CH 1.

Life was hard on Reach, but for us kids, it was a little easier. Every day we went to school and learned useless things. One day during recess, two strange people showed up. Even from across the playground, I could tell that the man was used to being in a uniform, on a ship. The woman on the other hand, looked perfectly at ease in the casual clothes she wore.

I jogged over to John, the top guy in our class, although it looked like I was running towards him. "Incoming at two o'clock," I said as I stopped next to him. As we turned to watch the newcomers, the next fastest runner and my 'friend' Lita joined us. Standing on top of the dirt pile, arms crossed and looks of uninterest on our faces, we looked quiet formable.

"I need to talk to John, Lita, and Kitiara," The lady said, stopping at the base of the hill. We slid down to her.
"So talk," John demanded, his arms still crossed.
"First of all, I'm Dr. Hasely. I run one of the UNSC's programs cal-"

"Unless you have something interesting to say, I'm leaving." I interrupted her, bored already.

"Let's play a game. If you win, you get one of these," she said pulling out 3 gold coins. That had all of our attention. "Start here, first one to that tree and back wins."

As we took our places on the line that she had drawn, I glanced over at John. He was fast, but Lita was faster, and I was faster than both of them. He seemed to notice I was watching him, because he looked at me and smiled. "Go!" the man next to Hasely said. My boots dug into the ground, and I shot away from the line, Lita not to far behind. By the time I was at the tree, john was about halfway there, and Lita was about 3/4ths of the way. I waved as I passed them, just to be halfway mean.

I slid to a stop beside Dr. Hasely, not even breathing hard. "Easy. Almost too easy," I said as Lita crossed the line.
"easy for you to say," Lita commented, giving me a friendly shove. I laughed, because it was true. It was easy for me, too easy. And I didn't like things too easy. When John finally crossed the line, Lita and I were sitting on the ground discussing the morning's lesson: History of the UNSC. I kept looking at the coin in my hand, halfway paying attention to what was going on. "Come on Kit. Next one is starting." Lita said while standing up and brushing off her pants. I smiled and got up.
"Right, Like I'm going to be able to answer before you." We both laughed at the truth.

"What is the capital of Halo, and what city is it located in?"
"Capital of Halo is Halo, and its located in Kellict," Lita answered first, naturally.

By the time that the bell rang to end recess, we each had a coin. Back in the classroom, I started to ignore the teacher, until I heard the words: 'Freelancers. They are the most effective assassination type. They have even been hired to kill Spartans.' That made me pay attention. Spartans were cool, but they were becoming more common now. The Freelancers, or guns for hire, were mysterious. No one ever knew they were there until they showed themselves. That is, IF they showed themselves.
"Who knows anything about the Freelancers?" Our teacher, Ms. Devore asked. To her surprise, and to everyone's, I raised my hand.
"Freelancers are a tightly knit group of people, pretty much like the Spartans. There are usually only 50 Freelancers at a time, no counting the Director and the Counselor. One named after each of the states on Earth." The class was totally silent. No one was supposed to know about the Freelancers. No one.

"How do you know that?" Ms. Devore demanded.
"My stepfather," I shrugged as I received blank looks from everyone. "His name is Michael J. Caboose. He was friends with a Freelancer, Agent Texas. They told me all about project Freelancer." More blank looks from everyone in the room, except from Lita, and two other kids. The new guys, Callie and Cole. They had both moved to my crappy little town in the middle of nowhere. Nobody knew their parents. Ms. Devore looked worried, because none of her former kids ever knew about P.F. This would have to be reported to Dr. Hasely immediately.

Meanwhile on Earth: 21 July, 2040- Midnight.

Roughly 50 kids were taken from their beds, all of them younger than 15. Twelve year olds Serena Heath and Sam Jenkins went missing that night, along with 10 year old Carmen Spiller and 11 year old Jessica Crewman.

Back on Reach
Another 50 kids were taken from their beds on Reach. Out of those 50, five of them were confirmed takers by their own Teacher. 12 year olds Kitiara Spillmen, Lita Hardy, Callie Duncan, and Cole Waggner, along with 11 year old John Shoemaker, were all confirmed takers, by Ms. Devore.