AN: this chapter was put in to give some of the characters more of a history.

The President and the Train Ride

Titan, Hunter, and Eisenhower had been waiting for about a half hour before Hunter got up and started pacing. After a few minuets of watching Hunter pacing Titan eventually said "calm down you're going to make a hole in the floor."

"Sorry sir" he said as he stopped pacing "I can't really help it"

"I know" Titan said smiling slightly "but I still think that you should stop. The static you're causing can't be good for the armor."

"right" Hunter said "I just wish that the President would hurry up."

"you seem more anxious about this meeting then battle." Titan said

"Well I prefer battle." Hunter said "I don't really care for politics."

"Why not?" Titan asked

"I don't know, maybe because of corruption or the fact that it's boring." Hunter said

"I agree with you on that but it's still a handy skill to have" Titan said

Finally the door to the oval office opened and the president's secretary walked into the hallway to show them in. as they walked in they noticed that the oval office looked the same as it always did in the past, with the exceptions of the digital video portraits of the past Presidents on the walls.

The President was sitting in the desk when they walked in. they couldn't tell what he was looking at but it looked like a small I-pod. Hunter all of a sudden got a weird feeling that he only got from a battle situation. The feeling left as soon as it came but something didn't feel right. The president got up to introduce himself.

"I'm President Robert Kinsey of the United American Forces." He said. He glanced at Eisenhower then realized why they came "you must be the infamous Delta Force."

"Infamous, Yes sir" Titan said trying not to sound too sarcastic.

"You must be Captain Steffen" President Kinsey said shaking his hand. "I've heard a lot about you"

"Don't believe a word of it I'm actually a nice guy." Titan said trying to bring out a little humor into their situation. He was pleased to see that the President smiled a little, and then he turned toward Hunter to greet him.

After the short introductions Kinsey sat down in his chair at the desk while Titan, Hunter, and Eisenhower sat on the couches. Hunter had noticed that there were dozens of folders on the desk. Kinsey grabbed the top folder and read from it.

"From what I understand" he said "you have come here to request my help in the war, correct."

Titan and Hunter glanced at Eisenhower before he said "yes"

"The last time you were here our agreement was that I would join you if you had some victories in the war." Kinsey said.

"I think that I speak for most of the EU army when I say that some of those victories are in this room." Eisenhower said.

"Indeed but at what cost?" Kinsey said "it says here in your file that the Deltas are all genetically enhanced soldiers. There are only a hand full that are natural."

"Yet it's not as bad as cloning yourself a million times over" Eisenhower countered " we have won more battles against the PAC this year then we have in the 5 years that the war has gone on. I'd call that an achievement. "

"Then let's see how those victories were achieved" Kinsey said then he turned to Titan "Captain, do you stand by record of the Deltas?"

Titan, without changing his expression said "yes sir I do"

Kinsey picked up another file and said "then let's have a look at it then shall we."

Meanwhile…

"So where do we go from here?" asked Spartan as he, Scorch and Michelle stepped outside of the White House.

"Well if I remember correctly" Michelle said "we have to take the Hover Train toward the outskirts of the city. Then we'll have to walk the rest of the way."

"Ok at the risk of sounding like a dumb ass, why can't we take the train all the way there?" Scorch asked

"Well for starters our destination is beyond the reach of the train" Michelle said "and we might be followed so we have to walk through some buildings to lose them."

"Who's following us?" asked Spartan

"The government isn't as trusting as it once was" Michelle said.

"It was trusting before?" Spartan asked half sarcastically.

"You know what I mean" Michelle said rolling her eyes.

They boarded the hover train as soon as it got there. Since they were the only ones on the in the train car they were able to take the seats near the windows. A few minutes into the ride Spartan asked "can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Michelle said

"How were you able to avoid capture from the PAC for so long?" Spartan asked "I mean…without any training? Or was it just luck?"

Michelle thought about it for awhile then said "I guess some of it was luck but my dad had told me what places I should hide out at should something like him getting captured happed. Obviously they knew where to look." She was quiet for a few seconds before she continued "my dad told me to keep moving from hideout to hideout to make it harder for anyone to find me."

Scorch nodded in agreement "a smart strategy for hiding but risky at the same time. You can't be sure if they will catch up to you in the middle of changing hiding spots. Was that how they got you?"

Michelle shook her head "no. the only reason they caught me was because I turned myself in."

Both Spartan and Scorch exchanged surprised looks before Scorch said "you did WHAT?!"

Spartan noticed that she had tears in her eyes. For a few moments she looked like she was going start crying but somehow she managed to keep herself from doing so.

She continued but her voice was shaky "my last hiding place was at my boyfriends apartment. I was so fucking stupid to think that I was safe there." She took a few deep breaths before continuing "They somehow got in unnoticed by everyone in the building. They basically shot the door into splinters. I was in the other room at the time so I had time to hide underneath the bed but my boyfriend wasn't so lucky." Her voice was starting to become shakier but she continued "He had slept on the couch purposely so he could buy time for me to hide in case something like that happened. They repeatedly beat him trying to get him to tell them where I was. They had already looked for me so they figured that I had already left. My boyfriend was headstrong but smart, he kept on trying to tell them 'she must have already left' but they just said 'don't lie to the priors of the PAC! The great and powerful Hitler has seen her here. Now where is she?'

She was on the edge of hysteria but somehow continued. "Of course sometimes my boyfriends' headstrongness wins out over his brain because at that moment he said 'well if you know where she is then why are you asking?' he got hit hard for that. One of the troopers that was there added 'I don't think that we actually need him' there was nothing else I could do; I had to stop them from killing him. But as soon as I gave myself up. Their leader looked at me and said 'you're younger then I expected…I like them when they're young' he…told his troops to wait outside then he…"

She fell dead silent.

Neither Spartan nor Scorch needed to hear anymore they could guess what happened after that. She was raped. Spartan wasn't sure what bothered him more. The fact that this terrible thing had happened to her or that no one did anything about it. The problem with the war was that with so many losses, people became less eager to fight back.

After a few minutes of silence Spartan, without really thinking about what he was doing, put his arm around her. Without hesitation she rested her head on his shoulders. They stayed in that position for a few minuets before she got back up again looking a little better.

"Thanks" she said sincerely "I needed to tell someone that"

Feeling that now was a good time to say something Scorch said "you'll be hard pressed to find anyone that wasn't affected by this war. Every single one of the Deltas had joined for some reason that was traumatizing or something similar."

"What about you?" she asked

"Well I use to be one of them but after my father was killed I defected." Scorch said shortly. There was more to the story but he wasn't ready to share it.

"By them you mean the PAC right?" Michelle asked

"I don't really want to talk about it" Scorch said using his 'drop it' tone

"Alright." She said catching the tone. "What about you?" she looked Spartan.

"My story is a…well… a long story." He said

"Long train ride" she pointed out

"Well I'll keep it as short as I possibly can" he said "well I had a girlfriend back home named Sara who went through the same thing as you" she realized that he meant raped. She also noticed that he said had but she allowed him to continue"she was afraid to say anything about it for awhile but eventually told me. I found out who did it to her and killed them." He looked at Michelle who had a shocked look on her face but she kept her silence. He continued "Sara wasn't too upset about it but she was worried about what would happen to me if anyone else found out. I was only 16 so I was able to sneak into the army and stayed in it for awhile. No one ever suspected who I was, what I did, or how old I was."

He paused slightly then continued "after a year I returned home but before I was even at my house there was a loud noise that sounded like thunder. Artillery shells were raining all around me but I couldn't see where they were coming from. My house was hit in the first barrage and it exploded into a thousand peaces. After an hour every thing was quiet. I searched the wreckage for any indication that no one was in the house. I never found any evidence that suggested anyone was in that house at the time. It was a few hours later when I met Delta force. There's not much else to say." Spartan ended.

Michelle wasn't entirely convinced of that "but did you ever find out if anyone lived?"

Spartan looked at her and said "only Sara lived. She now lives at Delta base"

"But that means…" she started but Spartan finished for her.

"That this mission just got a whole lot more important to me" he said.

AN: there you go. now you know a little bit about them and why some of them fight.