Forerunner: The Next Generation
Act Two: Spartans Reborn
June 26, 0500 Hours (Military Time), UNSC Training Bunker, New Jersey
"GET THAT ASS OF YOURS UP, BOY! I AM NOT PAYING YOU TO SLEEP! ACTUALLY, I'M NOT PAYING YOU PERIOD!" a drill sergeant yelled.
Kevin and Henry sprang up from their beds, hitting the ones over their heads.
"Ow." The brothers whined.
Henry watched as the other kids rose from their beds, some falling out. The kids were quickly taken to the showers and washed themselves in front of the drill sergeants. One sergeant put his hand on one kid's bottom; afterwards, it took three trainers to wrestle the nude boy off the bleeding sergeant. Said child was an eleven-year-old with blue eyes and brown hair. His teeth made him look feral and his toes were embedded deep in the man's lower stomach.
"TOUCH ME LIKE THAT AGAIN, I'LL WRING YOUR NECK AND FEED YOU YOUR ORGANS, SHIT-BAG!!!!!" the kid cried.
One trainer took out a shock baton and whacked the boy in the back; he fell to the ground, out like a light. The other children watched as he was taken out of the showers by two trainers.
"Well? Go on, ain't nuttin' to see here!" a trainer barked.
After the children washed up, they were given grey sweat clothes with the UNSC crest on the front and a word and some numbers written on the back.
"What kind of name is SPARTAN-IV 103?" Kevin complained.
"Hey, at least you got something in the hundreds. How do I get SPARTAN-IV 009?" Henry whined.
Other kids read their numbers aloud before being ushered outside. There, they did three hundred push-ups and sit-ups. Afterwards, they jogged around the track for 10 minutes, doing push-ups and sit-ups every two-minute interval. Kevin, along with Alex and Garth, looked at their trainer. Chief Mendez was staring at all of them, one of his hands on the shoulder of the young man from the shower incident.
Once the ten minutes was over, the kids stopped. Some breathed hard, others threw up. One even had to be evacuated and sent to the medic due to cardiac arrest. Kevin however, looked at the kid from the shower. He just sat on the ground, picking at a piece of grass.
"Hey," Kevin said, walking up to him.
"Hey." The kid said back.
"What'd they do to you?"
"Ah, they just said not to do it again, and that they understand if I don't want to participate in anything for a few days."
"Wow."
….
"I'm Kevin."
"Jason."
Kevin rose from the ground, dusting off his exercise clothes.
"Well Jason, looks like you'll be on your own for a while."
"Hey, they said that I didn't have to. They didn't say anything about me wanting to."
The boys followed the other kids inside, realizing that they weren't going to do any training, but learn.
An AI with light green texture and short hair appeared before the class.
"Greetings. I am James. Today, you will learn about the heroes of the past, and the measures that our people have gone to for peace." The AI said.
The kids sat down, mesmerized by the program. Next to James, a picture of three people in green armor appeared, holding Assault Rifles.
"These are the Spartans. Like you, they were chosen at a young age and trained to fight. Unfortunately, several of them are either dead or severely hurt and can no longer help with warfare battles. The greatest one was SPARTAN-117, the Master Chief. Without any help from his fellow Spartans, he ended the Human-Covenant War and saved all of humanity."
Kevin looked at the hologram of Master Chief hard. It had been a long time since he'd seen a Spartan… too long.
"Whatever happened to him?" Kevin asked.
"Reports say that he died just before an artifact in space was destroyed, a Halo, I believed it was." James said.
"Is it possible that he's alive?"
"I doubt it. Given that his body hasn't been found, it's possible that he landed on a sun and was cremated by the heat."
Kevin scowled. Before his parents died, he promised them… and now that promise wasn't going to be fulfilled.
Unknown Planet Atmosphere
The second half of Forward Unto Dawn landed down onto the planet with a thud, throwing chunks of dirt out in different directions. The AI known as Cortana rose from the console she was in. She turned her head towards the cryo chambers. His helmet was still on; after nearly a decade, she never thought about what his face looked like.
"Don't worry John, I'll wake you up soon." She said grimly.
And that, ladies and germs, is the beginning of Act Two, which will be known as the "Chief" arc. Things will start to heat up, as people begin to evolve, enemies meet, and families meet for the first time in years. Read and review. Come on, just click that arrow and review, come on! Merry Christmas!
Next time: Kopak and the crew tell the Sangheili leader what they've learned in: "Plan of Attack!"
