Authors Note: I just wanted to address the story restart one last time. I'm very sorry to those of you who wanted to see me finish the original, but frankly I just didn't like how some things turned out. I'd give specific examples, but I also don't want to spoil anything. As for my future plans, I plan on rewriting the entire story, with elements from the original MFO, but also new elements as well as continuing work on my other story. I would like to thank anyone who has stuck with me on this, you guys and maybe gals are the absolute best. As always incorporate any suggestions you have in the reviews, as well as any criticisms, I'll be listening and hopefully responding to all of them.
Editor's Note: Welcome to the new thing, tis of the new. I just want to make a quick note and say that we understand any dislike or scourne you may have at the fact we discontinued the original, believe me it wasn't a choice made lightly. Hopefully it will be for the best.
In the end that story fell into a trope many good fics often do, a lack of direction. While fics can start strong and keep a good pace all to often they lose themselves and fail to have a pushing plot. That is what I feel became the down fall of the original. Kpmh along with the help of a few others hopes to fix that and create a story with solid direction, and it's been an honour to be allowed to help. I truly look forward to what the future holds as well as where this story will be going.
I Hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely SardonicEffigy
Onyx
Camp Currahee
1203 Standard Time, August 4th, 2545
Onyx was a special planet for a multitude of reasons. Be it it's habitable environment without any signs of terraforming, it's earth-like natural wildlife that hadn't even been imported, and perhaps most interestingly, a large, secret military base hidden on the planet's surface. It's name was Camp Currahee, it's name derived from a Cherokee word meaning "Stand Alone". It was a fitting name, as the military base and it's attached research zone was the only civilization on the planet, for good reason. Camp Currahee was home to one of the most classified projects in the UNSC's database, the Spartan 3 program.
Camp Currahee itself consisted of two parts, the actual military camp, and Zone 76. The latter was a secret research center of which very little was known, while the military base consisted of everything needed to train new soldiers. Today was a special day for Camp Currahee, as today the newest class of candidates for the Spartan 3 program arrived.
Kurt was stood on a platform, raised overlooking a large field that the young candidates were being unloaded onto by Pelican dropships. Every candidate had been personally approved by either him or his assistant, Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, who stood next to him on the platform. There was also two more people on the platform, Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. They were equipped in their mark 1 SPI armor, and while they would be helping train the new class of Spartan 3's, today they served as examples as too what a Spartan 3 would eventually become.
Once all of the candidates were stood on the field, staring at him with tired eyes, Mendez began the speech that he had prepared.
"Today is a special day cadets!" Mendez said. "Today is the day that you start turning you into Spartans! Today we find out if you made the correct choice signing up for this program! Your handlers should have briefed you on who we are, but we will have some introductions just in case!"
Mendez first gestured to Kurt. "This is Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose! You will answer his Commands as if they are the words of god himself! You will treat him with respect and authority, and in return, he will make you into Spartans!"
Next Mendez Gestured to Tom and Lucy. "This is Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, both of them are Spartans and will be your instructors, if you perform well and dedicate yourself fully to your training, you might just end up becoming like them!"
Finally Mendez placed his hand on his chest. "And I am Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, you may call me Sir."
The candidates seemed to be taking the information in well enough, all of them looked exhausted, likely a result of having recently been brought out of cryosleep.
"Now then, who here wants to be a Spartan?!" Mendez asked.
Every single candidate raised their hand.
"Good, you want to be a Spartan? Get back on those dropships! Double Time it!" Mendez said. "Your instructors will guide you from there!"
Some of the kids looked confused, but the instructors guided them slowly back onto the dropships. Once they were all filled the dropships took off into the air. Mendez turned off the microphone and turned to Kurt, Tom and Lucy.
"So what do you think? Any deaths this time around?" Mendez asked.
"Alpha and Beta companies both did the jump with only a few injuries, I have faith in them." Kurt said.
"I dunno, they looked pretty tired." Tom said.
Lucy made several hand gestures towards Tom, who relayed what she was 'saying'.
"Lucy is confident they'll make it." Tom relayed.
"I hope you're right sir." Mendez said, looking at Kurt.
Pelican Dropship
4,000 meters above ground
Ben looked around the crowded dropship as it ascended higher into the air. It was filled with kids, all just like him. He assumed they had all gone through a similar set of events leading to this moment.
Ben had been sitting in an orphanage on a backwater colony when a navy man had arrived and offered him the chance to get revenge the aliens who murdered his parents and become a hero just like in the fairytales. The recruiter hadn't even finished talking before Ben had said yes. He hated the Covenant, and while everyone did with him it was an overwhelming emotion that overshadowed much of his personality. In his eyes it was more than justified, as they had taken everything from him. In truth he believed they deserved far worse, but his hatred would have to do for now.
"Listen up! I'm only going to say this once!" The instructor said from the back of the Pelican. "You will be performing a paradrop! What that means is that you will be handed a parachute, and then you will exit the dropship at 5,000 meters! Am I clear?"
Ben instantly became nervous , he was just a five year old kid, and they were going to be putting this much responsibility on him right off the bat?
Soon Ben was handed a parachute, which after a few misguided attempts one of the instructors helped him put on.
"Thanks." Ben said.
"Shut up meat, keep your eyes forward." The instructor replied.
Ben wasn't quite sure why he'd been designated "meat", but he did as he was told.
As the instructors walked around the crowded dropship affixing parachutes to the kids, Ben watched as some of them refused to have parachutes equipped. They were sent to the back of the dropship without second thought, and were not given any further attention.
Once all of the kids willing to wear parachutes had them, the dropships bay doors were opened and cold air flooded the compartment. Ben shivered at the sudden change in temperature.
"Form a line!" The instructor yelled. The kids did as he asked.
"Good, now pay close attention!" The instructor said.
The instructor then said how to open the parachute, an instruction he repeated three times. The first time Ben got lost, but the second explanation cleared things up. He also explained that there was a grassy field they should attempt to land on.
"Everyone got that?" The instructor asked after the third explanation. "Good, you're up first!" The instructor said tapping the kid on the front of the line on the shoulder. The kid looked over the edge, and immediately ran back into the Pelican, cowering in the corner. Ben didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for him, he'd signed up for this, if he wasn't willing to face a challenge, he shouldn't have come.
"To the back with you! Next!" The instructor said.
The second kid looked over the edge, and after a second's hesitation, leapt into the sky.
"Good! Just like that! You're up next kid!" The instructor said, patting the next kid on the shoulder.
The line progressed until Ben was the one standing at the edge. Looking over the edge, he saw a small green square on the ground in an ocean of forest, and promptly threw himself out of the Pelican without second thought.
Ben then fell gracelessly for several seconds, spinning wildly out of control, tumbling in the air, for a brief moment terror filled his mind before he remembered the instructions of the man on the Pelican.
Spread out your arms and legs. Ben repeated his mind. And to his surprise, his descent gradually became more steady.
Next, the parachute. Ben thought, before grabbing onto the cord with both hands and tugging it.
Nothing happened. For about thirty seconds he panicked as he fell uncontrollably until he finally remembered his reserve chute. He grabbed the release cord for the primary parachute, and it exploded out of his container on his back, knocking him back into a deadly spiral. He was thrown back into a panic for a few more seconds until he spread out his arms and legs, regaining his stability he pulled the reserve parachute cord, and much to his relief, it opened without fault.
Steering the reserve chute towards the intended landing site, he touched down rather roughly, taking a hit to his leg that would probably develop into a nasty bruise. Ben struggled up to his feet until a gust of wind caught his parachute and pulled him back to the ground. Eventually he managed to untangle himself from his parachute and looked around to see other kids making a much more graceful landing than he had.
I guess I missed the instructions on how to land. Ben thought bitterly as he sat on the ground.
Eventually an instructor walked up to him before frowning at the parachute that was lying next to him.
"That's your reserve chute." The instructor noted to himself. "Did your primary one fail?"
"Yes." Ben said, without a hint of bitterness or any sign that he was angry.
"Well shit, that's no good. Good job keeping yourself in one piece." The instructor said. "Now get up, I'll take that chute off your hands."
After standing up Ben handed over his parachute.
Ben said. "Well what do we do now?"
"We head back to the parade grounds." The man said.
They walked for a long time, around half an hour, until they arrived back at the place they had first been dropped off at. Ben realized the crowd of kids had shrunk by about a hundred. As the crowd reformed, Chief Mendez tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention.
"To those of you who have completed the initiation, congratulations, you've completed the first step of your training." Mendez said. "The rest of you will be sent back to where you were found. Should any of you choose to or fail in your training, you will also be sent back. Anyone who wants to back out now, board the first three dropships to the left."
To Ben's absolute amazement, several of the kids did it. He didn't understand, they had volunteered for this, they had to know it would be difficult, so why would they back out? He swore to himself in that moment, he would never give them reason to remove him.
"Are you going to leave?" The instructor asked with a curious look on his face, noticing that Ben was looking at the kids leaving.
"No, I'm staying." Ben said simply.
The instructor nodded to himself before looking back up at stage Mendez was standing on. Once all of the children who were going to leave had left, there was still a couple hundred kids left.
"Well I'm afraid to be the bearer of bad news." Kurt said, supplanting Mendez on the microphone. "But we only have funding for 300 candidates, you will continue your training as normal for now, and the lowest amongst you will be sent home."
That won't be me. Ben promised himself.
"With that out of the way, let's continue on with some basic exercises." Kurt said.
What followed was about an hour of gruelling exercises. From push ups to pull ups to curl ups to squats. The instructors taught them how to properly do each exercise before running through each activity hundreds of times. Several kids threw up from over exertion, others passed out. Those who passed out were dragged off to the medical bay while the others continued. Seeing as Ben was five, it was safe to say he was nowhere near ready for that level of exertion, but he did better than some of the other kids did.
At long last they were done, and water was distributed by the instructors. Even though it was hot and unpleasant to swallow, it was good enough for Ben. After that they did some jogging around the base, partly to continue their PT exercises and partly to introduce the students to the environment they would be staying for the next few years.
Ben picked out a few key sights during the jog. There was classrooms, training courses, and arenas for competitive matches. There was a lot more, but it all glazed over in his mind as exhaustion started to kick in towards the end of their run.
"Alright, 2 minute break, then we're beginning your first lesson!" Mendez shouted to the recruits.
After those two minutes the recruits were split up into groups of thirty and distributed into different classrooms. Once Ben was in one of the classrooms with a bunch of other kids they started a lesson about the Spartans of ancient Greece.
Despite his exhaustion, Ben was enraptured by the lesson. Learning about how a small force held off overwhelming odds with strategic use of a chokepoint intrigued him a lot more than school ever had.
They also learned about basic things, like the phonetic alphabet that had been in use for hundreds of years, as well as reviewing things the kids already knew, like the regular alphabet and counting, as well as some basic math.
I guess no matter where I go, I'll never escape math. Ben jokingly thought.
By the time they were done with their lessons, it was already starting to get late, all of the recruits were reunited in one big formation as they headed towards the mess hall for dinner.
To Ben's surprise, military food was actually tolerable. He'd heard several of the instructors complaining about what they were having for dinner, but it was fine to him. Maybe it was because by the time he ate he was absolutely starving.
Once they'd been fed the kids were led off to the barracks for the night. Ben was assigned the bottom bunk somewhat near the door, where he promptly fell asleep almost instantly.
Meanwhile
Main Overview Room
"How'd we do Chief?" Kurt asked as he walked in with a mug of coffee for each of them.
"We did alright, nowhere near as good as alpha company, but they performed averagely for their first day." Mendez said.
"Any injuries?" Kurt asked.
"A couple kids passed out during PT, and another few got sprained ankles during the run." Mendez said. We had a close call with one of the kids when his parachute failed."
"Wait, one of the chutes failed?" Kurt asked, horrified.
"Not as bad as you think, his reserve deployed fine." Mendez said. "He landed fine, in fact, Instructor Richard said he didn't seem resentful at all."
"What was the kids name?" Kurt asked.
"Benjamin-G021." Mendez said.
"I want to talk to him tomorrow once all the recruits are awake." Kurt said.
"Understood sir." Mendez said. "I'll work it into his schedule somewhere."
"Thank you Mendez, now about that supply shipment..." Kurt began.
The next day
One of Camp Currahee's Classrooms
Ben was listening to one of the many lessons he was being given when an instructor pulled him out of the classroom.
"Where are we going?" Ben asked once they were in the hallway.
"Lieutenant Commander Ambrose asked to speak with you." The instructor replied.
Ben decided to remain quiet after that, mostly because he was nervous. Had he done something wrong? Where they going to remove him? Surely he wasn't already going to be kicked out, at least from his point of view he hadn't done anything wrong.
It took some time before they arrived at the Commander's office, when they did arrive there the instructor knocked on the door. A few seconds later the door opened, revealing Kurt.
"This is him sir." The instructor said.
"Alright, thank you." Kurt said. "Wait here until we're done please."
"Yes sir." The instructor said before standing outside. Ben walked into Kurt's office as he shut the door.
"Have a seat son." Kurt said as he sat back down at his desk. Ben sat down on the chair in front of it.
"Am I in trouble?" Ben asked.
"No, I just had a question for you." Kurt said. "Yesterday when you did the paradrop, your chute failed, is that correct?"
"Yes, my main parachute failed." Ben said.
"But you recovered and activated your backup." Kurt said.
"Yes." Ben acknowledged.
"Instructor Richard said that you didn't feel angry that you almost died." Kurt said.
"I don't really know honestly." Ben said. "It's not your fault my equipment didn't work, right?"
"Correct, every chute was inspected for faults." Kurt said.
"Then I don't see a point in getting mad at you if it's not your fault, that's not fair." Ben said.
"I see, and you plan on staying with us?" Kurt asked.
"I'm not leaving, this is where I belong." Ben said.
"You can't possibly know that yet, we don't even know if you belong here yet." Kurt said.
Ben thought carefully for a moment. "I want to."
"Alright then." Kurt said. "Thank you Ben, it has been enlightening. Instructor Thompson will take you back to class."
Ben just nodded, and left the office. The instructor taking him back to the classroom. Once they were out of earshot Kurt pulled out his handheld radio and tuned it too the Command frequency.
"Mendez come in, over." Kurt said.
"I read, go ahead." Mendez replied.
"I want a handler assigned to Ben-G021, preferably instructor Richard if he's still available." Kurt said.
"This early on? Why?" Mendez said.
"Call it a hunch. Richard's the man for the job, he's been a handler for ONI agents in the past." Kurt said.
"Ok, I'll make sure it's done." Mendez said.
"Thank you, Ambrose out." Kurt said before stopping his transmission.
Later
Instructor Richard had been called down to Chief Mendez's office. He didn't know why, all he knew is that the Chief needed to speak with him.
As he approached the door he saw the kid who's parachute had failed, Ben. He was sitting in one of the chairs outside Mendez's office, while another instructor sat in another chair.
"Bratts all yours, I'm gonna go get a drink.." The instructor said before standing up and leaving. Richard decided to take the man's chair next to Ben.
"Oh, hello again." Ben said, recognizing Richard from the day prior.
"Hey kid, how's it been going?" Richard asked.
"Good." Ben said. "Do you know why we're here?" The child looked slightly nervous.
"No idea." Richard said. "I'm almost certain we aren't in trouble."
"That's a relief." Ben said.
"If I had to guess, Chief Mendez probably will want to know about how your parachute failed." Richard said.
"Kurt already asked me about that." Ben said.
"Lieutenant Ambrose." Richard corrected.
"Right, sorry." Ben said.
"It's fine, you're still new to this business, you'll get used to it." Richard said. "Also, never say sorry, making excuses is a waste of time and only causes trouble, especially when talking to Mendez."
After about another minute of waiting Chief Mendez arrived from down the hall. Richard stood to attention, Ben did after a split second of realization.
"Not bad meat, you actually saluted during the same month I showed up." Mendez said. "Now at ease."
They all filed into Mendez's office, with Richard and Ben sitting in the guest chairs.
"Now, for reasons beyond me, The Commander has decided that you will be Ben's personal handler." Mendez said.
Richard was okay with that, Ben seemed like a decent enough kid, and it meant he got more time off. The only potentially bad thing he could see is that if Ben started lacking in his classes he would be blamed.
"Now I'm very busy, so keep questions short." Mendez said.
"What's a handler?" Ben asked.
"What is a handler sir." Mendez corrected.
"What is a handler sir?" Ben asked again.
"Better." Mendez said. "Now then, essentially it means he's now in charge of your training. He'll be helping you while you progress through your training."
"Think of me as your personal teacher." Richard offered.
"More or less." Mendez said. "He's also going to make sure you stay out of trouble."
Ben remained silent.
"If you have no further questions, you are both dismissed." Mendez said.
Both of them stood, offered a salute, and left. Once they were out of Mendez's office Ben turned to Richard.
"Are we always supposed to salute to superiors?" Ben asked.
"Only if their officers." Richard explained.
"Oh no, I forgot to do that with Ku… Lieutenant Ambrose." Ben said.
"Don't worry about him, he's really easy going. You wouldn't guess that he's a Spartan by his attitude." Richard said.
"He's a spartan?" Ben asked, mildly surprised.
"Yes, one of the older ones. Did him being really tall not give it away?" Richard asked.
"Everyone here is really tall." Ben said.
"Don't worry about it, right now let's just get you back to class." Richard said.
"Agreed." Ben said.