Yippie! Another chapter! (Reuploaded after fixing some mistakes)


Part I

The Lost Child


February 23, 2540 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system

"The tools and equipment you will take with you on the battlefield are more than just objects. They are your friends, and you should learn to take care of them as such. Most equipment you take with you will be mechanical or electrical in nature. It is important you learn the engineering of these tools so that you may properly utilize those which you will rely on to save your life, and repair them so that they may save your life again." The sound of artificial frozen wind accented Deep Winter's speech as he stood before a screen with the words Intro to Engineering and Material Science plastered across its center.

Ruby sat with a straight back as she listened to their next topic. For a while now their learning has been primarily about military subjects. She listened to lectures on military history, where she learned about the great tactical human minds, the battles they won, and how they won them. There had been a short stint of lectures that went more into modern military strategy and tactics, many of which involved space combat, Ruby doubted that would be very useful in the future as she had no interest in captaining a warship. And now she would be taught the intricacies of military technology and engineering.

Of all the subjects they had covered, Ruby found this one the most intriguing. After all, each and every weapon utilized by the UNSC had to have been engineered by someone, with loads of technology crammed into every nook and cranny of the weapon. Knowing exactly how the bells and whistles worked would do wonders for her performance with any weapons she might come across in her career, and allow her to fine tune her own weaponry to be as deadly as possible.

"Over the next several lectures, we will discuss the design processes of the most common military weapons, the reasoning behind their designs, and the pros and cons of each weapon in order to determine what makes a good weapon, and how to best utilize the good, the bad, and the ugly of the arsenal of the UNSC." The artificial intelligence had a smile on his face as he spoke. Making some sort of joke that went over the heads of all the Spartans present.

Over the last two years, Ruby had been alone. Not alone as if she were isolated from other humans, but alone in that she had no one to talk to. It was a much more suffocating feeling than a maddening one. It left her too overwhelmed and drained to make friends than crazed enough to invent her own. Sure, she would have small talk here and there with the other Spartans. But none of them would stop to listen to her deepest desires and fears as Kat had done a long time ago.

Ruby exhaled through her nose at her name. Kat had only gotten worse since their fight a couple years ago. Now, instead of blatant ignorance of her existence, she had become somewhat antagonistic towards her, she was acting as if she were her rival, and not the fun and friendly rivalry where they could both laugh about it at the end of the day. Several times over the years, Kat had attempted, and succeeded, at humiliating her by proving her wrong in different lecture discussions and such. Fortunately, Ruby had been able to embarrass her in equal measure during other aspects of their training.

Whenever Kat got the upper hand against her, she would rub it in her face saying she wouldn't fight her to settle things like she had with Carden. That was fun having to remember that mistake every day for the past two years. The only solace she got from that was the reassurance from Ambrose saying it was okay, and the odd rumor that said Beta Company was the fastest company to narrow down their final 300 Spartans in the program's history. They had beaten out Alpha Company by years. Ruby guessed they were desperate for candidates and gathered a bunch of subpar trainees just in case.

She didn't like thinking that, but she couldn't stop herself whenever she did. She hadn't appreciated her growing habit of judging the other trainees harshly, but when she so often scored higher than the rest of them, and when they kept their distance from her, she found herself seeing them more as strangers and less as colleagues.

Few other Spartans scored as high as her, only Kat and a few others she didn't bother learning the names of. She also thought she was one of the best fighters, though that was mainly because no one wanted to fight her in the first place, not after what happened to Carden.

Whenever she did fight, she would always pull her punches, and often lost purposely, in an attempt to make her seem more approachable to the other kids. But, they were smarter than that, they saw her doctored performance from a mile away, and added disingenuous to the pile of characteristics everyone disliked about Ruby.

As such, she stopped holding back, and started winning more fights than she was losing. She didn't understand it, how could the rest of the Spartans not be as good as her? She understood the topics easily, paid attention when she needed to, and practiced her combat whenever they were required to, and still, almost nobody could hold a candle to her. She may have been bragging when she thought like this, but even the largest hyperboles have some semblance of truth in them.

She swept those thoughts out of her mind as she listened to Deep Winter's lecture. He was discussing the firing mechanisms of the MA5 series of rifles, and how different models could have the same parts between them. Ruby had begun jotting down questions in her data pad, some of which pertain directly to the content of the lecture, but most were of wildly different, yet somehow related topics: How do different materials affect the function of one model of firing mechanism? Can the size of the firing mechanism affect the weapons performance? If so, does a larger or smaller mechanism create a more advantageous design for the weapon? If this mechanism is so effective, how can it be implemented into other weapons, and should it be implemented into other weapons? Some of her questions ended up stumping her class' DIs, and they had to call in Deep Winter to answer them directly. The nature of these questions had meant the answer could not be described in a single sentence, and would instead lead to a long discussion between her and the AI.

Those discussions were what Ruby looked forward to throughout the day. Deep Winter was very friendly towards her, and Ruby thought he was just as fascinated about the ideas she came up with as she was. She had soon come to the conclusion that she didn't need the other Spartans, Deep Winter was her best friend in Camp Currahee.

A long time ago she might have thought that was strange, or worrisome: being friends with a robot. But the robot didn't judge you based on past mistakes, so she often found more comfort in technology than in her peers.

The rest of the lecture was spent in the same posture, writing notes and questions on the same datapad, sitting at the same desk, and feeling the same eyes on the back of her head as she always did.

Someone would always watch her from behind during the lectures, she didn't know who, because when she would turn around literally all 300 trainees would be behind her since she was sitting in the first row. She would turn back around, and the same feeling would spread across the back of her neck. She didn't know why this feeling was there, but it was, maybe it was her sixth sense.

She had caught other people staring at her, sometimes in jealousy, sometimes in envy, most of the time in disgust, but almost always outside of the lecture hall, and none of those times had this same feeling as she did now.

She had felt strange, smaller instances of this feeling while she would be walking around the Camp, but she still could not pinpoint who was causing it. It never made sense, and now it's become an annoyance, not because the feeling bothered her, in fact it was somewhat pleasant, but because she's felt it for so long, and has not found the culprit causing it.

The bell rang, signalling the end of the lecture. The subsequent discussion on the topic was rather uneventful, just more of Ruby getting all the questions right and everyone around her disliking her for it. Ruby shook her head at them, they could do just as well as her if they only tried.

Dinner was served not long after. Ruby had grown to dislike their dinner now since they got rid of her strawberries. Instead they replaced all the normal food with strange tasting substitutes. She couldn't really describe it, if she had to in one word she would say the food tasted fake, artificial. She wouldn't mind it though, they've been serving this food for about two years now, and Ruby has been growing like a weed since. The last time she checked she was five foot nine. Although, a lot of the trainees around her also seemed to grow unnaturally fast, even the boys, and from what she remembered on their one lecture covering puberty, the girls usually grew first. Strange, to say the least.

Ruby ate in relative silence as she always did. Only grumbling occasionally at a particularly bad tasting bite of food. Her eyes scanned the room, hoping this time she could discover who was causing that strange feeling at the back of her head. She was surprised to feel it surge out of nowhere, and then finally disappeared.

Ruby turned towards the person that had sat down beside her. A shorter boy who couldn't have been much older than her, stared down at his food and picked at it with a plastic fork. Ruby watched him bring a mouthful of artificial beans to his mouth, and chew on it like it was gourmet, but was otherwise incredibly tense.

"You think that stuff is good?" Ruby asked after another minute of watching him eat.

He seemed startled at her starting the conversation. "Ugh… Hi?" His voice was almost as high as hers.

"Hi…" Ruby looked at the strange boy with a sideways glance, wondering what exactly his plan was for sitting next to her.

"I just want to say thank you for what you did for me." He said. Now Ruby was really confused, her eyes broadcasted it to him perfectly. She remembered him vaguely from her class, but she didn't remember doing anything for the kid.

"What did I do for you?" Ruby asked after he failed to elaborate for several minutes.

"You gave me courage. What, you don't remember?" Ruby shook her head.

"You helped me jump from the Pelican on our first day here. I was frozen, but you volunteered to go first, and that gave me the courage to jump after you." Ruby's brow connected in a frown as she tore through her memories trying to remember exactly what he was talking about. It didn't take long, She didn't think she would ever forget her first days at Camp Currahee.

"Oh! You're that one kid who was too scared to jump, I remember now." Ruby's tone took a lively edge to it that she hadn't experienced in a while.

"Yeah, pretty embarrassing, isn't it." Ruby said nothing, but nodded her head slowly in agreement, producing a short laugh from the other kid.

"What took you so long to talk to me?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know. Nerves, I guess. I'm not too used to talking to people, you know?" He said.

"Yeah, I do know." Ruby's eyes softened. She knew that all too well.

Their conversation died down soon afterward. Ruby didn't really understand it, most kids would feel awkward sitting next to her, but Ruby guessed it was because, she gathered from their short conversation, that this boy was kind of awkward too. He didn't seem too confident in his abilities. He was probably one of the weaker kids, which meant as soon as she outperformed him in something, he would feel inadequate and run away from her again.

Her face was blank as she imagined how long it would take for him to be pushed away like everyone else. In the meantime, he sat with her at her table, but, eventually, he would need to fight her in a spar, and since he had never stood out to her before, or seen him in a fight, it would probably be soon, and she imagined he wouldn't stick around long after that.

She let out a long breath, content to have a warm body next to her, but not allowing herself to grow attached to his presence, it would fade away before long anyway.


February 24, 2540 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system

The next day, Ruby sat closest to the sparing floor, just as she always did. The other trainees gathered behind her, just as they always did, and Mendez entered the room from the side entrance, just as he always did. Ruby sighed, she knew something different had to happen soon, but she didn't know when. She was getting bored of her training, and she suspected if she told any of her drill instructors that she would be subject to cleaning the toilets for the next month or so. She hummed to herself when she realized it would actually be something to do, a break from the monotony that had become her daily life at this point, and might be worth looking into.

Mendez approached the group with heavy footsteps that silenced the sparse small talk between the more sociable Spartans.

"Alright, trainees. For today's fights, first up we have Spartans B419, and B312, please make your way to the mats." Mendez said. Ruby looked out among the crowd of trainees and was surprised to see the boy she had eaten dinner with yesterday stand up in the back row of the bleachers. Well, I guess It'd be best to get this over with now, instead of leading him on anymore. Ruby thought.

Her and the boy stood opposite each other, standing before two yellow lines that indicated their starting positions on the mat. The boy gave her a lopsided grin in greeting, and Ruby returned it with a lazy wave. Ruby bounced on her feet for a few moments to force the blood in her arms to move and give her energy for her fight. She was tired, and just wanted to get this over with.

The boy opposite her must have been nervous, Ruby thought. He was standing as still as a rock with his hands raised and knees slightly bent in a strange variation of their fighting stance. Ruby thought about mimicking the guy for a second to see if that stance was any better, but decided not to, and instead focused on the stance she knew.

They both visibly tensed as Mendez raised his hand, and, when his hand fell, neither moved.

For a few seconds, both combatants stood as still as a rock. Ruby watched him, looking for anything that might signal an attack, but he gave nothing away.

"Anytime now, cadets." It was Mendez's bored sigh that convinced Ruby to break the stillness.

She stalked forward, eyes scanning his body for movement. When she was just out of arm's reach, she lunged.

Before she could react, his arm jerked forward, striking her in the throat. She stumbled backwards, hand on her neck as she stopped to catch her breath. Her eyes were wide as her legs shook beneath her. It felt like her body had a factory reset button, and the boy in front of her had managed to hit it like it was nothing. She forced herself to stay standing as she looked back towards B312, her eyes gaining a steely edge. This would be a challenge.

She stood back up to her full height. Circling her opponent, observing his posture with a more focused eye. He looks like he's unprepared, when in reality it's a front, a disguise. It seems like he should be weaker and easy to knock over, but he's also more agile and springy. There's no way I'll be able to get close without him launching some jab at me. And if he can hit my neck so easily, then who knows what else he might be able to do.

Ruby kept her distance, hoping to force him to make the next move. Just as she was about to give up and lunge again, her opponent surged forward. His hands shot up to her face and gripped the sides of her head. Before she could bring her hands up to break herself free, her body sped towards his raised knee. At the last second she tipped her head forward forcing her forehead to connect with his kneecap instead of her nose.

Still in a bent over position, she kicked off the ground, jamming her head into the boy's abdomen, knocking the air out of his lungs. He appeared unphased as she felt his abs tighten through her hair. A painful jolt spread through her chest as he brought both fists down onto the base of her neck.

She ignored his subsequent blows as she pushed against him. His feet scraped across the mat behind him as Ruby sent punches into his kidney. He retaliated by punching her kidney in return.

He spun her around just as they reached the edge of the mat, positioning himself so that Ruby was nearer to the edge instead of him. Both breathing heavily with scrunched faces at the pain their body's had inflicted on each other.

Before she could be sent out of the arena, she stepped forward, fist flying through the air towards his jaw. He deflected the strike with his forearm and sent a likewise punch towards hers.

Instead of deflecting, she grabbed the boy's wrist with one hand and reached under his armpit with the other and jammed her hip into his to flip him over her shoulder.

He nearly landed outside the arena boundaries and only managed to stay in by grabbing hold of Ruby's arm to keep him from rolling after his impact with the mat. That left him open for several punches to his chest from Ruby in an attempt to wind him more than he already was.

From his position on the floor, he tangled his legs into hers, and twisted, bringing her down to the mat with him.

He climbed on top of Ruby as she landed on her stomach, and reached an arm underneath her armpit and over her neck to lock her arm to her face. He jumped to the side and used her arm as a lever to roll her onto her back.

Before she could complete her roll, and potentially be pinned, she jerked her leg behind her, creating a post to resist his torque, and used her free hand to grip at his face, trying to make him disengage in case she got hold of anything important. He should have seen how far she was willing to go in these fights, and she intended to use that knowledge to frighten him into unnecessary caution.

Nothing phased him despite her best efforts. He jerked her body back to lay on her stomach, dislodging her leg from its position on the mat, and pushed off the mat with his own legs in the next moment, leaving her no time to reposition her guard against being rolled.

Her back hit the mat, and, determined not to be pinned, she flexed her butt and back to create an arch with her body. Her head and feet were the only things supporting her and B312's weight.

She felt his grip loosen as he tried to change to a more advantageous hold, and she immediately twisted her body to the side to land on her stomach again.

Before his weight could fully crush her, she used her legs to jump forward like a frog out from under him. He was on his knees as he tried to grip at anything he could but failed as Ruby spun on her feet.

Once again standing, she surged forward, intent on not letting him regain his stance. She locked his head with her arm and used her weight to bring his forehead to touch the mat, her legs shooting backwards out from under her. Her other arm dug behind his knee, and she clenched with all her might trying to fold her opponent into a cradle hold in order to leave his back open for pinning.

While this move was an easy way to a pin, it left her open for counter strikes with his free hand. Typically, her opponents would resist being pinned, but B312 was more ferocious than that. He rained fists hard down on her forehead as she leaned back and forced his shoulder blades to approach the mat. Mendez was on the other side of her, eyes intensely watching the match in order to call it as soon as he was pinned.

She knew she was only inches away from the win when he switched from blows against her head, to focus more on her hands and fingers. He used his knuckles to jam her fingers together, and succeeded in breaking her grip.

Ruby hissed in pain as she briefly shook the feeling back into her hands. She was laying on her back when she looked up and saw B312 jump on top of her. She could only bring her forearms to block the barrage of punches he sent towards her face. In the back of her mind she hoped he wouldn't do to her what she did to Carden, but an even deeper part wished he would.

She felt his bloody hands strike her arms as her guard finally broke. He sent two fists towards her face, dazing her, before he ended his attack, and swiftly put her in a pinning position.

Before she could continue fighting, Mendez called the match. Ruby watched her opponent stand as the world spun around her. She missed the first time when she tried to grasp his outstretched hand. His hand met hers as he pulled her to her feet.

Her mind registered Mendez berating - or congratulating, she didn't know which - the barbaric way in which the fight went. He spoke about ways in which either one of them could have come out on top, and the fact it was B312 was only because he had seized an opportunity, and refused to let it go.

Ruby drowned it all out. Partially because the world still swirled around her like water flowing down a drain, and partially because she had realized something. I lost. I finally lost.

After a dreadful winning streak, she finally met someone who could match, and exceed her in regards to fighting ability. She watched him with wonder-filled eyes as he listened to Mendez's words and responded when he needed to. It may have been the concussion, but she couldn't help but think about how amazing he had fought. How feral he was. He had done something that hadn't happened in a long time: he allowed her to have fun. She had to think outside the box and adjust her tactics mid fight, something that she hadn't needed to do for several months. And she had initially thought him weak.

She swayed back and forth on her feet as Mendez turned to speak to her. To tell her what she did wrong, and how she can improve in the future. She chuckled at a funny idea; something at the back of her mind told her to give him the finger. She would never do it, but she had been lost in her own imagination before, and that hadn't turned out badly.

Except it did. Now she remembered her first day here. How she failed to answer her stupid teachers dumb questions. She had sworn to herself she would get the next ones right, and that streak was still going strong several years later.

Her attention was brought back to Mendez when he laid a coarse hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see worried brown eyes look back at hers. She chuckled again. "I-I-It's ok-ay Yang… I… killed all the Grim-"

The last thing she saw was the world moving rapidly before her eyes as she fell backwards, until eventually, everything went black.


Ruby's head pounded after what felt like a blink of an eye later. She opened one bloodshot eye to see white bed sheets and barren walls in every direction. Is this the infirmary?

Her gaze travelled across the myriad of beds to the far wall where one window was trying and failing to let sunlight in. Her head turned the other way, only to find a door covered by almost 8 feet of Lieutenant Commander.

"Good morning, Ruby. Did you have a good nap?" Ambrose said as he stood at ease beside her.

Ruby's head lay back onto her pillow, it would be the only way for her to comfortably look him in the eye. The fact that she was talking to her commanding officer never crossed her half-asleep mind. "I had a nap?"

Ambrose chuckled. "You sure did. You've been out cold since yesterday. Don't worry, I put a good word in for you, your drill instructors won't hunt you down for missing any classes."

"What happened? Will I be able to stay, or do I have to leave?" Ruby couldn't help but let the sadness show through her face. As much as she might say she disliked it here, she didn't want to be medically discharged.

"You can't get away from us that easily, young lady. You'll simply be here for the rest of the day. Deep Winter has assured me, and told me to assure you, that you will be free to go by dinner time." His hands moved to his hips. Projecting a sort of fatherly figure for Ruby's own comfort. She was grateful for the reprieve from the military act.

"That fast? I don't even have my Au-" Ruby stopped herself before she could sound crazy in front of her commanding officer. She blinked a few times, wondering why she was about to mention that in the first place. She could have sworn it was something important, or had been. But, right now, Ruby just couldn't place it. Ambrose didn't seem to care about her slip up, probably attributing it to her injury.

"Yes, ma'am. Camp Currahee houses state-of-the-art medical facilities for use by each and every Spartan that passes through here. You couldn't have been in a better place when you got the snot beaten out of you." He let loose a laugh again, and Ruby joined him this time.

"I did lose pretty badly, didn't I?" Ruby looked down towards her hands clenching the bed sheets, lost in thought.

"I know of your winning streak against most of the other Spartans, but I have to say, don't be discouraged by this, take this as a learning opportunity. You can only become stronger after a loss like that." Ruby nodded at his words. She wasn't really that upset, if at all. Instead, she was more astonished. She had finally lost. Someone had given her a fight, a real fight, and not a one sided curbstomp. Ruby could still remember his speed as he brought precise blows down onto her head.

"Well, I'll leave you to it. I'm a busy man, as you may well have noticed. Like I said, you'll stick around for a few more tests, and we can get you back to your peers by dinner time." Ambrose stood, his head nearly touching the ceiling, and walked out with long strides as expected of someone his height. Ruby was still amazed someone could be as tall as him.

The rest of her time spent in the infirmary was as bad as the stories from her veteran drill sergeant's made them out to be. It was somehow both hot and cold; she was sweating under the sheets, but any body part uncovered was freezing in the flowing air coming through a ceiling vent directly overhead. The room was filled with a bleached aroma that would leave anybody but the doctors assigned to work here uncomfortable. Worst of all, there was nothing to do. Usually, she had some assignment, some work that could be done. But, here, there wasn't even any TV to watch, nor a radio to listen to. She only had the beating of the nearby machines and of her own heart to keep her company. Every so often a nurse would come in to ask her questions. She answered all of them as if she was speaking to a drill sergeant. She had been told that medical personnel were always given higher ranks in the military so that rowdy patients would have no choice but to listen to their orders. She couldn't imagine herself not listening to a doctor in the first place, but the added incentive of endless PT made Ruby extra respectful to anyone wearing a white lab coat.

Hours had passed and Ruby's unrest grew. She felt like she was going crazy while she clicked her tongue, or whistled a tune from her childhood she forgot the name of, or invented her own song by drumming her hands on her lap. The sun was getting low through the window as she made her fingers fight like ninjas while she made dramatic whoosh and poosh noises at each successful hit. Her hands shot under the covers and she sat up as high as she could when Ambrose and another doctor walked in. She was sure they hadn't seen her having fun; a hundred percent sure.

"We've got good news and bad news, B419." Ambrose said. He hardly referred to her by her identification number unless it was for something serious. She focused all her attention on the man, her boredom completely forgotten.

"The good news is, once you check out, you are free to go. The bad news is, you have to take it easy for a few days. That means no PT, no spars, no strenuous physical activities. I've already cleared it with your drill instructors, they will leave you alone while you recover." He gave her a reassuring smile. Ruby nodded, understanding the necessity for proper recovery. If she jumped back into the action so soon, she would be back here in no time.

"Thank you for letting me know, Lieutenant Commander." She gave him a respectful salute as thanks. She smiled once he returned it. He left a moment later. The doctor that was with him stayed behind to let her know exactly what she needed to do to recover as quickly as possible. What medicines take, what to watch out for in case any worrisome symptoms occur, et cetera, et cetera.

She checked the clock as she walked out and took a deep breath of fresh air. It was 1756 hours, just in time for dinner.

The dining hall was packed by the time she arrived. Most of the tables were at capacity with loud children challenging each other to different competitions: fighting, shooting, test scores, goop eating contests, anything they could think of, they had to find who was the best at it.

Ruby ignored them all as she walked the edge of the room to the serving station. She took her share of nutrient goop - that is what she and the other trainees had come to call their new bland food - and turned to scan the crowds for someone she needed to speak to.

There, over in the corner, almost the opposite of where she usually sat, was Spartan B312. All by himself. Slowly eating his goop with a blank expression on his face.

He seemed startled when she sat opposite him. His eyes darted side to side as he tried to guess why she would sit by him. At least, that's what she thought was going through his head.

"Can I help you?" He asked, an incredulous look on his face.

"You don't remember me?" She asked.

"Well, yeah. But I figured, since you win all the time, you'd be angry at me for ruining your streak." His shoulders deflated as he spoke. He appeared guilty for winning their fight.

Ruby couldn't help but laugh. "Of course not! That was the most fun I've had in weeks. Well, the most fun I've had without a sniper in my hands."

"I thought you'd hate me for it." He looked down at his meal, not daring to meet her eyes.

"Why would you think that? People end up hating me when I win, and that doesn't feel very good, so I don't want to do the same to anybody else." She shoveled a spoonful of goop into her mouth, doing her best to ignore the taste, if it even had any.

"I'm Ruby, by the way. I don't think I ever caught your name." She tilted her head to the side, conveying her curiosity.

"Oh, uh… I don't really have a name."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I don't have a name. My parents died before they could name me, somehow. Don't ask me how, I couldn't tell you. The foster families that took care of me afterwards each wanted to give me a name of their own. I was so young, they assumed I wouldn't remember any of them, but I do. None of them were what my parents would have wanted, and so I didn't want any of them to be my real name. I have a legal name. That changed just as often as my foster families did, though. So I don't really feel like that's legitimate, even though it's literally the only legitimate thing that identifies me."

"So, what? You only go by B312 now? That sounds pretty dehumanizing."

"Yeah, but so was having a different name for each day of the week. I like it. It's final. Concrete. You can't change a number as easily as a name. So I go by B312 now."

"Well, it's a boring name. And a long one. Four syllables is too much. You need a nickname to go by. If you want, it can be just ours. If you want to be friends, that is." Ruby tone conveyed her excitement, but she dialled it down at the end, offering him the choice to call her friend as well.

"I want to be friends, you seem really nice, and I did enjoy that spar too. Like you, no one really stands a chance against me."

"Well, aren't we the most humble duo you've ever seen." Ruby and B312 both laughed. It was drowned out by the rest of the cafeteria's craziness.

"Right. But, what would my nickname be? I don't exactly have any cool attributes to be named after."

"Yeah, you're right, you are pretty boring." She paused as he laughed. It seemed their sense of humor was one and the same. "You're a good fighter, but I can't think of anything good based on that. You look pretty average too, no scars to go off of." She frowned as she forced the gears in her head to spin.

"I'm pretty sure the best thing we've got is B312… B312, B312… Oh, I know! I've got the perfect nickname for you." She bit her lip in excitement. Succeeding in making her new friend just as antsy as her to find out what it might be.

"Well? What is it?"

"Zwei!" Ruby raised her arms over her head in celebration.

"Zwei?"

"Zwei! It means two in German, and the last number in your name is two, therefore, we can call you Zwei, and it'll still be your name, and also a cute derivative of it."

"I don't know about cute…"

"That's too bad, people aren't supposed to make up their own nicknames anyway. They are given to you by others, and I'm giving you the nickname Zwei."

"It's sounding worse the more you say it."

"Well, Zwei. I think the bell's about to ring, Zwei. Do you want me to take your tray over to the garbage, Zwei?"

"Please stop."

"No, Zwei! We are going to have so much fun together, Zwei!"

At that, the bell rang. All 300 Spartans stood, and made their way back to the barracks for a good night's sleep. Ruby teased Zwei the whole way.


September 2, 2541 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system

Dark clouds hid the moon. The pitch black night cast no shadows over the forest just outside of Camp Currahee. Ruby kept low to the ground as she trod through the short ferns in between tall trunks of pine tree look-alikes. She stopped for a moment, and sent a ping to her partner, as she had been doing every minute for the past hour. She sighed when she received one in return a little bit longer than she had found comfortable.

"Everything okay over there, Zwei?" She whispered through her helmet comms.

"Affirmative, Ruby. Just making sure I was all alone." Zwei said. His voice had grown somewhat deeper over the months she had known him, it was muffled by the mic from his own helmet all the same.

"You're never alone, not when you're with me." Ruby closed the comm channel and continued walking. She checked her friend or foe indicator to get a rough estimate of Zwei's location. He was to the east about a half klick, just as they had intended.

Their current operation was an exercise in infiltration. They were to recon and storm a rebel base in hopes of finding a high value package. They had done the recon earlier in the week, and now, at 0235 hours, they would breach the entrance, and take out any and all hostiles in their way.

Ruby and Zwei had decided to take the building in a pincer maneuver. He would go in towards the front, while she would infiltrate from the rear. She had discussed him being the sole infiltrator and her being the sniper positioned in a nearby cliff ledge to provide covering fire. But he had convinced her that, were these really rebels, they wouldn't post guards outside and make their base of operations that much more obvious. She was only a little disappointed at that: instead of her favorite Sniper Rifle, she was stuck with silenced MA5K carbine and M6S sidearm. She would make due, she always had, and it's not like these weren't marvels of engineering in their own right.

She would go in quietly, while he would rush the building guns blazing. He had a M45 Tactical Shotgun and an MA37. This way, he, being the better fighter, could focus most of the enemy fire onto him, while she snuck in and acquired their objective. Hopefully, they could get in and out in no time at all.

She checked her ammunition along her belt, reassuring herself they were using stun rounds and not anything fatal. They were taking this op seriously, but the 'insurrection' would comprise of their drill instructors and other personnel. Serious casualties were to be avoided at all costs.

She stepped on a twig as she crested a large hill overlooking their target. A dull looking building with sharp 90 degree corners was surrounded by flickering lights and the occasional warthog. The building looked like someone had haphazardly stacked several large concrete boxes next to one another and called it a day. Ruby pinged her partner again, and let out a breath when she received a return ping in a more timely manner.

"Alright, I got eyes on the target. You in position?" She whispered, quieter this time than the last.

"Affirmative. Waiting on your signal." He said. She almost had to hold her breath just to hear him. His IFF tag placed him nearly ten meters away from the main gate. It seemed he could cover ground faster than she could.

"Making my approach." She closed their comms again, and swiftly slid down the side of the hill, careful not to knock too many rocks and other debris loose.

The base of the hill was only twenty meters away from her infiltration position. Her shoulder hit the wall hard after a short sprint. She had seen a guard overlooking the field she had just crossed, but the reflective plating on her Semi-Powered Infiltration armor had hidden her from view well enough. She thanked her lucky stars they had chosen an overcast night to complete the op.

She placed a C-12 breaching charge on the back door. The magnets on the charge stuck to the metal like it was meant to be there. She smiled as the charge was armed. Once she reached a safe distance, she pinged Zwei one last time, and started her mission clock.

She ignited the charge as soon as she heard the sounds of gunfire. The smoke was only just beginning to clear by the time she raised her rifle and entered. Unfortunately for her, she had breached into what appeared to be a barracks area. She fired twice at a guard nearest the door to exit the room, splattering red tranquilizing paint across his upper chest. She turned and blocked a knife against her forearm, she dropped the rifle and brought her pistol up to send three rounds into her attacker's abdomen. She used his limp body as a human shield when the last two hostiles fired their own rifles. Two shots to center mass each dropped them both. She gently let the paint covered man down on the ground with a silent apology. That many stun rounds to the chest would make anyone sore the next morning.

She returned her sidearm to it's holster and grabbed her MA5K from where it lay on the floor. She took a moment to scan the room, ensuring the rebels were all down. It looked more like a break room than a barracks, with a sink installed next to a refrigerator and a few coffee machines. She felt a little bad at interrupting their leisure time, but pushed the emotions to the back of her mind as she reminded herself what she was here for.

The door leading into the hallway was open, and she walked through it with practiced caution, her rifle raised and aimed to where she was looking the whole time.

Her body moved as if she were attached to a swivel at the hip. She twisted back and forth, checking each room for rebels as she made her way to the other side of the building. Her intel had mentioned their package was at the center of the compound. She had a ways to go until she got there.

Empty room after empty room, she passed, until she reached the end of the hallway. She turned to stare at the open doors behind her, making sure she didn't forget anybody. After about thirty seconds, she was satisfied and opened the door into the next hallway.

The door slid upwards to reveal three rebels taking cover beneath a shattered window, broken glass covered the ground and themselves as the sounds of the firefight outside were heard clear as day. Her rifle was already firing at them by the time she was noticed, and only the last one managed to take aim at her before he too was knocked unconscious from the stun rounds.

She moved to the end of the hallway where the window was, and saw Zwei taking cover outside as automatic fire pinned him to the damaged warthog he was taking cover behind. Ruby waved excitedly at him once he noticed her. He only waved back with his thumb, index, and middle finger before he refocused his attention at the LAAG emplacement in front of him.

She sighed at his disregard for her and centered the turret's user in her iron sights. Two trigger pulls later, and the automatic fire was silenced.

She gave Zwei a thumbs up as she moved on to the next room, and giggled when he sent a ping to her in return.

The next room was equally empty as the hallway she had entered from. Her eyes darted left to right as she searched the different corners and crannies that might hide an Innie from her. When she made it to the other side with no interruptions, she silently thanked her partner for being such a good distraction.

In the following room, she wasn't so lucky. There were at least half a dozen people stood near a large metallic door watching and waiting for some unfortunate soul to enter. She realized she was that unfortunate soul just as six MA5Bs took aim right at her breast plate.

She rolled backwards through the doorway she had entered from and whistled as the wall opposite the door was painted floor to ceiling in shiny red paint. It took another few seconds for their fire to end. She took her opportunity to raise her rifle and send four rounds down the hallway towards the group. Three were taken out, two with shots to the chest, and one, a particularly short person, a shot to the head. She hissed as they were jerked backwards and landed hard on the concrete floor. Her back hit the wall again as their fire continued.

She sat there for another thirty seconds. Wondering what Zwei was up to at that moment. She sent a ping to him, and received one almost immediately afterwards. He must have been pinned down too.

The same second their stun rounds ended, she turned the corner and fired one shot at each person's head. All three went down like a sack of bricks. She wondered if she would get in trouble for aiming for the head during a practice exercise. They were wearing helmets after all, they couldn't have been too injured.

She gingerly stepped over the bodies as she made her way to the door at the end of the hallway. It was less of a door and more of a safe in all honesty. The main metallic structure of the door was accented with thick titanium reinforcements along each axis. This door could probably take a warthog going a hundred kilometers an hour and come out fine.

It's a good thing she didn't have a warthog, and instead produced another, bigger, C-12 charge, one designed for doors such as these. She smiled as she placed the charge above the handle of the door, and hoped to heaven above that there wasn't anyone inside to get hearing damage once this thing went off.

She grabbed the detonator off her waist and jogged out of the room. Should probably make this quick. I'm sure Zwei's getting a little bored outside.

She crouched near the concrete wall outside the room. She placed her thumb on the button to detonate the charge, and hoped the building wouldn't come down around her once it blew.

Her world shook as the charge detonated. The whole building seemed to protest having explosions go off inside of it for a few moments, but soon returned to rest once the dust had settled.

Ruby peaked her head around the corner and let out a whine once she saw the door still standing, only for it to let out a high pitched shearing noise and fall to the floor with a deafening thud. I should have been a demolition specialist. Ruby giggled at the thought, but then categorized it as blasphemy: she would never betray her weapons like that.

The vault inside was empty except for a single cheap table set up on the other side of the room. On the table was a single brief case. "Target acquired." She whispered to herself.

"Good, make sure it's not a decoy." She jumped a little bit as Zwei yelled into her ears through their team comms. He had to shout over the sounds of gunfire heard in the background.

"Not so loud! And good idea, Zwei." She said.

The briefcase was locked with an electronic locking mechanism which appeared to require a four digit code. She had software to break something like this in her data pad. But, for the hell of it, she tried a few combinations herself.

"Hmmm… One, one… one, one." The box dinged in acceptance, and opened with an almost inaudible hiss, as if an airtight seal had been broken. "Huh!"

"Don't tell me that worked." Zwei drawled over her comms.

"Nope, it definitely worked." She sighed, "and the package is secured." Inside the briefcase was a single tub of rocky road ice cream encased in a foam pad designed to keep it safe and stationary during transport, and a note that read 'AMBROSE - DO NOT EAT'.

She locked the case again with a soft click and a hiss as the refrigeration unit, that she hadn't heard before, began cooling the tasty treat. The case then clicked against her back as she placed it on her suit's magnetic holstering mechanism. It was typically used for extra arms and ammunition, but for now was acting as a taxi for a frozen dessert.

She sprinted to the front of the building, and jumped the length of the stairs into the courtyard. Zwei was running back and forth with his shotgun, chasing down the last conscious rebel in the base, trying to keep him from calling for reinforcements.

Ruby fired her pistol twice at the running man, he fell without making a sound.

"Quit playing with your food, it's time to go." Ruby said. Zwei nodded and instinctively scratched his head in embarrassment, but soon was even more embarrassed when he realized he was wearing a helmet and only managed to scratch the hardened plating on the back of his helmet.

They looked up in unison when they heard the sound of a pelican drop ship nearby. They hadn't planned for an airlift out of the compound.

"Those must be rebel reinforcements." Zwei said, his hand reached for the grip of his MA37, but stopped when Ruby shook her head.

"We don't need to fight, we have the package, that's our primary objective. Let's get out of here before they can chase us down." Ruby turned to sprint towards the back of the facility where she had entered. Her motion tracker indicated Zwei was following.

As soon as they exited the facility, they both activated their armor's active camouflage, and snuck back into the forests from whence they came, disappearing into the night.


Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose leaned back in his creaking chair as he watched two IFF tags vacate Camp Currahee's off campus training facility. He sipped his third mug of coffee of the night, and hummed as the pelican sent by the 'insurrection' to investigate the facility found nothing but the groaning bodies of their 'slain' rebel buddies. He would admit that even he got confused during some of these training missions; he always made sure to remember that these were simply exercises, and not the real thing.

"Spartan B312 continues to demonstrate an excellence in the field we haven't seen before; not even Alpha Company produced someone of his caliber." Deep Winter's snowy projection appeared on his desk. Ambrose looked to him, took another sip of his coffee, then back to the holo-table with a three dimensional layout of the facility and the surrounding forests.

"Indeed he does, Deep Winter. Indeed he does." He said. His interest was piqued by these two, and not just by B312.

"Spartan B419, while proficient, does not seem to perform at the same level as B312. Evident by their contradictory kill count: Spartan B312's being nearly three times as high as Spartan B419. I believe pairing them is unwise." The AI never took his eyes off of him as he spoke.

"And why do you think that, Deep Winter?" He asked.

"There are several reasons. The first and foremost being, as I said before, their differing skills. B312 has proved time and time again to outperform B419 in almost every combat oriented task assigned to him. The only thing B419 is better at is long range marksmanship, and that is not appropriate for all settings similar to how it wasn't here." He said, gesturing to the holo-table.

"Secondly, I would like to point out their cooperation and conversations: they act too much like good friends, and not enough like soldiers. Under great distress, I believe one, if not both of them would lose their composure should anything… untoward happen." He said. Ambrose sat silent for a moment, contemplating his concerns.

"I see that B312 and B419 have a serious gap in their skills, and I do agree that their relationship is more friendly than I would have hoped, especially during the mission. However, I see a lot of potential in B419, and I understand how antisocial B312 was before he and B419 had begun their relationship. They are mutually beneficial to each other: B419 hones her skills as a soldier and will hopefully rise to the level of B312 in time, and B312's mental state has greatly improved since they first met about a year ago." He paused to watch Deep Winter's expression. Like most AI's he's known, he was impartial to his disagreement, due to him being the ranking human and all.

"I want them to keep on training like this together. Ramp up the difficulty on their missions. Give them more moral dilemmas; make them choose between the objective, and what they think is right. We'll make soldiers out of them yet, Deep Winter. Just be patient." He said. Deep Winter only nodded his head in return.

"Also, I'm sure you remember it was Ruby who planned this mission almost entirely by herself. If it weren't for her cunning, I don't think B312 would have been able to complete the mission alone. They can only grow stronger from each other's company." He said.

"Yes, sir." The artificial intelligence disappeared a moment later. Ambrose, satisfied with their analysis of the operation, stood to pour himself another cup of coffee. More for the taste than anything, really. His Spartan augmentations meant that caffeine passed right through him. He didn't really need it anyway for the same reason.

He was used to late nights like these, but they weren't always this pleasant. He didn't always have a debrief with a few of his Spartans to look forward to in the early hours of the morning.

He left his office with a smile on his face. He knew Ruby and Zwei - yes, he had started referring to B312 as Zwei recently, though only in his own head - would turn out to be some of the best Spartans he had ever trained. One on one conversations with the two was always a refreshing treat.


There you have it folks.

Since this story's inception there have been people leaving reviews on what they read - which I greatly appreciate, your feedback puts a smile on my face every time I read it - and I have been debating on what I should do to respond to these reviews. Some people have said PM replies, some have said put them at the ending author's note, and I think I have decided to put them in the author's note.

I won't be starting the replies until next chapter, however. Partially because I've already replied with PM's to some, and partially because I don't want to write 28 responses in a single author's note and inflate the word count. As such, I can narrow down most of your comments and questions into these two answers:

Thank you for reviewing, I appreciate the feedback, and...

Read the story, and wait and see! (A lot of the questions I've received were about aspects of the story that I intend to answer in time, and I will stop answering them if I get more of them in the future, because I don't want to spoil the story)

Until next time.