Chapter 11: Training

Heavy rain fell on the Spartans as they crouched next to a pile of rubble. Across the street Will could see shapes moving in the haze but held his fire to conceal his position."Looks like four of them, not sure where the others are." Linda had found a perfect spot to hide up in the miniature town that had been created for training exercises like this. Composed mostly of insta-crete and wooden buildings, the rubber rounds they were using had pockmarked the structures from past engagements. A single shot rang beat out the thunderous downpour and Will waited for Linda's confirmation.
"Positive kill, I'm moving, you're on your own for a minute or so." He looked back at the other Spartans who's suits had blended in almost perfectly with the blown out building. Their heads moved about, always alert for a single sign of movement.
"Chris, report in."
"I'm here, my fireteam is moving down the west side of the town to head of their squad."
"Wait at the nearest building, we're going to be moving in a second and will need you to stay stationary in case we get into some trouble."
"Affirmative." Will closed the comm channel and motioned for his squad to move up onto him. He looked down the street for the nearest portion of cover. Spotting a small alley that was only open to the street, he pointed to it with his hand and sprinted towards it. Geysers of water sprayed into the air as his powerful legs, coupled with the Mark VII, pounded into the street and the deep puddles that had formed. Reaching into his wet backpack, he pulled out the fiber optic cable he had tossed in there and hooked up one end of it to his helmet and stored the other part of it into his load bearing vest and checked down the street as the last of his fireteam arrived behind him. Crouching down, he started to move down the street slowly, his rifle pressed into his shoulder and his eyes flicking back and forth. Drops of water poured down his visor and he wiped his muddy gauntlet over it unconsciously, smearing dirt across it.
"Dammit, keep moving ahead until you reach the fork, I'll catch up."
"Aye sir," Spartan-490 responded and they moved ahead without him. Will found another safe place to stop and popped his helmet off. Splashing water onto the visor, he quickly cleaned it off and was about to pop it back on when he heard a noise on the other side of the wall he was leaning against. Crouching frozen, he set his helmet down and picked up his rifle up and slowly stood up. Just as his wet hair poked over the wall, a hail of gunfire erupted. Rubber rounds zipped past his head leaving trails in the rain momentarily. Instantly reacting, he lifted up his rifle and opened fire on the muzzle flashes he spotted through the rain and fog. In his right ear voices called out to him from his teammates but he didn't respond; his mind was focused on eliminating the threats. Ignoring his helmet on the ground, he ran into the nearest building and went upstairs. Looking down on them, he saw the leg of an attacker disappear behind on the buildings directly across from where he had stopped.
"Will! Will! Are you alright?" He suddenly took notice to the frantic calls from Linda in his ear piece.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I think three or four of them are heading east from my position. Chris, be on the look out, Tangos are heading towards you.
"Roger that, we should be okay if we can hold our position, but maybe you shou-."
"We're on it," Will was about to end the conversation when he heard someone moving behind him. Spinning on his knee he raised his rifle and aimed at the step behind him.
"Echo…" Waiting for a response, his heart began beating faster.
"Echo echo, friendlies coming up." He loosened his grip on his rifle but just a little. Four drenched Spartans came up, -490 holding his once again dirty helmet.
"Thanks JJ," he replied as he tucked it under his arm.
"No problem, I was going to go and peddle it for some cash but they," he motioned to the others, "convinced me you might need it." It was one of the rare times when a Spartan smiled, let alone his fellow comrades seeing it. The five of them walked down the stairs and Will bent down to wash his helmet once again, this time with his fireteam watching his back. Popping the seal on the helmet he took the lead again, heading towards the east. Incredibly, the rain began to fall even harder as they tried to avoid splashing through the deep puddles that were quickly forming in the streets.
"I'm hearing some noises out there, could be the rain or it could be them." Chris's voiced was calm as usual and Will knew he wasn't sending the message in terms of getting help but so when they go there they were aware of what was going on. Picking up their pace a little bit, Fireteam Alpha arrived at another large street and checked it quickly. Nothing moved and Will sprinted across just as another burst of gunfire erupted. He shouldered his rifle but instantly realized it wasn't pointed at them. More shots rang out and Will hurriedly brought up a topo-map of the city and found Chris's position. Located in one of the taller buildings that had been constructed, they were in a relatively good position in terms of defense but it would be a nightmare to try and get to due to the large expanse of open space that surrounded it.
"Alright, we need to split up, JJ, Karl, you two move in from the south while Kayla, Matt, and I come in from the north. Linda, try and come in as fast as possible."
"Acknowledgement lights winked on and the group split into two. They ran forward three more blocks before heading north for two. The gunfire was a lot louder than Will had expected and he feared they had underestimated the amount of people they were going up against. Catching a glimpse of the concrete building, Will sent a "wink" to Chris who responded almost instantly. To Will's left, towards a semi-blown out building, it seemed a portion of the gunfire was originating from there. He crouched down a little as he came up to the door and peeked inside with his fiber optic cable. A few shell casings fell to the ground in the fish eye view he had and he backed off. Motioning to his other teammates that there were enemies inside, they readied their rifles and slowly made their way inside. More casings rolled to the ground and Will looked up to see a portion of the ceiling above them blown out. Muzzle flashes lit up the rooms above and he slowed down even more as they moved up the stairs. Their first mistake was obvious; they hadn't bothered to have anyone watch their rear. The second was slightly more difficult to spot due to the layout of the building which forced them into one room. Priming one of the fake grenades they had been given, Will rolled it towards them and rolled back around the corner and waited three seconds. A loud bang echoed through the building and Fireteam Alpha rushed into the room. Two of the three Spartans, thanks to a special program installed in their suits, were "killed" due to the grenades "damage" values that the rubber rounds had been programmed with. The third was stunned from the grenade and was quickly taken down before he could even get another shot off. Walking out of the building, red lights illuminated around their armor instead of the cool blue LEDs that normally were on, they moved at a rather leisurely pace away from the building. Listening carefully, the volume of gunfire hadn't really decreased all that much which worried Will.
"JJ, we just cleared the house to the north east of Fireteam Bravo."
"Affirmative, we've just disengaged from a group of four and are pulling back a little bit. We could use a little bit of help." That last bit caught Will's attention, it was hesitant, like JJ was ashamed to admit they needed the assistance.
"Don't worry, we'll be there, hang tight. Chris, we're just to the north of you, two story building, roof is blown out."
"I see the building, but not you guys."
"I know, JJ, should be to the west of your building, he's with Karl but they're taking heavy fire. We're heading over there right now but I don't know if we'll be able to get there in time."
"Got it. Where's Linda?"
"Good question…" As if on cue, two shots rang out through the city.
"Two confirmed kills." Linda's cool voice cut into Will's ear and he took comfort at the guardian angel that was always looking through a scope. A few loud blasts of a horn echoed up and down the streets alerting the Spartans to the fact that the training was finished. Will walked out of the building and headed towards Chris. They both popped their helmets off and grasped their hands together.
"Hell of a job out there, I owe you."
"Don't worry about it," Will responded humbly, rain streaming down his face, deviating from it's path every so often. The other Spartans in Echo squadron grouped together, Linda arriving last. Looking up the road, Bravo squad walked slowly.
"That's the third time this week, maybe they just don't have very good squad unity," JJ remarked after a few seconds of silence.
"That's not the problem, we've got an unfair advantage." They all looked over at Will who, despite enjoying the company of other Spartans, had mostly stayed to himself. "We've got two veterans of the Covenant War and then two more who have gotten some real combat experience. I'm pretty sure the closest you've gotten to true live fire was just practice against each other with blank rounds."

Water droplets slid down the window as rain splattered against it. Will sat down in a relatively comfortable chair and waited as the shape in the bed stirred.
"Hey…" Kat's voice was weak and sounded strained. Two small tubes traveled away from her nose and looped back behind her bed into what a small box that controlled all of the different things that they doctors were doing. Even after a week and a half of recovery, she still seemed weak and her face had yet to gain back it's full color. "I assume they've told you what happened?"
"No…not really," he said, smiling a little. The right corner of her mouth curved upward a little and she started to speak.
"It was apparently a side effect of long term cryogenics. The heart just doesn't want to restart, simple as that. In my case though, my heart started, but it gave out almost immediately afterwards. Slightly more dangerous, but I'm still alive, that's gotta count for something."
"Yeah. They split us up into squads, right now you haven't been assigned to one, but once you're back in fighting condition, you'll be put into ours."
"Who else is in it?" She seemed to perk up slightly at the mention of the other Spartans.
"Uh, well, Linda Chris and I, JJ, Karl, Kayla, and Matt," near the end, his eyes traveled to the ceiling and his face contorted as he tried to remember the last names.
"I know Kayla pretty well, she was in my barracks, the others…not so well."
"Oh, well, they told me to send you their regards." Will looked over at a small digital clock on the wall to his right. Seeing what time it was, he stood up and walked over to the side of Kat's bed. He bent his head over towards hers and then stopped. Pulling back up, he took her hand and rubbed it for a few seconds. "Get well." Walking out of the room, he winced slightly at what he had or hadn't done.