Chapter 1
Oh, training. You have to love it.
Throughout the first Seventeen years of my life, I only managed to learn so much. Yet, even now I love the moments where its rather...intense. The moments where if you feel like if you don't fire that last bullet, your life will go down the drain. Even training was like that; 'always have to impress my superior officer.
I am a Minor Domo, as rank indicated by navy blue armor and an insignia. Only so far, my training has brought me the practical ability to use general arms from the Covenant. The chance to wield a rare or valuable weapon was slim, since being certain ranks restricted your use from other powerful items.
The training room was simple, yet complex arena. The area was none more than silver, covered in platforms and bridges. A single geometrical ditch ran through the center. Two towers sat in each corner of the large room, where snipers usually liked to camp and perch. I couldn't remember the name of the map because of all the fun I was having.
I sat behind a tomb-stone shaped pillar ejecting from the ground, so as to avoid getting shot with live plasma from the human opponents' ballistics fire. My teammates had captured the South tower, and rained terror down to the enemies with Beam rifles and Focus Rifles. The enemy Spartan IVs jumped from tombstone to tombstone avoiding fire, but the were to slow to dodge the energy projectiles.
I pulled myself out of cover and fired three bolts of plasma at an enemy trying to make for the ditch in the middle. His white armor seemed to blind me for a second, but I ignored it. I nicked the human on the foot, where it stiffened and rendered it useless. While he had fallen I shot him two times in the chest and one on the neck.
The training scorecard pinged, and the status showed the human as dead. Lovely. I myself rolled across the ground and landed in the ditch. I ran to the far end, and used the bridges of the gaps as cover.
I pulled myself out of the trench to see if any enemies had been coming from the forest of tombstones. No traces of enemies appeared on the motion tracker. Nothing.
I was prepared to jump out of the hole, when suddenly, I saw a muzzle flash on the Northern tower. Instead of ducking back into it, I hopped out of the trench and ran as fast as my legs could carry me.
Four loud cracks of thunder rolled through the air, and behind me were thrice holes the size of human ears, each pacing my every step. Where had the fourth one gone?
I immediately caught the sensation of what seemed like a giant tentacle squeezing my foot. The armor had locked where the last bullet shot me. I tripped over my useless foot.
I slammed my face into the cold, hard steel. The training shield buffered most of the fall damage, but I still felt like molten plasma had been poured over my bottom mandible.
"Ain't fast enough, are ya' split-lip?" The Spartan IV taunted over the communications channel. I looked over at him only to see a black armored figure on one of the towers.
"You will regret underestimating me, demon." I pulled my rifle up over me and slashed the weapon through the air. I pulled the trigger under careful timing. There was a one out of endless chance that I could strike the human, but never should I tell myself the odds.
The blue, tear-drop shaped bolt flew over the distance of the map. The travel was short, but it ended miraculously. It hit the human square in the forehead, just as he was pulling the trigger. The suit of armor he wore stiffened as well, and the Spartan IV slumped to the floor. The scorecard pinged. He was dead as well.
He, however, was only one of eight opponent Spartan IVs left on the map. My brethren, including I, had only taken out four enemies in the first two minutes. There was only six of us left out of eight.
A human made the foolish choice of taking one of the catwalks that were structured above my head. The human grunted when the a sword appeared out of nowhere, and the flat of it landed on the back of his neck.
My best friend, Riondi, had taken the human down after coming out of Active Camouflage. He quickly turned to jump off the bridge. However, I saw a blur in the air where a human was about to do the same to the elite with a combat knife.
I fired a burst of plasma up at the spot in the air where I had seen the bulge of nothingness. The Spartan appeared out of the clear, and grunted as the blue plasma hit him. He fell off the bridge, and landed on the metal floor below. He had blue armor, and a symbol matching that of a pair of swords over a hawk.
The Minor Domo Sangheili had realized what had gone on so quickly behind his back. "Thanks Ki. I see you're in a sharp-shooter mood today, huh?"
"Don't mention it Riondi. Remember, I'm just here to impress the females." I said into the communications channel.
Riondi's chuckles sounded in my ear. "You sound like a human."
"Meh, I grew into it." Practically true, since I've spent most of my life scouting old cities abandoned by humans. I watch the curious little picture box I found for a while. Guess I can learn a lot from what the humans call "Television".
"You might want to look behind you." Riondi warned.
I followed his instructions, and looked behind me across the ditch, where more humans had grouped together to take me out. They sprayed bullets that bounced off my training shielding. The bullets counted as "uncritical", so I wasn't counted as badly wounded.
Riondi and I fired back at the Spartans, he using a Needle rifle, and I using the Plasma Rifle. However, the humans had spread out along the metal pillars, cleverly using them as cover.
Oh, and the other Elites I mentioned earlier? They were all filing in behind the Spartans and taking them out one by one. One had a fuel Rod Cannon, and was making use of the explosive rounds to end the human's "lives". Two more elites made use of Focus rifles and Carbines to wipe out most of the other Spartans. An elite attempted to take out the last Spartan, but failed.
He was punched all the way across the training room, where he thudded against the far wall. The Spartan IV that had launched him, however, was bigger than any I've ever interpreted before He wore deep green armor, and a symbol of rebels. All the Sangheili opened fire on the larger human, but he seemed immune to the onslaught of fire.
While the the Spartan was distracted, Riondi had run over to me a revived me from my armor lock.
I stood up, and shook off the tense feeling. Riondi and I looked at each-other, and nodded. The Spartan had just got done "killing" the other Sangheili, and so, he turned towards us.
We firmly press our feet to the ground. The demon prepared to lunge.
Like a bull, he rushed at our direction. I jumped left, while Riondi jumped right. The spread his hands out to grab our feet, but he was only a millisecond to slow. Next thing he knew, he had a face full of steel.
Before he could recover, both Riondi and I struck back with our swords. We hit him with blunt slashed along the back of his neck. His body petrified, at the same time the scorecard pinged.
The intercom came over. "Congratulations. All enemies have been defeated. Training session is concluded." It's tone was deep and robotic, albeit creepy. "To exit the room, please exit out of the doorway to the East. All trainees' armor locks have been disabled."
It lightened me to see all my teammates getting back up. When the Spartans got up, they came over to all of us as we grouped together. Not to taunt us, but to pass us all hand-shakes and tell us "Good game." We did the same back.
It was weird to see how Humanity and Our species' alliance come to great strides. Nobody was up against the others' necks with a sword. Politics were settled along time ago, and the fairing between the two species had been hearty.
So much change in Seventeen years.
Riondi sat atop a supply crate in the hangar. I sat idly in the seat of a deactivated Ghost.
The hangar was wide and spacious, with a giant blue shielding covering one end of the hangar. It revealed a magnificent view of Earth's skyline as the sun edge closer to the rim of night.
A Spirit dropship pulled into the hangar and unloaded it's troops. A group of Grunts who came out decided to sit down a squawk away in one of the corners of the hangar.
The deep purple walls and blue lighting was awkwardly relaxing. The floor was piled over with crates full of supplies and ammo. I sat with my leg propped on top of a small ammo canister full of Fuel Rods.
One of the doors chimed, and a group of Spartan IVs walked out. Their armor ranged in many colors, and their shoulders each carried a unique symbol. These were the Spartans we fought earlier in the training room.
They were probably here to wait for a pelican dropship to come pick them up. The entire group sat beside us. Some fidgeted, some talked; anything to keep them from getting bored.
A blue colored Spartan walked up to me and Riondi. "My name is Chaz-084 of the Spartan IV program."
"So I guess you were sent here to train, am I right?" Riondi asked.
"Yes. Our production was a little...off. The doctors inserted us with mixes of augmentations so that we were better fighters." Chaz said. "Apparently, we are only the experiments of the program, and the real meat of the act comes after we've had a series of perfect tests."
"So your team losing this time meant that you haven't succeeded yet?" I said.
"Well, sorta." He seemed to drift from the subject this time. "I want to introduce my team to you, if we ever meet again."
He pointed to a few members of his group. A single black and red spartan ran up to Chaz. Chaz patted him on the back. "This is my brother, Phil-600. He's really oh-six-oh, but he's really picky and somewhat spoiled. He was the one that sniped you earlier." The final thing he said was directed to me.
"Hey, guys. You can see that my brother is ruining my life right now." Phil said, then huphed.
"Just sit back down." Phil went back. Chaz pointed to another set of Spartans, who ran up in unison. "This is Al," he pointed at the green one. He was the one who acted like a bull. "Wes," he then pointed at the white one in the middle. I guessing he was the one who tried to jump into the hole.
"and Seth." This one had blood red armor. I didn't see him anywhere on the map. He probably sat out during practice.
"I probably won't introduce you to the rest of the team, since there is too little time." Chaz said. He sent the Spartans he introduced back. "I'm just telling you now for if things get nasty in the future."
I heard a roar of engines in the distance, and it quickly got closer. At that moment, a Pelican had turned from under the corner of the Hangar door, and landed within the hangar. The hum of the engines filled the hangar. All the Spartans stood up and walked to the Pelican. Chaz-084 turned back to a and yell.
"If you ever need us, just give us a call!" he got on the Pelican and the it left the hangar, leaving the it eerily quiet.
After moments of silence, which seemed like a half-cycle, Riondi looked at the landscape funny. "Do you always believe in a place where people never experience war? A paradise where no tension built up just because of the smallest opinions?" he seemed to be directing the question towards me.
"Huh. I never really think about that." I started thinking. "You know, no matter where you go, there is always conflict. Even in paradise," I said, making a point. "because there is such thing as 'too much paradise'."
It was puzzling as to why Riondi would ask such a question. We were born of a race who was bred to kill and fight in battle. Then again, even some of these type of people got sick of war.
The Minor Domo looked at me for an answer to his question, as if I were some mystical artifact. "I don't know Riondi, just be happy with the life you have and get over it."
He looked slightly disappointed for a moment, then cleared his expression.
He fiddled with one of the crystal Blamite shards in his rifle. "I just dream and wonder."
"Me too buddy." I looked out across the sunset. The sky started becoming a fiery orange. "Me too."