Halo: Ammunition
2nd of February 2558 18:33
Onboard UNSC Infinity orbiting Planet Earth
The silence of the Infinity's corridors were unnerving to most of its 17,000 crew members. A strange example of the silence of space. A person would almost inherently expect to hear nothing if they were to try and make a noise wandering the massive ship.
The glow of the lights and monitors gave these corridors a strange feeling of being frozen in a picture, or frozen in time. Gary shook his head and cupped his eyes to break his senses of this weird sense of vertigo that it slapped upon him when he did stare down empty halls. He returned to his bunk room as the door slid shut giving a thudding click when it was completely closed.
The room was dimly lit just faintly showing the silhouettes of the furniture in the room. Gary was gently sat down on his bunk and leaned his back against the cold metal wall.
"How is it out there?" a voice said on the other side of the room. It was Vance otherwise known as C195. Vance's expressive hazel eyes the only visible thing of the Spartan. Gary signed his fingers across his lips meaning it was dead quiet.
"Must mean what? Everyone is out in the hangars or the mess halls right?" Vance said getting off his bed and heading over to the room's holotable and sitting down in one of the chairs. He was now more visible his shaven head save for a small mohawk down his head glistening from the table's light.
"The other spartans are probably still training in the war games that the commander issued some of the teams." Gary said. The war games simulator was something still strange to Gary. Such a rapid jump in technology would be quite disorientating.
"Think we should joinem?" Vance asked bringing up an image of the war games room scratching his unshaven chin. Gary joined Vance at the holotable as Vance spun the hologram like a top. Gary stopped the hologram of the room before it could pick up anymore speed.
"We've already done our required amount of action in the simulators." Gary said. "Melissa is down there." Vance pointed out looking at Gary with quirked eyebrow.
"Well not exactly she is actually in the sparring room training some of them in her technique." Gary stated pulling up the sparring room roster and pointing to Melissa's tag; C009 being among the listed personnel in the room.
"Lets hope she doesn't bloody any of them like her first go." Vance said with a smirk. "Gave Spartan Daryle Slater a split lip and a deviated septum." He finished with a laugh.
"Yeah I was there." Gary said turning the holotable off.
"Did you check your armor any time recently?" Gary said grabbing his own tablet off his bed and bringing up his armor's specs on screen.
"Yeah everything is in working order." Vance answered. Gary looked over every available statistic on his GEN2 model. Still getting used to how the entire system felt and reacted to his movements. It was much more flexible and nimble then the older models as it should be but fighting in the first generation of the MJOLNIR armor for the majority of the war does give a strange sense of nostalgia for the it.
"You ready?" Vance abruptly asked. Gary turned to his friend and gave a tilt to his head.
"Ready for what?" he asked. Vance opened his arms and shrugged.
"Oh I don't know the coming tour on that Forerunner planet? Does that ring a bell?" Vance queried.
"Have you looked at all the intel on the place?" Gary asked. Vance just nodded and spun his chair to face Gary. "Those prometheans? Are a definitely a new threat." Gary said sitting back down on his bunk. "But they aren't what those rumors make forerunners out to be, like some sort of gods." Gary said.
"If the Master Chief waded through them then we shouldn't have that much trouble." Gary said.
"Well the Chief isn't any ordinary Spartan, man." Vance said with a chuff to his breath. "The man has killed more covenant then all other spartans and soldiers combined." Vance added.
"Come on the guy has stated on record that he wouldn't be around still if it weren't for his fellow spartans." Gary rebuffed.
"True." Vance said nodding his head slowly. Vance looked down at the holotable's surface and got out of the seat.
"Come on I'm bored lets go to the sparring room and see how Wasp is handling the rookies." Vance said opening the door to leave. Gary nodded and followed. There were some scientists on their way to server room that was nearby the spartan branch's living quarters deck. They peered over their shoulders when they heard Gary and Vance's heavy footsteps behind them.
"So do we have to take the metro system to the sparring room I can't remember." Gary asked a step behind Vance.
"We have to take S Station and there will be 2 stations the way there. So it is very short." Vance said pointing to the infograph running along the walls to the metro station.
"Alright." Gary said patting Vance on the shoulder. "Lead the way."
When they boarded the car there were several other spartans inside wearing their training gear.
"Heading to the sparring room?" Vance asked them as Gary and him sat down on the other end of the car. One of them nodded.
"The War Games rarely catches us in any hand to hand combat scenarios." The female spartan said. "Heard there was a class going on right now so we're going to check it out." She said leaving her seat and sitting across from them. The female spartan was nearly bald while one side of her head still had hair down to her right ear. Her pearl white smile seemed almost unreal.
"The names Ellie by the way." She said. "Spartan Ellie Torizawa." she said reaching her hand out to them.
"Nice to meet you Spartan Torizawa." Gary said giving her, her handshake which was strong and firm. "My name is Spartan-A089 and this shaved faux hawk donning spartan is..." Gary said opening an introduction for Vance.
"Spartan-C195, but you can call me Vance and this guy Gary." Vance said shoving Gary with his shoulder for not having the courtesy to give his only name.
Ellie seemed slightly confused and shocked as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Wait whats with the numbers?" she asked scratching her freshly shaven head.
"Are you guys a previous generation?" She asked with a loud whisper. Gary nodded and relaxed his back on his seat. Ellie's eyes widened when she was given her question's answer.
"So you don't have last names? Were you kidnapped like they say the Spartan IIs were?" She whispered violently. "No we're Spartan IIIs we chose to become Spartans, mostly because we're orphans." Vance said and then exposed a small tattoo on his collarbone. A globe with the roman numerals for the number 7.
"Jericho." She said lowering her eyes. Vance just fixed his shirt's collar and returned to looking at where the car was in the Infinity.
"Well I know many have said it but I'm sorry for what it's worth." She said. She looked over to the other spartans and waved them over but they didn't budge.
"Don't mind them they're prudes." Ellie said with a grimace. "I'm part of Fire team Task." She added. "I'm guessing you guys are the troublemakers known as Fire team Quiver?" She asked in a joshing manner. Both Vance and Gary nodded.
"If you don't mind me asking..." She said pausing appearing unsure.
"Go on." Gary said shrugging his shoulders. She corrected herself and straightened her back and proceeded with her question.
"Usually a Spartan fire team has at least 5 Spartans apart of it." She continued. "But I hear Quiver only has 3... What happened to your other teammates?" She asked bracing to be verbally lambasted by the 2.
"One retired." Vance said looking at the floor. "The other..." He couldn't finish the sentence and winced.
"Oh... were you guys close to him or her?" She asked. Gary loosely smiled and looked Torizawa right in the eyes.
"We were practically family." He said and left it at that. Vance signalled with his left hand that they were coming up to the first station as the car slowed down and stopped. Some marines gathered in the car and looked at both groups of Spartans on either end of the space. They chose to stay over near the smaller of the 2 groups.
Torizawa gave a feint smile towards Gary and Vance as the brief moment of silence was broken by the marines laughing over some story or joke being told. Over the metro's speakers came a boatswain call and some commands from Captain Lasky about a pair supplies coming into a hangar soon and for the crewmen of that hangar to get prepped for receiving the shipments.
"So Spartan, what adventure did you have in joining the ranks of the Spartans?" Vance asked crossing his legs.
"Oh me? I'm earthborn and my life hasn't really been all that exciting save for the past 10 years." She said. "I hopped on the nearest pelican when I was 18 around 2550 and toured twice. I've killed my fair share of covenant and the lot but the one thing I love are vehicles." She said wrapping her arms around herself giving herself comfort.
"There is just something about the rumble, the roar the sheer power of a well forged engine. My father imprinted this on me when I was just a child." She said. "I would help him work on all sorts of automobiles back at his shop." She continued. "He was a mechanic for the UNSC also but he lost his left leg in a insurrectionist attack and he was honorably discharged."
"So I when I did join the UNSC I followed in his path. Mostly working on the M12s and those ATVs." She said looking off into the distance of her memories.
"I was the best mechanic of my company created some weird frankenstein monster like vehicles before the war found itself on Earth."
"I guess some of the higher ups kept an eye on me because of it. After the war they practically busted my bedroom door down to offer me a place in the IV program." She said lifting her hands in the air with a shrug.
"I never thought I'd actually be a Spartan after everything was said and signed." She laughed. "But here I am now. One you guys." She said.
Gary and Vance looked at each other and just smirked at the statement. Ellie definitely didn't seem to look the part of a Spartan. She had no scars, her skin hadn't truly felt the heat of super heated plasma of the covenant.
"Right, glad to have you apart of us." Gary said without appearing insincere.
"Well we're here." Vance said with a big sigh of relief. All of the spartans left the metro-car and walked together through the halls until they reached the sparring room which was apart of the large gym deck of the Infinity. As they entered the Sparring room there were several groups of spartans and even marines in exercises amongst each other.
There were no benches or chairs to sit on in the room as it was a completely empty unit.
"Where do you think our Wasp it at?" Vance asked scanning the room. Gary just pointed over to the group that had a match the most congregated audience around it. Vance laughed and followed.
"Damnit! Don't leave your guard down!" A voice commanded as Gary and Vance shoved other spartans out of the way. It was Melissa who was shouting at a recruit who was bent over probably from getting his wind knocked out of him.
"When you are in a one on one situation such as this you mustn't let yourself cloud your perception and judgment of the fight. Otherwise you will always leave an opening for your opponent to take against you!" She shouted.
"Now shape up and partner up with Derrick and try again." She said yanking him out of his hunched over stance and shoving him to whom Gary could only assume was Spartan Derrick.
"So you decided to join me?" She said approaching them. Melissa stretched her shoulders and then popped her knuckles as she made her way to them through the small crowd of trainees. She had longer then average hair for most UNSC personnel along with her the highlights she gave herself. But cutting her hair was a futile effort as her reaction to her augmentations when she was younger mutated a few things about her that only a small number of Spartan IIIs had acquired. Her hair would grow insanely fast growing over 4 cm in just a month.
Although some spartans' eyes changed colors, the most common being an abnormally bright blue in both irises. Melissa acquired only one and so heterochromia was another mutation she acquired. It was a small advantage she used against her opponents as her appearance was not the norm for anyone.
"We got bored moping around in our room." Vance said yawning. "Who needs sleep? I don't." He said.
"Right and all those countless times while we had conversations while resting you totally didn't pass out on us." She said with a small smirk.
"Whatever." Vance said with a pout. "Need help training these rookies?" Gary said eying the group of spartans behind Melissa. Some of them took offense and snorted at him thinking themselves better.
"Alright..." Gary said rolling his shoulders and readying his fighting stance. "Mr. Porcine over there come here." Gary exclaimed pointing at the spartan who had scoffed at him. The spartan stepped up with a smile.
"You really want to try me?" The Spartan asked with a overconfident grin. Gary only nodded. "Whats your name spartan." Melissa said setting herself between the two of them as referee.
"I'm Spartan Bryan Gardner ma'am." He said saluting. She nodded to him and then pointed to Gary. "This is Spartan Gary umm... Spear." She continued. "On the count of three you will tap fists and then you will spar got it?" She stated. Both Gary and Bryan nodded and after she counted down did as she told them.
Bryan's stance was that of the UNSC Marine Corp Martial Arts style. A very dated style that was never adapted to accommodate fighting the covenant but is still the primary martial arts taught to the marines.
Gary knew that Bryan's main tactic would be to restrain him and get a good grapple on him and subdue him to the ground. It was effective against the insurrectionists but not a Spartan. Gary countered every test step that Bryan gave.
Bryan then went to sweep his opponent's leg but had his foot smashed by Gary's followed by Gary's knee to his chest. Bryan staggered back a few steps trying to catch his breath.
Gary took the opening and threw a left hook which Bryan blocked with his right arm. Bryan countered by throwing a few jabs at Gary within the brief moment that he had.
"Nice Bryan!" A onlooker cheered which boosted the Spartan's confidence. Listening for Bryan's footing Gary took a step back which Bryan followed by trying to catch his opponent off guard with a round house kick. Gary sidestepped the fast kick and grabbed Bryan's leg and used his momentum to throw him on the floor and twist his ankle hearing several loud pops.
"augh!" Bryan gritted his teeth from the sudden pain. "No one said this was okay!" Bryan hissed as he held his breath. Gary continued to wrench Bryan's ankle but not to the point of snapping the bone.
"Come on! Give or I'll tear it." Gary taunted. "No!" Bryan yelled as he reached for Gary's head. Using this against Bryan, Gary let go of Bryan an slammed his foot into Bryan's chin as he lurched forward to grab him.
"Oof!" Bryan exhaled his jaw clacked as his teeth clashed together. Bryan's body went limp as everyone rushed to him to wake him up.
Gary walked over to Bryan who had finally been slapped awake by his teammates. With a smile Gary extended his hand to Bryan and lifted him up and dusted him off.
"Thats what she can teach you." Gary said pointing to Melissa. Bryan gave a frail nod and with his tail behind his legs was lost into the crowd which surrounded him.
"Spartan Gary?" A familiar voice called out behind him. It was Spartan Torizawa approaching him and clapping rapidly.
"Bravo! Yoku dekimashita!" She said with spirit. Gary grinned and shrugged at her appraisal. "Who's this?" Melissa asked approaching Ellie. "This is Spartan Ellie Torizawa apart of Fire Team Task." Gary said introducing Ellie to his teammate. Melissa eyeballed Ellie for a quick moment and smugly shook the girl's hand. "So 8-ball come here to learn hand to hand combat?" Melissa jabbed. Ellie recoiled from the name calling but recovered just as fast and laughed. "Aye that is exactly why I'm here." She parried.
"Alright! El just join the growing crowd behind us and you'll get what you came for." Melissa said gesturing to the crowd.
Ellie looked at Gary and Vance with confusion as she walked by them. "Since you guys don't have your actual fatigues on I can't let you join in on the fun." Melissa said with a sneaky smile.
"What did I just do then?" Gary asked addled. "Oh I just wanted to see that shit head Bryan get his egotistical ass handed to him." Melissa shrugged. "Oh." Gary and Vance said. "He was giving you trouble?" Vance asked.
"Oh yeah was boasting for an entire half an hour before you showed up." Melissa responded. "I wanted to do it myself but I'm already in deep with Palmer. So I let you do it for me." She snickered. "I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all, the guy packs a punch though." Gary said rubbing his cheek. "Oh suck it up! You've taken worse from a drone." She said gently slapping his cheek. "So what can we do?" Vance asked. "That transit took some time to get here." He added.
"Well you can go to the gym? Don't ask me I'm not your mom." She said waving them away. "Well lead..." Vance said to Gary looking for a goal. Gary invited Vance to follow him and headed towards the door to the cardio room. "Cardio? Damn it." Vance moaned. "Come on a good marathon won't hurt you." Gary joyfully said slapping Vance's back as he picked up his pace.
When both the spartans entered the cardio room it was inhabited by mostly marines and other crew. There were plenty of treads left for them to use as they hopped on a pair next to each other.
"No races!" Vance said assertively pointing at Gary. Gary had a larger stride then Vance and whenever they did compete the long runs the strides were always put Gary in the winner's circle at the end.
"I promise no racing." Gary said holding up his right hand. "But I'd like to see you put in at least a good marathon length run in." Vance just nodded and started to jog on his tread.
"So how was your leave on Earth?" Vance asked as Gary began his run beside him. Gary didn't answer as he became focused on his run. When ever it came to running Gary seem to get into a zone which he used to conserve his energy allowing him to sprint vast distances without losing his breath.
"Well I visited Sydney, they've done a lot work since the entire continent was flattened." Vance said. "They even rebuilt some of the skyscrapers."
"I have a question Gary." Vance stated with a stern tone. Gary continued to run but did leer at Vance. "Does civilian life seem weird to you?" Vance asked quirking his head.
"Weird how?" Gary replied. "Well all we've known is war. I can barely remember my childhood so really the only experience I have of non military life was my leave a month ago." Vance said.
"How would we cope with a life without a pure and absolute purpose?" Vance asked. Gary returned to looking in front of himself as he ran on his tread. Pondering the question. "I don't know, I actually just helped around the base while down there." Gary answered continuing to look forward.
"Spartan to the core huh?" Vance asked him.
"To the core Ghost, to the core."
"Spear, what do you think Erol is doing?" Vance questioned. Erol had quit the Fire Team back when Quiver was offered a position in the SPARTAN IV program. They hadn't communicated with him since. Erol was always the emotionally troubled of the team the CHRYSTHANTHEMUM augmentations damaged him more then most of the Spartan IIIs. He would fall into fits of rage on the battlefield from time to time when he didn't take the right chemicals to counteract the effects from the augmentations.
After the battle of Orin he wasn't the same and fought Gary on almost everything. After the Operation INSURANCE Erol had, had enough and threw his tags at the feet of the team when recruited for the new program.
"I don't know... and I don't give a shit." Gary said amping up the speed on his run almost falling into a full sprint. "Enough chit chat Ghost get to running." Gary said cutting their conversation dead in its tracks.
"Aye aye sir." Vance responded.
"Don't..." Gary restrained himself from telling Vance not to call him sir. Technically in the new Spartan Branch of the UNSC there were no ranks only Fire Team Members and the Team Lead and of course the Commander.
But for over a decade he didn't see himself fit for the lead of Quiver. They allowed him to step down from the position for a time and Melissa took his spot but ultimately reclaimed it after a few months.
"Sorry..." Vance recoiled. "Don't apologize I know it is a force of habit." Gary eased. Suddenly another boatswain call ringed into the cardio room as a female voice called in. "Fire Team Quiver please report to S-Deck, I repeat Fire Team Quiver please report to S-Deck."
"Uh oh..." Vance said as both him and Gary turned off their treads. "Gotta be Palmer." Gary said jumping off the machine.
"Lets grab Wasp and see what she wants."