_________________________________Chapter 1: Time of Peace, And No Fighting
1400 hours, September 18, 2552(Military Calendar)/ Pillar of Autumn, In slip space.
The Commander of the 101st Spec-ops squadron, Lucas ran his fingers through his newly grown dark hair, it wasn't long because of military regulations, but it was longer then a buzz cut length. He was wearing a tank top along with sweat pants, he was heading to the gym, and he didn't want to be out of shape once they exited slip space. Taking a left he ended up facing a bulky door with no noise leaking through it. He walked up and it automatically opened for him, when I opened up the noise of men grunting, yells, footsteps came through along with the sound of metal being hit against metal. He walked in and his feet were more or less slightly absorbed by the mats laid through out the room. He went to his work out routine joining his men.
Sergeant Joe of the 24th marine company, he was using a tread mill when he saw Commander Lucas come in. Commander Lucas was a slightly pale Mexican descendant and was extremely fit; he came to the gym often. Joe on the other hand wasn't as strong as Lucas, but he was more of a man of intelligence. "Hey, welcome to the gym, you're a bit late!" yelled Joe to Lucas across the gym, he simply smiled and kept walking to where ever he was going to. Finishing his run he saw Private Bean as everyone called him in the corner telling jokes to surrounding men. Bean was the Company's clown, he was nearly useless on the battle field, but he was good at lightening up the men's spirits. Smiling he got off the black carpet and wiped off some sweat going down his forehead with his arm and went to his next station.
Sharp was jogging around the gym; he preferred to jog on the real ground rather then on a thread mill. Sharp was on his fourth mile, and only needed one more lap to make it 5, and then he'd be finished. After running it he slowed down and went to the silver water fountain. He bent down feeling sweat run down his face and fall off. He took a couple sips, and then splashed some water over his face and went towards the bench to sit down for little while. Sharp was the crack shot with the sniper rifle, and was only rivaled by Mary, of the spec-ops team, that's why he'd received the name of "Sharp" and now everyone called him Sharp, even on his military forms and his dog tag it read "Sharp".
Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto, nick named Beast was using one of the many bench presses in the gym; he had 280 pounds on, and was on his fifth set. If there was a title for tough guy in a squadron, it'd be Beast; he had the biggest muscles that aren't from steroids you'd most likely ever see. The weights were secured in case of some kind of tilt in the space ship or something like it. Suddenly Bean popped up above his bar, and grinned, "Hey, when you going to finish, big boy?" Beast never found any of the man's jokes extremely funny; instead he often felt the need to snap the guy's neck. He dropped his weights and they automatically were caught by the safety device. Huffing as he pulled himself up, he then grabbed a white rag off of a nearby pedestal. Wiping his sweat off he threw it back and started to jog around the gym just like Sharp was doing. Beast was 6'5 ft. and could run the fastest out of the whole spec-ops squad. Their time though at the gym was going to end in a couple minutes so he picked up his pace to a sprint around the gym.
*
"Ha! Man that bartender must have been pissed off after he found out that he hadn't gotten the better part of the deal when he got pissed on!" Exclaimed one of the men from the 24th marine company, laughing from the joke that Bean had just told the men, Sharp was sitting in the corner with Lucas and Beast, they were the highest ranked officers of the room, Sharp being second highest and Beast being third. Both were veterans from Harvest, one of the first places that the Covenant had attacked. Sharp rubbed his fore head and leaned back against the wall since he was sitting on an over turned crate.
Lucas felt the need to light a cigar, but held himself back knowing that it against regulations, but he decided to take one out and chew on it. He glanced over at the carved out of stone face of Sharp and then at Beast's eyes which were not to be seen since he was in just the right angle of the shade to have them sort of disappear. He pushed off the crate and walked to the center of the men, "Guys! Everyone, we're exiting Slipspace in a matter of a day, I want everyone rested and ready to fight, we don't know what we're going to see, but I'm willing to bet my left ass cheek that the Covenant are one of them! So I'm expecting some kind of mission, whether it's boarding or simply protecting the Autumn, I want us ready to do it, so go get some sleep and we'll do some exercises tomorrow!" Lucas felt like the father of his squadron, yet he'd seen a couple of them fall with bullets plunging deep into their bodies, and he'd sent a few to die as well, but that was part of being a commander.
Sharp looked as the men passed one by one, their squadron wasn't big, only a total of ten men, but they'd started out with 19, nearly half of which had died protecting humanity throughout the years. He glanced at Mary, who liked to be called Mar by everyone but him, was towards the back of the line. She was the only female in the squad, and as she was about to go out the door, he quickly sprang up and followed her through. He caught up to her in a second or two. "Hey, so how are things going Mary?" Sharp asked once he was at her pace walking next to her through the "tunnels" of the Autumn; all of them were small in order to get as many things into one ship as possible so open space wasn't exactly a luxury the humans could afford.
"Lame, like usual, Sharp, you don't know how to charm a lady at all, you're good with a gun, but not exactly a shot with the ladies." She smiled and punched him on his left shoulder. He smiled and kept walking, over the years he'd developed a friend ship off of their "rivalry" in the sniper realm. Mary was 29 and he was 34. He loved the way she walked, it wasn't easy to describe, but it wasn't the fancy shmancy lady walk, but it wasn't a male walk either. He liked her dark hair which seemed to keep itself straight for he had never seen her combing it. He liked the fact that she wasn't a blond; he hated how for some reason certain women felt the need to dye their hair blond. But thing was, he was attracted to her, but she wasn't so much to him. Sure they were friends, but nothing more. They walked up to the door and it opened almost instantly for them. They walked into the barracks and Sharp jumped up onto his bunk bed while Mary went towards the back of the barracks to her bunk bed. Sharp looked down across the room and saw a small light on.
Sharp pitied Private Ian, he had a newly wedded wife and a two month old son, he would write to his family every night in his little notebook under the light of his flashlight. He was from the 24th Marine Company. The barracks that he was in was shared by the 101st spec-ops squad, the 24th, and the 19th ODST platoon. Of course it wasn't all of them, but it was a portion of them. Sharp turned over on the inch thick mattress and tucked himself even more and finally fell asleep.
Lucas was walking to the barracks where his men were at, but he couldn't help but wonder if the humans were going to win the war. They'd lost all of the outer colonies, and their inner colonies were being devoured by the huge Covenant beast. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if Reach had fallen, last that he'd seen of it was when it was under attack. Coming up to the barracks door it slid open for him and he jumped onto his bunk bed. He almost instantly fell asleep.