/:/::/ ONI/ENCRYPTED/ONI - FILE - CLASSIFIED LEVEL RED/:/::/
/:/:/SPARTAN PROJECT - GENERATION 1/:/:/::/
././:/ {Test Subject 136}:/./::/
Origin: System 096 - Planet 154 - Suna Colony
Name: Sasori
Code Name: Scorpion
Acquired: Taken Fed. Year 309 (orphan)
Age: Acquired at 6 Fed. years, currently 30 Fed. years
Training: 87% success rate - 8/10 kill rate
Augmentation: Success - 233 of 300 survivors; 49 terminated
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Red
Height: Biologically 1.6 m / 5'5ft - After Augmentation 1.9m / 6'5ft
Weight: Biologically 47kg / 105lbs - After Augmentation 90.8kg / 201lbs
Status: Active - Alpha Squad
Position: Weapon Engineer/Hacker - Close/Medium range combat
Comments: Cruel, ruthless, efficient, but extremely rash and impatient. Good for a potential assassin, but not for team missions. He has absolutely no regard for the lives of others, seeing them as specimens rather than comrades. Completely antisocial, recommend socialization therapy or AI adjustment. Mentally unstable after Augmentation, prone to killing sprees.
"Why do you follow them?" A boy with the number '113' stitched onto his chest asked the young girl next to him.
She was a little thing, far too small for a future soldier. He had been horrified to see this tiny girl with a head of brown fuzz, freshly shaved like the rest of them, when she had entered their training base. But then he saw her green eyes, flashing with cold fire, determination, and anger. Despite her size, she fought like a rabid animal, tooth and nail, capable of bringing down men twice her size.
"Why not?" She snapped as she practically pounced on the meal before them, gulping down the vegetables so fast he wondered if she had even bothered to chew them.
"They took us from our homes." 113 said to 087.
The girl glanced up at him as she sunk her teeth into a hunk of meat and ripped it away from the bone like a starving animal. "Yeah, so?"
The boy paused, anxiously reaching up to run his hand through his hair in a nervous habit. He paused when he remembered that they had shaved his head too. They had shaved everyone's hair. Sometimes he couldn't tell the boys from the girls. 087 was easily recognizable due to her eyes, bright as emeralds and just as cold and hardened as the gemstone. It was a startling look to see in a girl so young.
"Don't you miss your parents? A sibling maybe?" 113 asked her.
The girl paused in her rabid eating habits to look at him, the full weight of her attention making him uncomfortable. "You had a family?"
113 blinked at her odd question. "Yes."
"Huh. Lucky bastard." She scoffed, and the boy reddened at her coarse language. Pushing away her empty plate, she gestured to the rest of the kids around them, sitting in rows upon rows in the cafeteria, chattering among each other. But unlike most kids their age, no one was screaming, or shouting, or fighting. Their faces showed a maturity seldom seen among children their age, and many of them had eyes just as hardened and ruthless as hers.
"Most of us were orphans. Children of the civil war." She said to 113. A sneer crossed her cherub-like face, twisting it with hatred. "Stupid goddamned resistance. They fight for independence, only to bankrupt their cities and divide their societies. Our parents go off to war or go spend what little they have on fuckin' drugs and alcohol, and leave us to fend for ourselves. We're street urchins, most of us. Can't survive without street smarts. Mercy will get ya killed."
087 picked up her water bottle and chugged it all down in one go.
"Then... why did they choose me?" She heard 113 say softly.
"Not everyone here is an orphan. A lot of them were snatched." 087 peered at him curiously. "Their memories were wiped though. It's odd that you somehow still remember the life you had before."
113 remained silent.
"Besides, this is a better life than I would have gotten back in the colonies. Clean food, shelter, and I get to learn how to fight." She paused and looked at her hands, her voice lowering. "I have a reason to exist."
087 stood up with her tray in hand, pausing next to 113. Even with him sitting down, she was barely taller than his shoulder. "There's no going back now."
Before she could walk away to return her tray to the counter, 113 grabbed her hand. She stiffened, unused to human contact. Resisting the urge to yank her hand from his, the girl turned around and regarded him warily.
"Can..." 113 fought the urge to blush. "Can we be friends?"
087 studied him for a long moment before she scoffed. "Befriending the dead is worthless."
She shook off his grip and turned to walk away.
"But if you survive the Augmentation, I'll rethink you're offer."
113 smiled. It was as good a 'yes' as he'd ever get from her.
"Did'ya hear?" Scythe's obnoxious voice echoed through the room as he burst in.
All at the same time, the sleeping Spartans aimed their guns at the intruder at the door. Scythe narrowed his eyes. Half of them looked like they were still asleep! How were they expecting to shoot someone with their eyes closed?
"Oi, calm ya tits." Scythe drawled. "It's just me."
*blam!*
Scythe ducked as a bullet flew over his head. "I said it was me, goddammit!"
"All the more reason to shoot." Scorpion said, eyes closed. He was curled up under the bed sheets, the only visible part of him was from the nose up... and the arm that extended out from under his pillow, holding his pistol.
Scythe gawked at the redhead. "Did you seriously just fucking shoot at me with your fuckin' eyes closed? You little fucker!"
"Oi, if you don't turn down the fuckin' volume I'm seriously gonna shoot you too, yeah!" Pyro griped, pulling his pillow over his head.
A couple other voices made various grunts in agreement as Spartan Team Alpha Blue burrowed further into their respective beds. Only half of them bothered to tuck their pistols back under their pillows. A few, like Nightingale, Shark, and Crane, merely flicked the safety back on and curled back up with their guns in hand. One of the figures at the end of the row of beds stood up and approached the man at the door.
"Scythe." The monotone voice of the team's captain interrupted the other Spartan's fuming. "What are you doing here?"
"Do I need a fucking reason to visit my own team?" Scythe griped.
Crow sighed, placing a hand on his hip and running the other through his hair. "It's our first day off in months. We need the sleep."
"If he stays any longer to talk, either do it outside or I'm gonna shoot him." Crane's voice was a low alto, scratchy from sleep. "And I won't miss."
Crow sighed and gave Scythe an apologetic look. "Give us a couple more hours of sleep. We'll be down to the cafeteria around lunchtime."
Scythe grumbled under his breath. "Fine. Don't be late. There's some serious shit goin' down."
"Is it an emergency?" Crow asked him.
Scythe shook his head. "Nah, but ONI is up to its old tricks again. And I know you guys will wanna know before shit hits the fan."
Crow nodded, wondering what ONI was up to this time. Scythe left the room, the door making a soft whirring sound as it slid open, and then slid shut. Crow made a low groan in the back of his throat, barely discernible, but he had no doubt each of his team members had heard it. Most of them had settled back into bed, quickly falling into a deep sleep, although they were capable of being up and ready for battle in a split second.
The room was dark as he made his way back to his bed, the only light was the stars which filtered in through the portholes of the Federation ship as it drifted in orbit of Konoha Colony. His feet were silent, not even his clothes rustled as he crawled back into bed.
Just as he closed his eyes, he felt a familiar presence sneak into bed with him.
"Hey Birdy." He whispered, kissing the top of her pink head.
She hummed and snuggled closer to him.
Their team was perfectly aware of the illegal relationship between their team leaders. Soldiers were not allowed to fraternize within their cells, let alone Spartans. The Spartans weren't supposed to have relationships at all, in fact. But the kinship of the Spartans ensured that no one would be revealing their secret anytime soon, and Alpha team was loyal to a fault. Most of the Spartan teams knew that there was something going on between Crow and Nightingale, but no one ever talked about it. It was an unspoken secret that they would rather take to the grave than reveal to ONI.
After all, love was a luxury most Spartans would never know.
While there was never really a 'night' and 'day' time on spaceships, most ships kept a mock clock that ensured that the cafeterias offered regular mealtimes. While the ship they were on, the Creation, was a ship that specialized in lodging special force teams, there was a distinct separation between the regular crew and the special ops teams. Which was understandable, considering that not only were the Spartans socially inept, but they hated to show their faces to the public - even if their names and identities were a secret.
Alpha Team Blue rose around 12:00, which was considered 'lunch time' on the ship despite the lack of day and night. They had slept for ten hours after being deployed to Konoha City to fight off the invasion. Several other Spartan teams had been deployed into Konoha City as well, their sister unit - Alpha Team Red - being one of them. Sister units meant that on larger missions - say an alien invasion - the two teams would be merged as one large squadron, and were prepared to do so at a moment's notice. The members of Alpha Team Blue and Alpha Team Red had trained together before any of them had been assigned to an official team. Therefore the two teams were easily interchangeable, and often thought of themselves as one large team that just split up on smaller missions.
Alpha Team Red consisted of codenames Scythe, Greed, Pierce, Sage, Cleaver, and Rabbit. Alpha Team Blue was the darker side of the Alpha Spartans. They were the team that only ever received suicide missions (whereas Alpha Red was also used on rescue and infiltration), and they preferred it that way. Scythe and Greed, nicknamed the 'Zombie Twins' due to their regenerative abilities and love of suicide missions, were the wild cards of the first Spartan generation. The Augmentation seemed to have completely unhinged their minds, although Scythe was much more vocal about it. Greed was silent, but when he snapped, he could go on a killing rampage.
Pierce was the unofficial leader of the group, at least, when Crow or Nightingale were not there to take charge. Pierce was rather easygoing compared to his teammates - he was lighthearted, cared for his teammates, and was the only one who could beat down Scythe with a smile on his face. His unofficial beta leader was Sage, who was a serious and quiet person, but had a nerve of steel. Not even Greed would ever risk Sage's ire.
After a failed mission two years back that resulted in the death of two of their squad mates, their team had been assigned two other Spartans, Cleaver and Rabbit. Cleaver fit in perfectly with the infamous Alpha Red, just as bloodthirsty and mentally unstable as the rest of them. Rabbit, however, was quite a different matter. Rabbit was small for a male Spartan, often mistaken for a female Spartan. He was the youngest of the first Spartan generation (earning him the nickname 'Baby'), quiet, soft-spoken, and extremely polite. At first the team leaders had been worried that Rabbit was more likely to be killed by his wild teammates than a Bijuu, but after Scythe had taunted him one too many times, Rabbit proved that he was not only extremely fast, but also precise, paralyzing Scythe for over a week.
Cleaver had taking a liking to the smaller Spartan after that (he and Scythe never got along) and the two were often partners on missions. Nightingale adored the youngest of the Spartans, and shamelessly doted on him, much to Crow's dismay.
And so, as the sliding doors opened to admit the Blue team, a streak of pink shot through the crack between the doors.
"Rabbit-kuuuuun~" Nightingale sang as she lunged for his back.
Now, Rabbit had very good reflexes, but he had learned long ago that it was futile to attempt to evade the second-best Spartan on the force. He'd learned to enjoy the affection she shamelessly showered upon him, and took smug satisfaction in seeing the dirty looks Crow would send him when he thought she wouldn't see. And so without further ado, Rabbit braced for impact.
"Oomph!"
Nightingale landed on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck, planting a loud kiss on his cheek. Rabbit burned bright tomato red, while his team snickered in the background and Crow glared a hole into the back of his head.
"How's my Baby been?" She cooed.
"U-Um..." Rabbit stuttered.
Cleaver snorted. "I think he's short-circuited again."
"Give the boy a break." Pierce grinned devilishly, "Nightingale is the closest a woman has ever come to him, the poor thing."
Rabbit felt himself heat up even further. Over his head, Nightingale shot the two older Spartans 'the look' - which meant if they didn't shut up now, she would remind them why she was more feared than Crow, despite her being second-place. Crow almost never lost his temper, and would never attack another Spartan. Nightingale was another matter - she was a tempest and was not afraid to completely destroy a man if they did not bow to her (yes, even Crow was wary of her temper).
Crane huffed when Cleaver and Pierce paled in the face of Nightingale's glare of death. Pierce's eyes shot towards her and a goofy grin lit his face.
"My darling!"
Crane dodged his hug and smirked when he went sailing past her and into the floor. Sage approached them, shaking his head at their leader's antics.
"I can't believe he's the guy that keeps us in line, sometimes." Sage said dryly.
"Only because you're not willing to step up and discipline the Zombie Twins." Crane chided him.
"Why waste my time when I have this idiot to do all of the work?" Sage asked blandly.
Pierce jumped up and glared at them, pointing an accusing finger at Sage. "You mean you've been using me all this time?" He cried in a dramatic voice, clutching his wounded heart.
"Yes." Sage deadpanned. Crane's lips twitched in an almost-smile.
Meanwhile, Shark and Cleaver had broken out the alcohol, passing out beer bottles to most of the men. Crow made eye contact with Pierce, and the leader of the Red team approached the leader of the Blue team. They left their teams to make small talk while the two of them had a private conversation in a corner of the room.
"I suppose we should break the news before they get too comfortable." Pierce said to him.
Crow crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Does anyone else know, besides your team?"
Pierce shook his head. "We kinda... found out by accident."
Crow lifted an eyebrow at him.
"Y'know how Sage likes to snoop around..." Pierce shrugged. "He and Sasori like to keep tabs on ONI. So... Sage keeps a little something in the ONI networks that activates upon keywords."
"Anything I should be worried about?" Crow asked.
Pierce shook his head. "Just wait. You'll see."
Crow followed Pierce into the middle of the room, the Red team leader standing in front of the widescreen tv that was molded into the window. The Blue team leader sat down next to Nightingale, her worried eyes questioning him. Crow glanced at Pierce, and Nightingale nodded in understanding.
"Alright kids, gather around!" Pierce called out.
The socializing came to a halt, and then it was abandoned with annoyed grumbling, most of the Spartans coming to stand behind the long, semi-circle couch which took up the center of the room. Sage, Crane, and Scorpion approached and sat on the cushions, opposite Rabbit, Nightingale, and Crow, while the rest of them continued to stand and drink.
"It's nice to see the other half of our team, after so long." Pierce greeted Alpha Blue."But we aren't gathered here to make small-talk. We're here because Alpha Red has discovered important intel that we felt was necessary to make known to Alpha Blue."
"Oh this shit!" Scythe suddenly exclaimed loudly. "You'll never believe -ack!"
Greed growled, jabbing his partner in the neck with a knife hand."Shut up."
"B-bast...ard..." Scythe wheezed.
Pierce nodded at Greed in thanks, giving Scythe a dirty look before continuing. He glanced at each Spartan in the eye, the normally carefree expression on his was turned stoic.
"There is going to be a Generation Two."
At first, there was stunned silence.
Crow sat up straighter and spoke softly. "Are you saying... that ONI is making more Spartans?"
Pierce nodded.
Nightingale let out a heavy breath. "Oh my."
"That's a good thing... right?" Rabbit asked aloud.
"I suppose." Pierce answered him. "Spartans have always been in short supply. Not to mention that not many survive the process."
"Are they starting with children, like they did with us?" Nightingale tilted her head.
"Er, let's get the expert up here." Pierce gestured to his beta.
This time Sage joined Pierce at the front, pulling up a projection screen from a comm device he kept on his arm at all times. A hologram flickered to life and his fingers flew over the keys. His grey eyes flickered across the information.
"No," Sage answered Nightingale's previous question, "They learned from our generation that starting the Spartans as kids would take too long. Although it makes better Spartans - since children are more likely to survive the Augmentation and can receive more modifications - starting a new Spartan generation that young would take too much time and money. The Federation needs Spartans on the front lines, and it can't afford to waste decades on training them. Not with the Bijuu invasion."
"I don't understand," Crane leaned back into the couch and crossed her arms. "We were trained as children in order to build up our strength and stamina so that we could better survive the Augmentation. How are they going to make new Spartans without preparing them to survive the process?"
"Simple." Sage said monotonously. "They are using adult subjects, only on a wider scale than when they started with us. The survival rate will decrease substantially, but this way they will still be able to create Spartans. Besides, ONI can't afford to kidnap children anymore. Since the Bijuu invasion, the Federation has turned their attention to ONI for better weapons and soldiers. No more secrets."
Crow spoke up. "And what is the projected survival rate for these adult Spartans?"
"Twenty percent." Sage answered.
That was met with another tense silence, save for Pyro letting out a low whistle. It was a huge decline in the chances of successful Augmentation. For SPARTAN Generation One, there had been an 80% survival rate, which was a huge number, considering the dangers of genetic modification. Only forty-nine of the trainees died in the Augmentation process for Generation One.
"So they're just going to gamble the lives of hundreds of soldiers?" Crane asked incredulously. She snorted. "Typical ONI."
"Not to mention their physical capabilities won't be anywhere near our level." Nightingale said, her medical knowledge kicking in. "We spent years building up a physical and mental foundation before the Augmentation process. Our bodies were molded so that we were prepared for it. Our bodies were still growing even after Augmentation, and were able to adapt to the new genetic modifications."
Nightingale shook her head. "But putting full-grown adult through the Augmentation? It's a bad idea. Their bodies have already reached maturity and have stopped growing. It won't be able to adjust to the Augmentation. Putting an adult through Augmentation is forcing evolution on something that has already become stagnant."
Cleaver snorted. "Since when does ONI care? Anything and everything is a lab rat to them."
Sage's fingers tapped his holo-screen a couple times before he provided more information.
"It looks like SPARTAN Generation Two is set to begin next year." Sage told them. "They're starting with one thousand participants."
"So that way at least two hundred survive!" Pierce exclaimed with mocking cheerfulness.
A couple of them snorted at this.
"But wait, there's more!" Scythe interjected, a scowl on his face. "We're fuckin' training these bitches!"
"But only the ones who survive the Augmentation process." Sage corrected him.
Alpha Blue stared at them incredulously, a couple of them seemed horrified.
"Oh hell no." Shark was the first to speak up. "I ain't trainin' no newbies."
"We are too busy with missions as it is." Crow stated calmly, but with a steely edge to his voice. "And it is beneath our ranks to waste our time with such things."
The rest of the Spartans around them nodded in agreement.
"And since when does ONI ever give us a choice?" Greed finally spoke, his voice cynical as always.
Another bout of silence.
And then, someone snickered.
All eyes turned to Scorpion. When the redheaded maniac found something amusing, most people ran the other way. Scorpion was another Spartan who's head had been a little twisted after the Augmentation, though nothing as unhinged as Scythe, Greed, or Cleaver.
"How much do you wanna bet they're making us do this to 'socialize' us better?" Scorpion chuckled evilly.
Everyone groaned. It was well-known that Spartans were sociopaths and isolated themselves from everyone but their teammates. ONI had tried multiple times to try and 'humanize' them, from therapy to sticking little AI voices inside their helmets during missions. They were still waiting for command to instigate group therapy sessions singing 'kum-ba-ya'.
"Please no." Nightingale rubbed her temples.
"If that's the case, we will make them seriously regret that decision." Shark stated resolutely.
Scythe grinned. "We'll make those little fuckers wish they'd never been born."
At first, everything was dark.
And then the pain.
So, so much pain.
Machines whirred, metal squeaked, monitors beeped.
Needles, needles everywhere, poking, prodding, digging deeper and deeper and deeper.
Through skin and flesh and muscle and bone.
To the marrow.
Injecting.
Thrashing, screaming, crying.
But they can't move. There's metal, digging into their wrists and their ankles, and forehead, holding them down.
DNA is pulled apart, strand by strand, and built back up with foreign chemicals and hormones, more more more.
Muscle pulling, marrow hardening, bones pushing out.
Skin crawling.
Voice gasping.
The pain! The pain!
Heart beating erratically, breath shallow, it hurt to breath, it hurt to think, a new wave of pain accompanied each heartbeat.
Survive.
That was their only thought.
Survive.
The pain would pass.
Survive.
And then darkness again.
/:/::/ ONI/ENCRYPTED/ONI - FILE - CLASSIFIED LEVEL RED/:/::/
/:/:/SPARTAN PROJECT - GENERATION 1/:/:/::/
././:/ {Test Subject 023}:/./::/
Origin: System 984 - Planet 546 - Iwa Colony
Name: Deidara
Code Name: Pyro
Acquired: Taken Fed. Year 310 (replaced with clone)
Age: Acquired at 6 Fed. years, currently 29 Fed. years
Training: 82% success rate - 7/10 kill rate
Augmentation: Success - 078 of 300 survivors; 49 terminated
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Height: Biologically 1.7 m / 5'6ft - After Augmentation 2.0m / 6'8ft
Weight: Biologically 51kg / 112lbs - After Augmentation 90.8kg / 201lbs
Status: Active - Alpha Squad
Position: Explosives expert - Pilot (cleared for jet/chopper/cruiser) -Medium/Long range combat
Comments: More emotional than most Spartans. Rash, loud, risky. Labeled pyromaniac. Mentally unstable after Augmentation, prone to killing sprees. Suggest for AI modification. However, he is an astonishing pilot, especially for close-quarters and combat maneuvers, does well under pressure. Suggest for Alpha Team.
So, um... This is gonna be more than a few chapters... I may have unknowingly started a new series... dammit...
~Lilithia