Chapter 2 - Training

I moved along the hallway to the Spartans' common room to relax and read over some books and entries that needed to be reviewed. The room consisted of the pale tan thick puffy couches and chairs scattered around a 30'x30' room with a window to view the outer space. The windows view today was amazing with the background being black and a meteor shower of small vibrant colors passing to cause a dazzling view that required me to sit beside on the couch to watch. The book that I brought was on mythological creatures and deities. I continue to read further into the book.

I heard a ping from the wristwatch on my left arm signaling that my AI, Orion was trying to send a message. I pressed the button to allow him to present his hologram. The glowing forms of Orion, who looked like a pirate with the baggy pants and shirt with a pistol on his left hip, and Cortana display over the three-inch diameter hologram platform. Orion bowed with a huge flourish that is known for Orion and Cortana just waved her hand.

"John wants to inform you that he wants you at the training grounds in fifteen minutes." Cortana states as she looked up at me with an inquisitor look. Orion rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"What she is trying to say," Orion looked at Cortana, "is that Master Chief wants you to take your sniper rifle and find a good secure location to observe and fire from. The training for the marines is to overtake a fort with a sniper homing in on their location." I nodded my head as I stood up to put the book back in its place.

"You are TV-466." Cortana stated as I froze looking straight at here. "I cannot open anymore of your file. What are you hiding?" Orion smacked the back of Cortana's head with a heavy sigh and a disappointed look.

"Orion take care of this. I am going to head to the training field." I ordered as I closed the connection. I pressed my hand to my forehead. "Time to gather my suite and weapon. I think the marines will be shocked when they see how far I will be away to protect the fort." I chuckled as I jogged out of the room and towards the armory for the enhanced warriors.

15 minutes later….

I am laying comfortably across at least three thick tree branches with my large anti-tank/anti-aerial sniper rifle sitting on a platform, attached to the tree, which is disguised by much smaller branches and leaves. Orion, over the communication device in her ear, stated that the training session is starting and to change her eyesight to long range zoom. I closed my eyes and felt the change in my eyes. I reopened my eyes and noticed that everything over a hundred feet or more is much clearer now. I brought the butt of my rifle to my shoulder, set my cheek onto the stock and looked through the scope to locate the marines that need to pass this training environment.

I noticed movement to the right and noticed that the marine's squad has not spread out when they needed to. I sighed at how untrained this squad is. This is going to be a disappointment, I thought to myself. I gathered myself, put my finger on the trigger, and started to fire around the squad. I watched as they started to freak and scatter. Some just froze and they had to be dragged away to not be shot. From this position I could not see their locations anymore. Though one brave member decided to through a grenade to try and deter anyone from trying to sneak up on them when they are vulnerable. I stood up from my spot into a crouch with my weapon and climbed down the tree to change my location. I looked around the slightly wooden area to identify my next stake out location. I found that location to be at the base of a tree overlooking the fort and surrounding areas. The marines that I was supposed to make this exercise difficult for and I have them right in my sights. I changed my rounds and magazine to friendly paint pallets and shot all fifteen marines.

"Stop the exercise, Titan Squad has been eliminated," Cortana voiced out from overhead, "meet at the classroom in ten minutes." I sat up from my location and started to pack my gun. I heard a sound behind me, and I turned quickly to throw a punch at the individual. The hit connected with the other individual's chest and the got pushed back by ten feet. I noticed that it was John. He looked up and let out a startled noise.

"Your eyes! They are yellow with what seems like a gear for the iris." John rubbed his chest lightly as he moved forward. "That was a good punch. I have not been pushed that far back in many years." John kept looking at my eyes. I was started and blinked my eyelids two times and my eyes went back to their normal brown color.

"I cannot devolve the information you are looking for until I am given the order to." I stated as I backed away and started to pack away my gun. I stood up and fell into step with John as we headed to the classroom to debrief the marines of how they did with this exercise. When we arrived, I made a stop at the armory to drop off my weapon and my armor, the marines looked so down about not being able to obtain the fort.

"Men," John started, and every man sat up straight awaiting to listen to what they need to work on. "That could have gone better. You stayed as a group until Valkyrie fired a round scatter the group. Even then some of you froze." The men who froze looked ashamed. "Cortana pull up the picture of their locations before the first shot."

The imaged displayed on the wall directly behind John and me. The picture showed that to the right-hand side of the screen was wood land that started out from the upper right as very light wooded then further down to the bottom right frame was heavily wooden that spreads to the bottom left corner. The upper left corner was open plain which had no coverage. The fort was situated in the middle of the conjoining parts of each unique portion of the terrain. The fort consisted of just some wooden walls put up and some fake turrets placed about. A bright yellow circle in the upper right quarter in the middle of the lightly dense wooden area showed where the marine group was located. Then a bright white rectangle to the lower left dense quarter showed the location of where I was located. There was a good thousand-five hundred feet away.

I turned away from the picture to see the men staring at me with slacked jaws.

"You can't do that with a normal sniper!" A marine with blonde hair, dark green eyes, tan skin, and slight build stated. I looked to see his name tag and found that his name was Flare. I put a mental note to put in his record that he was one of the marines who froze. John continued telling them what they did wrong and how to fix it. I really did not care too much to listen in. I came back into focus to see John standing in front of me. He just watched me. I tilted my head in a question and he stated that there was a mission debrief that we are needed at. We both left the classroom to head to the debriefing room.