Project Victor
The sun rose early that day, too early in Victor's opinion. Victor Xan Kro (12) had just had the strangest dream; he dreamt that some lady named Hasley had told him that he would one day help save humanity, and that she would return for him the following day. Victor just supposed that it meant nothing, but was still curious to the fact that it was so real. So later in the day (a rather long day) Victor was on his way home from school when he heard a voice call his name. "Who's there?" he cried.
"It's me Dr. Hasley, remember?" Now he saw her standing a few yards behind him. Victor was scared at the fact that she was real.
"What do you want?"
"I told you yesterday, you're going to help save millions of lives, all you have to do is come with me," Hasley said, then a smile formed on her face, "haven't you always wanted to be stronger, faster, and smarter than anyone else?" Victor pondered this for a moment.
"Fine, I'll come with you."
"Okay good, Private do your job." Victor didn't have time to look around for who she was talking to before he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck and was rendered unconscious.
The Next Day
The first thing Victor saw was Dr. Hasley behind the controls of what he thought was a space ship. "What happened?" She turned around so fast you would have thought that there was a ghost behind her.
"Oh, you're up! Good, sorry about Private Razieal he just gets carried awa-" All of a sudden the engines stopped with a jerk, Victor was thrown from the bed. He had just stood up and looked at Dr. Hasley in time to see her get disintegrated by a blue bolt of light that came from behind him. He turned to see three huge creatures staring at him, one wearing gold armor the other two in a brilliant blue color. "Grab the child he might be one of them," the gold one commanded in a deep voice that shook Victor's stomach. The two blue creatures moved toward Victor and reached outward to him. Victor leapt into the air toward one of them, placed one hand on its shoulder, the other hand pushing its head away, then Victor lunged his canines into the monstrosity's neck, he heard the faint popping of the sharp teeth sinking into the leathery skin, and began to drink the cold blue liquid that began gushing everywhere, tasting like snow made from saltwater. All other sounds left his mind for the moment until another blue bolt shot past his head. Victor quickly dove to the side looked up and saw the golden one start to bring down a weapon that glowed bluish-purple and had two parallel blades that you could easily have fit your hand between them, so Victor rolled, grabbed the creatures wrist, and twisted the blade, with newfound strength, at the second blue one, swiping its head clean off. The gold monster tried to wretch its hand free of the child's grip, but to no success. Victor turned to face it, balled his hand into a tiny fist, and pulverized its face deep into its skull.
After the whole incident was over Victor stood there and didn't know what to do at all. What just happened? Why am I so strong? Why did I bite its neck? And what are these things? Just then Victor heard a voice from somewhere in the distance. "Simulation complete."
"Simulation? Like in a game?" The scenery was starting to dissipate. "What's happening?" Victor cried.
"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Dr. Hasley's voice came from everywhere. The room now looked as if someone took a white room and drew tiny black dots all over the place, except for one wall, which held a giant mirror set into the wall with no frame. "Victor," Dr. Hasley's voice came again, "you just participated in a simulation to test how well you've reacted to the medicine we've given you to enhance your powers."
"What powers?"
"The powers of strength, speed, and your quick ability to think how to overcome obstacles, though I don't know why you bit the elite's neck, a few of our other subject's did that."
"Well, where are we at? And where are we going?"
"We are inside a star ship dubbed The Cavalier, and we are heading to the Reach Training Facility to train you into the perfect super soldier that we have named the SPARTAN Project." Victor thought about this for a while, giving Dr. Hasley time to come out of a door, that he knew wasn't there before, and beckon him inside. "On our way there we will give you more doses of the medicine that will help with the transition."
"How long does it take to get there?"
"About six and a half years, you see it's on the other side of the universe that we know of."
"That's a long time."
"Yes but it will give us enough time to train you as much as we can on the ship. So, shall we begin?"
"Ok, fine." The next day was full of strenuous activities that can only be described as long and tiresome. And this process continued every day.
1 Year Later
Victor thought that being a SPARTAN would be fun, but no, he is now thirteen, spent a year of his life on a ship training every other day, and having to take this horrible tasting medicine so his body wouldn't go into shock because of the injections he received on the other days, and recently Victor had felt a terrible hunger that Dr. Hasley had just described a "temporary side effect," but what ever it was it spiked whenever he got near anyone else and he had passed out twice because of the pain.
One day a technician from the engine room had an accident with a power tool and sliced his body from the base of his neck to his belly button. After hearing the screaming, Victor poked his head out of the door just as the technician was rushed by on the way to the medical bay. The scent of his warm blood washed over Victor like a raisin to a tsunami. Victor's eyes turned black as dark, black as pitch, blacker than the foulest witch. His instincts took over him, and Victor snatched the person closest to him, Private Razieal. Victor pulled him into the recesses of his room and slammed the door so fast that no one outside noticed he was even gone. Victor turned upon Razieal, lunged at his throat, and, just like in the simulation, began to feed on the iron flavored liquid that poured into his mouth.
A few minutes later, Victor had drained Razieal to the point just before the darkness could take his soul. That had finally quenched the hunger, Victor felt better than ever. As he ripped his teeth from Razieal's neck, blood splattered the wall like claret water. Razieal's body shook violently with shock. Then as everything grew silent, Victor's eyes returned to they're piercing blue color, Razieal stopped shaking, and Victor looked at the horror he had just committed. His mind started racing, but first there was something he had to do; Victor reached up and touched his canines just as they started to shrink back into the gums. Finally something broke the silence. "Victor, are you alright?" It was Dr. Hasley's voice.
"F…fine why do you ask?" he prayed she wouldn't open the door.
"I heard some noises from in here." The door made the awful squealing sound it makes just before it is opened. Victor was to the door, swung it open and was in Dr. Hasley's face before she knew what had happened. "Oh, hi, so the speed implements are taking they're effect just as they are supposed to?"
"Yes, thank you for letting me be a part of thi-" just the Razieal had somehow opened the door and when Victor and Dr. Hasley looked upon him, he appeared just fine, a little paler than usual, and all the blood on his garb had disappeared.
"Hello Miss Hasley, I was just wondering what was taking Victor so long. You see we were going over some combat tactics, and he was just about to teach me to kill any Covenant unit with only a rock."
"Ok, I was just leaving." She turned to walk away and Victor saw Razieal's eyes flash black as Hasley's scent washed over them both. Once she was out of earshot Victor turned toward Razieal.
"YOU! How are you breathing much less alive!" On the 'alive' Victor pushed him into the room and slammed the door.
"I am like you now."
"You mean a Spartan?"
"No a vampyre."
"What? You're lying."
"No I swear, how else do you explain what you did, how I'm alive, and the fact that you are faster and stronger than you should be at this level in the program."
"It must have been a hallucination, and maybe I'm just learning quicker."
"Then how do you explain this." Razieal held up a mirror and in it Victor saw his iris had changed to maroon.
"It must be a side eff-"
"VICTOR! STOP ARGUEING AND FACE THE FACTS! TURN AROUND!" Victor did as he was commanded and found the wall had a line of crimson that slowly filed down.
"Ok, fine. So what do we do about it?"
"Well first of all." Razieal punched Victor, faster than the human eye can see, across the face, sending him flying into the wall. Victor slammed into the wall causing the steel to crack and fold in. A ripple was sent throughout it.
"What was that for?"
"You killed me."
"Sorry, I wasn't in control of myself. By the way OW."
"Yea it turns out I got SPARTAN abilities now and GET IN CONTROL THEN!"
"I didn't even know that I was a vampyre, so stop yelling at me."
"I can yell at whomever I WANT!" That got Victor angrier than he has ever been and without hesitation Razieal had disappeared through the wall that separated Victor's room and the combat training arena. As Razieal stood, Victor could not be seen through the gaping hole in the wall.
"Looking for me." Victor said from behind. Razieal turned and planted one in his stomach, causing Victor to slam into the thirty meter high ceiling. Victor kicked off with all his strength, leaving a dent in the two inch thick steel, and fell all the way down. Razieal leapt away just in time before the ground exploded with force. Through the dust Victor charged and, in lightning fast movements that only their eyes could catch, they both started a frenzy of kicks, punches, parries, and blocks. This ended when both were shot simultaneously through the side of their necks. They both hit the ground unconscious but alive.
"That is enough! Take them to the medical bay I want them healed and I want to know how that one,"- about Razieal- "got those speed and strength abilities." It was Dr. Hasley and she was PISSED.
The Next Day
The first thing Victor was aware of is the darkness of his closed eyes. Then a light sliced through the middle of the darkness as his eyes slid open slowly. He saw Dr. Hasley standing over him with a scowl on her face. "I was on my way to inform you that ETA to Reach is an hour, but I found you two fighting with him somehow keeping up with you in speed and strength."
"I can explain," Victor started to say as he was sitting up, "but this would be easier." He then reached up and slashed at her throat. Strangely as Victor swung his nails grew out an inch into sharp points. With the speed of his swing she had no time to react and that was the last breath Dr. Hasley took.
Ten Years Later
"Alert all engines are offline. Repeat all engines are offline," was heard throughout the Pelican-class drop-ship. Victor awoke and started to assemble all his Mjolnir Mark-VII body armor on, and lastly picked up his custom designed ODST helmet and slowly lowered it onto his head. Victor saw nothing but all black until his HUD zapped on. Victor noted no enemy contacts on the motion tracker. His shield meter filled with a short 'bleep'. Victor went to his personal armory and equipped: four combat knives, two SMGs, four frag grenades, an S2-class sniper rifle, and finally his custom semi-automatic battle rifle with shotgun attachment. He grabbed all the ammo he could carry and reported to the bridge as fast as he could. When Victor arrived Razieal, in his armor, was equipped with all the same gear, minus the knives and battle rifle, he instead had an assault rifle. Razieal's helmet also differed; he had a scout-class head gear. Razieal was there with Admiral Salemn.
"Took you long enou-" Razieal mocked.
"Shut it trooper, Lieutenant you need to get down planet-side and stop those rebel bastards from tearing our base apart."
"Sir, yes sir," Victor replied, "Raz come with me."
"Are we jumping?"
"What do you think?" They made their way to the launch room. Once down there, they opened the door, got a running start and lunged out toward the surface of Xenon IV. The free fall was magic to Spartans. Yet the best experience they couldn't enjoy, the rush of the wind, their armor prevented it. The snow covered ground raced up to meet them. At ten meters up Victor keyed the COM to Razieal, "Tuck and roll… NOW." They both tucked into a ball and rolled across the powdery substance. There shield meters went down the tiniest bit, and had recharged by the time they had stood up. "Sergeant, status report."
"Loved the jump, sir. Planet is clean, air breathable. Wow, I haven't seen readings this good since I studied the texts on ancient Earth. Uh-oh."
"'Uh-oh' what?"
"Umm… we have company. Fifty rebel soldiers have set up camp just over that hill." He pointed north.
"So, go scout it from the right, I'll take the left, and when you get my signal," Victor keyed his acknowledgement bleep, "snipe out the guards. At the next signal, go stealth, get down there, and don't draw attention."
"Are we leaving two like usual?"
"Of course, we gotta eat sometime. Alright you have your objective now go." With that they both went to their positions, which took about two minutes with their enhanced speed.
They were about fifty yards from each other with the rebel camp between them. Victor set up his rifle, marked the guards for Razieal, and took aim at his own. Razieal's acknowledgement light winked on. Victor returned the favor and simultaneously they took out the only four guards on duty. Then something terrible went wrong and Razieal's position was given away. Victor figured it out, but it was too late, the rebels had known the whole time. Ten rockets from Jackhammer-class rocket launchers flew toward Razieal. They exploded and Razieal jumped from inside the fire. The rebels knew that wasn't going to kill him, because the next volley was aimed higher, and fired instantaneously after the first one exploded. Something was wrong, how could they anticipate Razieal's movements, unless they had someone on the inside? Victor slung his rifle, hefted his primary, and bolted down to the camp. Victor looked up to see the next volley collide head on with Razieal and at the same time, he heard a scream over the COM that would have made Hades shiver. Razieal Lucas Spike was dead. Refocusing on the mission, Victor knew mourning would come later. He was running like he never had before and, halfway down the hill, jumped. While airborne Victor unclipped a frag grenade and threw it at the racketeers. The force that he used to throw it caused the man-it-hit's head to be swiped clean from his shoulders. The others around him jumped back with startled expressions. The grenade went off, sending what was left of them flying. Victor landed and rolled to his feet. Ten rebels came running toward him, unloading weapon fire at Victor. He jumped to the left, leveled his weapon and took them out with quick, three round bursts. From his right 50 caliber rounds tore Victor's gun practically in half. In one motion Victor threw his gun away and jumped back. As he rolled to his feet Victor equipped the two SMG's and, alternating fire, he took down the person behind the mini-gun. Victor started running through the camp taking down rebels left and right with a berserk rampage. As he came upon a large group of soldiers, Victor heard the awful sound of clicks as the clips ran out. Ejecting the magazines, Victor threw the SMG's high into the air and followed with two fresh rounds right behind them. Victor took out two knives and quickly started to dismember the group. He threw the knives at two people, which left on person in front of him. The not-so-brave man was frozen with fear, but before his partners could hit the ground, Victor caught the SMG's behind his back and the new magazines fell into place with a satisfying *click*. Victor raised them slowly, turned to his left, and pointed the right-handed SMG at the man. "Goodbye," Victor said as he fired a burst into the man's face, obliterating it. As the echo of the last shot left the valley, it fell all too quiet.
Victor looked around and saw what he thought was the CO's tent. Victor dashed over and went inside. On the inside what he saw almost made him have a heart attack. Thirty soldiers surrounded him, but the two people in the middle are what surprised him. Razieal stood, AR pointed right at Victor, with his arm around Dr. Hasley.
"Hi Victor, remember me," she said with a smile. Simultaneously they opened fire on Victor, his shields depleted instantly. As Victor's vision fainted, he planted rounds in Razieal and Hasley's heads.
Then everything went black and with his last breath, Victor said, "So it begins."
The End… Maybe…