DISCLAIMER:I DO NOT OWN HALO, ANYTHING WITH A STAR WILL BE MENTIONED AT THE END OF EACH CHAPTER…
CHAPTER 1
1130 Hour, August 17, 2517 (Military Calendar)
Eridanus Star System, Eridanus 2, Elysium City
Lieutenant Jacob Keyes and Dr. Catherine Halsey stood, in casual civilian clothes studying their subject—at least that's what Dr. Halsey was doing. Jacob Keyes was merely a body guard for the woman, on their mission which Keyes had no information on. Until of course they had come here and the doctor decided to explain what they were doing and why she had chosen him specifically. Apparently the lieutenant could keep secrets better than anyone else in the USNC.
They were standing in a school yard supposedly touring the school for their little girl. They were actually supposed to study a little boy. A little boy who possessed rare genetic markers that would make them suitable for Dr. Halsey's experiment, the SPARTAN-II program. This program would turn the children who had those markers into super soldiers. Six year old John was one of 150 children who possessed this marker, and they were going to meet one more boy after John.
John and some other boys were playing a game on top of a tall hill. John was standing on top tackling the boys who dared to try and take the top spot.
"What are they doing?" Keyes asked.
"King of the Hill, a civilian game that young boys play," Halsey explained. She walked over to the bottom of the hill and called John down. Keyes followed behind her.
"Hello little boy," she greeted, when he had made it down. "What's your name?"
"John," he answered.
"What were you doing?" she asked pretending to be curious.
"Winning," John replied as a huge smile spread across his face.
"Well," the doctor started. "Do like games?" John nodded. "Well so do I," Halsey said taking a coin out of her purse, and showed it to John. John examined it carefully.
"What kind of game?" he asked jittering with excitement.
"Well, I'm going to flip this coin, and you try to guess which side it lands on before it falls back into my hand. If you win you can keep it, but if you lose then I keep the coin ok?" John nodded and stared at the old American coin. "Here I go!" she said flipping the coin.
"Heads." John said as Halsey caught the coin in her hand. The doctor opened her hand to find that it was heads. She gave John the coin and let him go back to play with his friends. He ran back to them holding the coin up high in his right hand and calling for his friends to see.
"Was it luck?" Keyes asked.
Halsey shrugged. "I don't know, but luck isn't needed for this project." She turned and walked away, Keyes following her again. They would defiantly use John; she didn't think it was luck at all.
"Now, we go onto the next boy," she declared once they had reached their ship, the Han. She took out some papers and began to read them, while Keyes had started the ship. Keyes was tempted to ask who they were supposed to meet next but since it wasn't in his position he kept his mouth shut.
"The new boy we're about to meet is quite the person. Clyde Miyazaki, he's only five but apparently his mind compares to those of a 'dumb' AI. He plays quite a few sports, can fight; can shoot a paintball gun/rifle/pistol with no problem and quite the computer tech. Looks like the perfect kid. Though it seems that way he has…problems. He has insomnia, and doesn't show his emotions often. The stubborn little brat never looses an argument. The reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to know about the subject before we meet him. So read these papers and study them," Halsey explained passing the papers over to Keyes.
Keyes stared at the picture of the young, Japanese boy; he had messy, black hair with silver streaks and pale skin but most curious of all he had one blue eye and the other one black, contacts perhaps but maybe not. He started to read about the boy's past life. He had been kidnapped at the age of four and was held for 5 months until the kidnapper sent the ransom for ten thousand dollars. He had been tortured during that time and was given to the parents but had many scratches and bruises on his body. His parents were murdered by the same kidnapper a few weeks and he was to live with his aunt and uncle, who neglected the boy. Clyde had spent the five months he spent with them in a dark cellar, sometimes not let out and fed for weeks. His uncle had often taken out his anger on Clyde, so Clyde had received several beatings. He had been let out when his uncle and aunt were arrested, thanks to a close by neighbor who had heard Clyde screaming one night during one of his uncle's beatings. Now the boy lived in an orphanage on the opposite side of the planet where they had found John.
"We'll be there in a couple of minutes," Keyes said after finishing the boy's biography. Halsey nodded and told the AI, Toran, to start playing Beethoven's 5th symphony. After about twenty minutes, both the lieutenant and the doctor had changed into different civilian clothes. Keyes was uncomfortable just as the first time he had worn civilian clothes. It was too casual, then again he was in the Navy, and he was used to wearing uniforms. They were going to Mac Masters Orphanage otherwise known as MMO. This orphanage was a Japanese orphanage even if it had an American name. It was an orphanage turn school, quite a few of those even back then. They had soon entered the orphanage and asked to see if they could see the list of children who lived there, in consideration for adopting one of them. They flipped through the list and first chose Clyde then a few other children as to not look suspicious.
"If you want to see Clyde he's probably outside in the tennis courts, playing a senior if not, he's in his room on the third floor. Oh and if he wont let you, in if he's in his room that is, just call me."
"Ok thanks," Halsey said.
"Oh and one last thing…Clyde…he doesn't take to people easily, so I'm sorry if he disappoints you," the woman said looking down at her feet. "We really do care about him, we just wish that he would adapt to people easier."
"Don't worry, I think he'll like us," Keyes said reassuringly.
They walked out through the backdoor leading to the schools. The whole place was enormous. There was the elementary school, the junior high school and last the high school. There were children playing everywhere in the elementary school yard and since there weren't any tennis courts there they tried the junior high school.
"No luck here either huh?" Keyes asked. Halsey shook her head and went on towards the high school, courts. There were lots of people playing there, including a peculiar pair of players. One was small the other one was the regular height of a high school student. They walked toward the court containing the two players and once arriving heard mumbles and whispers of disappointment.
"When will that gaki learn not to play here?"
"Who's he playing this time?"
"Is he using his good hand?"
"Match point, that gaki can play." Keyes and Halsey walked through the crowds to see what they were talking about. They stared at the two playing tennis. One was defiantly a high school student the other an elementary.
"Point Miyazaki! Game and match, Miyazaki, Clyde!" the referee called after the last point.
"Good game." Clyde said tipping his hat.
"Shut the hell up you gaki!" the senior said grabbing the younger boy's shirt. "Why don't you play with your right hand, think you're too good for us huh?"
"Please don't do anything you'll regret Hidero-san," Clyde said still staring at the senior.
"Should we stop this?" Keyes asked Halsey. She shook her head.
"Let's see what he'll do."
"If you don't need your right hand then let me get rid of it for you!" Hidero cried out swinging the tennis racquet towards Clyde's right hand.
"Mada Mada Dane." Clyde said blocking the attack with his own racquet. "Please be careful, you could hurt someone by doing that." Clyde walked away leaving the startled high school students staring at Hidero's hand which no longer held the racquet.
"Where the hell do you think you're going shounen?" Hidero called out.
"I'm hungry…so I'm going to find something to eat," he replied in a drawling voice. "Later."
Keyes and Halsey followed him and griped his right wrist turning him around.
"Hmm?" he said startled at the sudden action. "Oh… Can I help you?" Clyde asked.
"Yes, we'd like to talk to you. Is there any place we can speak in private?" Halsey asked. Clyde nodded.
"My room, follow me, but let me get something to eat first," he said walking towards a candy machine. "Hmm…" he said looking at the vending machine. "Got it…ok lets go."
Keyes and Halsey followed the young boy back into his room. The room was small. It contained a washroom on the right wall, a computer, television, bed, chair, desk all the basics. The walls were covered with papers containing writing in Japanese, Portuguese, English, French, Russian, Romanian, Greek, and Spanish. There were sports equipment, and trophies; littering a small corner. Otherwise the room was clean.
"Take a seat wherever there's space. Now what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked turning on his computer.
"Well, we were thinking of adopting you," Keyes answered. "We'd like to get to know you better."
"You know the basics already hmm? Like name, age, hobbies and past?" Keyes nodded. "Well then that's all you need to know."
"How about your personality?"
"Why don't you figure that out for yourselves…lieutenant." Keyes eyes widened as he was called by his Navy rank. "Tell me why your really here doctor, and please don't attempt to lie, I know everything. The project, the children and who you really are. I want to know more about this so called SPARTAN-II project."
"How did you know about that?" Halsey asked attempting to keep her voice calm. "That's top secret and only I know the passwords to get into that file."
"Well you see after finishing my doctorate and psychology studies I was bored. So I decided to see what the Navy was going to do about the rebels. Seems like you guys are losing and, since I'm on your side that means I'm losing, and I hate to lose."
"Doctorate and psychology studies, as in university studies?" Keyes asked. Clyde nodded and started to type in his computer. Clyde told them to come closer as to see what was on the computer screen.
"See here? Yeah… you need to fix that hole in your security and possibly put an AI in. Not a dumb AI of course, a smart one would be sufficient, though it still wouldn't stop me from getting into your files, doctor."
"I see…" hummed Halsey. Keyes grabbed the boy's collar and raised him from the chair.
"You know boy you could be jailed for doing something like this. How many times have you been into Navy files?"
"Couple dozen…Now please let go of my shirt…you're wrinkling it." Keyes didn't let go.
"Come now Lieutenant, let him down. He hasn't caused us any harm, unless you've told anyone." Clyde shook his head.
"Actually, I've been improving things, like suggestions. Weapons, defense mechanisms even the uniform design…well actually the inside design anyway. Ever heard of Miles Rolland?" Keyes and Halsey nodded. Miles was a special officer; no one had ever seen him or even met him before in reality. He only interacted with the Navy through his computer. They've tried to find out where the signal was coming from but every single time they failed.
"Well, Miles Rolland is me. It's an alias. As I said before I don't like to lose and if the human race loses then I lose."
"The MAC gun was your creation then?" Keyes asked.
"Mmhmm, one of my best I think. I couldn't believe that you guys were actually using that toy."
"Meaning that you've already got a new one?"
"Yep, the plans are in my computer…thing is, as much as I hate to admit it, there are…flaws."
"What exactly are these 'flaws'?"
"Well I can't tell you that. That's restricted information that only I can know.
"What do you call this weapon?" Keyes asked.
"I dunno I get you guys to name it… the MAC gun came with no name, you guys named it."
"I see… ok well thanks…I guess," Keyes said. "We'll tell the Navy about your work, Clyde."
"No! The reason I kept myself a secret was as not to attract any attention! If you tell them now then I'm screwed!"
"Look you've cause so many budget losses—,"
"For the good of the human race," Clyde interrupted. "Budget over the humans…I think the decision is quite easy isn't it?" Keyes looked down at his feet.
"Well then lets go shall we?" Halsey said.
"Be my guests; oh and please take what I said about your security into mind. Don't want anyone else hacking into those sacred files do we?" Clyde said as they left.
"What are we going to do about him?" Keyes asked as soon as they had reached the Han.
"Absolutely nothing…for now, make sure you keep this boy a secret. We will continue the Spartan program with him. Now take us back to Reach, we're done." Keyes nodded, and told Toran to set the coordinates to get back to Reach. This was going to be a long ride.
1: Gaki - brat
2: Mada Mada Dane - "you've still got a ways to go" or "no not yet"
3: shounen - kid or boy to be more precise