Man's True Best Friend

Rated M (Language, ETC.)

By Casey Riffel (Bearmaster)

Chapter 2

The Past and the Future

Date: 2522 December 26

Location: Reach, ODST Barracks 3

"Why did I drink so much?"

Lincoln rolled out of bed and on to the floor. Head pounding, eye's swollen, barely moving. He lay on the floor for another few minutes, trying to fall back asleep, but it was no good. Trying to ignore the sickening feeling of hangover was impossible. After firmly placing his hand on the floor, he balanced himself and sat up against the front of his bunk. Link rubbed his eyes with the balls of his wrists and sprawled his legs out in a large dog like stretch. With a glance he caught the time. 8:13 AM.

"Hey. Hey, Jack. Make the room stop spinning."

He heard no response and was not surprised. Drinking was easy for the others. They had many years of partying under their belts that the night they had didn't faze them one bit. They were probably out again chasing ladies and living it up. After getting off the floor, Link began to get dressed. He recalled that Dr. Halsey sent him a message the night before, but he couldn't recall what she had said. With a crack of his neck and back, Link shifted his feet over to the computer terminal and sat in the cold chair as he finished getting his shirt on. The screen crackled and the video of Halsey appeared again, but at the end of the video. With a swipe of his forefinger he rewound the video to where he left off.

"…UNSC, Earth, and her colonies in a much bigger way. Would you like to know more? Come to the ONI Building in New Alexandria tomorrow at 10 AM. I have an offer for you that you might be interested in. And sorry for the short notice. The Insurrectionists wait for no one."

The video slowly faded away and the computer turned off. Link sat in his chair and though what Halsey would offer him. Could it be that she wanted to do experiments on him? Or could she want to make him into a Spartan? He often thought of the Spartans as being the best soldiers ever and he fantasized about being one. But he knew he would never be a Spartan, he was too old. And why think that way, maybe she just wanted to give him some new tech. She had done that in the past too. Like a proverbial Santa Clause, she gave the ODST many trinkets to play with; including modified weapons, strategic plans, and what not. So why not see what she had to say, it couldn't hurt.

One Hour Later

Location: ONI Main Building, New Alexandria

The ONI building was huge, but not the biggest building in the city. The presence it gave off, though, was intimidating. Very thin and the shine of pure chrome, it looked as if the sword of god was sticking out of the ground and was trying to work its way back to heaven. Link was not impressed. He's seen bigger buildings and the ONI building was just another steel and glass pillar. But, without his knowledge, it was the start of his true future, and the future of mankind.

Link sat in a large oval waiting room with about twenty other marines. All dressed for battle and were mostly standing and sharing overblown war stories of battling the Insurrectionists. Most of them were regular marines and all of them below Lieutenant rank. But one other thing caught his eye, other than their low rank and attitude, it was their appearance. All of them were his height, five foot eight or around there and they were all his age. Eighteen.

A younger woman sat three chairs to his left and she looked slightly uncomfortable; constantly shifting in her seat and pulling her hair behind her ears. Link was set off by her appearance. She didn't look like a soldier, but not many of them did. After about five minutes of waiting Link reached over and extended his hand.

"Hi, I'm Lincoln."

The girl looked puzzled for a moment while looking at his hand. But soon reached for his hand and grasped it.

"I'm Germaine."

She said her name quickly and went back to her regular position. It was awkward for the next few minutes and the time couldn't go by fast enough. Neither of them chose to make an attempt at conversation and Link was not helping by constantly looking at her. But he couldn't help it. She had beautiful eyes that sucked in his attention like a black hole does with stars, a light green haze around the edges and blue towards the center. After realizing how abundantly creepy he had been just then, Link decided to start talking to her.

"So, what branch are you in?"

"Marine Intelligence, you?"

"Marines, ODST to be precise."

"Really? My brother is in the Hell Jumpers."

"Really now? What his name? I'm might know him."

Lincoln chuckled because it would be a long shot if he actually knew her brother. Without preparation he listened to her response.

"His name is Jenkins. Jenkins Wallee."

Lincoln felt a shock fly through his heart. The most degenerative, lowbrow and disgraceful man in the entire core was her brother. How could this be? They were such different people in every way, it didn't make sense. Link couldn't help but cough as he swallowed his saliva thinking about it, then tried to play it off as a chuckle.

"Yeah… He's in my unit."

Germaine gasped in excitement.

"Really? How is he? Is he holding up ok?"

"Yeah, he's as good as anyone can be."

"Phew. That's a relief."

"Why? Were you worried?"

Germaine looked down at her hands. She closed both her hands into a large ball and had them in her lap, slowly her knuckles turned white.

"Yeah. My father died when I was young and he raised me."

Lincoln heart sank.

"I'm so sorry. How'd it happen?"

Germaine sat back in her chair and took a big breath in.

"Well, I lived on Kholo with my family in a small community outlying the capitol. Frenalla. It was nice. It was far away to the point where the bustle of the city was not noticeable, but close enough that you could take a car there for the day."

She looked as if she was drifting into space.

"Then the Innies came in. Made a mess of things. Somehow when our people fought back with the UNSC at the beginning, my mother was separated from us. We haven't heard a word from her since. The Innies destroyed our town, and we had to rebuild."

Lincoln was enticed by her story, looking at her with wide eyes like a child watching a movie.

"Even when we were done rebuilding, there was still chaos. The UNSC left soon after we rebuilt leaving us open to the Innies. They came in every month demanding payment for protection. We had to pay or else they would decimate the town again. We gave in every month to their demands. 500,000 credits and one cow was almost impossible for us but we did it for as long as we could. Eventually my people got fed-up with paying them. My father, who happened to be a retired ODST, started training the men of our town how to fight. When the end of the month came, our men fought back. It was a slaughter though. Those 500,000 credits a month went to strengthening their men with weapons and armor. My people didn't stand a chance, even with my fathers training. The battle didn't take long, only about an hour."

"Whoa, that's intense."

"Yeah. I was only six back then. I was in our makeshift house that was made of scrap metal when it was all going down. An Innie kicked down the door and started taking things off the tables, looting. I hid in the back room while he turned our house upside-down. But he heard me somehow and came into the back room. He tried to kill me. His hand was around my neck and he held a pistol to my head. I can still remember what he said. Take one last look around here sweetie, it's all over. But before he could pull the trigger my dad came in and tackled him. I managed to crawl away while they scuffled on the floor for what seemed like an hour. The Innie got the slip and shot my dad in the chest four times. As he lay on the floor, the Innie stood and cocked his gun. He was going to execute my dad. Jenkins came in right before he shot my dad and stabbed him to death with his own battle knife that my dad gave him as a present. It was horrible. I never saw that side of my brother before. But soon after he killed the Innie, my dad died as well. He wound up dying from his wounds. That's when Jenkins started taking care of me, he made me food, taught me how to read and write. He became my father. As soon as he became eighteen, he signed up for the marines. He never told me but I could tell that he had a vendetta to enact. I soon joined the Marine Intelligence Center so I could try looking over him like how he did for me. But recently I haven't been able to find him. So, thank you for coming into my life."

Germaine reached over and rubbed Lincolns forearm. Link felt what she was feeling and put his hand on hers.

"No problem."

Link soon realized that they were not having a secluded conversation anymore. He saw that the entire room was now silent and was listening into their talk with the same eyes link had not two minutes before. The groups of women soldiers were looking at the two with romantic gestures, which made link slightly uncomfortable.

"And by the way, you can call me Gem. That's what everyone calls me."

She smiled as Link nodded his head.

"And if you want, you can call me Link, your brother seems to call me that anyway."

"Okay."

They both chuckled to relieve the tension that was growing. Without warning, a door to a large auditorium opened to the right of the group. It made a loud clang that made everyone jump. But as soon as it opened a familiar face came through the doorway.

"Alright people, take a seat in here, Dr. Halsey wants to start soon. My name is Officer Mendez if you need anything. Okay?"

Mendez stood statuesque in the threshold of the door. He was taller than most of the others in the room and his arms were like cannons. It was said that he trained the Spartans and made them what they are, which was not surprising. A man like Mendez was meant for the military. One who stays in until the bitter end.

The group replied in a uniform manner and they began to flow into the huge room. The group of marines dispersed into the auditorium and Link went to the front of the middle row. He wanted to get a good view. Gem followed him to the front and took a seat.
"Is it alright if I sit here? I don't know anyone else and I fell much more comfortable with you."

Link blushed.

"Of course you can."

Gem sat down with a thud. The room began to get cramped with the silence and the air began to feel heavy. Everyone thought that it had started but they were wrong. Ten minutes of complete silence went by. No one even coughed. Some people adjusted themselves in their seats but the creaking noise brought the attention of the entire room, which made the person feel more than awkward. The uneasy feeling was brought about because no one knew what Halsey had to say. Whether or not if they are being brought in for experiments or what but it scared them.

The feedback of a microphone made the audience jump as Dr. Halsey came on the stage. The screech was loud enough to make some of the soldiers cover their ears. Halsey walked into the center of the stage, wearing her trademark white lab coat and glasses. She looked almost exactly the same as the video, Link thought. The one thing that was odd was her face, melancholy to say the least but with a touch of excitement.

"Welcome."

No one knew whether to clap or to stay silent so half the audience clapped while the other half sat with their hands on their laps. Halsey, ignoring the half backed applause and looked at each of the audience members. Her eyes shifting to one person to the next giving herself just enough time to examine everyone evenly. After her inspection, she continued.

"You must be confused on why you are here… Ahem. You're here because the UNSC needs you."

The audience shifted at the news. Some of the marines behind Gem and Link whispered to each other their thoughts.

"What do you think she means man?"

"I don't know, shut up! I wanna hear this."

Halsey lifted her hand in a demanding way, letting the audience know that she wanted silence.

"The Spartans have done a lot, so much that they have stretched their numbers to an almost insufficient amount. Through my research I have created a new program, one that could make you rival the Spartans."

Link sat forward in his chair. Now enticed by this piece of meat dangling in front of him.

"It's called the Olympian Project. It will revolve around the collaboration of yourself and a member of the Cerberus Project. If you don't know what the Cerberus Project is, I'll tell you. It was an idea I have been working on as a side project while working on the Spartans. The main goal was to create highly advanced Attack Dogs. This is related to you because you will become their trainers. Their Masters."

The group stirred again. Gem tilted her head in confusion and looked at Link. Link looked right back at her and shrugged. A marine sitting behind them stood without warning and spoke.

"Hello ma'am, my name is Corporal Leonard McKinley, and I just have one question. You say that these dogs are highly advanced, correct?"

"Yes, go on."

"If these dogs are so advanced what would stop them of killing their handlers? What would make them obey our commands?"

Halsey predicted this question.

"Well, Mr. McKinley, you will be advanced as well. When becoming an Olympian, you will be sent through two body modification surgeries. The first surgery is a mental one. We will first inject you with a drug that will amplify you brains activity and allow you to access more than just your usual capacity. Then, you will go through a physical surgery. We will undergo one more procedure that will allow your body to be pushed to its sheer limits. You will practically become a Spartan, and not to mention a new suit of armor that I personally have been working on. That is what the dogs will see. They will see someone much different than just another person. They will see you, their master."

Link was enticed at what she was saying, but was still confused. After McKinley sat down, Link stood.

"Hi, uh, I'm Corporal Lincoln Henderson, and I wanted to ask you why did you chose dogs? I mean, you could just make more Spartans."

"It seems that people today fail to realize that dogs are smarter than we give them credit for. They can sense things that we humans use machines to detect. Their senses of sight, smell, and hearing are unimaginably stronger than ours. When trained correctly they could detect Innie traps, they could find Innie bases, and when working with you, they could bring down whole Innie compounds."

Link's question was answered. He just stood, speechless at the idea of being strong like a Spartan and in command of a warrior hound like that. But in mid thought, Halsey spoke.

"It's not going to be just about you, nor is it just going to be about the dog. It's going to be about the two of you, working as one. You will fight as a duo, train together, and even eat together. Your Cerberus will become your second persona. But as of right now I can't tell you anymore. My assistant will give you a sizable packet when you leave. I want you all to read it. It will give you a better idea of what will happen in this program. If you read the packet and are still interested, then you have one week from now to sign up. Thank you all for coming."

Halsey started to walk off the stage and the others began to leave the auditorium. By the door was a man standing next to a table with mounds of paper that were held together by shiny clips. As the others made their way to the door, the man passed the packets out to them. Link grabbed one and read the cover as he went out into the waiting room. The packet was titled The Olympian Project. Link sighed and waited for Gem to get her copy of the massive stack of paper. Gem made her way out and was flipping through the pages, skimming the text for what was inside.

"So, what do you think?"

Gem stopped skimming and rubbed here eyes.

"I don't know. It sounds interesting, but I just don't know. I need to read this. I'm really taking this into consideration."

"Yeah me too. I'm going to get a coffee, wanna join me?"

Link said as he stretched his back.

"Sure. But I can't stay out long. I want to get on top of this reading thing as soon as possible. This could be big for me."

"Yeah, it could be for me as well."

With out warning, Links mind went back to Aften Marsh. It made him think, was this something a calling that was once in a lifetime? Was this something that could stop the Insurrectionists all together? Could he avenge all the deaths that the war has claimed like Gems dad and Aften? What could it mean for the future of humanity, the future of him?

Later that Night

Location: Reach, ODST Barracks 3

The Packet was heavy on Links lap. He had gone through one hundred of the one hundred fifty pages and he felt worn. His eyes were tired and head pounding, it wasn't much different from the morning. The bunk was soft and cushy but it was rough on his backside after sitting on it for so long. The others were out drinking again and the barrack was empty, not one sound except the flipping of the pages of the packet. It was lonely but it gave Link some time to think about what he wanted to do. It was a decision that would alter the rest of his life, and he wondered if it would be worth it.

The image of Links family came into his mind. His mother, brother, and father. How would they feel about him joining? All in all, it was his choice. So he wound up not caring much about their feelings. One thing that was making him worry about the program is that he would not get any breaks throughout the rest of the war. The Olympians and Cerberus would fight until the war was finished, the exact same duty of the Spartans. Was it worth leaving normal life behind? In a sudden flash of excitement, Link stood and threw the packet onto the bunk. Yes! He thought. It would be completely worth it to leave everything behind. They would be the protectors of the common good, he wouldn't let anything like what happened to Aften Marsh or Gems father happen ever again. This gave Link chills and he made his decision. He would join the Olympians. The last thing he had to think about was how to tell the guy's that he was leaving. That would be the true challenge.

After Link finished the rest of the packet he flopped down onto his bunk. It was late but he was too excited to sleep. His eyes wide open and staring at the bunk above him, he though of what the dog he would be given to train would be. What would he name it, or would it already come with a name. As he thought the door of the barracks slid open and the guys came in, of course, drunk. Link sat up and scurried over to Jack who almost fell while working his way through the door, and the others were right behind him. The Captain was the last one in and Link saluted him.

"There's no need to salute me right now, boy. We on leave."

"Sir I need to speak with you."

"Let me guess, your going to take Halsey up on her offer?"

Link didn't respond. He already knew? Link thought.

"How do you know…"

"Me and Halser are good friends, she asked permission to take you from us if you chose to go. I said if that's what yer heart desired. Do you want to go?"

Link stood silent for a couple of seconds. Wondering if leaving the guys was really a good idea.

"Boy, this whole unit is real proud of you. And we don't care if you leave. You have been a good soldier. Now do what's right for you."

The Captain patted Link on the shoulder and walked over to his bunk. As he sat down to take his boots off, he said one more thing.

"But don't think you'll ever be better than us. You'll always be an ODST at heart."

Before he could get one shoe off, he leaned back and fell asleep. Link smiled and he could feel his heart racing. He would join the Olympians.

End

A/N: Goddamn! Why are you so enticing Dead Space 2? Stop distracting me with you gory goodness. But anywhosen, his chapter is kinda choppy. To you that think that this story is going slow, I hear you. Its gonna pick up in the next chapters so rest assured. I put a little cameo of my great grandpa in there, when the Captain says, "boy, this whole unit is real proud of you." He used to say that to my dad before he passed and he would be sitting on the couch with his head would be nodding off cause he was a tired old guy. :P Anyway, this chapter had a lot of questions. Mostly it's Lincoln asking things to himself. But if you have any questions you wish to be answered, please, feel free to write them in the comments. Thanks to all you readers out there!

Casey