The Didact continued viewing the memories, interested at the turn of events that had transpired. Eager to continue, he activated the continue function in order to keep viewing the memories.
A flash of white and then the images started to appear. He was in the same compound that he started in, although he felt changes in his body and more muscle build up.
{Loading new memory sequences}
The boy Sam was on his right with his arms crossed. The young blue haired girl , Kelly, was bouncing on the balls of her feet next to Sam. Already, the natural colour of brown began growing back since their last hair cut. They were surrounded by other trainees who were busy nursing their wounds from a previous engagement with tango company.
SNAP!
John quickly jerked his head to the sound of the twig breaking, as well as the other trainees. It was Chief Mendez with his usual hardened look plastered onto his face.
"Trainees, you will be sent onto a training exercise over the valley of Exodus, your objective will be given when you have arrived at the destination", he finished gruffly.
When the trainees were about to leave the area, a number of men armed with tranquilizers, charged in and began shooting at the Spartan children quickly but not efficiently. John watched in mild horror as he mistook the knocked out trainees to be dead.
With a rage he pounced onto the nearest soldier and began pounding him viciously, earning a tranquilizer to his back. His vision started swirling until he felt contact with ground and fell asleep.
{Skip time}
John's eyelids slowly opened from the drowsiness. Groaning, he rolled to the side and pushed himself off the ground. Instantly he scanned the area around him. Numerous trainees were getting off the ground and rubbing their heads as if they were fuzzy in the brain.
Stretching his body, John looked for his two friends Sam and Kelly. But the crowdedness of the area made the trainees hard to distinguish. Frustrated with the lack of command, John almost pulled the hairs out of his head just to relieve the tension.
"EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!", he barked at them, at trait he picked up from Chief Mendez.
Immediately everyone fell into silence and the only noise you could hear was the wind blowing softly through the air. He continued with his loud voice.
"I want everyone to split up into your small groups since the day we started! Then I will direct those groups to form a squad of six with another trainee group, Understood?", he finished.
"Affirmative 117", they yelled. It was a strange feeling for him to experience being in command of the entire group. All of them rushed through the crowds to find their group members. They were done in two minutes.
Kelly and Sam were at his side while he paired groups into squads. John's group was paired with Fredric-104, Cal-141 and Malcolm-059. Obviously there was a contest of leadership between Fredrick and John who both wanted to lead the groups. In the end, they voted for John, although Fredric was made his Second in Command (2IC).
"Ok everyone, I need all the squad leaders to my location so that we can discuss what to do now that we are stranded".
Unfortunately some of them still had leadership issues, which meant that John had sort it out before discussing the plans. In the end, he just sent who he felt was less confident in doing this away back to their groups.
As the Squad leaders conveyed, one of them Sheila-037 was frowning.
"What's wrong Sheila?", John asked. The group of them turned to her with questioning looks.
"Well, I was wondering why we were dropped into the mountains without an objective from Chief Mendez", she explained, "however, I have a feeling that this is a form of a survival exercise". The other squad leaders just look satisfied with the information. John felt this was what it actually was.
"I think it's time we told everyone what's happening and assign positions to different people", John told them. They nodded, then parted ways to their specific groups.
The memory then became a blur, as he ordered people around and gathered materials. Days became hours and hours became minutes until they had reached the third day.
An Albatross was landed nearby their camp with a couple of guards surrounding it.
Kelly was pacing up and down rapidly on the balls of her feet whilst Sam had taken a seat on the dirt under a pine tree. John was making hand signals to move everyone into positions.
"…ther rocks and thick sticks, they are a possible threat to our mission", he finished dismissing the trainees he was talking to. He turned to Kelly and nodded for her to enact the plan.
The plan they had discussed was that Kelly would distract guards into following her into the forest whilst Alpha, Bravo and Echo squads would attack them from behind and take their weapons. The other trainees would secure the transport.
John held out his hand, then executed the signal for everyone to go.
Kelly sprinted into the clearing, getting the guards attention easily and provoking them to fire some shots at her. She weaved in between them and led them away.
As they disappeared the rest of the trainees rushed down to capture the Albatross.
{Skip time}
John ran to where Kelly was who led the marines into position. He waited with the others for her familiar outline to pass the area. She rushed through the bushes and dived for the nearest bush. The marines followed her into the ambush zone, all of them puffing and exhausted.
"Attack!", John yelled, the marines were then caught off guard and overwhelmed by the sheer number of trainees to them. Rocks were thrown and branches knocked them to the ground. Bruises and scratches began appearing on their bodies, mostly the heads.
John then motioned for the ambush group to follow him back to the Albatross. It was already up and running, with Stu-013 as the pilot. John checked that all the trainees had arrived and found that all had safely made it in. Walking into the cockpit, he gave Stu the thumbs up for him to take off. Within minutes they were in the air, closing in on the training camp.
{End of major memory sequence}
{Next major memory sequence}
Pain…all he could think of was searing sensation that plagued his bones. The doctor said the anaesthetic would make the pain go away. He didn't question the doctor, but now he was sure it was just to reassure the fears of some of the Spartans.
Already he had seen some of the outcomes of the augmentations. Almost half of the trainees that had already started their augmentations were either dead or deformed in some way. The pilot Spartan Stu had broken leg bones due to the sheer density of his muscles and Fhajad had a twitch nervous system.
He could hear yelling from around him but he could only see the ceiling of the sterile white room. Suddenly robotic arms with needles attached to them plunged the sharp tips into his blood vessels.
An agonised cry erupted from his mouth before the crushing feeling of muscles growing had taken place. Within minutes it was all over. The scientists and doctors nearby brought a mobile stretcher and lifted him onto it. He was too tired to stay conscious and fell asleep.
{End of major memory sequence}
{Next memory sequence}
John had finished his workout and was about to leave when a group of four tall muscled men stood in his path. The leader by the looks of it stepped forward and sneered at him.
"Looks like a newbie forgot one of the rules on the ship", he said smirking mirthlessly. He then motioned for his lackeys to surround John.
John took a fighting stance with his fists up and bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Oh so the newbie wants to take us on", the leader gave a wicked smile before charging forward which motioned for the others to join him.
John dived between the leaders legs and pulled them from underneath him, resulting in him face planting into the floor, knocking a tooth from his mouth.
The leader then took an enraged facial expression before getting on his feet.
But before he could even move, a Sergeant Grade 3 stepped into the room to witness the scene. With a raised eyebrow he walked in front of the leader.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!", he barked the question. The leader flinched involuntarily, the rest slowly backed away from John.
"Sir, I can expla…", the leader began, but the Sergeant interrupted him.
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THIS NEWBIE, BUT YOU DO THAT IN THE BOXING ARENA, AM I CLEAR!", He yelled clearly irritated that the leader was being impractical.
The leader smirked obviously pleased with the answer.
"Could you invite him into the arena Sergeant", he asked.
The sergeant could see the burning desire to beat up the little scrimp inside the man's eyes.
"Yes you have permission", he said whilst peering at John. John shrugged before walking to the arena, the four men following him.
As soon as they entered, the four of the men attempted to pounce on the augmented teenager. John ducked under their attempt and threw a punch at the rib cage of one of the men resulting in the ribs collapsing and accidently jamming it into the lungs. He screamed which startled the others and John took the opportunity to throw uppercuts at the others jaws. They all stumbled backwards dazed from the punches before John swiftly knocked their heads, resulting in the cracking of skulls and they became unconscious.
The Sergeant was horrified at the young Spartans actions but before he could do anything, Chief Mendez walked through the doors in the same manner as the sergeant did.
"That was very impressive for John-117", he commented. The Sergeant then widened his eyes in realization and raced out the doors. Chief Mendez stepped aside to allow the ships medical team to extract the near dead ODST's.
{End of major memory sequence}
{Next memory sequence}
The walk through Corbulo Academy was disturbing to say the least. Bodies were strewn about. All had the same dead shocked expressions. Jackal and grunt patrols walked around to make sure their wasn't any survivors. John walked through the building when his motion tracker detected a red dot.
Slowly walking through what looked like a weapons locker, he saw an elite posed with its energy sword ready to kill something. Taking a knife from his belt, he swiftly stabbed it in the neck, killing it instantly and reveal four wide eyed cadets huddled down.
"Do you know how to fight?", he questioned them, they nodded simultaneously. "Why don't you have a weapon on you?", the coarse voice intimidated them.
"Well we can't seem to unlock the lockers because…", the cadet said nothing further as John punched a hole in the locker and ripped the door off it's hinges revealing weapons and armour.
They were speechless and looked at him. He responded with a jerk of his head to the opened locker. They scrambled to get the armour on and checked their assault rifles.
{Skip Time}
John-117 watched as one of the cadets knelt down trying desperately to help a female cadet who was wounded with a needler. The situation reminded him of how they had to leave Sam behind, due to the rupture in his suit, to destroy the covenant ship, sacrificing himself so that humanity could have a chance.
"We have to leave cadet Lasky, the hunters will be coming soon", he urged the young cadet. The female took one last breath before closing her eyes to an endless sleep. Lasky stood up slowly with tears in his eyes and grasped the cadets dogtags in his hands.
He slowly walked away and began following the group.
Minutes later, they ran into hunters. John-117 engaged them whilst Lasky distracted them allowing John to plant a grenade in the thick of the worms killing the beast. John picked up a piece of the armour before leaving and showing the extraction zone to the cadets. The familiar armour of Kelly showed up with a pelican in the background. When they boarded the ship, they sat in silence before John looked at Lasky intently. He reached into his armour pouch and pulled out the hunter armour piece. He then dropped it into Lasky's waiting hands.
"You did well Lasky", his gravelly voice rumbled. The cadet looked at the piece with great awe and pocketed it into a breast pocket.
{End of major memory sequence}
{Beginning of major memory sequence}
John sprinted away from the heavily armed Skyhawk jumpjet that gave chase. The 50mm cannons on the aircraft sputtered to life, hitting the ground around John-117 and making him run faster.
The sound of a fwoosh caused him to look over his shoulder. A missile from the Skyhawk was launched at him. It almost reached John when he suddenly turned around to slap the projectile away. It flew straight into the Skyhawk's left VTOL engine resulting in the erratic spinning of the aircraft. The craft crashed down on the surface in an explosion of fire.
"Now that was impressive", a female voiced.
"Thank you Cortana", John replied.
He stared at the burning wreckage before turning to walk away.
"Always with the bells isn't it?", he muttered.
{End of major memory sequence}
{Beginning of major memory sequence}
On the Pillar of Autumn the hissing sound of a cryo pod opening filled the cryo bay. John climbed groggily out of the pod stumbling a bit before standing up straight. A technician walked up to him clearly worried about something.
"Alright I'm going to need you to…", he stopped when the dreaded sound of a plasma weapon filled the air. The observation tower became overrun with aliens killing all the technicians.
The Elites then looked through the observation window, which was now cracked, and pointed eagerly at John. The technician tapped at John's shoulders and motioned for him to follow him. John had no other choice than to follow the poorly armed man.
(Skip time)
The bridge was packed with people. Technician's, gunners, marines and even officers occupied the moderately sized room. A single person stood out to John, the captain rank symbol imprinted on the uniform. He turned with his hands folded behind his back seemingly contemplating on something.
"Master Chief, it's good to see you up and operational", Captain Keyes began with a stern smile. John saluted before shaking hands with the captain.
"Chief, I am intrusting you with this AI that I'm sure you are familiar with", he continued. A holographic appeared on the holotank next to the ships displays.
"Missed me Chief", she said playfully. John just gave a nod before focusing his attention on the captain in front of him.
"Spartan, I am intrusting with Cortana, the capture of a UNSC shipboard AI, much less a smart AI is unacceptable. I need you to take her and some other marines to the surface of this ring". John nodded vigorously.
"While you do what? Go down with the ship?", she questioned sarcastically.
"In a matter of speaking", he replied. He then moved over to the holotank and tapped away on the interface before pulling a small chip from a slot on the side of it. Holding it up in two fingers, he held it out for John to grab in which he did. John then inserted it into his helmet.
"Hmmm, your brain's inside is not much different than the ships architecture", she commented.
"Don't get any funny ideas", he said with a stern voice before looking back at the captain.
"Good luck Spartan", Captain Keyes said before saluting John in which he returned it before exiting the bridge with determination.
(End of major memory sequence)
(Beginning major memory sequence)
The swamp overgrowth combined with the dark sky unsettled John and Cortana wasn't here to direct him. A couple of dead covenant on the way made him grow suspicious of his surrounds.
The rustling of leaves caused him to whip his body to face that direction. The silhouette of a creature leaping through the air gauged John's curiosity.
Fortunately before he could investigate, an entrance to a forerunner building was in front of him open wide. The urgency of the situation reminded him to move quicker in their objective in finding Captain Keyes.
After a few minutes of exploring, going down an elevator and opening doors, John discovered the body of a dead marine whilst opening a door to the next room. Laying him down flat, a quick examination showed that he was killed not by plasma weapons but by bullets and strange claw marks.
John then noticed a camera mounted on the helmet. A small card stuck out from the rest of the camera which presumably held the footage. Taking the card out, he inserted it into a secondary port near the back of the helmet.
(Skip time)
Slime, flesh and other unspeakable things covered John's body as he ran out of the facility. The scream's of the monsters filled the air and the horrifying organic puppets ran out of the building hot on his tail.
The swamp was still the same dark setting and he sprinted blindly through it. The sudden rustling in the bushes once again brought John's weapon pointing at the spot. Surprisingly, out of the bushes came a marine fire team led by a black sergeant.
"Master Chief, am I glad to see you here", He said gruffly. John just nodded briefly before motioning the sergeant to follow him.
"This is Foe Hammer to Master Chief, extraction is about klick away", she said over his radio.
"Copy that", he replied. A waypoint appeared on his HUD and the pelican could be seen hovering above the ground. Suddenly he was whisked away from the marines to an unknown location.
(End of major memory sequence)
(Beginning of major memory sequence)
The sight of a biomass covered Jacob Keyes shocked John and Cortana, the decorated Captain had been assimilated into a flood mass, the only recognisable feature was his face, which had a desperate expression plastered on.
"Chief you know what we have to do", she said in his helmet.
With a great sigh, he plunged his fist into the head of Jacob Keyes fishing around for something before pulling out the Neural Key. Holding it to his helmet, he slotted into a spare port to hold it.
Taking one last look at the deceased Captain, he walked away going further into the ship.
(End of major memory sequence)
(Start of major memory sequence)
John was gunning the engines of the warthog through the maze of the ship. Flood life forms, Sentinels and even Covenant troops fought amongst each other for control of the exploding ship.
He weaved left and right of pillars, enemies and other warthogs to reach the last Longsword. The timer kept ticking and the engine to the warthog was smoking and flickers of flames started to dance on the bonnet.
They turned left and were greeted with the sight of a massive hanger, with the Longsword sitting on the platform. By now the warthog was about to blow and John jump out it just in time as it exploded into shrapnel that pierced flood combat forms tailing John.
Sprinting, he pushed himself to his limits as the timer had reached 2 minutes. Hauling himself up the entrance, he activated the ramp closing function to get ready to go to space.
John burst into the cockpit and hurriedly inserted Cortana into the fighters computer whilst tapping other buttons to start up the engine. The Longswords engines roared to life, manning the controls, John steered the fighter out of the hanger and into the sky, then into space at full speed. The ship shook and vibrated violently and the force of the explosion pushed them away from the ring.
John powered down the engine.
"Halo, the Flood, it's all over now Cortana said hopefully.
"No", he replied, putting his hands to the helmet on his head, "I think we're just getting started", he twisted the seal and the helmet came off with a hiss.
Hey Guys,
I redid this chapter since a couple of people commented it on being short, so I put all my time into it and came up with this, it's still short but it focuses mainly on a few events. I also realised the previous ending was bad, so there will be most likely a memories part 3.
All in all I hoped you enjoyed this chapter,
Xenongaf,