"We've all run the simulations..."
By Kpmh2001
UNSC Dominion
Marine Barracks
In Winter's eyes, the two most mysterious people on the Dominion were Ben and Jorge, the only "Spartans" aboard. They were unflinchingly focused, disciplined, and acted more like machines than people. They were like the personification of the cold efficiency that the UNSC represented, a bland, emotionless machine of war, built to ensure humanity's survival against any opponent. In a way, there were a bit disturbing, although Winter wouldn't say that she was afraid of them.
Every Marine, Navymen, and Officer that she had seen so far had in some way done something not related to their duties. Sometimes it was something simple like writing in a journal, or telling jokes around the coffee-maker, but the Spartans never did anything of the sort. They were methodically focused on whatever task was in front of them, and if they weren't working, they were sleeping.
Even their bodies were deeply unusual. Lieutenant Jorge stood at a truly great seven-foot four-inches in his armor, and Sergeant Benjamin was only a hair shorter. While the armor apparently added a few inches, they apparently weren't much shorter when they weren't wearing it. Not that Winter would have been able to guess that, as she'd never seen the Spartans without their suits. Benjamin in particular seemed to sleep in his armor, something that Winter couldn't imagine was very comfortable.
Strange or not, they were certainly impressive soldiers. One of the Marines had claimed that they could flip a talk if it was upside down, and she didn't sound like she was joking. That being said, she had also quickly learned to take the idle murmurs of the Marines with a healthy degree of skepticism.
They have such bizarre senses of humor... Winter thought.
Still, the Marines were certainly a jovial bunch. Winter had met plenty of Atlesian squads before, and none of them seemed so genuinely enthusiastic about their lives. They joked, played games, played pranks on one another, it was all the exact opposite of what she had expected. She had expected most of the Marines to act like the Spartans, and given that they didn't, it made the armored soldiers all the more unnerving. Learning that Benjamin in particular had taken on a corrupted Huntsmen and won inspired a bit of concern within Winter.
And not only did he win, but from what Adrian explained, apparently he did so fairly effortlessly. Winter thought. Commander Richard had authorized her to interrogate the rogue Huntsman that had been captured in Atlas, and what little he had shared was mostly related to how he had been captured. What exactly makes the Spartans so strong?
Winter found her mixed feelings on the Spartans thrown into question once she learned about their weakened Auras from the other Huntress aboard the Dominion, a young Faunus woman named Mags. She'd compared the Spartan's Auras to those of a trapped animal, which painted a far different picture than the somewhat mellow and strictly professional attitudes that Winter had seen from them. The more she thought about it, the more curious Winter became. What really was a Spartan, and why were they so revered by the rest of the Dominion's crew? Even the more reserved Officers on the Bridge like Lieutenant Chen had shown them a great degree of respect.
Maybe I should just ask her. Winter thought. I'm sure she'll answer my question, at least partially.
Lieutenant Chen was a very polite and professional woman that Winter had quickly learned to respect. Unfortunately, her numerous duties had meant that Winter hadn't had too many opportunities to speak with her. She decided to wait until the Lieutenant was away from her duties, which thankfully didn't take an unreasonable amount of time. The long wait for the coffee machine as it worked offered Winter a moment to ask the potentially controversial question.
"Excuse me Lieutenant." Winter began as she joined the Officer by the counter. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
Chen gave an unexpected chuckle. "No, I don't know when we're getting the coffee from Menagerie. Believe me, we're all eager to stop drinking this ancient stuff."
It cannot be soon enough. Winter thought in solemn agreement, before getting back on track. "Actually, I wanted to ask about the Spartans."
Chen's humored expression was immediately replaced with one of understanding. "Ah, I see. Well, I'll tell you what I can, but I'll warn you, it isn't much."
Winter had expected that, it seemed like the UNSC loved to decorate their files with black ink, even more than the Atlesian Military did. "I wasn't looking for any real specifics, I just wanted to know what makes them so..."
"Special? Yeah, I didn't really buy into the hype either." Chen said, not directly answering her question. "But then I saw all the combat footage from Draco III... yeah, I know when to admit I'm wrong."
Winter read into the context behind Chen's statement. "They must have performed exceptionally well."
"Very large understatement." Chen said, gesturing to emphasize the strength of her point. "There couldn't have been more than twenty of them, and they swept up an entire Covenant Army. Damn good thing too, the losses before they showed up were... extreme."
Chen suddenly gained a far-away look in her eyes, one that Winter had grown accustomed to seeing from the UNSC. It seemed that the war with the Covenant had wrought horrors that nobody could avoid.
Hoping to snap Chen out of her stupor, Winter persisted, trying to get them back on track. "What exactly is a Spartan, what makes them so strong?"
Chen shook her head clear. "I guess the best way I can describe them is that the Spartans are kind of like your Huntsmen, except pushed to every extreme."
"What do you mean?" Winter asked.
"To quote all of the ONI propaganda, they're the best of the best." Chen explained. "Power armor, the latest weapons, and some apparently rather brutal training all rolled into one really impressive special forces package."
That would certainly explain how they can stand toe to toe with former Huntsmen. Winter thought, well aware that particular feat had been achieved without Aura. But not how they can move so quickly in such a bulky suit.
"I think I understand, thank you." Winter said.
"Anytime Specialist, if you have any more questions, I suggest you just ask Jorge, he's pretty friendly." Chen said, before she seemed to remember something. "Now that I think about it, they have some time in the Simulators scheduled for later. If you'd like, I could ask Gillespie to slot you in with them."
"The Simulators?" Winter asked. It seemed that she still had more to learn about the Dominion.
Chen grew a small smile as she realized Winter's lack of understanding. "Virtual Reality combat simulations, good for keeping the troops sharp, although I don't know why the Spartans would need them."
Winter thought it over for a moment, the idea of something like an artificial reality training system certainly intrigued her. "Very well, I accept your offer."
Later that day...
This was a terrible mistake. Winter thought as she settled into one of the Simulator chairs. Far from what she had expected, it was a large, bulky contraption, apparently powered by some kind of massive computer.
"Cold feet?" Ben asked from the chair next to her, apparently noticing her nervousness. "You can back out now, if you'd like."
"I think I'll manage just fine, thank you." Winter snapped back, before a technician lowered a frankly absurd-looking helmet onto her head, and everything went black. Still, she was fully awake, but she could no longer feel the helmet on her head, as it began to activate it's functions.
Since Winter didn't have a Neural Interface, she would have to wear what was called "The Bucket" by the Simulator technicians. Apparently it used a set of screens, speakers, and a set of very complex brainwave altering systems that she didn't fully understand to create a convincing representation of something that wasn't actually there. Originally, Winter had been somewhat skeptical that such a thing was safe, and whether or not the UNSC would be putting any unwanted thoughts in her brain. Thankfully, the technicians explained to her that it was all a very complex illusion, she could take the helmet off at any time she wanted too, and it wouldn't control her brain.
I get the feeling they were pulling my leg with that last remark. Winter thought.
"Okay Specialist, we're gonna bring everything online now." The muddled voice of one of the technicians sounded in her ear. "Let us know if anything looks out of place, remember, these things ain't really built with Huntresses in mind, we're still ironing out some bugs."
The environment loaded in around her, and Winter found herself in a ruined futuristic city. Fire scorched the high-rising building, abandoned cars littered the streets, and corpses decorated the sidewalks. The attention to detail was spectacular, if a bit gruesome and unnerving. Rain pattered on the ground around her, and a dark, starless sky rested above, with only broken streetlights and burning fires to light their way.
This is what their worlds look like? Winter thought, admiring some of the more standout details. At first, she thought that she spotted a Job Board, similar to those on Remnant, but apparently it was actually a Kiosk for tourists.
"Keep it clean! Respect, public property!" The A.I system told her, blissfully unaware that the city was on fire all around it. He and Ben were standing beside her, holding a large belt-fed machine gun and a heavy sniper rifle respectively.
"Everything look good Specialist?" Jorge asked. She was slightly startled to find him and Ben standing beside her, she hadn't even noticed them load in.
"...Yeah, well, in a technical aspect." Winter answered. "So, this is what your war back home looks like?"
Jorge and Ben exchanged an awkward, silent glare, before Jorge softly spoke. "It's worse in person ma'am, much worse."
Winter nodded, that made sense, none of this was real, but it was impressively recreated.
"Ok ma'am, we're ready to begin on your signal." The muddled voice of the technician came through again. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, I believe I am." Winter confirmed, reaching down to her belt and drawing her blade. She saw a faint flicker in the light as she did so, a reminder that the program she was using was probably not meant to render swords. "What are our orders?"
Ben and Jorge both looked to the sky, before a voice boomed throughout the city streets. "Firefight!"
"Ah, a simple one. For Firefight, we kill the enemy until there are no longer enemies to kill." Ben bluntly explained.
A simple battle, that's probably a good place to start. Winter thought.
Jorge swept his eyes over the arena that they had been loaded into. "We'll need to split up, cover the Crater from multiple angles."
Winter did her own examination, and found his assessment to be a good one. The arena was centered around a large depression in the soil that seemed to serve as a sort of city park. In all four corners, a stairway led up the crater, permitting access to both the road and a small patio for some sort of building.
"Sergeant, grab a position on the street. Specialist, come with me, we're going to hold the hill." Jorge instructed.
"Yes Sir!" They both confirmed.
Ben took a position on top of a bus stop, deploying his rifle to cover both the road and teammates. Jorge led her over to the small patio, where he found a good position to set up his heavy weapon. Then, just as Winter was starting to think that maybe something was wrong with the simulation, a faint, otherworldly sound filled the air. The sound quickly became louder, before the source revealed itself to, a unusual purple aircraft that drifted lazily into the air above them.
"Phantom, grab some cover!" Jorge instructed, before the alien dropship aimed what Winter recognized as a cannon at them, and began to fire bolts of pink energy down at them.
Winter did as he instructed, deftly dodging the bolts of plasma as they landed around them. It seemed that Jorge was barely inconvenienced by the massive weight of his weapon, and he was just as capable of grabbing cover behind a large concrete support pillar. The bolts of plasma that missed them ate away at the ground where they struck, sometimes causing small fires.
A quartet of deafening gunshots sounded from across the crater, before the whine of plasma fire was stopped. Winter saw trails of smoke emanating from Ben's position, and the turret on the enemy dropship had been mangled into a dysfunctional mess.
Impressive. Winter thought, surprised at the destruction that had been caused by a simple sniper rifle.
"Here they come!" Jorge warned. Large hatches on both sides of the Phantom opened, and hostile aliens leapt to kill the human defenders.
They came in all shapes and sizes. There were Elites like the one in the Dominion's brig, small reptilian bipeds that waddled around with giant backpacks, and avian creatures carrying pistols and bearing circular energy shields. They all touched down onto the surface in the Courtyard, before Jorge opened fire, causing them all to spring into action. The shorter aliens began to waddle towards the stairs, supported by the larger Elites.
"Ben, knock out the jackals!" Jorge instructed over the din of his machine gun. "Winter, pick off any that get isolated!"
"With pleasure." She coolly replied, eager to test her skills against the extraterrestrial invaders. Gunfire and a powerful explosion sounded around her as she leapt over the edge of the crater and into the fight.
With the aid of a Speed Glyph beneath her feet, she lunged forward, sword extended. The aliens fired at her, but were unable to hit her as she employed a series of defensive Glyphs before her to absorb or redirect their admittedly terrifying plasma weapons. Winter didn't know if getting hit in the Simulators hurt, and she wasn't eager to find out. She charged at the first Elite, delivering a series of slashes and stabs that tore the alien's shields down. A quick slice through the throat and a quick jab in the brain finished the job. She had no sympathy for the genocidal monsters, and even in a simulation, she had no qualms about killing them.
As the first Elite fell dead, Winter took her first hit as she was shot in the gut by what looked like some kind of green laser. It was fired out of some kind of long pink rifle, and felt more like getting hit with a bullet. Although it hurt, it was more comparable to a bee sting than a truly lethal impact.
I suppose they toned it down, I wonder why? Winter thought, before summoning another Glyph under the next Elite and it's Jackal companion.
A pillar of flame erupted from the Glyph, damaging the Elites shields and torching the Jackal into a crispy mess. A single bullet whizzed through the fire, and perforated the Elite's skull.
"Thanks for weakening that one." Ben called out.
Noticing the strange absence of gunfire, Winter turned and was surprised to see that the rest of the aliens were already dead. The stubby Grunts lay mangled in pools of blood and their equipment, while the Jackals all lay dead, each with a single hole in the head.
"Well that was... fast." Winter noted.
"That was the first wave." Jorge bluntly replied, a single nod of the helmet punctuating his point.
I see. Winter thought, taking a moment to shake the alien blood off of her sword. A challenge of endurance.
More aliens came, and Winter rapidly learned what distinguished them, and how to kill them. Brutes were vulnerable to fire and powerful explosions. Grunts, Jackals, Drones, and Skirmishers died with simple sword strikes, especially to the head. Elites were a bigger challenge, especially when they brought their own swords, which Jorge warned her would burn through her weapon just as fast as they would through flesh and Aura. But deft dodges and well-timed strikes with her Semblance managed to bring them down.
More vehicles came as well. Phantoms and Spirits were largely untouchable, although Winter did learn that by targeting the engine assembly of the Phantoms with summoned Nevermores, they tended to retreat rather quickly. Jorge and Ben typically dealt with the Wraiths, although Winter was also made aware of their weaknesses.
Atlas has never had something like this! Winter thought, impressed by the vivid illusions made by the Simulator.
At one point, a pair of massive armored beings descended from one of the Phantoms. They carried gigantic cannons that fired lethal beams of energy, and the armor they wore proved a challenge even to Winter. But as the Spartans demonstrated, they were vulnerable to a death by a thousand cuts, which she quickly learned to exercise in a more literal manner. They were also especially vulnerable to fire and rather notably, Ice Dust. One well placed Glyph and a sprinkling of Dust would flash-freeze most of the worms, and the larger creature would be killed.
The Spartans were impressive warriors, more so than Winter had anticipated. Ben changed his position constantly, swapping between a sniper rifle and a shotgun, as well as a large shoulder mounted laser cannon for heavier targets. His accuracy was impressive, and Winter found the enemies who would have otherwise caught her off guard typically found a high-velocity interruption embedded in their skulls. He also seemed to have a particular affinity for close quarters combat, which he performed with efficient and deliberate strikes. Jabs and kicks didn't stun the enemy, they broke the target's bones, tore tendons, and snapped necks and spines. He seemed to use his kukri knife more like a tool than a weapon, a way to dig past armor and strike around it. It was unusual to see someone so focused purely on offensive battering, rather than evasion or mobility like a Huntsmen.
Jorge was something different entirely. He was like an unstoppable force and an immovable object at the same time. Anything the Covenant sent at him, he had a way to kill it. Infantry, Tanks, even some Banshee aircraft all fell prey to the armored warrior. Whenever the enemy became too close, he swapped to a submachine gun and killed the offending aliens, before returning to his heavy machine gun.
The primary weapon Jorge wielded was one of the rare examples that Winter had seen of a customized weapon aboard the Dominion. It's modifications were minor, but clearly done with some thought placed into how Jorge used the weapon. She was surprised to see him swap out the barrel of the weapon at multiple points, before she remembered that without an Aura to protect the gun from the heat, it would probably begin to break down.
Any questions Winter had about the capabilities of the Spartans were buried beneath the oceans of Covenant corpses the two supersoldiers left in their wake. She had known they fought like legends, but to see just what they were capable of, all without Aura... it was a truly enlightening experience. Of course, the technicians were quick to warn her that the Covenant were substantially more capable in real life, and for the sake of not straining the simulation, it was being run on a lower difficulty.
"Snipers in the office complex at mark 230, third floor, red window." Jorge called out, seemingly not even looking away from where he was shooting. Moments later, the beams of purple energy emerging from the building were silenced by several sniper rifle rounds.
"Grunts, lots of them, heading down the right stairwell." Ben called out, before Winter sent them flying with the hell of some Wind Dust. "Uh, scratch that, thanks Specialist."
He almost sounded impressed. Winter noted with a smirk. She finished off the last of the grunts with a series of well aimed sword swings. It seemed like they were more prone to panicking than most of the others.
"Bonus round, good luck!" The ambient voice said, their loud voice booming throughout the streets.
"Bonus round?" Winter asked, confused by the rather unprofessional terminology.
Jorge added more ammunition to his belt. "Get ready for something more... unusual."
It turned out that "unusual" translated to a swarm of Grunts, all of which had their simulated fear removed. Winter was astonished by how hapless they could be, on more than one occasion, the Grunts would prime a pair of plasma grenades and charge towards her. Thankfully, Winter was able to use her summoning capabilities to great effect on them, even a tiny nevermore was more than sufficient to cause them to blow up. Jorge and Ben tore through the sea of Grunts in a silent rampage. Eventually, the last grunt dropped dead, and long rivers of blue blood ran throughout the arena.
The world around her vanished and after a moment, she saw nothing but black again, and then the helmet was removed from her head. She tried to stand up, but immediately found herself unexpectedly woozy and off-balance.
"Woah, woah, take it easy!" One of the technicians said, offering her a bit of extra stability in the form of a shoulder to grab onto. "Sorry Specialist, I should have warned you. Your brain is going to need a minute to catch up, after all, it thinks you just teleported."
"It's not a problem." Winter replied, ignoring the slight headache she had and turning to look at the Spartans, who both seemed to be examining her. "Is something wrong?"
"Not at all, you did good." Ben answered.
"Very nice work with those birds." Jorge noted. "I never would have thought to do something like that."
The Spartans had been rather taken aback by the extent of her summoning capabilities, but they adapted rather quickly.
"It's certainly an impressive illusion." Winter stated. "It all felt so... real."
The technician behind her chuckled. "Well, it is nice to have somebody actually excited to run them for a change. Come back with a Neural Lace, and I'll run you through some of the more impressive stuff."
I may very well do that. Winter thought, although whether she would actually undergo the procedure to have a Neural Lace installed would require more thought.
"We're running the Sabre course in a few days, do you care to join us?" Jorge asked.
"What, like the swords?" Winter asked, placing a hand on the non-illusionary weapon on her hip.
Jorge chuckled. "No, the Space Superiority Fighter."
Winter could not deny the excitement in her mind. "...Give me some time to think about it?"
"Sure thing." Jorge said, before he turned to leave.
"Oh, and if you do decide to join us for the Sabre course." Ben interjected as he also turned to leave. "...Maybe take some motion sickness meds, just a friendly suggestion."
The two Spartans left, and Winter reflected on what she had learned about the Spartans. They weren't quite as emotionless as she expected, they cracked jokes, told stories, Jorge had even named his weapon.
They aren't so different after all. Winter finally realized. Satisfied with her discoveries, she left the Simulator Bay, Ironwood would probably want to hear about the Simulators, and what Winter had learned about the Covenant.
Authors note: This is actually a sort of "remaster" of the original chapter I had uploaded here. People who have read the original will recognize a lot of similarities, but for the most part, it's a good few notchs better in my opinion.
ODST Firefight is legendary for a reason, and I thought this would make a fun little outtake. I hope it turned out as well as I think it did