 1 and 3 hours per chapter is my average, I believe I wrote chapter two in about 37-45 minutes but it does varry (as well as how long it takes me to do my proof reads as well adds to the time)

[Rick Amsler]

Ok sorry for the wait but here it is..

 

Chapter 6

6/16/2517 thirty five years ago

“What does he mean? ‘He hasn’t told Halsey.’ that is ridiculous.” Vince said, however his voice lacked any conviction. (I am sure he is happy to finally have something to do)

“I think it is his way of telling us that he has not told anyone.” replied Alexis, “He clearly doesn’t want us here at all; so he might be hoping that if we get caught we are going to be kicked out.”

 “Or maybe he has told everyone and this is just a test to see if we can do it?” stated Edward, “It would be possible. Wouldn’t it?”

Finally I had deemed that there had been enough discussion. “Enough!” I shouted. “I think that the issue here is whether or not to go through with the mission.”

I looked at each of them in turn, gathered my thoughts and said, “We were selected for a reason. It is my belief that Mendez has in fact told Halsey. With that in mind the challenge becomes then not only the retrieval of the package, but also being completely undetected for the duration of the mission. So we can’t even be perceived as being gone from this room.”

That was when Edward chimed in, “I guess this might be useful then.” He said as he raised his hand revealing a key.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

“it is.” Edward replied, revealing that the key was for the only door in the hanger.

“How did you get it?” asked Alex.

Edward told us that he had removed the key from one of the guards on one of their routine surveillance checks.

“Well then what is our next step?” asked Nick, “Just because we have a way out means nothing in the grand scheme of things if we have no way to trick or neutralize the cameras.”

A smile came to my face as I thought ‘my turn’ looking at the group I said, “This is where I think I may be able to help. I have had a history with electronics, all I have to do is trigger a massive problems diagnostic in the server to make a section of the system crash. And while the system is down record a section of us going around our daily routine.”

Vince nodded, “it could work, now what do I need to do?” 

“Well,” I said, “you need to work on your acrobatic skills with Alex and Nick. Ok team let’s get to it.”

As the team dispersed to their various tasks I wondered just how I was going to short out the camera system and then start a simultaneous recording without any tools or equipment. About an hour later I had my answer, my original idea had involved taping into the system by accessing one of the main cameras in the hanger, but after about 30 minutes of covert surveillance of these cameras, I found that it would be near impossible to reach any of these cameras without being seen. But later I realized that the sleeping pods have several linked cameras, providing me with my target. After another hour or so I had successfully tapped into the system by using the pad on the pod. After about another 10 to 20 minutes I had prepared a generic virus that would trigger a system shut down and restart. Triggering the virus I quickly set a program to automatically record 24 hours and loop starting at the restart and cleared my tracks and left to inform the others.

When I finally got the team together it was obvious that the camera system had gone offline, primarily by seeing that the lights on the cameras were now off, as we gathered I said, “Ok the system is going to restart and record. We need one full day of normal procedure to fool the guards while we are away, including a recording of our guard’s check-ins with the security office. I was allowed to keep a small recording device for the purpose of maintaining a journal, so I can make use of that here. So everyone go about your regular training for the next day, and then we will make our move.”

 

The next day progressed without incident, and as the day dragged on the team was starting to formulate a plan. Tomorrow we hijack the guards outside the hanger and head for the objective; it was that simple.

 

          6/17/2517, 0200 hours.

As it turns out simple is relative; for while we had a very clear understanding of our little hanger, we had very little intel on the hallways and areas outside it and therefore needed to improvise. That night we made our move, after incapacitating the two guards at our door, we then had to retrace a path that we had not seen in more than a week. Expecting some trap, snare, or some other trick or surprise that Mendez had prepared specifically for the purpose of catching us; yet they didn’t come, and as we approached the outer door I began to worry that we were about to walk right into a trap.

          “Hold here for a second.” I ordered, “We need to get our bearings.”

          I pulled out the map that Mendez had given us and began to look for a route to avoid any traps of any kind; especially given that Mendez had given us the map himself increased the likelihood that traps would spring up in the least obvious of places. Finally reaching a decision I turned to the others and said, “You are not going to like this but we are going to have to go right through the center of the compound.”

          “WHAT!?!” the word came almost simultaneously from the others.

          “Hear me out,” I said, “Mendez has most assuredly left traps in the areas most likely to normally be unsuspecting, which also means that the main force of the base of going to be working those specific areas; which leads to the undeniable fact that the main area of the base us now unguarded.”

          “It could work,” agreed Edward, “I suppose anyway.”

          “Ok then stay close and follow me,” I said.

 

          I rolled up the map and walked up to the door. “Stack up,” I ordered. (This allows us to move much faster through areas where there might be the potential for hazards or any other form of difficulty) as I slowly opened the door to peek the gap I could already see that I was correct. There were less than one fourth of the guards that should have been stationed on the wall. I scanned the yard and quickly determined the path of the lights. “Ok follow me,” I said, and quickly darted across the yard to a safe zone where the lights do not cover. As the rest of the group arrived I picked up a small rock and hurled it over the wall next to the nearby guard. The rock landed with a satisfying crunch as it bounced along in the dark, and was made even more successful by startling a small creature as I heard it scurry away. This of course grabbed the guard’s total attention as he turned and tasked the light to try and find the source of the disturbance.

“Ok move, move, move,” I whispered, as I sprinted towards the wall and the ladder mounted there, racing up the ladder I glanced around for any other guards or incoming spot lights. As I reached the top of the ladder I saw that the guard had lost interest in the noise and had returned the light to its normal operations; but this was going to bring the light right past the ladder. “Step it up, the light is coming!” I urged. The team raced up the ladder as the light came ever closer, as Nick bringing up the rear of the group began his accent the light was less than 15 feet from crossing the ladder he climbed as fast as he could and just crawled over the lip of the wall as the light flashed past.

I looked at him leaning against the short wall, “That was too close,” I said letting out a sigh of relief.

After a moment Nick and I dropped over the exterior wall and into the forest beyond. When we reached the bottom of the wall and met up with the rest of our team I noticed that Vince had grabbed a length of rope from one of the crates that had been sitting in the open yard.

“Good,” I said, “That will allow us to scale the wall on our trip back into the compound. Now let’s get that package.”

 

8/14/2552 Planet Reach

 

I needed to slow down, but that was not going to be easy, the booster pack was empty and useless. I disengaged the pack, which gave me a greater range of movement.

“Sir, 20 seconds until impact,” striker announced.

“Yeah, this is going to be fun,” I said sarcastically.

The ground rushed towards me as I flew at high speeds over a forest of trees. When I reached the treetops I broke through branches and shattered tree trunks. The shields of my suit flared as the impacts stressed them.

          “Lock the armor,” I ordered striker.

This was an experimental feature that I had installed into the armor’s software, it locked the armor’s mechanical features, over pressurized the hydrostatic gel and temporarily forced the shields to near overload levels for several seconds. This lessened the impact damage to my armor and saved me from major injury.

          When I finally smashed into the ground I displaced sod and dirt for nearly 10 meters. The armor locking protocol disengaged and I stood up.

          “Striker where are we?” I asked.

          “Roughly 20 Kilometers outside of Manassas Sir,” Striker replied.

          “Ping the area for any RAVEN hardware,” I ordered.

          “Sir the likelihood of any of your team’s equipment being within Ping range is almost astronomical,” Striker explained.

          “Humor me Striker; I had hardware in the Manassas spaceport.”

          “Very well sir. Running ping search now,” Striker said, in a slightly curt manner.

‘Alright,’ I thought to myself it is time to get moving, so I started off in the direction of Manassas. I realized that striker had not meant that I was 20 kilometers from the city limits, but instead that I was 20 kilometers from the outskirts of the initial development of housing near Manassas, ‘I sure hope I can find some sort of transport.

“Sir, I have received an automated reply,” Striker announced, sounding slightly surprised.

“What is the response message?” I asked.

“It was a set of coordinates and a title ‘the UNSC Executioner,’” Striker replied, “I thought it was supposed to be out system by now?”

“Because I put it there,” I stated bluntly, “When you operate a top secret, black operations Spartan squad; you will find that you need to have some sort of transport. And when you operate in a multisystem area covering the Entirety of UNSC controlled space, tasking an entire UNSC frigate to transport 5 Spartans to the target area costs too much. So my team was told to find a more suitable alternative.”

 

5/23/2529 – Aboard the UNSC Pioneer in orbit of Algolis – Four years after Spartan activation.

 

          Spartan team Raven stood at ease outside the conference room of the UNSC Pioneer. While the Spartans would regularly be dressed in their Mjolnir armor this occasion however required their dress uniforms. The Ravens were the most successful Spartan II squad to date and no one but the High Command and a very select few inside ONI knew about it. The Spartans had been ordered to a “Performance Review” that should validate the Raven’s continued high priority, top secret status. A marine standing by the door reached up to his ear receiving a transmission through his earpiece; had the Spartans been wearing the Mjolnir armor they would have heard every word of the transmission, thanks to the modifications installed by Spartan Rick-259.

          “Spartans, they are ready for you,” the marine said as he opened the door to the room.

The Spartans filed into the conference room and closed the door behind them. There was a small table in the room and at the table sat: Rear Admiral Parangosky, Admiral Ned Rich, and Colonel James Ackerson. The Spartans snapped quick salutes which were returned by the officers.

          “Spartans please sit,” said Panangosky. “You have likely surmised the purpose of this meeting but I do not think the true reason for this meeting has been made known to you.”

          “To put it bluntly you Ravens are just too darned expensive,” Colonel Ackerson stated without preamble. “Trying to keep the Ravens a secret from the regular military and even the other Spartan IIs, all the while transporting you on many of the same ships that they themselves travel on is becoming a near impossibility.”

“In short you either need to find an alternative mode of transportation, or be phased into the ranks of the Spartan IIs,” said Parangosky as she glared at Ackerson.

“Sirs, it would seem that our only option is to attempt to either build or commandeer a UNSC ship of an incredibly small nature. This would allow for ease of transport and lower the limitations on my squad,” said Rick-259. “But the issue is the lack of any current UNSC ships that could be piloted by my team alone.”

“That is hardly what we want!” exclaimed Ackerson, he turned to the other officers and said, “We can’t have a ship of biological experiments just running around UNSC controlled space!”

“Actually,” said Admiral Rich, “That isn’t a half bad idea. The Ravens could have complete autonomy and would be able to make immediate action when ordered. As where now we have to maneuver entire crews and ships around a string of hoops before the action can be made.”

“I like it,” announced Parangosky, “Do you have any particular ships in mind?”

“Ma’am, at the moment there is only two types of ships that can serve this purpose, a Chiroptera – class vessel or a small prowler. A Chiroptera would be preferred, but this in and of itself poses a problem, my team would first need to find one as they have all been either decommissioned or sold with vital systems removed and/or locked down,” said Rick-259. “My reasoning for a Chiroptera is that it has the smallest human manufactured Shaw-Fujikawa drive, and would be easily crewed by 5 Spartans. So ma’am unless you would happen to know where one was we will need to start searching immediately.”

The Rear Admiral chuckled “You may be surprised to find that just because the Official records count them all as decommissioned there may yet be one that we can use.”

 

 

As always feel free to give feedback.