Carter stared at the black backpack that had just been handed to him by the Drill Instructor. He looked up and looked around at the other children who also had just been given similar black backpacks. He couldn't believe that as soon as they had gotten out of the pelicans and onto the field of the training facility that they would be forced back on just to paradrop back down at night.
"Alright, who's going first!" the D.I. Shouted over the loud roar of the pelican's engines as the doors opened in the back of the hold. Carter looked around, and noticed that the rest of the kids were just as shocked as he was. Then a young boy ran towards the open door, already strapped to his chute. The boy didn't say anything but stared boldly at the D.I.
"Well, you wanna go first?" The D.I. asked, looking down at the boy. Then the boy jumped out of the back of the ship and everyone watched as he glided downward. After what seemed to be a horrifying and long ten seconds, they saw the boy's chute open up and he started steadily gliding through the air.
"Form a line, let's keep this moving!" the old man shouted. Carter quickly got into line, and watched as the next boy approached the edge. The boy leaned back; he looked down and out towards the open air. He took a step back and shook his head.
"I don't wanna!" He shouted to the Drill Instructor.
"Well then get outta the way and let the others have a shot at becoming Spartans!" the instructor shouted as he grabbed the boy by the collar and tossed him a side to make room for the next kid.
The girl who was next closed her eyes and took a deep breath, after a second she ran towards the opened doors and jumped out without hesitating. Carter then looked toward the D.I., who was looking at him expectantly.
Carter carefully walked towards the edge and grabbed onto the guide line. He looked down and saw the large dark field below them. He began to shake, and almost backed away. Then he remembered why he'd agreed to come to the facility to begin with.
He remembered how the Covenant aircraft flew above them, as he and his parents raced toward the pelican that had landed to evacuate them and the other civilians that had been stuck in the apartment building. The marines were shouting at them to hurry so that sleek purple aircraft the marines had called 'Banshees' didn't get the chance to fire at them.
Carter was faster than his parents and was already three quarters of the way across the open area between the doors to the building and the drop ship. His parents had only been one-third of the way when Carter heard them scream in pain. He spun around and saw his parent's lying on the ground, faces frozen with shock.
He had shouted for them, hoping they would get up. When they didn't he tried to run to them, but the arms of a UNSC marine grabbed him and started half carrying and half dragging him to the pelican. He continued to scream for his parents until he had been loaded onto the pelican and had flown away.
His free hand reached into his pocket and griped the small device that held a holostill of his parents on it. After a second he pulled his hand back out of his pocket and jumped off the pelican. Carter joined the Spartan program because he lost his parents to the Covenant when they attacked his home of Biko, and he was determined to make them pay for it.
This is one of the first Halo Fanfics I've written. It was inspired by the Halo Novel "Ghost of Onyx". It was also done for a prompt challenge, which was "a character who has lost something." So I decided to write about Carter and him losing his parents. Also, just for a side note, I had Emile in mind for the first boy to jump.
Another thing for those that don't know it and wanna give me crap about Carter's age. I did look it up and Carter was older than the rest of the canidates for the spartan-III program. He's actually 32 in-game, while Emile and Jun from the same company are 29 and 28. I looked it up in my "Halo: The Essential Visual Guide" book. So ha! Can't give me crap about that now!