The General: World War III Chapter 2: Depolyment, a halo fanfic

June 10th, 2552Noon

I sat in my tight and stuffy airborne drop case onboard the FFG-142 UNSC frigate awaiting to be deployed to Fort Containment. The entire 15 Airborne was being deployed there. My brother and I where confused on why we where being deployed to Antarctica, what was there that was so important. Orders where orders and we knew we would have to go, for whatever the reason was. Our squad was dropping in on the west of the fort was all I knew, other squads where dropping in other areas of the fort. The yellowish white light above me shot off and the weapon holsters all slammed shut in the sides of of my case. The light above my head turned to a dim red and I knew we where about to be dropped in. The red animated number just above the door flashed five and counted down.

Zero. There was a hiss for a second or two then the feeling of free fall. I had dropped in these cases before, I love the feeling of free fall you get in them. It gave me that excited feeling in my stomach. The pod shook a small bit on its way down. Their was a pop as the upper cable shot out from the top to deploy air catcher that would slow us down. After a fifteen seconds of being deployed it snapped out and I contiuned my decent. I felt the reverse thrusters kick in below my feet. Pressure hit my feet and legs hard and caused my eyes to water like always as we slowed down for the sudden stop. The pod slammed into the ground, coming to a sudden hault. I could hear others hitting the ground around me as well.

The pod doors shot off and a rush of cold air came over me instantly, I shivered a bit as the cold rushed though my armor a bit. I had a hard time seeing out from the pod, it was so bright. After dropping in we useally get what we call "drop blurs" from the force that builds up when the thrusters suddenly slow you down that causes your eyes to water up. I stepped out into the soft, mushy, and dirty looking snow and looked around squinting, covering my eyes a bit until they got used to the lighting. Fort Containment, Antarctica. Thats where we where at. Others started stepping out as well, also covering their eyes.

The fort was huge. Off in the distance infront of me stood a fortress wall with mounted gun implacements on it looking out at us. To my left was a flat area that lead out toward a cave it looked like and to my right was nothing but the base for as far as I could see in the snow fall. I looked around for my brother and my closest friend who had dropped in with me. I didn't see them. A jeep started up toward us with a passenger and mounted gunner. The jeep pulled up infront of us and the passenger stepped out onto the ground before the vehicle even came to a full stop.

The passenger wore sage green armor meaning he was a WWMF general. He didn't have his helmet on. He wasn't to groomed for a general either. His hair was messy, puffs of hair stood up on his head, and his face needed to finish being shaved. He also had a scar on his left cheek that made a cross, showing he came from military chapel corps, a corps that warshiped and treated soldiers with great respect and supported them. Most troops spill confessions to them and that sort of stuff, they where more like a father of a church.

No one snapped to attetion, not even me. "Form rows!" he had barked, but I was busy looking for my brother and my close friend and wasn't paying attention. People where rushing into line while I stood there looking around. I turned to my left and the general was in my face. "Did I stutter!" he yelled up in my face. "Get in formation!" I glanced around and got the hint pretty quick and joined the others. "Attention!" he barked and all twenty-four of us snapped our heels together and saluted. "At ease." he said calmly and we all put out hands behind our back, still standing stright.

He walked to the far right of the line and from there he slowly walked down the line, looking at everyone in the face. Halfway down he stopped infont of some soldier whos legs where shaking a bit. He looked at the soldier in the eyes. "Do I scare you!" he yelled in his face. "No, sir!" came the reply. The general put his face closer up to his. The soldier leaned back a bit. "Yes, sir." the soldier said in a squeaky tone, obviously scared of the man. The general stepped over infront of the next soldier. "Is he telling the truth?" he yelled. "Ye...No... I don't know, sir!" he said. He went walking down the line looking at everyone as he went. "He knows dosen't he?" he yelled when walking down to the end. No one responded.

We stood there, looking at the general. He came down the second line, my line. He looked at one soldier. "Do you even know why your here soldier?" The soldier paused. "...Yes, sir!" he said lieing, trying to look impressive. None of us knew why we where here. "Why are you here?" hey asked yelling. The soldier stayed silent. "You have not been told anything!" said the general. "You where only notified that you where being deployed here, im to tell you why!" He walked down the line and stopped infront of me. "How does he know why hes here!" I looked oddly at the general, though I don't know if he could tell that I was or not though my visor. "I don't know, sir." I said in a calm tone. He stared deep into my eyes, I felt as though he was looking at my soul. The guy seemed nuts. He continued on down the line and then made his way back to the front, not having gone down the third line.

He stood out infront of all of us. He looked at our team commander in the green armor. "This is fifth squad correct?" "Yes, general!" replied our C.O. "Lieutenant, have you yet yourself been briefed on your specs?" "No, general!" came the reply. "Then you will accompany me for briefing lieutenant." said the general as a convoy of transport vehicles apporached us. I thought they where for us but they continued on past us. "Yes, general I will accompany you!" "Good." replied the general. Another vehicle approached and stopped this time by generals vehicle. The the passenger got out and saluted the general. The lieutenant wa ordered and got into the passengers seat and the general got in the passenger seat of his vehicle. The dismounted passenger approached us as they drove off.

"I am private first class Andy Long." he stated. I stared into his visor, but I couldn't really make out what he looked like. "I will be guiding you around the camp. I will state how things are done as we go along. You will do as I say durring this time. Are we understood?" Our team stayed silent, not really replying to what the private had said. "We will be marching off that way for the next two-thousand or so yards to your quarters." He pointed out toward our right and everyone glanced off that way. There was some moaning among the squad but quickly died out. I glanced around still trying to find my brother and friend. Still they remaind out of sight. Andy started off and we followed him in stratus.

Someone bumped me in the arm. I glanced into the visor of another trooper, one I didn't really know. "Yo, why do you think where here?" he asked. I looked at him a bit then replied "I don't know." "Do you think were going to war or something, and where going to make the first strike. It would be about time we got to use or training on someone." he said happily. I ignored the warhawk and found myself wondering why we where here myself. Why I had been drafted. What value does Antarctica have, that we would need to set up a military base in this area. What had happened.

After about twenty minutes of walking we came up upon another fortress sized wall, like the other one back at the other side of the base. This one two was armed with implacements along it. I glanced off to my left to see the cracked general. He was yelling in the face of another soldier in a diffrent squad. I couldn't help but chuckle alittle. "What are you laughing at?" asked the warhawk, not having seen what was happening. "Nothing." I replied.

My feet started to get a bit cold, even though I was in my mechanized armor, and hoped we would go inside somewhere to warm up. We entered the fortress walls. I looked up at the wall side and the guards atop the wall as we entered. I then looked around. "Hault!" said Andy. We stopped and gazed around. I took the chance to look for my brother and friend. I glanced over by the wall and found Steve, my closest friend, looking up at the stationary gunners. He wasn't with the rest of us. I walked over to him while Andy talked on about something. I knew I could get into trouble for leaving the others, but didn't really care. "Steve." I said to him. He turned and faced me. "Hey, Thomas." he said excited and we gave our secret handshake. "What are you doing over here?" I asked. "Me? " he said. "I was checking out the stationary weaponary as best as I could." I looked up at the implacements also. "My role is a company gunner." he continued. "So I figured they would help tell me what turret I might be issued." We both glanced around at other soldiers that where napping, eatting or playing cards in the snowfall. "Hey, you!" it was Andy and he was walking over to us. "What do you guys think your doing, we've moved on and you've missed most of the discussion, go get back with the group." he said and headed on back. We followed him back to the rest of the outfit.

"Okay now." said Andy infront of the group and pointed toward a entrance into a area in which two guards stood in the snowfall, next to a wall opening that lead into a area. "That is the sleeping quarters." Andy started. "I will tell you now that there are no beds, blankets, pillows or anything like that. So its best to sleep in your armor." "What do you mean there are no beds or anything?" interrupted a soldier. "I'll tell you the general never makes it easy on his troops." stated Andy. "On top of that, you are also only given six hours of sleep a day. You can choose when to use your hours, unless on duty. People who just dropped in, such as yourselfs, are given ten extra hours for that day. You all have sixteen hours of sleep on your cards that you will be given to you in a little bit. Same works with food. You are given one meal a day. You can choose when to have it." he paused. "Any questions?"

The troop stood uneasy, most mumbled about the conditions under their breath. Steve and I where also didn't care for the rules ourselfs. Six hours of sleep wasn't to big a deal, only two less hours than normal. But no beds or anthing we hated, also only being able to have one meal. "What about showering and that stuff?" asked a soldier. "Oh yes I forgot to go over that. You may only shower once a week. Bathrooms are where the showers are aswell. At the end of the wall line." Steve and I glanced a bit at eachother and looked back at Andy. "Alright then." said Andy. "You may do as you please for now. You will be briefed tomorrow on your operations here. That is all." He saluted and walked off. Steve and I stood there. Others split off and started wondering around the camp. "Its going to be rough here." said Steve. "Think we can handle it?" he looked at me. I looked back. "Well be good so long as we stay as a buddy team." I replied. "I suppose so." he said and looked around.

I spoted my bother making his way to us, he had found us. He came up and we did the secret handshake. "I was wondering where you guys where." said Dave. "I hadn't seen you guys when we landed." We talked for a bit then got word they where passing out our sleeping, food, and bathing cards. We headed up the stairs to the top of the bunker wall and walked down along it to the area where they where being given out. We got ours. We decided to go get some food first. We went down the defence line more and down the stairs on that side where a line of steaming pots where at. The menu was stew and bread with tea. We sat down in the snowfall and ate. The stew was fairly good with lots of meat, the bread was lumpy and tasted a bit stale. The tea was tasteless. I later came to learn that the tea was really dirt mixed with water and had something added to kill all the flavor. But it was atleast hot.

After eatting we made our way down to the sleeping quarters to turn in. The guards checked out our cards and sent us in. The room was near empty. It had a slightly slanted wall that stuck outward from the ground a bit that went all around the room, enough to lay out on in a slanted angel without sliding off or having to hold ourselfs up. We layed there talking. I closed my eyes and listened to Dave and Steve chat. I fell into a deep sleep.