Here is Chapter 1, sorry it took so long.
Chapter 1
ONI Training Facility C-88- Keyes Island, Earth
10th November 2568 Military Calendar 06.30
Kyle woke abruptly from a strange dream was having. He rose from the plain sheets of his bed and brought one hand to his face, trying to recall the dream. He had splintered images of the estate back on New Mombasa, where he had lived as a child, until the covenant had attacked the city. He had seen his mother, and as an adult he went to her and said that he had confronted her killer and had forgiven him.
She had then turned around and thanked him and said she was very proud of him and then the dream started to fade, as much as he tried to recall any more, it hid right at the back of his brain, just beyond his reach.
He looked at the wall and the digital clock to check the time. It read 06.35, Time to get moving.
He got up and went to the small steel locker in the far corner of the room and opened it, pulling out a sweatshirt, with the word ‘Spartans’ on the back. As well as black military boots and trousers and walked outside and into the main part of the facility.
Things hadn’t changed much since when he trained here. The barracks was full of new recruits, the third generation of Spartan IV’s, with the second having just graduated. The brass back in Washington had made the Spartan IV project public a few years ago and saw it as vital to stabilise humanity and to give people hope as well as to protect them.
The Spartans were a symbol of humanity’s indomitable spirit, well that’s at lest that what the PR said about them. Kyle saw it a little differently. He thought they were the best of the best, trained to protect Earth and all her Colonies, by any means necessary.
That was the reason here was here today. He and the rest of blue team had been called back for an urgent briefing for a new mission. Kyle was curious what this was about. They had only recently completed their last mission: hunting down a band of pirates, hiding in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, which ironically had formally been a base for the URF and the home of the most famous Spartan John-117. Only a few weeks before that they had been on there hardest mission yet, aiding the elites to stop the remnants of the covenant from activating the Relay, which was a transmitter to activate the halo rings, and wipe the galaxy clean of life. Luckily they stopped it.
Kyle thought about that mission as he walked passed the shooting range, and watched as a few of the second generation Spartan IV’s practiced , targets ping as the bullets from their assault rifles hit their targets. They fought all the way from a forerunner battleship, to the surface of a planet to the Relay itself. He had met his mother’s murderer, and elite called Rondo Davum, an elite spec-ops commander. The air had been tense as they had had to work together, until they had fought. Kyle had won but he spared his life, and gained the respect of Rondo.
Together they had fought their way through the Relay, and confronted Drakus, the illegitimate son of Tartarus; leader of the brutes and killed him. Rondo had died fighting him, but before he did Kyle forgave him for murdering his mother.
Kyle broke from his musings and headed outside. The sun was just coming over the thick jungle that surrounded the facility. The air was humid and warm. He headed to the large circular track, which he knew so well. On his second day here, he had run around it, the first of many throughout his training. Today though, it was just regular exercise.
He decided to do about 2 kilometres and set off, jogging around the track, easily keeping up the pace. His muscles responded to the strain as he kept going. After about an hour he stopped, his face covered in sweat, he breathed deeply and it slowly rather quickly.
He looked up to see a figure approaching him. He was tall, with dark skin and was very muscular, as was Kyle. His eyes were a deep green and he smiled as he approached Kyle.
‘Always up early aren’t you?’ The tall black man said as he got closer.
This was Shen, one of the members of blue team. The two of them had been friends for years, even before they joined the Spartans. Though he looked ‘all brawn, no brains’ Shen was incredibly intelligent, they had even joked he was like an AI, which was why he was the team’s hacker and his job was to get into the enemies computer systems and use them against them.
‘Got to keep ready, you never know what’s round the corner.’ Kyle said as he walked to his friend.
‘Amen to that.’ They had seen so many missions; they both knew the cost of letting your guard down.
‘Well Kyle, we’d better get going, I figured you be out here, as Caspian asked me to find you.’
‘Right where are they?’ Kyle asked, taking a bottle of water he had taken with him and taking slow slugs from it.
‘They’re down in the conference room, the briefing in ten minutes.’ Shen said, he stood silent for a second and stared at Kyle.
‘What is it?’ Kyle asked feeling slightly unnerved at Shen’s gaze.
‘Caspian’s worried about you, most of the team are worried about you, and hell I’m starting to worry about you. You keep training here every chance you get, you never said anything during the last mission and to top it of we barely see you. It’s like you’re avoiding us.’ Shen paced as he said this, walking back and forward at a feverish pace.
‘I’m not avoiding you, if that’s what you think.’ Kyle said back.
‘Then what are you doing? Caspian thinks this is because of what happened at the Relay and how that brought back some bad memories.’
‘I know it appears that way but, it’s not like that, what happened was one of the best things that could of happened to me, and I let my mother’s death go.’
‘Then why the distance, come on man you can tell me.’ Shen looked concerned as he moved closer.
‘It’s just after that mission; I felt a thirst to prove myself, to show that I was ready. I been pushing you away as I been so determined to get better I’m sorry.’ Kyle said.
He knew that he had been pushing his team away; the fact he had not talk to them much since the Relay mission was obviously casting doubts to whether he was okay. The main reason he had been so quiet was pushing himself too hard, he was so focus on improving to show he was ready, he had completely lost focus on the main thing that would get him through a mission: teamwork. He had to stop it, right here right now.
‘Ah, it’s okay we all got a bit OTT with training now and again, I knew there was nothing to worry about.’ Shen broke into a smile.
‘Glad we cleared that up, shall we get going?’ Kyle asked.
‘Yeah, as nice as it is out here, I can’t stand around here all day, let’s go.’
They casually walked back inside and through the many areas of the facility. They were silent as they walked.
At last they reached the conference room.
I was a circular room with stairs rising up to the far wall. There were four flights of steps that lead o the metallic benches where they would watch the central podium, with a holographic screen behind it. Right now that screen held the UNSC logo.
On the first line of benches sat the rest of blue team: Caspian, Peter and Alex. They looked up as Shen and Kyle moved to them.
‘Ah they you are, you’re right on time.’ Caspian said, his short blond hair reflected the dim light of the room.
‘So, have you stopped sulking yet Kyle, I’d hate to have two people like Peter.’ Alex said, he upbeat tone and jokes were her way of keeping there spirits up. I was quite welcome.
‘Yeah, real funny Alex.’ Peter said in a sarcastic tone. He had always been silent and pessimistic, but he had seen horrible things during the war and it had permanently scarred him.
‘Yeah he’s fine, just when a little crazy for training, trying o prove himself.’ Shen said as he sat down on the bench, right next to Alex. They all wore similar clothes to what Kyle was wearing.
‘Well that’s good; I thought I have to make fun of you too.’ Alex said, her short blond hair, was pushing regulation, but for that matter so was Kyle’s. She had green eyes, similar to Shen’s and she carried a small scar by her right eye, which she had got by escaping a brute patrol as a child.
‘Well I would have been a nice break for me; sometimes I want to smash you into a wall Alex.’ Peter had jet black hair and darkly colored brown eyes. His skin was paler than the rest of them; he was practically a ghostly white in complexion.
‘Well sorry to disappoint you Peter, but you going to have to put up with her.’ Caspian said. As usual he got the situation under control. ‘He’s here.
Caspian pointed to the podium were a man now stood. He was in full navy dress uniform and the Spartans rose to salute the senior officer.
‘At ease.’ Said Lord Harper. Kyle was surprised. The head of the UNSC navy didn’t usually brief them, something was wrong, and Kyle knew it.
‘What’s the situation sir?’ Caspian asked as he remained up as the Spartans returned to their seats.
‘Simple really, but dangerous never the less, search and rescue.’
Caspian sat back down, waiting for Harper to continue.
‘You may recall the UNSC colony Frontier in the Hades Gamma cluster?’
Kyle searched his memory. It was a farming world, similar to harvest, on the edge of UNSC territory. Rebels and pirates occasionally operated in that system. He remembered taking some of them down, in his earlier years, back when he was a recruit.
‘Well we sent a group of recruits to find out why the colony has stopped transmitting, but we lost contact, we need you to find out what the hell is going on.’ Harper said mopping his brow.
‘Sir, how did they get to Frontier, didn’t they scan the planet.’ Caspian asked.
‘They went on the UNSC prowler Shadow. It was in orbit, but it too stopped transmitting, about ten minutes after the Spartans landed on the planet.’ Harper was obviously concerned, as it played into his features.
‘What kind of resistance will we be facing?’ Caspian asked.
‘Unknown, we suspect the URF, but I would keep on your toes if I were you, we have no idea what you’ll be up against.’
‘Understood.’ Caspian said ‘What about the Spartan team, who was it?’
‘It was team Sigma, one of the second generation Spartan IV teams.’ Harper said.
Kyle absorbed this information. The Spartan IV project had been going on for quite a while now, for 18 years. And while they weren’t as senior as there Spartan II’s had been, UNSC brass had pushed the project into overdrive, making a second generation only six years after the first one had been conscripted. The two groups had been trained together, so they were closer than the other generations of Spartans were to each other. They had graduated six years ago, and that meant that the second wave of Spartans had just graduated. Kyle suspected this was probably there first real mission.
‘How long have they been out of contact?’ Caspian asked leaning forward.
‘Two days, we need a team to get there quickly and be ready for any surprises that wait on the planet. Good luck, you leave on the UNSC Memphis at 16.00.’ He rose and left the room.
End of Chapter 1
'For eons I have watched as you have misinterpreted. This is not Reclaimation, this is reclaimer'- Mendicant Bias
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Check out my second fan-fic: Operation Overwatch