I go into some background detail in this chapter, thanks to the writers of the Halo books and of course, Halopedia for additional info. After all, if you're going to write something as close to canon as you can, you need canon sources! Any R&R's would be great! Cheers!

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Chapter Two: Young Spartans

The Spear of Fire was the final super-carrier class vessels to be launched from the Martian shipyards, the drive to rebuild the decimated home fleet drawing in millions of workers from both Earth and the remaining Inner Colonies. Standing at nearly three thousand meters long, six hundred meters tall and one thousand meters wide, the colossus is one of the largest ships in UNSC history. It is powered by twin nuclear fusion generators, connected to six large and ten small exhaust ports at the rear of the ship. Based on experiments by the Cortana AI, the standard magnetic accelerator cannon, which fired depleted uranium and tungsten shells with a porous core, had been replaced by a series of plasma based shells. The shells consist of a micro-fusion core, which as it passes the magnetic strips within the firing chamber, picks up the initial charge, and on the last strip at the barrel of the weapon, the fusion sparks, creating a swirling plasma ball around the shell. Archer pods, clustered around the hull provided even more firepower, as well as Shiva nuclear missiles and swarms of Long Sword interceptors and Short Sword bombers. Four years had been spent building her, scores of frigates, numerous Marathon cruisers and a small number of carriers being churned out alongside her. Her first action was seen at the first battle of Mars, on the day of her launching ceremony. The JiralHanae, their spies telling them of the impending super ship, had launched a desperate attack, trying to deny the humans such a powerful symbol. Mistaking just how far humans had advanced in recent years, the JiralHanae fleet chieftain was horrified to see that the ship had survived unscathed after the first volley, reverse engineered human shielding giving a higher yield of protection then the Covenant's imitated designs. The JiralHanae fleet, consisting of two carriers and several cruisers, attempted to flee, but was caught in the cross fire when the Spear of Fire opened up, as did the closing Home Fleet, smashing the Covenant ships from front and behind. After the battle was over, the humans of Sol cheered, no longer could the Remnant just saunter into the home system, no longer could they pose a significant threat. The people of the inner colonies, upon hearing the news, rejoiced that now the fight could be taken back to the enemy, after over twenty five years of running, and eight years of desperate defence. Now two years into her service, the Spear of Fire is one of three super carriers currently operating under the flag of the UNSC, the Spear of Light and Spear of Shadow, but neither of them as advanced as their youngest sister.

0916 HOURS, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2563 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
USNC SUPER CARRIER - SPEAR OF FIRE – DECK LIFT on route to PORT CARGO BAY
SLIPSPACE TRANSIT, TARGET SYSTEM: CLASSIFIED

Heart leaned against the inner railing as the lift began to slow its decent. Showered and dressed, she felt rested, which was mainly why she went into cryo sleep so much; she could rest easy, and avoid the dreams until she was woken up. Staring into the middle distance, she didn't notice that lift's small holo projector had flickered into life, swirling red lines of code animating a long, silky smooth dress, dark shoulder length strands of curly hair, and confident stance. "Morning Hammer" she said, finally realising that she was being watched. "Good morning admiral," came the flat tone reply, "We are approaching the target system, and we will be exiting slip space within the next twenty minutes." Heart nodded in acknowledgement, she should keep this visit short and sweet then. The ship was hers to command, she could go wherever she pleased, but she couldn't help but feel apprehensive about entering the port cargo bay. It was her ship, but the cargo bay was their space. The lift clicked loudly into place, the doors sliding open instantly. The air changed with the smell of blood and sweat wafting in towards her. The multi-tiered cargo bay had been converted into a training camp. On the base of the deck, stood a gymnasium with barbells and benches dotted around mats and weight stands, next to the gym, stood a series of boxing rings and sparring arenas. The middle deck was now sleeping quarters, a canteen and a class room. The highest deck was a running track and obstacle course. Heart watched a few of the people in the room swinging along the ropes and climbing walls from where she stood, before looking down at the gym, as people lifted weights and sparred in the arenas. She couldn't quite get used to the fact, that despite the military discipline they showed to the chain of command, that all the people in this room were still teenagers.

Michael lay on his bunk, tired and sore from the stint on the obstacle course; his arms ached from exertion, as the course was one of the hardest he and the others had been put on. He turned to look at those around him; Sarah was doing push ups on the floor next to her bunk, Louise was reading a book taken from the class room. Ricky was sleeping off his exhaustion and Carter was playing a game of chess with Cassidy. These six represented the command group - each person here had command of a team of fifteen others. Blue, red, green, yellow, purple and white, were the teams that the 96 young teenagers were divided up into. Blue was the main force, put into hot zones with dangerous objectives. Red often worked closely with Blue, using the blue assault as a smoke screen to complete their more subversive objectives. Greens were the reinforcements, if any team got in too deep; green went in and pulled them out. Yellow consisted of the specialists, demolitions, piloting, hand-to-hand and other military practises. Purple were the most elusive group, being able to go undetected as spies and recon patrols. White contained the medics, whilst the entire group knew basic first aid; the members of white team had extensive medical knowledge, able to perform surgery on the battlefield if necessary. Michael felt pride that he was a part of blue team; he was a part of the first in, last out party. Ricky was a red; he led his team quietly whilst the blues made all the noise, distracting the enemy. Louise was a green; always breaking up fights, or helping out when fights broke out. Sarah was a purple; one of the best. She could vanish in an instant and not be seen for days, only to reappear on her bunk when everyone wasn't looking. Carter was a yellow; his speciality was tactics, able to plan an attack, and alter that plan on the fly. Cassidy was a white; able to heal all, and use her knowledge to drop an opponent with little effort, Michael had lost count of the nerve clusters she had tweaked, and simply pushed him over during a fight. Rickey stirred from his slumber and looking up, said, "Thought I heard the lift arrive." At this, everyone else around him looked up as well. At the sight of the Admiral, watching the training taking place above and below them, the six jumped off their bunks, standing at full attention beside them. Their movements caught Heart's eye and she began to walk over to them.

"As you were" was the first thing she said, looking each of the teenagers in turn, the oldest has to be fifteen at the most, she thought, staring at Michael as she did so. He took this as a prompt, and began to talk "Admiral ma'am, how can we be –" she rose a hand to silence him, "We are nearly at our target," she stated, "I would like to see you and the other team leaders on the bridge in ten minutes." Michael snapped a clean salute, mildly shocked to see the faint trace of a grimace appear on her face until she suppressed it. "Yes ma'am," he replied, "If I may be candid ma'am, why didn't you just radio down?" Sarah threw him a near invisible look of disdain before returning to her stoic self. Heart smirked, turned and began to walk back to the lift. "I needed to stretch my legs; Cryo-sleep always gives me a slight cramp." As the lift door closed, Heart lent against the railing once more. Kids shouldn't have to salute, she thought, my vessel has been turned into "interstellar nursery". Since a second military command world had yet to be founded, the Spear of Fire was the best place to train them, ferrying them from colony to colony, each with different climates and different objectives. She keyed the bridge deck into the lift, and it began to rise.

As the hum of the lift's motor slowly faded Michael walked over to the intercom. Keying the cargo bay's PA, he spoke "All Spartans, gear up, show time!" Instantly, the Spartans around the equipment, on the obstacle course, in the class room and on their bunks, stopped what they were doing and made bee lines for their lockers. As the command group walked over to the locker bay, Sarah was quickly at his side, "The admiral flinches every time we salute her" Michael kept on walking, as Ricky replied for him "I don't think the admiral likes being saluted by kids" Sarah scoffed, "We're not kids anymore, We're Spartans!" Louise turned her head as she walked, "Spartans in training Sarah remember that, we haven't earned MJOLNIR yet." Michael left them to it, as Sarah and Louise started to bicker, getting their armour out, stripping off their fatigues and checking each piece over as they put it on.

As Heart arrived on the bridge, she stared out of the front view screen. The purple-pink dance of vibrant swirls, spirals and ripples of slip space washed over her vision, and she blinked away from it. The two holo-tanks, in either arm of her command chair, flickered into life, Bentus' avatar rising fully from the projector. Hammer however, didn't materialise fully into the projection, a single line of red code extended from her tank, ever changing numbers flashing continuously up and down. Looking across at his associate, "you know, I don't think I've ever seen her with any other avatar...." he remarked. Heart replied, as she sat in her chair, "Maybe there are some things you just aren't meant to know Bentus." The AI shrugged, turning to look at the sensor screen on the left wall. "We will exit slip space in ten seconds." the monotone voice of Hammer related. Bentus did a mock start, pretending to clutch his heart in shock, "She talks out loud! I was begin –" he silenced himself when Heart waved her hand through his projection. Heart looked out of the front view screen again, as it turned to a blue hue, the swirls and spirals vanishing, but the ripples getting stronger. Hammer was counting down, "Three...two....one...." the ripples ceased, and as the last one echoed outwards, it drew the blue hue with it, leaving a black hole, expanding outwards, specks of white flared along the black, and it was large enough for the ship to pass through. As it did so, it brought waves of purple fire with it, dragging it out into real space, where it bloomed around the ship, then slowly faded as the rupture closed behind the vessel. Folding his arms, looking out of the view port, Bentus said "Ladies and Gentlemen... Welcome to the world, formerly known, as Reach."