(im only doing disclaimers this once because i think that they are just plain annoying so expect this once a story.)
Disclaimer: i do not own Halo. It belongs to 343 Industries, Microsoft, and Bungie.
Authors Note: Alright, I know you guys have been waiting so here you go. Btw if you guys don't know how to get to the pictures just copy and paste them onto the URL. Anyway this right here is Chapter 1.
It was like any other day at a UNSC training facility. We had just finished the Spartan four program a couple weeks ago and we were still getting use to the injections they had put in us. I was one of the few hundred Spartan threes still standing and I took the chance to be better. My friend Matthew Ashton took that chance with me. We had served under the same commander countless times in what were suppose to be suicide missions. Anyway, had just finished our combat training with Chief Mendez. I was supposed to have a meeting with Admiral Osman, head of ONI. What I didn't know was what she wanted to see me for until that day.
"Spartan, pay attention!" growled Chief Mendez. Ash elbowed me in the side and my eyes snapped back on to the sixty year old man.
"Yes sir." I said. He just grunted and pulled out one of his cigars and started smoking then he turned to the other three new Spartan fours in my training group.
"Now, since Sol here decided to daydream," he said. "You're all giving me twenty pushups, now!" we all groaned. I tried apologizing but almost everybody ignored me.
"Nice going, Apollo," said Matthew Ashton as he did his twenty next to me. "Now almost everybody is going to get you back for this one."
"Oh, shut up, Ash," I said "It's not my fault Osman wants to see me later today. God, that woman gives me the creeps." Ash quickly finished doing his pushups and patted me on the back.
"Aw, cheer up," He assured. "You do know I have to come with you too, right?"
"Yeah and your point is?" I asked. The seventeen year old grinned and scratched behind his head.
"Well, you don't see me freaking out, do you?" he asked.
"No but that's because you always joke around like life is a joke."
"Life is a joke," said Ash. "Who would put us in a life where a race like the Covenant killed your parents and all of the family you ever knew?" I had to admit that Ash had a pretty good point there. I finished the last of my pushups and stood up with Ash and wiped off my hands.
"The Covenant left me with nothing, no family, no life, and no friends. Strange, really, my dad had thought we would've been safe on Harvest but look how that turned out. That's why I took the chance to become a Spartan three," I said. "To make sure that never happened to anyone else again and look at us now. We upgraded from expendable suicide mission soldiers to the new Spartan fours." Ash clapped me on the shoulder and grinned.
I heard a door slide open and turned around to see Serin Osman was headed straight for Chief Mendez who had just finished his cigar. Every time her boots clacked against the floor I flinched a little. Every since Osman took over ONI for Parangosky I wondered if she was just as bad as Parangosky or worse. It was good to know that a former Spartan was in control but sometimes I just wondered.
Osman whispered something in Mendez's ear and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. They exchanged a couple more words until finally we heard our names being called.
"Sol and Matthew," said Mendez. "Front and center." We quickly hustled our way to where Admiral Osman and Chief Mendez were waiting. We did our salutes and stood at attention.
"Permission to speak, sir?" asked Ash.
"Permission granted," Chief answered. "What is it, Spartan?"
"May I ask why you called me and sol here, sir?" said Ash. Mendez grunted and looked over at Osman as if saying, see? I told you so.
"Admiral Osman here has a task for you two to do." said Mendez. He waved his hand toward us and Osman looked at us.
"I have a…ah…new Spartan for you two to look after," she said. She took a folder she had under her arm and handed it to me. I opened it and saw a black haired girl with a buzz cut. She was about the same age as Ash and I but something looked off about her. She looked a bit more dangerous than any seventeen year old that I had seen.
"Her name is Nova Terra," continued Osman. "She is an expert at long range weapons. She is meant for tactical recon missions but something has come up so I need you and Ash, is it?" Ash quickly shot in salute to the Admiral.
"Yes, ma'am." He said. Osman nodded her approval then continued briefing us.
"She is a special Spartan so I want you two to take good care of her. That is a direct order, got it?" She asked.
"Yes, Ma'am!" said Ash and I at the same time. The Admiral turned around and talked with Chief Mendez.
"I have a meeting with Admiral Hood soon," she said. "I want you to make sure Nova knows where to go to find these two, am I clear?" Chief just grunted and nodded his head yes. "Good, you two Spartans are dismissed."
Ash and I walked back to the barracks and dropped on our mats from exhaustion. I was so tired that as soon as my head hit the pillow, I blacked out. When what felt like seconds had passed, I felt someone shaking my shoulder.
"Sol, wake up! We have to go meet Nova Terra." said Ash. I grumbled about having five more minutes. "Fine, I didn't want to do this but u gave me no choice." Slap! I shot up as pain exploded on my cheek. It was one thing getting hit by a dino but getting slapped by a Spartan was worse. I was about to punch him back but then I noticed Stephen holding a bucket of water.
"You wouldn't have." I challenged. Stephen grinned and put the bucket down.
"Hey it was either this or the slap," he said. "You should be lucky Ash didn't have on his armor." I had to admit that Stephen had a point.
"Come on," I said to Ash. "We have a Spartan to greet." We walked out of the barracks and went straight for the armory.
I went to my section of the armory and pressed a button on the wall. The wall panel revolved around until my armor showed up in a case. The glass door opened up and I stepped inside. Robotic arms lifted my blue and black armor, piece by piece, and then strapped them onto my arms, chest, and legs. The ceiling panel opened up hand lowered down my CQC Spartan helmet with a black visor.
I grabbed it and put it under my arm. The glass door opened and I walked out to see my weapons laid out on the table. I grabbed my G.P.S wrist attachment and locked it onto my left arm. I grabbed my DMR and locked it onto the magnetic strap in the back of my armor. I noticed that one of my recon shoulders was upgraded to a Mjolnir shoulder attachment. When I finished with strapping on my first aid kit to my leg, I walked over to where Ash was waiting in his green and steel armor.
"God, I hate formalities," he whined. "All we're doing is going to meet a new Spartan. I don't get why we need to wear our armor for that."
"I know what you mean," I said back. "I hate it when I'm in my armor too long." I lifted up my helmet and put it on. At first there was nothing but darkness but then my HUD showed up and I could see everything. I noticed that I had forgotten to grab my ability from the armory.
I ran back to my part of the armory and found my Sprint ability. It glowed the usual green color that showed that it was the ability I needed. I locked it onto the back of my armor and I could feel as the energy coursed through my body. I jogged back to where Ash was waiting. Strangely, he didn't say anything about me forgetting my Sprint.
"Hey, Ash," I said. "You in there?" I looked down and noticed a shadow moving up on the floor. I sighed knowing why Ash wasn't talking. "You know, if you try to sneak and scare me, it won't work because I see your shadow, Ash." I spun around and grabbed Ash by the back of his Spartan Operator helmet and threw him into his hologram. Ash stood back up and rubbed the back of his helmet.
"It's starting to get harder and harder to sneak up on you," he said. "I think I might need a new victim." I walked over to him and slapped him on the back of his helmet.
"Have fun getting beat up because I'm the only one who puts up with your jokes." I said. Ash faked as if his feelings were hurt. "Come on, we're late as it is already." We walked out of the armory and went to the training grounds where Mendez and the girl, Nova Terra, were waiting for us.
"You're late." growled Chief Mendez. We stood at attention and did our salutes.
"Sorry, sir," I said. "Ash, decided to do one of his Hologram pranks on Kelly." I hated doing it but sometimes I had to lie to the Chief even though he was like a father to us. Chief looked over at Ash and he pretended like his arm hurt. For a brief second I saw a ghost of a smile on Chief.
"Well, I'll let you two get acquainted with Nova here," said Chief. As he walked away I heard him call over his shoulder. "And Sol, next time you two goof off make the lie smaller, will you?" I froze in my position not sure what to say. Apparently, I didn't have to because Chief Mendez was already out the door. Nothing gets past that man, I thought.
"So, Nova, is it? Where did you transfer from?" asked Ash. Nova turned her black eyes toward Ash then she looked at me.
"Classified," she said. "I'm only allowed to share details with the team leader." In other words, none of your business. Ash and I took off our helmets and looked at each other then back at Nova. We had to get a stiff, I thought, just great. We shook hands with Nova and introduced ourselves.
"I'm Sol Kidaro or otherwise known as my codename, Apollo." I said. She looked at me quizzically then she looked back at Ash.
"And you are?" she asked.
"Matthew Ashton but everybody calls me Ash." Nova raised an eyebrow at both of us as if we were two things she had never seen before.
"I wasn't aware that Spartans had last names." She said. Ash and I looked at each other and shrugged.
"We were Spartan Threes, I was recruited into the Spartan three program when the Covenant had attacked Harvest and killed everybody I ever knew." I explained. "I was about ten years old when that happened so I could remember my last name like most of the other Spartan threes. Mendez found a whole bunch of us, orphaned and alone, and simply asked us if we wanted revenge. I saw a chance and I took it." Nova looked at Ash and raised an eyebrow.
"And what's your story?" she asked. Ash just grinned sheepishly.
"I don't have one, I'm just a kid from Phoenix, Arizona who wanted to help people though I had to lie about me being from Earth just so I could get into the program but that's about it." Ash answered. Nova just blinked her black eyes.
"Well, it's nice knowing I have two veterans to teach me about this war with some rebellious sangheli." She said. We shook hands and showed her toward the armory where she could get her new armor.
I pressed a button on the wall and a column shot out between me and Nova. The column had about twenty nine different helmets. I waved my hand in front of them
"Take your pick." I offered. Nova walked down looking at each helmet carefully. Finally she reached one she liked. She picked it up and showed it to us.
"The Mjolnir mark six, huh?" said Ash. "Good choice that was the one the Master Chief wore." I remembered that, on one black ops mission we were partnered with Master Chief to keep him covered. I pressed another button and a small row of helmet visors appeared. Nova immediately went over to the black one and attached it to her helmet.
"Do either of you have a knife?" She asked. I reached behind one of my boots and pulled out my combat knife. Nova held out her hand and I handed it to her.
She started to carve her visor into something I couldn't make out. Every time the knife scratched into the visor it made a screeching sound. After a few minutes, she was finally done. She showed us her helmet to see what we thought. I had to admit that it looked pretty good. Nova had carved a skull into her visor most likely because as soon as enemies saw it they knew their life was over.
"Not bad," said Ash. "Not bad at all. Maybe I should do something like that to my helmet." I raised an eyebrow. "Just kidding." After that, Nova picked her armor in a pinch. When she had everything picked out I showed her where she could have her armor put on.
She stepped in the case and the robotic arms came alive around her. They picked up the pieces to her armor and strapped them on. The arms picked up the chest piece and pushed them together. When they had strapped on her sniper shoulders, the arms filled the bullet holders with four special sniper bullets. When she stepped out even I had to admit that she looked pretty bad ass.
"Looks pretty good," I said. "Those rebel split jaws better watch who they deal with in the battlefield." We showed her where she could grab her weapons. She immediately picked out a sniper rifle and a shotgun.
"Close and long range combat," said Ash who seemed pretty impressed. "Very good combination." After we had our armor taken off and our weapons put away, we stretched our sore muscles from being so cramped in the armor. We headed toward the barracks exhausted from carrying our armor for nearly three hours.
"Well, I'll see you two tomorrow," said Nova. "Thanks for showing me around." And for a second I saw a faint smile.
"No problem," I said back. "We're glad we could help out."
"Yeah, it's not easy being the new kid," said Ash. "Trust us; we know what that's like." Nova nodded her head then walked to the girl's part of the barracks. As Ash and I opened the door to the barracks we chatted a little bit more. "She seemed nice." I looked at Ash.
"You like her don't you?" I teased. Ash looked a little taken aback when I said that.
"Come on, Sol," he said. "You and I both know that Spartans can't and aren't allowed to love." I shrugged my shoulder with a sad smile. Spartans weren't allowed to love because we couldn't focus more on the battle going on around us.
"I know, sometimes I wonder if becoming a Spartan was really worth it." I said. Ash patted me on the back then headed to his cot.
"See you tomorrow, Apollo." said Ash. I laid my head against my pillow and finally got the sleep I deserved.
Authors Note: I thought that this chapter went pretty well considering it took me 9 pages to write. Any of you are welcome to add me as a friend on Xbox if anyone ever wants to play some halo together. Anyway the next chapter will probably be here in about a week so I hope this fills your need for reading till then.