(A/N) Okay….so this is my/our first fic. Me and my editor (Kontraband) have been planning on something like this for a while. Please, don't flame…it's not worth your time.

(Disclaimer: Neither I, nor my editor Kontraband own any part of Halo, Halo2, Halo3 or anything to with the games. All of our knowledge is from Bungie and the authors of the Halo books…as well as some shit from the halo wiki.

ENJOY

Prologue

The brute stared around at the flaming buildings in disgust. His fellow brethren and he had been commanded to destroy a human colony that had recently been built on a planet called Gravelon. The planet had been recently obtained by the UNSC forces after destroying a brute outpost stationed on the tropical forest-like planet two years ago. Now his brethren had called for revenge and so the brutes returned to the planet with a full brute armada, wiping out every last human on the planet. Granted, it had taken a full standard week, but they were almost done with the purging of the planet. The brute took a moment to look around again. He was standing inside what appeared to be a human household. Pictures hung crooked from the burning, decomposing walls, the entire house smelled of rotting flesh. On the floor lay two decapitated human bodies. The brute smiled evilly, how he had enjoyed ripping the human's heads off with his bear hands. His revenge was sweet. Suddenly he heard a noise. It was a small sobbing sound coming from the inside of a nearby closet. The brute smiled, it seemed he would be able to have a bit more fun before he left the planet.

Inside the closet 10 year old Andrew sat at the bottom of the closet sobbing in fear. The large gorilla with hair he had seen had come into his house and killed his parents single handedly. Now he was afraid he'd be next. He suddenly stopped sobbing, if he was going to die then he would die like one of the famous Spartans of the UNSC. He would go down fighting. Slowly this idea of bravery seeped into his brain making him tense up in anticipation of the coming encounter; in his right hand he gripped his father's old M6 pistol. The weapon his father had given to him just before the monster entered his house. His father's last words echoed in his mind, "take this gun and hide in the closet son. Don't make any noise no matter what you hear, and remember that your mother and I love you." And with that his father had shoved him into the closet. Suddenly Andrew realized that he was hearing heavy thumping noises. He wondered what they could possibly be. Then the realization of what was about to happen hit him, the monster was coming closer and closer to the closet. Then with an ear splitting sound the door of the closet came off and flew across the room. Standing framed in the doorway was the thing of nightmares. The brute stood where the door used to be, it's grey fur covered in human blood, "my parents blood" thought Andrew. Closing his eyes he began to fire the M6. The brute roared in laughter, the little human child was trying to shoot him with its eyes closed! The little fool would never make it in a real battle. Andrew opened his eyes in horror. He was out of ammo. It was all over, he was about to die. Then the sound of an assault rifle being fired filled the room. As Andrew looked up he saw the brute's eyes white over, and then the brute fell on him. What happened next was something Andrew had never expected. Standing where the brute had just been stood a Spartan warrior, his forest green, ceramic-like armor shined in the light of the fire. The assault rifle in his hands still smoking at the barrel after the shots. Then the Spartan looked down at Andrew and Andrew fainted, his vision enveloped in a world of darkness.

Chapter 1

Andrew hefted his mock MA5B battle rifle. Silently he took aim at a large man crouching in the bushes, his camouflage making him seem almost part of the bushes. Quickly, before the man could even take a breath, Andrew shot him three times, once in both arms and once on the back of the man's head. He smiled. "One down over here" he whispered into his TEAMCOM. It had been six long years since that fateful day on Gravelon. After awaking aboard a UNSC spaceship high in orbit, Andrew's first thought was that the monsters had taken him, but that idea left his mind as fast as it had come as soon as he saw the large man in emerald green amour standing next to his bed. These were the legendary Spartans warriors.

These men and women were super soldiers that were rumored to be able to do the impossible. If anyone could win a war filled with rather large aliens with advanced weapons, Andrew knew it would be them. But nothing could prepare Andrew for what happened next. The Spartan actually kneeled down so that his yellow tinted visor was level with Andrew's face. The Spartan then asked Andrew if he would like to join the other five hundred children who were going to be trained as Spartans. The thought of avenging his parents instantly popped into Andrew's mind and he readily agreed. After that Andrew had been whisked off to a planet much like his own for training. The only problem was that there were 100 too many children. So to eliminate those not worthy of becoming Spartans, the boys and girls were asked to shoot at a brute warrior. Of course none of the children knew that the brute was only a hologram (a damn good one at that) but it had done the trick. Those not worthy of the training couldn't fire the gun out of fear or just ran screaming at the sight of the savage monster. Andrew of course didn't have any problems with shooting at the monster, all he had to do was envision the monster that killed his parents and bam, he became a demon, shooting at the monster and fully emptying the magazine on the pistol he had been given.

It was from that point on that Andrew's training began; he was taken to an uninhabited island where he learned everything he would need to know to survive out in the war. He learned about the different species of the covenant, he learned how to fire an assault rifle properly and of course he was taught the ways of the military. It had taken three years, but in those long three years Andrew had become a lean mean, fighting machine. Of course that wasn't all that changed. In addition to being trained by the UNSC, Andrew had become part of a four-man team, as did the other to-be Spartans. Andrew's team was named team Paradox and it consisted of Andrew's most trusted friends as team mates. In his team were Sai (SPARTAN-135), Greg (SPARTAN-253), Candace (SPARTAN-298), and of course Andrew (SPARTAN-089). These four teens had become the only family that Andrew knew, each of them being like younger siblings to him (Andrew being the oldest of the four).

A far away gun shot brought Andrew back to reality. It was graduation day for the would-be Spartans. All they had to do was pass one more test and then they would become fully fledged Spartans. Andrew smiled at the thought. All he and his team had to do was infiltrate a base in the middle of the forest and ring a single bell that was hung from a stick in the middle of a clearing in the base. Of course the trainee's instructor, Chief Mendez had hired a few mercenaries to take out the teens. Luckily the guns that the mercenaries had been given only shot out rubber balls, but still if one of these rubber balls hit a trainee it would render the part of the trainee the ball hit useless for at least two hours. Andrew and his team had been lucky. They had managed to take out a few mercenaries already on a count of many of them being drunk from a full day of "happy-hour". It was a simple matter of sneaking up on the men and simply knocking them over the head with a couple of big rocks. After that the team was able to "borrow" the men's mock Assault rifles.

"Greg, up that tree, now. I need a scouting report on the terrain 5 km around here!"

"Yes Chief! Right away"!

Andrew smiled to himself…he knew they were just patronizing him to be funny. He ran a few steps forward and crouched behind a log, constantly shifting his eyes right and left.

He did a quick check behind him and saw Candace climbing a tree adjacent to the one Greg was already in. Another smile, Candace was always a step ahead of everyone, including himself, which pissed him off slightly.

"Alright, everyone knows the plan right?" Andrew whispered. Three thumbs up followed the question. Andrew smiled. It was a simple plan. Before the rest of the teams had gotten far Andrew and his team tracked them down and began a mass plot to get to the bells all at once. A nearby hoot broke the quite night air. It was the signal, the plan was in motion. Andrew began his long sprint from his covered log to the mercenary base. The base was set up in an old ghost town. It looked like something had bombed the city. Everything was either falling apart or close to falling apart. The mercenaries had set up a square of fencing around the bells, with only one entrance in the middle of the town. As Andrew ran he could feel his heart beating, his adrenaline was rising, and his brain was constantly thinking about where the mercenaries would be positioned around the camps. Finally he reached an old crumbing bar. As he hid behind the decaying building he could hear gunshots throughout the town. The plan was simple, the leaders of each team would rush the mercenaries in the middle of the night, they would take out as many of them as possible, then once they were sure the coast was clear the leaders would go and grab the bells. In the case that all the leaders were taken out, it would be up to the team's other members to finish the job and make sure the leaders got out of the base.

"HEY YOU THERE!" Andrew swiftly turned around he fired three shots to where the voice was coming from. He was rewarded with the sound of a man grunting and then a thud as the body hit the ground. Andrew frowned, he was planning on sniping from the bar since it had a perfect view of the base, but now he would have to move out. He looked around for the next best cover. There! By the bar was an old wall that had once supported a building. The building was long gone but the wall was still there. Without a second thought Andrew ran to the wall, shooting at any camouflaged men until finally he made it to the wall. Breathing heavily Andrew took a look around the wall to survey the base. What he saw didn't surprise him in the least. The base was in complete chaos, there were bodies littering the floor. It seemed the mercenaries hadn't expected a night time raid. What idiots, thought Andrew they really thought that they would be safe what night. Expect the unexpected. It was the one thing that their CO had drilled into each of their heads on the first day of training. The Brutes were notorious for taking their enemies by surprise in the most surprising ways. To deal with it the Spartans had been trained to be ready for any situation. Another hoot pierced the night. It was the signal that all of the mercenaries had been taken out. Andrew smiled, it was so easy. As he walked out from behind the cover he knew he was in trouble. In the center of the base were all his fellow leaders, kneeling down with their arms tied behind their backs. Even worse was the fact that ten mercenaries pointed their assault rifles at the leaders. One of the mercenaries sneered at Andrew.

"Did you really believe that all of us would be stupid enough to fall for a nighttime attack?" the man smiled. His dark eyes dripping with evil. "You brats have caused us enough trouble. I think that maybe we should teach you all a little lesson". The man smiled evilly as he hefted his assault rifle and pointed to one of the other leaders, Matt. "You ever been shot before kid?" Matt nodded, they all had. At least with the fake guns. "Allow me to rephrase that, have you ever been shot with real bullets?" All the trainees paled. None of them had ever really been shot before. "I think we'll start with your arms and then work our way up" the man hefted his gun and then began to laugh an insane laugh. "Just who do you kids are, messing with trained professionals. You guys haven't even been in a real battle before and you're supposed to be our only chance of survival? Bullshit!"

Andrew smiled. "You really want to know who we are?" The man's smile shrank a couple of molars. The boy's voice seemed to be both taunting and cold, almost as if he had planned this all along. Andrew smiled at the man his most mocking and cocky smile.

"Ya you little snot nosed fuck, go ahead and tell me who you guys are" the man said.

Andrew smiled again. "We're Spartans". The leaders looked up. It was a signal. As Andrew said the phrase "we're Spartans" the boys all dropped down to their chests. Ten simultaneous sniper shots rang through the air, and before anyone could move the ten mercenaries fell to the floor, each with a black dot embedded on their foreheads where the rubber bullets had knocked them out. "What a bunch of morons" Andrew said. He bent down and began to untie his fellow leaders as the rest of the children from the other teams entered the town.

"Nice shooting Candace", Andrew didn't even have to look up when he said it. The way Candace's feet hit the ground as she walked was one of the ways that Andrew identified his teammates.

"Thank you, man that was close. Were they really planning on shooting with real bullets?"

Sai's voice yelled back to them as he checked the men's guns.

"Goddamit, they weren't fuckin around! All of these guns have got real ammunition in them!"

Andrew frowned; the bastards had actually planned on shooting at them with real ammunition. As Andrew got up and walked towards the bells he couldn't resist kicking the lead mercenary n the face and muttering "that's for threatening my friends you bastard".

Sai walked up to the unconscious men, "here Andrew, allow me", and with that he began to kick each of the men in the stomach while uttering a mumbled curse, no doubt of which would make any saint cringe in pain.

Lord Admiral Hill stood inside the command opps center of the Spartan's camp. As he gazed at the projectors all around the circular room he smiled. Making the mercenaries believe that they had captured the would-be Spartans and then turning the tables on them in one go was a brilliant move. It was these children that would help to defend the future of mankind against the onslaught of the covenant armada and the demonic flood. Lord Admiral Hill leaned forward and pressed the intercom button that was linked to the entire island. "All recruits report to the main opps centre, I will deliver my judgment to you all there". It took about 30 minutes for all of the recruits to reach the command centre, each Spartan team lead by their team leaders. The leaders directed their teammates to seat in chairs that had been placed in a large hall in the opps main command room. Admiral Hill stood behind a podium in the front of the hall, where he addressed all the recruits for the last time.

As the admiral took the stand, the entire hall became pin drop silent. The admiral began his speech, his voice anything but pleased. "You are all a bunch failures! What kind of plan was that put there? You nearly had someone from your team killed! That plan was arbitrary and unorganized! It was a plan of idiots!"

Everyone in the hall was shocked, but none more so than Andrew, it was his plan, his idea to use the leaders as bait, had he condemned them all? Just then the Admiral's voice rang out.

"And that my friends, is what being a Spartan is all about. Doing the unexpected, putting your lives on the line so that you get the job done, and above else, being able to come up with a plan within a small period of time. In accordance to the skill and execution used in your little plan, I say this to you. Welcome to the UNSC… Spartans!

All around the hall the teens cheered. They had done it. They were Spartans…

Please Review….we need as much help as we can get.

Sorry for the cliffhanger