-1Garrett was sparring with Trent, trying his best with the sword, but it was no use. He still wasn't used to the enhancements in his body. He had the frame off, so as to keep eye level with the Spartan, though he realized his mistake afterward. The cushioned outside of the sword hit at the back of his feet, and he flipped, followed by a hand grabbing him and holding as to not have him break his neck landing upside down. He was righted up, and at that moment, he surrendered. "You lasted longer than the other marines we've had the chance to spare with" Trent said. "Yea right. How many minutes before I was doing acrobatics after being hit?" He asked. "Seven" he chuckled. "I'll try to push that to ten next time" he smirked. "Lieutenant, you said you needed better training in sniping? Come over here." Garrett walked over to Marie, standing near a stand with an AM 33A in hand. It was far longer than the normal AM 32, but it had a slide lock problem as a disadvantage. "Might I ask you sir, why it is that the Major had us come here to help you train? Aren't you supposed to be training with your squad?" She asked, handing the rifle to him and picking up another. "I… I'm… I'm being trained for a classified assignment, and the Spartans are considered the best soldiers out there, so I get to be trained by you guys. This is my first day, so try not to smash me up too much." She smiled, brought the rifle to her shoulder, pushed her strawberry blonde hair over her right ear and had it flow to her back, brought her right blue eye up to the scope, and fired. The shot was clean and right in the center of the dummy.
"Shit…" He said, whistling afterward. She fired a few more shots, making a pentagon. "Wait, that's more than four rounds" He said, looking at her rifle. "Extended clips. I'm one of those people that hate to have to reload after targeting multiple enemies." She unloaded the clip swiftly and brought another in just as fast. "You try." He moved in, brought the gun to his shoulder, aimed, and was about to fire when… "I see you've gotten along with the others Lieutenant." He turned his head, fired, and the shot hit the center of the forehead. The dummy's head slumped forward from the hit, sand coming from the hole. "Dr. Halsey, ma'am, thank you for having the Major let me train with them. I think I've somewhat improved in dancing with a sword, but I don't know about hitting with it." She chuckled, saw Trent play aiming at the back of his head with the padded sword. He turned, only to find Trent binding the bottom of the hilt with some tape.
"I'm here to tell you that you need to get ready. The council meeting is in a few hours." His face went pale. Time flies when your playing with Spartans he thought. He stood at attention, she left, and he followed, only to turn in the opposite direction for his bunk room. He walked in, stripped quickly, got showered up and clean, shaved, then brushed his teeth and hair. He then dressed carefully in his Marine uniform, showing the 126th Battalion symbol on the shoulder, The Guardians. He picked up his cap and straightened everything to be absolutely perfect in the mirror.
As he walked out, he made double sure that the armored arm unit wasn't very visible, so he draped his trench coat over his arm. From what he was told, there was going to be rain in San Francisco, so at least he could cover himself and no one would care. He walked toward the docking bay, walked toward a shuttle, and got to his seat, strapped in after placing his stuff in an over head compartment. He realized that only himself, Dr. Halsey, the Major and a pilot were going down. Guess no one is getting any time off. He started to drift into sleep, tired after the training session he had.
Garrett awoke to find that the shuttle was already entering Earth's atmosphere, and the shuttle was bucking around. Dr. Halsey was sitting next to him, reading a book like nothing was happening. He decided to try and go back to sleep, as he was used to moving through atmospheric entry. The shuttle jostled around, things rattling away, but somehow he managed to get some sleep.
When he woke up again, the Major, John was his name, stood nearby while the pilot tried to push on his shoulder. He threw a punch and his hand was caught. "You know, hitting a superior officer can get you court marshaled, even if she's a pilot." Not superior, just higher ranking he thought as the CAPTAIN moved away and grumbled. He got up, rubbed his eyes, grabbed his stuff and walked out. Dr. Halsey and Garrett walked toward a waiting car and the major followed close behind. The captain stayed in the shuttle.
The car sped toward the hall he was suppose to be at, which not surprisingly, was behind the walls of a military installation. Rain was pissing down in cartfuls as they neared the entrance. The guard at the front stopped the driver, gained the ID, and let them pass through. They did this about five times, each time seeing a rather large scorpion tank nearby. The place was Area 51. Two guards at every door and a few warthogs making rounds with three marines each. Long swords flew over in groups of four, and a few tanks were seen in critical choke points around the base. Gun nests, AA turrets and bunkers were common.
The car stopped and the driver got out with an umbrella, the passenger in front getting out with another. The driver opened the door for Dr. Halsey and held the umbrella over her head as she made her way to the front door. Both the major and Garrett put their trench coats on, wrapped carefully up, and walked out, pouring rain on top of them. They were soldiers, and this was the way marines moved. "I know you marines don't let weather stop you, but you could and least try and stay a bit dry when you enter the hall." They walked up to the door, Dr. Halsey having the door opened for her, and they walked in.
Both Garrett and John quickly went to the bathroom to get to a hand blow dryer and use it on their heads. They dried off how much they could, then walked out and took their coats off. They then both sat on a bench while Dr. Halsey was let into the hall. They both sat there for about an hour before someone told them to enter. Garrett was summoned first. He stood up, straightened his clothes, and walked in. He stood at attention, saluted, and reported in.
"At ease Lieutenant. As you've probably guessed, this query is about you. We would like to know about this armor you have acquired and won't give up." He was going to speak, but cut off by Dr. Halsey's voice. "He IS willing to give it up, but he can't figure out how, and neither can I. It won't let us study it and any possible way to remove it could possibly harm Lieutenant Gryphen." He stood there, waiting to proceed. "Why not tell us your story Lieutenant."
The third time he told his story to his superiors and still none of them got it. He did not know how to fully use it without practice, and they were already discussing how to use him to full effect. "You can't use him in anything until he is through whatever training is needed. As for having him under the command of the UNSC, he is already a part of SPARTAN II program and MJOLNIR project" Halsey's voice said again in the dark. "Unfortunately for you, doctor, I've been doing some studying on the SPARTAN II program and it states that only SPARTAN IIs, people who are augmented with cybernetic upgrades and chosen by the selection program, as well as have the MJOLNIR armor on are allowed in the SPARTAN II program. So he CAN be in the UNSC, and under our supervision, though he was in the UNSC to begin with, Ms. Halsey." Her voice was silent for a few moments, and Garrett feared what she had told him was going to come true. These people didn't know what he had, and were already thinking about what to use him for. A little toy soldier, similar to a Spartan, just no lee way.
"He's a special part of the program" was finally heard from Dr. Halsey. "What special part? How could he be a special part of the program when he was a marine! This suped up grunt couldn't possibly be in your wind up doll program! He's been on Valeius for the past year, fighting the covenant with the rest of the marines stationed there!" Another moment of silence. A bead of sweat fell down Garrett's forehead. "He was one of the scouts for the next batch of Spartans. He sent reports about new children we might be interested in. Some of them were quite useful." Multiple voices popped up, whispering heard everywhere. "Lieutenant Gryphen. Is this true?" A loud voice was heard. He had done scouting of defenses and counted heads on schools in Valeius, but he thought that was to make sure the last attack didn't kill anybody. If he didn't lie, he'd become a puppet for some high ranking government official to play with as seen fit. "Yes sir that was what I did in the past, though as you might guess, scouts are obviously left out of the loop for what we were doing, as it was classified data." Silence again. "Indeed…" The voice said again. "We will discuss this after we have heard from the Spartan outside. You are dismissed." He saluted, turned crispy, and walked out the doors, with the major walking right by him and the doors closing again.
He sighed in relief and sat on the bench again. After another hour of talking in the hall, the major came back out, no one following him. "Dr. Halsey will meet us on the Resilience. She is in a discussion with the rest of the council." Garrett acknowledged and they both walked back outside, a car waiting for them and the door opened for them to jump in. They were driven back to the star port and brought back up to the ship in a shuttle. Garrett walked back to his quarters, taking his dress uniform off and placing it in a clothing case, putting some fatigues on. He called up the Spartan crew area, asked Marie and Trent if they wanted to spar some more, but Trent couldn't make it. However, Marie and Jax were interested, and they headed to practice room 1. There, Garrett finished the sniping he started before, and had Marie wrap her arms around him trying to help him aim better. Needless to say he missed the mark a few times because of this, so he told her he could make do with words, and instead of doing anything with explosives with Jax, he played chess, and lost, and poker, and lost, and even Jin, and lost. The day ended with Jax and Marie having to do maintenance on their equipment, so he went back to his bunk room and fell asleep.